Bears, Matt Nagy's lack of identity is No. 1 concern for Bears

[Visionman]

There is nothing misleading about being 27th in the League in Pass/Run ratio. 83% of the League ran the football more than we did.

Not sure why you are using 55% as a measure, perhaps the League average of 58% might have been a better one to make your argument with. Even in that case we are still at the bottom of the league no matter how you want to slice it.

Bottom third of the league with a lousy run blocking OL and QB, yes. Snd I’m giving context to your “proof”. Only a couple teams ran more than they passed, and that was with running QBs to skew the stat. The NFL is a passing league now, and has been for years. We literally threw the ball 2-3 percent more than most of the league last year. Hardly an amount that is what many are making it out to be.

NFL Run/Pass Ratios - 2020

Run/Pass ratios for the 2020 NFL season.

fftoday.com

 

[Discus fish salesman]

Bottom third of the league with a lousy run blocking OL and QB, yes. Snd I’m giving context to your “proof”. Only a couple teams ran more than they passed, and that was with running QBs to skew the stat. The NFL is a passing league now, and has been for years. We literally threw the ball 2-3 percent more than most of the league last year. Hardly an amount that is what many are making it out to be.

NFL Run/Pass Ratios - 2020

Run/Pass ratios for the 2020 NFL season.

fftoday.com

Bottom third is correct for your narrative, but they were also bottom 6th if we want to be more precise. Lousy run blocking line that was also bad at pass blocking and actually did pretty well for a stretch of the season for Montgomery. You also mentioned a qb. Yes every team has a qb, but mitch/foles is not a reason to pass more.

 

[Black Rainbow]

Nagy will be on his 3rd and potentially 4th starting QB...

Trubisky was a high pick, Foles was a Superbowl MVP, Dalton is an experienced Pro-bowl winner and Fields is a high draft pick

There are no more excuses. If Nagy does not move the offense forward he should be gone. I am hoping Nagy improves as a playcaller; Anyone can get better.

Agreed.

There's no more excuses for Nagy. His offenses are ranked similar to John Fox's. It's pathetic.

We should see a change week one. He's in his fourth year, he should not still be searching for an identity.

 

[dabears70]

Tired shtick is tired.

 

[dabears70]

Uh oh. He's about to meme you, while dreaming of getting pegged by pace

 

[dabears70]

Tired shtick is tired.

Uh oh. He's about to meme you, while dreaming of getting pegged by pace

Should start calling him cream pie

 

[dabears70]

 

[Visionman]

Bottom third is correct for your narrative, but they were also bottom 6th if we want to be more precise. Lousy run blocking line that was also bad at pass blocking and actually did pretty well for a stretch of the season for Montgomery. You also mentioned a qb. Yes every team has a qb, but mitch/foles is not a reason to pass more.

Cant pass deep, so you have to stretch the D wide. Going to do that with Monty? Not really. No one is saying it was a great plan. When we played poor run Ds, we did fine running. But against good Ds, or on obvious running downs, we couldn’t do much at all.

You guys blame Remy for his vortexes, but you seem pretty good at starting them yourselves. I’m out.

 

[Anytime23]

He's melting down now.

 

[Discus fish salesman]

Cant pass deep, so you have to stretch the D wide. Going to do that with Monty? Not really. No one is saying it was a great plan. When we played poor run Ds, we did fine running. But against good Ds, or on obvious running downs, we couldn’t do much at all.

You guys blame Remy for his vortexes, but you seem pretty good at starting them yourselves. I’m out.

I like Remy. He usually has valid points and I usually agree with him. I just happen to disagree with your stance here, so I was voicing my opinion

 

[The Big Grabowski]

If he had an uncanny ability to keep the team together and lead then why did they flat out quit in GB and have players loaf throughout the season? I hear this narrative a lot about nagys leadership and don’t think it holds water anymore.

The flip side of "keeping the team together" is that he's allowed significant losing streaks two seasons in a row. I'm presenting that POV because it is a major thread for the media so it has to come from somewhere.

Personally, I'm not sold on Nagy in any aspect of his coaching. Positives we saw in 2018 haven't played out consistently which makes me believe it was either a fluke or the league adjusted to Nagy.

I also think he's too much of a players coach at times too soft on discipline. Wims should have been cut after losing control against the Saints last year. Then it carries over into the playoff game when Miller gets kicked.

 

[dweebs19]

I completely agree. That was my main concern with Nagy too. I need to see this identity. Nagy seems to just call random plays here and there

 

[remydat]

I blame Nagy for not playing to Trubisky's strengths like Lazor was able to.

Yeah this is where I think the criticism is unfair. Nagy only knows the Reid system. The only thing he could do is bring in a guy like Lazor whose background was in fact better suited for Trubisky's need for traditional play action. Which he did and then allowed Lazor to run with that system.

Even so that system was simplistic which is precisely why Trubisky ended up struggling against better teams.

 

[remydat]

Ok, now he has them.

Now top 15 offense or bust.

Yes hence why I said the following at the end of my post previous to the one you responded to.

Having said that, Nagy is out of excuses. He has an OL that is better suited to run the KC offense now. He has speed at WR with Mooney, Bryd and Goodwin. He has competent TEs and most importantly he has a young QB he handpicked to run the KC offense. If he can't succeed in this environment he likely never will so it is put up or shut up time.

 

[The Big Grabowski]

He sort of already did when he brought in Lazor. Again, he has zero experience outside of the KC offense. The only thing he could do is bring in a guy that does which is why he brought Lazor in.

I am less concerned if he can adjust when the situation isn't ideal and more concerned with can he run his offense when he actually has the pieces in place. There are few coaches who are experts in multiple systems. If you ask McVay to run something other than his system, he is going to struggle. What most of these young guys do is run a single system and try and draft and sign guys that are suited to it. That is a natural consequence of hiring these young whiz kids that don't have the depth of experience that more seasoned coaches have. They are specialists not jacks of all trades like the older guys.

Point taken but Nagy's has a tendency to regress in-game which also speaks to his flexibility. Even after he finds something that's working, he'll get cute with a gadget play and stall the drive.

The fact that it took him so long to get back to the play action game with Trubisky to simplify things speaks to how rigid he is. In 2019, when they started to see success with the power run game but then inexplicably went away from it. His coaching is littered with obstinance.

 

[legendxofxlink]

I think it’s perfectly acceptable to find mismatches pre-snap, but Nagys versions of “mismatches” are laughable. It also doesn’t help we didn’t have the QBs to recognize mismatches

To an extent it is absolutely acceptable, but Nagy's obsessiveness over other teams is working against him. He needs to focus on his own teams identity instead of allowing the other team to dictate the game.

 

[Enasic]

The flip side of "keeping the team together" is that he's allowed significant losing streaks two seasons in a row. I'm presenting that POV because it is a major thread for the media so it has to come from somewhere.

Personally, I'm not sold on Nagy in any aspect of his coaching. Positives we saw in 2018 haven't played out consistently which makes me believe it was either a fluke or the league adjusted to Nagy.

I also think he's too much of a players coach at times too soft on discipline. Wims should have been cut after losing control against the Saints last year. Then it carries over into the playoff game when Miller gets kicked.

100%

 

[rawdawg]

It would be nice to have pro-bowl QB play...

I don't blame Nagy for not having a great QB.

However....

I blame Nagy for not playing to Trubisky's strengths like Lazor was able to.
I blame Nagy for calling tentative offensive plays at the wrong time
I blame Nagy for his players being unprepared at times
I blame Nagy for the worst player personnel calls on the field at the absolute worst times
I blame Nagy for going to well too many times on particular plays and not being a step ahead of the defense 90% of the time
I blame Nagy for being stubborn and not responsive enough in his playcalling in its entirety

So, this hits some good points, but I will refute a little of it. The thing that sucked about Trubisky was his strengths weren't really consistent. He was super mobile but refused to run at times. He was the perfect RPO QB, but often made the wrong reads (see Nall 4th and in playoffs). He would execute a play to perfection then get the same look defensively and blow the read. I honestly don't blame Nagy for not playing to Trubisky's strengths because he was all over the place as a QB. I honestly think he tried. At the beginning of last season, there was a lot more under center. A lot of half field reads. The playbook was cut to plays he thought Mitch showed enough in practice to run on gamedays. But as I said, Trubisky wasn't even consistent in his strengths as a QB. So, I also think that's why he went to certain plays. A) to get it out of Mitch's hands or B) to call a play he thought Mitch would be comfortable executing.

And that's not to absolve Nagy of blame, those other points are all 100% failures of his. I honestly think Nagy should have stayed aggressive with the playcalling to make Mitch sink or swim. I understand not wanting to lose games, but they were losing them anyway. If I were him, I'd rather just create a situation where nobody can question the playcalling if my QB threw 3-4 INTs or missed a bunch of throws. Granted, I know Nagy would potentially be fired if he lost a couple more games, but I feel he actually protected Mitch from criticism, therefore taking it on himself on several occasions. That being said, excuses are done. He got his QB (can argue he did with Foles too) and the offense the way he wants it personnel wise.

 

[MikeDitkaPolishSausage]

To an extent it is absolutely acceptable, but Nagy's obsessiveness over other teams is working against him. He needs to focus on his own teams identity instead of allowing the other team to dictate the game.

I don’t think he obsesses over other teams. He just doesn’t have an identity and can’t control his own game which screws himself over. I’ve seen formations that look brilliant because of mismatches but then he calls the complete opposite play that doesn’t attack that.

 

[remydat]

Point taken but Nagy's has a tendency to regress in-game which also speaks to his flexibility. Even after he finds something that's working, he'll get cute with a gadget play and stall the drive.

The fact that it took him so long to get back to the play action game with Trubisky to simplify things speaks to how rigid he is. In 2019, when they started to see success with the power run game but then inexplicably went away from it. His coaching is littered with obstinance.

Oh for sure, he has smartest guy in the room syndrome. His in game play calling sucks and he abandons the run far too often. But that is somewhat of an Andy Reid issue. Look at how Andy decided to keep chucking it downfield when Mahomes had 28 pressures and despite Hellaire averaging 7.1 yards per carry. It is criminal he only carried the ball 9 times in a game where Mahomes was getting destroyed due to the OL. Nagy like Reid will always trend towards an overemphasis on pass. That is just how they are wired. The question is whether there is someone to keep them honest.