Play Calling Experts

[baredown]

Play Calling Experts

1. Why is he so bad? I mean how can you be so bad at it? I need to know the "why's".
2. What makes a good play caller?

As a general rule, most experts are self-appointed. This is especially true of keyboard wannabe HCs. And 'yes', I am an expert. If an NFL HC doesn't follow my thinking, and fails, then my plan(s) clearly would have worked. If the HC does follow my thinking, and fails, then he obviously didn't have the right personnel in the game. If the HC calls a completely different type of game from my thinking, and succeeds, my plan(s) would have worked too. I am amazingly good at wannabe play-calling.

Sighhh. Play calling as a factor in the outcome of NFL games is way overrated. The critical job of an NFL HC is to have his team ready to out-execute the opponent, not to out-smart them with play calling. Lazor calls a very vanilla game, but he calls stuff that better suits the offense's current talent base than Nagy does. Under Lazor, the Bears look like they are simply trying to out-execute the other team. Nagy dreams of what could be, asks why not, then has to spend 3hrs every Sunday getting the answer pounded into him. Unfortunately, it doesn't take. Lather, rinse, repeat...

 

[bamainatlanta]

Thats pretty rich coming from a janitor...

Not a fan of the custodial arts?

 

[Rob Noxious]

It’s nice watching him crumble. I wouldn’t enjoy this if he wasn’t such an arrogant prick that, for the time, is holding my team hostage. I hope he is the first mid season firing by the Bears.

 

[modo]

As a general rule, most experts are self-appointed. This is especially true of keyboard wannabe HCs. And 'yes', I am an expert. If an NFL HC doesn't follow my thinking, and fails, then my plan(s) clearly would have worked. If the HC does follow my thinking, and fails, then he obviously didn't have the right personnel in the game. If the HC calls a completely different type of game from my thinking, and succeeds, my plan(s) would have worked too. I am amazingly good at wannabe play-calling.

Sighhh. Play calling as a factor in the outcome of NFL games is way overrated. The critical job of an NFL HC is to have his team ready to out-execute the opponent, not to out-smart them with play calling. Lazor calls a very vanilla game, but he calls stuff that better suits the offense's current talent base than Nagy does. Under Lazor, the Bears look like they are simply trying to out-execute the other team. Nagy dreams of what could be, asks why not, then has to spend 3hrs every Sunday getting the answer pounded into him. Unfortunately, it doesn't take. Lather, rinse, repeat...

what if the HC doesn't follow your plan and fails miserably, but the OC does what you thought should have been done and succeeds?

You contradicted yourself in the second sentence. "Play calling as a factor in the outcome of NFL games is way overrated."
"Lazor calls a very vanilla game, but he calls stuff that better suits the offense's current talent base than Nagy does."

Play calling made the entire difference between Nagy and Lazor...

This is exactly what we've all been complaining about. Nagy calls plays for his style of offense, Lazor called a game for the players abilities....its what we've complained about for the past two years at least.

 

[WindyCity]

Obviously Nagy can't call a game. He sucks.

1. Why is he so bad? I mean how can you be so bad at it? I need to know the "why's".
2. What makes a good play caller?

1. He does nothing to help the OL early in games.

2. He is predictable. Even more so when the O is struggling and he just panics and goes to shotgun quick game.

3. He runs into heavy fronts on 1st down all the time.

4. He calls way too many static routes where guys stop moving, once those are covered you are fucked.

5. Too much shotgun, not enough play action, not enough pre snap motion.

 

[JoJoBoxer]

These are from his time here, not just this season:

1 - No rhyme, reason or sequencing

2 - Outsmarts (only) himself with wacky personnel, instead of using the few advantages we DO have in key moments (ex. NOT using Montgomery enough or in short yardage; NOT using, or even having TEs on the field in the Redzone

3 - Not being experienced enough professionally to go outside of "his system" to tweak things when your team is built differently... but is built in a way to succeed in a slightly diff offensive style (ex. having OL that can clearly run block, but repeatedly asking them to pass block more instead... with looong ass drops, just because you dig the long ball)

4 - Jump balls to our midget WRs. Not using our pass catchers with height enough.

His biggest flaw?

He takes the bread and butter plays of an offense and throws them out. He doesn't like to run the ball so he cannot run play action passes and he refuses to run anything but WR screens.

These are the basic plays that every offense, besides Nagy's, uses to gain big chunks while using the run game to take the pressure off the QB while still moving the chains.

 

[jive]

1. Nagy is predictible, even with his trick plays. He lets you see his controller when he picks plays in Tecmo Bowl, so you know what defense to call and make him lose yards.

2. Scoring points/stopping the other team. There's many different philosophies in football and approaches to play calling, but in the end, what really matters is if you make the calls that lets your team score more points than the other.

 

[Dstone5553]

Obviously Nagy can't call a game. He sucks.

1. Why is he so bad? I mean how can you be so bad at it? I need to know the "why's".
2. What makes a good play caller?

Shortest answer is he doesn't have any feel for it and you need that to be a productive play-caller.


I don't consider myself an expert play-caller though, even though I made a comment on this threat.

 

[Mdbearz]

Biggest issues I see are

1. Situational Awareness, with wrong players, wrong position on the field and wrong play call
2. Total lack of adjustment, even when the QB is getting sacked every other drop back.

I could go into more detail, but these are the things he could "improve" if he stepped down from calling plays.

I think it is too late for the Bears, but he might get another shot at HC because his record is actually much better than a lot of coaches out there.

Nagy's offense is incapable of beating the good teams, period. That is the reason I want him gone, oh yeah and the Cleveland game too.

 

[SpeedRacer]

One thing I noticed, is that more times than not when Lazer called the game, Justin actually had time to scan the field when he dropped back to pass. Compared to Nagy, when he had NO time on pass plays.

 

[Midwaymonster75]

Obviously Nagy can't call a game. He sucks.

1. Why is he so bad? I mean how can you be so bad at it? I need to know the "why's".
2. What makes a good play caller?

One word. Adjustments. Can you adjust to the defense when it adjusts to you?

 

[Starion]

Not a bad post by the OP to allow CCS to vent with a shit-ton of on point reasons for the NAGY-TIVITY.

Pretty good responses so far. What's horrifying is that this is only about him as a play caller!!!

Reasons why Nagy sucks..?

 

[Bearly]

I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert, because I'm not. But the things he DIDN'T do were pretty obvious to anyone who watches football. Do what's necessary to protect your rookie QB. Run the fucking ball. Use that to set up the occasional deep shot. The fact that he never adjusted against the Browns is just insane to me.

I rarely get angry about Bear fails but when they are this avoidable, I get steamed. I could easily have accepted a loss but the O was disturbingly mismanaged. Truly maddening.

 

[mattb78]

The best coaches are flexible. They continually change plays and tweak their system to the personnel. Nagy's largest flaw is he tried to make this team something that it wasn't. He called plays like he had a top O-line and a top QB (like he never left KC).

 

[Mikeropod]

I've never seen him just use a quick slant to scare off the LBs from only sitting in the box on his predictable horizontal plays.

 

[Bort]

Does anyone else remember Gary Crowton?

One of the wildest Bears records is that the season with the most passing yards in franchise history was achieved by a combination of Shane MatthewJim Miller, and Cade McNown in 1999 (that record of 4,352 passing yards still stands) with first year OC Gary Crowton calling plays.

I still remember at like every post game press conference the opposing DC would say something like “yeah, it worked in this one game, but such a gimmicky pass-happy offense won’t last in the NFL, we’ll figure it out.” Those DCs ended up being right. Crowton was exposed the following year and never coached again in the NFL in any capacity after 2000.

Nagy’s 2018 season was kind of a Crowton 1999 lite. The gimmicks worked for Nagy for about a season in 2018, and then his gimmicky pass-happy offense was exposed just like Crowton before him.