Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy has gotten crushed for a multitude of decisions this season, but during Sunday night’s game against the Green Bay Packers, he may have committed his biggest infraction yet.
Trailing 38-27 with 13:31 remaining in the game, the Bears had a fourth-and-inches with the ball at their own 36-yard line. Rather than try to pick up the first down, Nagy opted to punt the ball away.
After penalty caused a re-kick, the Packers took possession and drove the length of the field for the game-sealing touchdown.
It took until Monday afternoon, but Nagy admitted that he had some regrets about calling for a punt in Sunday’s 45-30 loss.
“I can understand the fact of going for it there in that situation,” Nagy said, via NBC Chicago. “I don’t think it’s一 I get it. When you look back and you see what happens, when they go on that long drive and they take up the clock and score, you wish you would’ve went for it. That’s the part where you look back as a coach and you go, ‘Damn, that would’ve been a time to do that.’”
Matt Nagy admitted today that he should have gone for it on 4th-and-inches in the fourth quarter with his team down 11 points:
“You wish you would’ve went for it. That’s the part where you look back as a coach and you go, ‘Damn, that would’ve been a time to do that.'”
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) December 13, 2021
Unfortunately, Nagy’s realization came about 18 hours too late and Bears fans probably wish that he would’ve come to that conclusion in the moment. Many media members took to Twitter on Monday to criticize Chicago’s head coach for both his decision-making and his latest remarks.
the Bears are paying this guy millions of dollars to screw up the most obvious decisions in football in the heat of the moment and then realize he made a massive error 18 hours later.
the Mom From Home Alone of football coaches https://t.co/JHUysa5TJk— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) December 13, 2021
Yet every fan & onlooker knew in the moment the #Bears should have gone for it. Kinda says all it needs to at this point. https://t.co/HvOrK8BmmP
— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) December 13, 2021
a literal 4-year-old playing Madden could’ve made that decision https://t.co/mu3XmZjoN6
— Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) December 13, 2021
There are 32 NFL Head Coaching positions on the planet and Matt Nagy has one of them.
Took him a good night’s sleep to realize what everybody else on the planet already knew. https://t.co/1ZKtNN3V8E
— Bobby Pizza™️ (@robpizzola) December 13, 2021
Wonder if tomorrow he’ll admit he shouldn’t have admitted this. https://t.co/VEl22MnOPn
— Dave Dameshek (@Dameshek) December 13, 2021
Nagy wouldn’t have had much to lose if he had kept his offense on the field for that fourth down. Going into the NFC North rivalry game, the Bears were 4-8 and playing mostly for pride.
Chicago dropped to 4-9 with the loss, effectively eliminating the organization from postseason contention. The next biggest question mark that surrounds the club is whether Nagy will be the head coach once the year comes to an end.
If he make similar decisions to the one he did on Sunday, it’s hard to believe he’ll be in charge of the Bears in 2022.
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