Matt Nagy is to blame for the Bears’ loss on Sunday.
Really. It’s a simple but accurate way to describe a pivotal play in the Bears’ 31-26 loss on Sunday.
Nagy was the one who insisted on the quarterbacks having a “touchdown-to-checkdown” mentality. Justin Fields was his rookie. Fields, thanks to his first NFL coach, still has too much touchdown and not enough checkdown in him.
Checkdown does not always imply a small gain. When the receiver is DJ Moore, who has been in the top ten for yards after the catch all season, it could mean a big gain.
On third-and-9 on Sunday, Fields chose to throw a deep pass to Tyler Scott rather than a shorter pass to Moore, a play that has worked in the past.
It has been treated with the same gravity as the Bears defense’s ineptness in defending the pass on the final two Lions drives. Simply put, the defense lost that game. They had two chances to win it and didn’t.
This pass constituted only one play and one missed opportunity.
“The last play we talked about with the cross to DJ and he threw it over top, I mean that would have been a spectacular play if we connected on that,” coach Matt Eberflus said at Halas Hall on Monday. “We were standing right there. We just have to execute well in that moment, and that’s what we’re talking about as a group.”
Understand the Situation
The issue is that they didn’t have to execute that play.
True, one play could have effectively sealed the victory. If the deep ball is caught at the Detroit 26 with 2:44 remaining, the Bears will most likely not be able to kill the clock as some players have suggested.
With two minutes remaining, the Bears would have had first down and the Lions would still have had a timeout. Or the Lions could have stopped the clock at the two-minute warning and had one play stoppage. If the Bears converted a fourth-down field goal after that completion, the Lions might have had 20 or 30 seconds left with no timeouts and trailing by eight points.
As a result, the game was probably over, as the Bears suggested, but the Lions could pull off a miracle.
The play itself and whether Fields should have thrown to Scott are more important in this discussion.
On the play, Fields had two viable options. As a rookie, Nagy was instilled with the “touchdown-to-checkdown” mentality, which he has maintained under Luke Getsy.
There’s nothing wrong with being aggressive, and Fields had Scott breaking several feet behind the cornerback already. So his interpretation was correct.
It’s not often that a quarterback gets such a clear look at the deep ball. Fields had a good view of how things were progressing. As the other safety had come up and was closing in on DJ Moore, there was no deep safety on that side of the field.
The issue was that the ball was being thrown a long distance, and on the play, Scott slowed just enough to check on the progress of the throw, and Fields delivered it exactly where and when he needed to if his receiver had been running it full speed as drawn up. As a result, it was an overthrow and failure at the worst possible time.
This is where Fields’ problem lies.
He could have thrown it to Moore, who had already gained 98 yards and had been making catch-and-run plays all day.
Moore was not as open as some still photos on social media suggest. The photos end just behind Moore, so you don’t see the safety descending quickly. He was approximately 5 to 7 yards away. ESPN’s Matt Bowen’s video analysis of the play reveals where the other defensive back was.
Fields could have checked it down to Moore and hoped his No. 1 receiver would catch it and turn upfield. He might have had enough space to get past the closing DB or break a tackle.
Moore would have had more room if he had gotten past this tackle. Only the cornerback 45 yards downfield with Mooney was on that side of the field.
If Moore could have gotten away from that one tackler, he would have had just enough time to make a quick move to get free.
In fact, the field was so wide open that Moore could easily have taken it all.
At worst, if he breaks the tackle or dodges his way open, he will gain 25 to 30 yards and accomplish nearly the same thing as a deep pass.
Deep passes do not have to be big plays.
Even if the long pass opens up, the situation takes precedence. The game was on the line, and a first down was all that was required. In retrospect, Fields should have checked it down to Moore, but logically, he should have checked it down to Moore as well.
It’s not always a touchdown-to-checkdown mentality when the checkdown can mean the difference between winning and losing a football game. The checkdown period had the potential to win the game.
Consider this part of Fields’ quarterback education as he tries to get everything Nagy taught him out of his head.
The ability to play situational football is always essential.
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