Matt Nagy Says Mitchell Trubisky's Troubles Are All in the Footwork
Matt Nagy's take on quarterback Mitchell Trubisky's problems after film review Monday was about his feet, not his arm.
Wasn't bad footwork what ended the Bears' season last year?
The Bears seemed like they had bigger problems than footwork in Sunday's 36-25 loss to the Saints, but on Monday Nagy was certain this has to improve before Mitchell Trubisky is going to take a seat at the big boy's table among NFL quarterbacks — if this is even possible.
"The biggest, the No. 1 thing that I came away from was footwork, I thought footwork was just OK," Nagy said. "And then when the footwork leads to, it leads to a little bit of better decisions slash accuracy with throws there were some times where there were some backpedals or movement in the pocket, could have been a little bit better or different."
Nagy cited several plays Trubisky had where he let the opposing pass rush change up his passing mechanics, his footwork. The three overthrows Trubisky had were particularly good examples of poor footwork.
"For me playing the position when you have sloppy footwork it can lead to other issues and I think that's what we saw is that," Nagy said. "So we want to find out some of that that goes on. Now there's times that you get hit, there's other parts to this too. You know? So there's some guys that have poor footwork that they've been hit a few times or whatever that goes into it, so I think that that overall, we want to clean."
In fairness to Trubisky and the bad passing mechanics, he came into the game wearing a left shoulder harness after suffering a shoulder injury Sept. 29.
Still, he knew what he was getting into by coming back.
If this is the problem, then the Bears have to fix it. Nagy pointed out this can be easier said than done because the poor footwork results from facing a live rush.
"In practice, it can be sometimes hard because it's not live," Nagy said. "So that part is hard to evaluate at times. Until you get into the live bullet and you start seeing where you're (at) and you start seeing footwork — you don't necessarily notice it right away in the game, but when you go back and you watch it on tape and you start seeing some of these throws. It could've been better. And Mitch knows that."
Trubisky's return resulted in a big fourth quarter with two touchdown passes and more than half his 251 passing yards. It didn't impress the coach.
"To me it is garbage time and that's not the mode we want to be in," Nagy said. "I could (not) care less about those stats at the end of the game."
The most embarrassing aspect of the passing attack was 19 yards by running back Tarik Cohen on nine receptions. They gained 228 inches off of nine completions to Cohen.
"I think it's just a rhythm with our offense," Cohen said. "We have to find out what we’re good at, our staple plays and what everyone feels comfortable doing."
Nagy pointed out there are other troubles on offense beyond Trubisky.
"That territory, or that position, it always starts there. It always does. But what I have to remind everybody else is that there's other parts to this system — not just quarterback play. And I think we know those other parts that we need to be better at. And so how do we do that? And that's what collectively — not just at the quarterback position, but everywhere — we need to be a little bit better."
The greatest problem with the Bears' offense Sunday was the lack of footwork by their running backs, or lack thereof. They were dumped after no gain, 1 yard or 2 yards. The Bears lost two fumbles. It's obviously the run blocking Nagy referred to, but they're doing what they can to address this problem.
Running it only seven times, a franchise record low, probably isn't going to solve the problem even with poor blocking from the line.
"I know we need to run the ball more, I'm not an idiot," Nagy said.
Nagy blamed some of the reluctance to run on the poor results early, but most of it on circumstance. The Bears fell behind early, fought back for a lead but trailed 12-10 at halftime. Then the Saints drove for a touchdown to start the half and David Montgomery fumbled it away on the next possession. The Bears eventually trailed 26-10 and at that point stopped thinking about running it.
"So before you know it, we didn't have a whole lot of plays in the first half," Nagy said. "There weren't a lot of runs and then we ended up getting behind in the second half. But to have seven rushes and two fumbles that’s not good either. You know, you don’t want that."
There answers to all of these things are to go back to work and work hard. With the 2-5 Los Angeles Chargers coming to Chicago Sunday, it could be a chance for the Bears to take advantage of another team struggling to run it. The Chargers have averaged 51.6 yards a game on the ground the last five games.
To the Bears, 51.6 yards is three games' work based on Sunday's totals.
Twitter@BearsOnMaven
