1. The ‘Failure’ That Wasn’t
One of the biggest myths in the NFL over the last calendar year is that Nagy cost the Kansas City Chiefs a win in last year’s Wild Card round. After leading the Tennessee Titans 21-3 at halftime, the Chiefs’ offense didn’t score a single point the rest of the game and the Titans came back to win 22-21 on the road at Arrowhead Stadium.
That game was just Nagy’s sixth calling plays for Andy Reid and it made the young offensive coordinator an easy target for the Chiefs’ failures in the second half. The day after the loss, Nagy interviewed for the Bears’ head coaching vacancy and two days later accepted the blame at his introductory press conference in Chicago.
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“For me, that was a failure in my book. I felt terrible for our team, for our organization,” he said.
But was the play-calling really a problem?
I went back and studied the entire game this week and here are some facts to consider:
While the score was 21-3 at the half, the Chiefs didn’t touch the ball until 6:31 left in the third quarter and the score 21-10. The situation didn’t exactly call for the Chiefs to start milking the clock when they built their original 17-point lead running their normal offense, with Alex Smith completing 19-of-23 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.
The main criticism directed at Nagy was that Kareem Hunt only had five carries in the second half. Completely ignored: Nagy only called 11 plays with the lead in the second half and five of them were runs. That’s called balance. Especially in today’s NFL.
Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker missed a 48-yard field goal that would have put the Chiefs up 24-10 with 2:31 left in the third quarter.
The Chiefs’ defense was horrendous in the second half. The Titans had four second half possessions: touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, kneel down to end the game.
None of this seems like the offensive coordinator’s fault.
The reason I went back and watched the game is because earlier this week, Nagy said he only regretted one play call from the game. That struck me as odd considering how hard he fell on the sword last January in his first press conference in a new city.
“I think there was one call that I might have wanted back, and it ended up being a call where we lost some yards on a run call,” Nagy said Monday. “I don’t remember the exact situation, but I think there was one call in there that I really felt I could have been better there.”
The guess here is that call was the quarterback option he called on 3rd-and-1 on the Chiefs’ first possession of the second half. Alex Smith didn’t even get the chance to pitch the ball and was stopped short of the first down. Of course, the Titans ended up muffing the ensuing punt, giving the Chiefs new life on that drive. It ended with the Butker missed field goal.
Another scrutinized call was a 3rd-and-2 pass with 11:30 left in the game and the Chiefs leading 21-16. Except the call worked. Tight end Orson Charles was open, he just dropped the ball. And the only reason Charles was the target was because Travis Kelce suffered a concussion in the first half and the Chiefs played the rest of the game without him.
That drive was the Chiefs’ last drive with the lead. But it was only a five-point lead at the time and it was still early in the fourth quarter — hardly the time to go into a shell offensively. Here was the sequence of plays before the Chiefs were forced to punt:
1st and 10 — Smith 5-yard pass to Tyreek Hill
2nd and 5 – Smith 8-yard pass to Albert Wilson
1st and 10 — Hunt 7-yard run
2nd and 3 — Hunt 1-yard run
3rd and 2 — Drop by Charles
So the plays were working. Until a player dropped a key pass in a key moment.
Too often play-callers take the blame for players failing to execute. So, again, why did Nagy accept the blame so easily?
Well, it may have just been the right thing to do.
After the game, Andy Reid had Nagy’s back, creating some confusion about who was actually calling the plays: “He called the good ones, and I called the bad ones. We’ll keep it at that.”
So going into Nagy’s press conference in Chicago, we didn’t actually know who called the plays. But with Kansas City now in the rear-view mirror, Nagy had an opportunity to take the heat off Reid by accepting the blame. He made it clear that he called every play in the second half.
“That’s a learning situation for me,” Nagy said back on Jan. 9, 2018. “I’ll grow from it, and I’ll learn from it. I promise you that. I’ll use that as a strength here for me with the Chicago Bears.”
And in Chicago — coming off three years of John Fox’s lack of transparency — Nagy’s admission of “failure” was refreshing. Frankly, it was celebrated.
Even if it was completely unnecessary.
https://wgnradio.com/2019/01/03/hog...of-matt-nagys-failure-in-last-years-playoffs/
Give it a fucking rest. He tried to run the ball and the offensive line was flat out getting bitch slapped at the line of scrimmage. Sure as fuck didn't help that they trotted out Kyle fucking Long onto the field to start the game. Kyle was easily the worst lineman on Sunday. Not even close.
