Nagy’s leap of faith sparks offense
Bears’ choice to receive kickoff, touchdown on opening drive set the tone for win vs. Lions
Three thoughts after the Bears defeated the Detroit Lions 24-14 on Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field, evening their record at 2-2 and bouncing back from a miserable offensive performance the week before.
1. You can make a case that Matt Nagy and the Bears didn’t show a ton of faith in rookie Justin Fields when they announced Friday that a game-time decision was expected.
The Bears were waiting to determine the status of Andy Dalton, who is working his way back from a bone bruise in his left knee. If there was sincere doubt that Dalton would be able to play, why not announce that Fields would start and express confidence that the first-round draft pick — and everyone else on the offense — learned a lot from the disaster in Cleveland and were prepared to have a major bounce back at home against an NFC North rival?
The smoke cleared Saturday evening when the team downgraded Dalton from questionable to doubtful and announced Fields would make his second start.
Then, when the Bears won the coin toss just before noon Sunday, Nagy did express faith in Fields and the offense. The Bears elected to receive the kickoff to begin the game, something Nagy had done only once previously in his four seasons.
It worked. The offense set the tone for the game by marching 75 yards in 12 plays and taking a 7-0 lead on a 4-yard touchdown run by David Montgomery. The Bears converted a fourthand-1 on the drive, the first fourth down they’ve successfully executed this season, and Fields made a nice throw to Darnell Mooney for a 21-yard gain. It was a crisp possession with balance.
“I seen A-Rob (Allen Robinson), they had called the coin toss and we had won, and I see his hand (motioning for the offense),” Mooney said. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK. I like the way this is going. Aggressive right off the bat.’ I love it for sure.”
Nagy said the forecast for rain during the day factored into the decision. The Bears figured it would be best to start on offense with a clean field before it became slippery or muddy. Mother Nature wound up accommodating, and it turned into a nice afternoon along the lakefront.
“(Weather) wasn’t exactly the deal — maybe a little bit of it — but for us to have the mindset of, ‘Let’s go down there, let’s get the ball, let’s see what we could do with it,’ ” Nagy said. “In a perfect world we’d go ahead and get a touchdown and go up 7-0 and let our defense go.
“That’s what happened. Does it always work? No. Do we always do it? No. But sometimes as a head coach you talk to your coordinators and you talk to your coaches and you make a decision and whatever it is you roll with it.”
This was a rare move by Nagy. He previously chose to start on offense after winning the coin toss before the Week 15 game at Minnesota last season. Including the postseason, the Bears have won the toss 28 times in the Nagy era, and 26 times they have deferred to start on defense.
Coaches like the idea of potentially swinging momentum by scoring late in the second quarter and then starting on offense in the third quarter with a chance to score again. The Bears couldn’t double up on the Lions in this instance, but they did come out of the locker room at halftime and force the Lions to go three-andout before Fields directed a 77-yard, six-play touchdown drive that staked the Bears to a 21-0 lead.
Fields said he learned he would be the starter Saturday night, but based on how practice reps were distributed during the week, he had to have a good idea he would get the call. He was glad Nagy put the offense on the spot to start.
“Us winning the toss and scoring on the first drive, that definitely sets the tone for the rest of the game,” Fields said.
Said center Sam Mustipher: “Marching down the field was an awesome feeling and it got the confidence going after a rough week last week.”
The quickest way for the Bears to change the momentum for their offense after the 47-yard effort in Cleveland was to start with the ball. I don’t think we’ll see Nagy do this on a regular basis. After starting on offense against the Vikings last season, Nagy deferred when the Bears won the coin toss the following week in Jacksonville. He deferred in the playoff game in New Orleans and again last week in Cleveland.
If you’re going to say the delayed process of naming Fields the starter suggested at least a partial lack of confidence in the rookie, you have to admit that taking the ball first — instead of putting a defense on the field that had dominated Lions quarterback Jared Goff when he was surrounded by much better talent with the Los Angeles Rams — was a major sign of belief in Fields.
2. So who starts Sunday when the Bears play the Raiders in Las Vegas for the first time?
That will be the big question at Halas Hall in the coming days. Did Fields play well enough and show enough improvement from his first start to his second to stay in the role even if Dalton is deemed healthy enough to play? Will Nagy stick with his repeated statements that Dalton will be QB1 when he is physically ready?
There is some wiggle room for Nagy and the coaches as they weigh the decision. They always can say Dalton needs a little more time to recover and create another opportunity for Fields against a Raiders team that entered Monday night’s AFC West showdown against the Los Angeles Chargers with a 3-0 record.
Fields is the future of the Bears, and whether he starts against the Raiders or not, we’re going to see a lot of him this season. For this Bears offense, there has been a huge difference in playing at home (wins over the Bengals and Lions) and on the road (20-point losses to the Rams and Browns).
I’m purely guessing here, but my hunch is the Bears will stick with Fields and try to build off the momentum he and the rest of the offense generated against the Lions. Maybe Dalton isn’t quite ready. He still has a slight limp and it wasn’t a minor injury he suffered. Does the availability of Montgomery, who left Sunday’s game with a left knee injury, factor into the decision? That’s possible.
The last thing the Bears want is for Fields to go on the road and endure another rough outing. But if not this week, when? The schedule is difficult. The next three road games are against the Raiders, Buccaneers and Steelers before a rematch with the Lions on Nov. 25 in Detroit.
3. Robert Quinn has to be a strong early candidate for comeback player of the year. Quinn had a strip-sack of Goff late in the second quarter after the Lions had reached the Bears 8-yard line. He beat rookie left tackle Penei Sewell off the snap with speed up the field. It was a well-timed play. Sewell tried to recover, but his hips were open, Quinn knew it and he really dipped and got under Sewell, ripping through to create a clear path to Goff.
Quinn has 4 ½ sacks to lead the team and was tied for sixth in the league entering the Monday night game. He has at least a half-sack in each game this season. The last time he had a streak like that was in 2019, when he put together a six-game streak with at least a half-sack. He has the most sacks through four games since he had five to start the 2013 season.
It goes without saying Quinn’s rebound from a poor 2020 season has been a huge boost for the defense, which leads the NFL with 15 sacks. It should be noted he did a nice job of playing the run, making some stops at or near the line of scrimmage and finishing with five tackles.
Quinn says he’s in a better place than he was a year ago, and it goes far beyond how he feels physically in his 11th season at age 31.
“Honestly, I’m just mentally and spiritually happy,” he said. “I took some time to myself this offseason to put myself in a better mind state. I talked to some good friends and pastors and got myself mentally and spiritually right. I brushed off all the nonsense of last year. All that weight I was holding on to is done and over with.
“I was in a rough place last year. I’ll just leave it at that. I was in a very rough place and my performance showed that.”
The Bears can appreciate where Quinn finds himself now. That much is certain.