Clueless (Not the Movie)

Your team is down by a point, the ball is on the opponent’s 21-yard line.  You have 43 seconds left on the clock, with one timeout remaining.  So, what would you do?

We all know how a team like the Packers would respond, but we’re talking the Chicago Bears here, specifically, Bears-Chargers Sunday afternoon on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field.  Rather than try to gain more yards to make for a shorter, easier kick (as opposed to the 41-yard shank kicker Eddie Pineiro delivered), Bears’ coach Matt Nagy decided to let the clock run down instead.  Why, exactly?

To hear Nagy explain is to scratch your head.  Why not run, Nagy was asked after the game.  “I had zero thought of running the ball,” he responded.  “I’m not taking the chance of fumbling the football.  They [the Chargers] know you’re running the football, so you lose three or four yards.  So that wasn’t even in our process as coaches to think about that.”

Alright, then, why not pass?  “Throw the football?” asked Coach Gadget, sounding shocked or amused or whatever.  “Throw the football right then and there?  What happens if you take a sack or there’s a fumble?”  In summary, Coach G. reiterated, “I’ll just be real clear.  Zero thought of throwing the football.  Zero thought of running the football.  You understand me?”

Yes, Coach, you depended on your hand-picked kicker, the one you spent a whole summer deciding on, to win the game, and he didn’t.  You were paralyzed by fear of failure, only to fail when you did act.  Is that how they do things up in Green Bay?

I don’t think so.