Matt Nagy breaks down Chiefs play calls in Titans loss
By Matt Conner
The most recent Monday Morning Quarterback column from Peter King has a nice interview with Bears head coach Matt Nagy, who gives insight into the Chiefs loss.
While we’re all likely ready to stop dissecting the Kansas City Chiefs loss to the Tennessee Titans in what was a miserable and, unfortunately, memorable playoff loss, we were happy to see some new insights and quotes from Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy about how he viewed the Chiefs’ performance in the second half of that loss.
Over at Monday Morning Quarterback, Peter King put together a nice little section on Nagy’s ascent to his new position with the Bears. It’s worth reading in its entirety, but King himself couldn’t help but ask, in so many words, “What happened to the Chiefs?”
King asked Nagy about the playcalling in particular on that Saturday evening, a subject that has troubled Chiefs Kingdom over the last few weeks. If you’ll remember, the Chiefs were up 18 at halftime and somehow became a shell of themselves on both sides of the ball. On defense, they knew Derrick Henry was going to be a battering ram and they still could not stop him. On offense, they not only let off the gas, but they turned the car off entirely.
Specifically, King asked Nagy about the lack of touches/running attempts for Kareem Hunt, the NFL’s rushing leader during the regular season, when given a large lead to play with.
"“We had four possessions and only 20 plays in the second half. That’s not a lot of plays. You’ve gotta get first downs, either running or passing. We went back and looked at the game, and we evaluated the run-pass ratio. The part that bothers me is our possession after the [Titans’] muffed punt. (That gave Kansas City the ball at the Tennessee 28 with 4:34 left in the third quarter.) We were up 11 there, and we went three-and-out, and we lost five yards. Instead of a 41-yard field goal, maybe, we have a 49-yard field goal try [and miss]. At the end of the third, we could have been up 14, which would have changed the game. If I could go back and do one thing over, it’d be to make sure we don’t call a play that’s going to lose those yards.”"
Whether you agree with Nagy or not, at least there’s a bit more understanding about what happened down the stretch. There’s no direct response to Hunt’s carry total, save for an indirect or unsubstantial quote about ratios, but he’s also right to point out the loss of yards on that field goal, which would have made all the difference in a 22-21 loss.