If this last week were a poker hand, and in many ways the NFL is far more like hold ’em than the global warfare hooey some would have you believe, then Matt Nagy just called your confidence and raised some brass footballs.
When the nervy rookie Bears head coach sat his starters Saturday in the game traditionally used as a dress rehearsal for the regular season, such as the wretchedness that passes for Ryan Pace-contrived regular seasons have been lately, Nagy denied inexperienced and inconsistent potential franchise quarterback Mitch Trubisky a chance to improve.
Trubisky said he wanted to play against the Chiefs, and why wouldn’t he? His job is to play football, and play it well, but oops, when we last saw Trubisky in some kind of tackle football game, he was throwing an interception borne of his own bad decision and compounded by Tarik Cohen’s. So, of course he wanted to play.
But Nagy said no, take a seat, grab some headphones, have a spa day, whatever. In explaining his thinking, Nagy cited all the snaps going back to the spring — man, Trubisky must be an All-Pro practice player — but the only truth has to be keeping the first-stringers healthy for games that matter.
But then came the chutzpah: In the face of skipping a chance for his new offense with new players and new expectations to grow, Nagy warned fans not to expect a restaurant-quality meal.
“This is going to take a little bit of time,” he said. “This isn’t something where we’re just going to come out here and start firing away. I told you that from the start. This is a process now. That’s OK. That’s no excuse. But that’s what’s real.”
Just what Bears fans wanted to hear after four straight last-place finishes, after GM Pace delivers roster after roster filled with glaring holes at one starting position or another, pass rusher this year, wide receiver last year, safety the year before that, after the new coach held out first-stringers who have looked far clunkier than clean.
And if you didn’t get it the first time, Nagy put a face on it — Trubisky’s.
“He’s not where he’s going to be at in the end of this thing,’’ Nagy said. “Again, it’s going to take some time to where he’s just completely rolling. He’s not there yet, but he’s where he needs to be … from where we were in OTAs and training camp.”
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There’s something charmingly arrogant about Nagy in this deal. Not arrogant like John Fox, who said nothing and acted like he knew everything but didn’t even know how to win eight games a season here.
No, this sounds like the kind of arrogance Bears fans are used to seeing on the other side of the field and wished they had for themselves.
This sounds like a Brett Favre kind of ferocious arrogance that wasn’t about taking what the defense gave him, but about taking what he wanted.
This sounds like an Aaron Rodgers kind of cool, scary arrogance that screams he knows where the holes in your defense are on the next play even before breaking his huddle, and hey, look, someone’s running open deep.
This sounds like the best kind of arrogance.
Nagy isn’t running a bluff here. He has a hand, a small hand now, but he’s betting as if he’s drawing at the nuts and Trubisky turns the coach’s gall into vioctories.
Twitter @steverosenbloom
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