Bears’ Matt Nagy defends pass call vs. Lions

Bears coach Matt Nagy on Monday defended his decision to call a pass play on third-and-four from his own 17 with a three-point lead and 1:54 to play Sunday. He repeated his stance from after the Bears’ 34-30 loss to the Lions: The pass was supposed to work against man, zone or blitzing defenses and gave the Bears the best chance of getting a first down.

“Could you go back and could you try to run a screen or do something like that? Or throw it behind the sticks and keep the clock running? You could always look at doing that,” Nagy said. “But we all, collectively as a staff, felt good about [the call]. I think our players did.”

Of course, quarterback Mitch Trubisky had the ball knocked out of his hands by defensive end Romeo Okwara, fumbling it away at the worst possible time. Nagy said right tackle Germain Ifedi, whom Okwara beat, “just kind of opened up his hips a little bit.”

Nagy said Trubisky was getting ready to throw underneath to Darnell Mooney, who would have had to “try to fall forward” for the first down against a zone defense. Trubisky said something different Sunday afternoon. He said he saw Anthony Miller pop open.

The fumble was crushing. According to EdjSports.com, it decreased the Bears’ chance of winning by 41.4%, the second-steepest drop in the NFL this week.

Nagy called Sunday, in which the Bears matched a season high with 30 points, “by far our best offensive game.”