Bears coach Matt Nagy gave fans a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of his game-day experience by agreeing to be mic'd up for last Sunday's contest against the Jets.
The highlights of the 4:28 video posted on ChicagoBears.com are Nagy's interactions with his players, most notably quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. The entertaining mic'd up feature has been widely praised by both fans and media members.
At the beginning of the second half—with the Bears leading 7-3—Nagy tells Trubisky "I'm going to challenge you right now these two quarters for greatness. I want to see it come out of you right now. You take this over right now." Trubisky responds "yes, sir."
The second-year quarterback heeded his coach's advice, leading two touchdown drives to lift the Bears to a 24-10 win. In the third quarter, Trubisky capped a nine-play, 55-yard drive with a 4-yard TD pass to rookie receiver Anthony Miller. The score came on an impressive back-shoulder throw and gave the Bears a 14-3 lead.
Asked this week about challenging Trubisky "for greatness," Nagy said: "He responded well. Mitch will be the first to tell you that as an offense we weren't clicking in the first half and sometimes you need that spark. Mitch naturally does that, has that in him and he'll get the guys going.
"But I felt like at that time right there, it was still a very close game, we were getting ready to get the ball to start the third quarter and you look for that spark. For what it's worth I just want him to know that I'm behind him and that I support him. But I also want him to know that I'm going to put my thumb on him, too.
"I expect him to be great, so I want to challenge him to do great things. There's no one on our football team that's going to accept the challenge more than him and I think there's times where, ultimately in the end we want to come out with the win and I was really proud of him on the touchdown pass that he made. We always talk about, is it the plays or the players, and that one there was the players."
The challenge from Nagy helped Trubisky refocus on the task at hand.
"Every single snap and every single game, I mean, really every single week, you're striving for greatness," Trubisky said. "But I think when he just pulled me aside, it really just homed me in, made me focus a lot more and just made me that much more motivated to focus in and do what I had to do to help the offense and really get us going.
"I've got so much respect and love for coach. He just said it and I needed to make it happen. I played a little bit better the second half, but I'm trying to be consistent. That's what I'm trying to do all the time. But it definitely means a lot coming from him."
Trubisky isn't the only one who Nagy challenges.
"It's not just me, it's the offense," Trubisky said. "Every week he challenges us for different things. Last week it was be aggressive and finish and that's what we were. We were aggressive in our mentality and play-calling the whole game. And then we finally finished when we got a lead the second half.
"When he says that, I think it just makes us more goal-oriented and more focused and then we just go out and execute it that way. When he gives us stuff like that, I think that's what great leaders do, and he definitely backs it up as well."
Late in the game, after Jordan Howard had a 24-yard run followed by a 2-yard touchdown burst that gave the Bears a 24-10 lead, Nagy tells the Bears running back: "That's the way to run that rock. I promise you I'm going to get you going."
"All these players, regardless of what position and what side of the ball you're on, they all have feelings and they all want to do well for their team," Nagy said. "We all understand that we can be better in the run game and we need to be better in the run game. But that's not because of one person, one coach; it's together collectively and I was just happy for Jordan.
"He ran the ball hard there and then for him to be able to get that touchdown and to have the prior run before that and just keep plugging away, I think it just goes to show who he is. He doesn't say a whole lot. He just does his job and I really like that about him. He's a team player and that was just a moment that we had."
