Bears Moving Forward with Nick Foles as Starting QB
Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy confirmed the obvious on Monday and made Nick Foles the starting quarterback going forward.
A day after benching Mitchell Trubisky in favor of Foles, Nagy said the move would be the direction the offense would take heading into the game Sunday at Soldier Field against the Indianapolis Colts.
"I know for us it's never easy when you go into these type of situations," Nagy said.
Trubisky had completed 13 of 22 for 128 yards with a touchdown and then threw an interception in the third quarter to Blidi Wreh-Wilson with the Bears trailing 23-10. Trubisky made the tackle on Wreh-Wilson to prevent a touchdown and the Bears forced a field goal but Nagy had seen enough.
He went to Foles, who then authored a fourth-quarterback from a 26-10 deficit with three touchdown passes in the game's final 6:20.
Foles' hit Anthony Miller for a 28-yard TD to cap off the rally, with all three TD passes coming in a span of 4:27. The Bears hung on for the win and Foles was 16 of 29 for 188 yards.
Foles actually had the ball in receivers hands for touchdowns on two other possessions but replay overturned TD passes to Miller and Allen Robinson.
The Bears had rallied earlier in the season opener in similar fashion in the fourth quarter, overcoming a 17-point defict with Trubisky at quarterback.
The interception was the capper but Nagy talked to coaches at halftime about the move before that series, and on Monday pointed out the lack of touchdown production was a huge factor.
"We cannot come away with field goals,' Nagy said. "And that first drive (of the game), to have a field goal on that first drive, that field goal attempt and then to miss it drives me nuts. I don't like that. I don't want field goals. And so, you have that.
"We're struggling on third down. We have 10 points. And then you get to the third quarter and we're struggling a little bit and it's an interception and there's just, you're down 16, it ends up being a gut feel, you know what I mean? I can't tell you, like, it's what we felt at that time, what I felt. We went with it."
The change could force the Bears into modifying some aspects of their offense going forward. They'd put more movement of the quarterback into the attack with Trubisky playing but Foles is more of a pocket passer and has been more effective through his career at throwing out of the shotgun than Trubisky.
For the season, Trubisky is 51 of 86 for 560 yards with six touchdowns and three interceptions. He has a passer rating of 87.4, which is slightly above his career mark of 85.9. However, he continued to suffer with a low yards-per-pass-attempted mark of 6.5.
Foles was Super Bowl LII MVP when he replaced Carson Wentz at quarterback for Philadelphia, but in each case Foles became the starter under Eagles coach Doug Peders it was because of an injury.
The Bears in May declined the fifth-year contract option of Trubisky, leaving his future with the team in doubt after this season. He was their first-round draft pick in 2017, the second pick overall.
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