How Bears Must Recalibrate the Offense for New QB
Nick Foles and Matt Nagy couldn't put a clock on how long it will take to get their passing game up to a level necessary to be competitive against better defenses, or to let them keep up with higher-scoring offenses.
The NFL schedule doesn't allow them this luxury, so Nagy on Monday was talking about getting his new starting quarterback better "calibrated" within the offense.
The Bears say they have synchronization problems in their passing game between Foles and receivers.
How long it takes to fix is anyone's guess. And it goes beyond the passing. In goes right to the root of their offensive changes made in the offseason.
"I don't think there's a time on it," Foles said after their 19-11 loss to Indianapolis. "I think it's just, you know what, (Monday) we're going to have an opportunity to get better.
"I don't think I've ever played in an undefeated season, and you know, every time you lose, it shows more than wins do, and you never want to lose, but that's part of it. I look forward to working with the guys and moving forward, and it's never easy, but it tests you as a human being."
The Bears averaged only 5.6 yards per pass attempt and Foles missed connection with Anthony Miller, Allen Robinson and Jimmy Graham at various points.
"I thought that there was a little bit with timing here or there, and again, with Nick getting into it," coach Matt Nagy said. "Last week, just being thrown into it in the third quarter and then playing, being down, you are automatically one-dimensional and so you're out there playing and everything just happens fast.
"And again, I think that this is not going to happen overnight with Nick. This is going to take a little bit of time as it gets going with the timing of these players and what we get to. So there's a little bit of that."
The best example of the timing being off was when Foles threw over the middle in the fourth quarter for Miller. The throw missed the mark and went for a Julian Blackmon interception, the only turnover by either team on the day.
"I was trying to lead him out of the break to have him split the safeties, and it was probably about six inches too far and that's on me and that's something that is an easy fix for me," Foles said.
On Monday, Nagy said they can make changes by Thursday night for the game with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"I talked this morning a little bit about calibrating us as an offense, Nick as a quarterback getting calibrated, myself with him getting calibrated in regards to working through this process," Nagy said. "We gotta get on that and roll. It's time."
When Nagy says calibration, it goes beyond receivers and the quarterback.
The Bears went to more of an offense with a running game based off of having a mobile quarterback. They've run more plays under center than in the shotgun this season, as opposed to the other way last year. They were trying to take advantage of the run threat Mitchell Trubisky posed to defenses.
However, Foles is nowhere near as mobile. It might mean changing the running game a bit, possibly even going to more plays out of the shotgun.
"I think when I say that, calibrating, that's us, too, offensively," Nagy said. "Just to (the) point is, OK, where are we at with scheme that we're running now and then when you have a change at quarterback, obviously a different quarterback or all quarterbacks are a little bit different in what their strengths and weaknesses are.
"So what we've got to do is make sure that we're doing everything we can that's best for this offense but yet also helping Nick. And I think that's kind of the balance. As we go through this it should only get better as we work through, OK, what's good from under center and what's good from the gun without giving away tendencies as well?"
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