USA Today
Nick Foles, Bears Offense Trying to Keep Their Cool
Nick Foles has plenty of ways to deal with the pressure.
There's plenty of it to deal with these days at Halas Hall.
The Bears season seems on the brink of plunging into something terrible after a 5-1 start and neither Foles nor coach Matt Nagy will look over that metaphoric ledge. There's danger looming ahead starting with Monday's home game against the Minnesota Vikings, but they're too focused on getting a disfunctional offense to work to peek at any potential long-term disaster.
"A lot of times, if you start holding tighter and tighter and tighter, it doesn't get better, because then you can't see everything clearly," Foles said. "We just have to keep working.
"We have to keep down, obviously, the self-inflicted wounds and then obviously third down this last week, execution, starting faster. There's always little things."
Foles just played his best game of the year, based on passer rating.
It didn't feel like it, because the Bears went 2-for-15 on third down against the league's worst third-down defense, but he threw two touchdowns without an interception and put up a 99.4 passer rating. The Bears had a few big pass plays downfield but he still averaged only 6.44 yards an attempt because he threw it 52 times after their running game failed.
The Bears are averaging 4.8 yards a play, better only than the Jets.
The offense's struggles have led Nagy to acknowledge there has been discussion about turning play-calling duties to someone else, but he again Wednesday said he has nothing more to say on the topic.
"I think the big thing is whatever coach Nagy decides or what he does, like, he's the head coach," Foles said. "He can do what he wants to do and we're going to roll with it.
"Like, when you're in a leadership role you make the decisions and everyone is right there to go with you. So whatever happens, if for some reason he does or he is calling plays, whatever it is, we're going to roll and we're going to be the Chicago Bears."
Those Bears face five more divisional games. Their whole season is still before them, as is the NFC playoff chase. The Bears are not even in a playoff position at the moment, after they were second in the NFC behind only Seattle before this three-game losing streak started.
"I think for us probably the biggest thing is we've been through this last year where it's a similar feeling when you lose several games in a row," Nagy said. "So that kind of calloused us for where we're at right now and how we're handling this and I think that's what it's been interesting for me is to see how our guys are reacting to it and they're doing good. And I know that they're hungry.
"This is not something where their attitudes are changing for the negative."
They may have been calloused by last year's four-game losing streak, but the definitely didn't respond well to that one and finished 8-8.
At least the quarterback has been through difficult situations in the past and responded.
In his last season with the Eagles, Foles took over as starting quarterback after a Carson Wentz injury and won three straight to finish the season, elevating the Eagles to playoff berth at 9-7 and then led the double-doink playoff win over the Bears.
Most of Foles' success in such situations came in Philadelphia. To relieve pressure in difficult situations, he said he leans on the Bible, other positive books, his wife and music.
Foles will need the positivity considering the team's offensive line injuries, a concussion to running back David Montgomery and possibly a new play caller.
While Nagy isn't talking about who is calling those plays, he definitely has an opinion on where he team is headed.
"Here's what I would say is you can definitely feel right now a positive motivation to go out and win (Monday)," Nagy said. "That is probably the best way to put it.
"I don't know if it is a sense of urgency. Every week that goes by now it becomes more and more important, obviously for a lot of different reasons. And so they understand that, and they realize, we realize as a team collectively, that it's probably for us more than anything is really looking to put together that game where all three phases play well together ,and just cut it loose is what we're really looking forward to doing."
If not, then the pressure will really build going into Green Bay after their bye.
