Cut Foles Some Slack

 

October 5, 2020

I’ve seen enough of Mitch Trubisky to know that Nick Foles should start Thursday night against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Hard to believe, Trubisky would have been worse. Foles and Bears did not so much as to lose as the Indianapolis Colts defense did to win 19-11. The Colts defense if not the best in NFL it is in the upper echelon. The Colts defense will stop better offenses but, the Bears were a piece of cake.

There were a couple of key plays in the first quarter that set the tone for the game. A blocked punt led to a short touchdown drive for the Colts.  The next big play was when Khalil Mack dropped a deflected pass that was right in his hands. The Bears could have had the ball at the Colts 20-yard line.

Foles was not helped when the Bears offense became one-dimensional, due to the Bears ineffective running game. The Bears ran the ball 16 times for 28 yards.  I can’t recall any team averaging less than two yards per carry. This forced Coach Matt Nagy to call passing plays in short yardage situations on second and third down. Nagy should have utilized his tight ends on quick short passes. However, as best, as I can recall, Nagy only targeted his tight ends once. It was puzzling that on the Bears first possession in the fourth quarter he called a run for Cordarrelle Patterson needing one yard on third down. He ended up losing a yard, forcing a Bears punt.  Maybe they miss Tarik Cohen more I thought they would.

There were some positives. After allowing a touchdown on the Colts first possession, the Bears defense was superb. They applied pressure on Colts QB Phillip River and limited the Colts to field goals 4 times in the red zone. This performance was their best of the year.  Hopefully this continues, while Foles gets more in sync with his receivers..