In Week Three, the Bears benched a struggling Mitchell Trubisky for Nick Foles, and they promptly came back from a 26-10 deficit to beat the Falcons 30-26. It looked like Foles was the right man to lead their offense.
In four games since then, it has looked a lot different.
The Bears’ offense has actually been worse in the four games started by Foles than it was with Trubisky, including last night’s ugly showing in a 24-10 loss to the Rams.
Since Foles became the Bears’ starter in Week Four, the Bears are dead last in the NFL with an average of 263 yards per game. In the three games Trubisky started, the Bears’ offense was never held under 300 yards. The Bears have gained fewer than 300 yards in all four games Foles has started. The Bears averaged 22.0 first downs in Trubisky’s two full games; they’ve averaged 17.5 first downs in Foles’ four full games.
Foles has worse stats than Trubisky across the board, whether judging by passer rating (Trubisky is at 87.4 and Foles at 77.6), ESPN’s QBR metric (Trubisky is at 56.4 and Foles at 46.2) or yards per attempt (Trubisky 6.5, Foles 5.9). Trubisky and Foles have both thrown six touchdown passes this season, but Foles has thrown six interceptions while Trubisky threw three. Trubisky is also a threat as a runner who was averaging 10.9 yards per carry on the season; Foles actually has negative rushing yards this season.
From all appearances, Bears coach Matt Nagy has made his decision and is sticking with Foles as the starter. But there’s little reason to believe Foles is going to turn the Bears’ offense around. He did it briefly against a Falcons team known for allowing fourth-quarter comebacks, but he hasn’t done it since.
