The “win ugly” rant Nick Foles delivered after the Bears beat the Panthers on Sunday was more than a lecture to the media for bringing up the offense’s widespread shortfalls. He wanted his teammates to hear it, too.
Over the past month, Foles has gone from Mitch Trubisky’s supportive backup and mentor to taking hold of the Bears as his team. This isn’t a fill-in job for Foles like had with the Eagles. Matt Nagy made it clear he’s the man now, and Foles’ teammates have been drawn to his personality.
“Nick is the kind of guy who’s a leader by nature,” wide receiver Allen Robinson said. “He constantly is trying to lead us in every fashion. If we have a bad possession, whether it’s practice or a game, he’s a guy that’s for sure trying to lead at all times. I think everyone around him appreciates that.”
The best contribution Foles could make is to play better, but the Bears are happy to have his leadership nonetheless.
His teammates quickly rallied behind him after he led them back from a 26-10 deficit in the fourth quarter against the Falcons in his debut. Since then, though, Foles has not been any better than Trubisky.
In the three games after his brilliant comeback, Foles completed 64% of his passes, averaged 5.6 yards per pass and had three touchdowns and three interceptions for a 76.9 passer rating. Trubisky got benched with 59% completions, 6.5 yards per pass, six touchdowns to three picks and an 87.4 rating.
Foles looked like Trubisky’s twin against the Panthers, going 23 of 39 for 198 yards, a touchdown and an incredibly foolish heave for an interception. His 70.2 rating was the worst by either Bears quarterback this season, prompting the critical questions that set him off afterward.
“It doesn’t matter how you do it,” he rebutted. “It just matters that you get it done.”
What got it done against the Panthers, though, might not be sufficient Monday against the Rams and their sixth-ranked defense.
But here’s one thing Foles has on his side that Trubisky didn’t: history.
For all his flaws and the volatility of his career, Foles has a stack of big-game performances on his record. For starters, he has gone 4-2 in the playoffs with 11 touchdowns, 272.2 yards per game and a 98.8 passer rating. The biggest of those games, of course, was his overwhelming Super Bowl MVP performance for the Eagles at the end of the 2017 season.
With that track record, as well as a handful of crucial wins late in the regular season throughout his career, Foles has credibility in the locker room when he defends ugly performances in victories and predicts improvement coming soon. Those words mean something from a guy with a Super Bowl MVP trophy at home.
“Nick is a guy that definitely wants to over-communicate things,” Robinson said. “I think that’s so big. You see him, how he communicates to the coaches and how he communicates to his teammates, [and] even to the fan base and the media. I think that everybody kind of sees the kind of person that he is.”
