Something isn’t quite right between Bears coach Matt Nagy and quarterback Nick Foles. Their partnership has been choppy from the beginning, exacerbated by the lack of an offseason, and frustrating offensive performances aren’t helping.
It’s not a full-blown rift, but it’s not nothing, either.
The latest issue was a delay-of-game penalty in the third quarter of the Bears’ 26-23 overtime loss to the Saints on Sunday. Foles was still directing teammates before the snap and had zero awareness that the play clock was winding down. That turned a manageable third-and-four into a much more challenging third-and-nine, and the Bears eventually punted from fourth-and-18.
While there were many instances of the Bears being undisciplined — “That’s what pisses me off... Excuse my French,” Nagy said — the penalty by Foles revealed serious dysfunction, and Nagy believed part of the problem was Foles using a cheat sheet on his wristband to remember certain plays.
“You know, we’re reading it from a wristband,” Nagy said, still annoyed after whatever explanation Foles gave him. “I just — I’m struggling with that right now. It’s getting you into a hole. And so, that has to — That has to change.”
Not surprisingly, Foles doesn’t want to change. Nagy’s main objection seemed to be Foles’ dependence on a wristband to give the play call. He was still reading it as he walked to the huddle with 23 seconds left on the play clock, and immediately after the possession, he and Nagy had a discussion about the wristband on the sideline.
While Foles likened their relationship to a marriage last week, he should’ve been more specific. It’s closer to a second marriage, one in which both parties have cemented their habits and have to figure out how to merge them.
In the Foles-Nagy relationship, just like an actual marriage, fights can start over the most seemingly insignificant issues. Like wearing a wristband.
“The wristband is basically for unique plays that maybe there are different tags that become little stories of themselves,” said Foles, who might as well have been reading Lord of the Rings as the play clock ran down. “It’s just easier to have it on the wristband to make sure — I like it because it allows me more time at the line of scrimmage to see things instead of waiting, so there is a purpose for it.
“I believe in the wristband. I’ve done it for a lot of my career. The communication thing — Great teams communicate well and that is something we’re working toward. There are a lot of new pieces here. We’re in the fire right now. We’re going through it and we’re going to keep getting better. We’re going to continue to lean on each other and believe in one another.”
Let’s push pause on the wristband argument. Here’s a thorough rundown on the sequence that incensed Nagy.
With the radio communication from Nagy to Foles malfunctioning, Foles went to the sideline to get the play call, then walked to the huddle. The Bears broke the huddle with 15 seconds left, which is OK but not ideal, and Foles immediately started talking to running back David Montgomery in the backfield.
As the clock ticked down to five seconds, he was signaling to another running back, Ryan Nall, lined up to the far right as a wide receiver. Foles was still talking to Montgomery and Nall with two seconds left when left tackle Charles Leno yelled, “Hey, hurry up. Hurry up.” At that point there was total disorganization between Foles, Montgomery and Nall in the backfield and the flag came down.
FOX broadcaster Troy Aikman shredded Foles, and Nagy likely would’ve agreed with him.
“Well, we’ve been doing this a long time, and it befuddles me when a quarterback doesn’t know how much time is on a play clock,” Aikman said. “And he’s totally oblivious.”
This came a week after Foles told ESPN’s production crew he sometimes has to tell Nagy during games that certain play calls aren’t going to work because the coach can’t see how little time Foles has behind a dilapidated offensive line.
Again, something is at least a little bit off between these two. And they certainly aren’t what general manager Ryan Pace pitched from the onset when he said one factor in trading for Foles was that the Bears “have a lot of people in our building that are comfortable with him as a person and his makeup, which made the decision easier.”
From the beginning, Nagy pumped the brakes on the expectations that he and Foles would fit like Legos. He was happy to have him, but they weren’t ready-made for each other just because they’d both come from Andy Reid’s overarching philosophy and spent one season together in Kansas City with Nagy as the offensive coordinator and Foles as the backup quarterback.
“Some people think that these offenses that he’s just come from are exactly the same [as the Bears’], and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Nagy said. “There’s a learning curve there a little bit.”
How’s this for a learning curve: The Bears traded for Foles seven months ago and they’re now halfway through the season, and Foles is still being asked the very valid question of how much he understands Nagy’s offense.
“I feel like I have a good grasp on what we’re doing right now,” Foles said. “The big thing is we’ve got to continue to work and build on things... And then where we maybe have mistakes as the offense, just working on cleaning those things up.
“That’s the process we talk about because there were good things out there. We were able to improve in different areas, get some explosive plays and whatnot. Those are the things we have to focus on as an offense and then continue to move forward.”
In the loss to the Saints, the offense scored its third-most points of the season and Foles had his second-best passer rating (92.7). Neither of those is good. NFL teams are averaging 25 points per game this season and the Saints have been allowing 28, so the Bears putting 23 isn’t cause for celebration. And if Foles could maintain that rating all season — he’s currently at 80.3 — he’d rank just 24th in the NFL.
That’s the biggest problem for Nagy and Foles. As things go poorly on the field, little issues like wristbands carry a different level of urgency and anxiety. And neither Foles nor Nagy has been the life raft each of them thought the other would be. Foles hasn’t been a clear-cut upgrade over Mitch Trubisky, and Nagy hasn’t been a play caller who can coax the best out of Foles like Chip Kelly and Doug Pederson did.
Whether some success will make the little issues evaporate or whether straightening those out will lead to Foles playing better is for him and Nagy to figure out. So far they haven’t, though, and all that’s clear from the outside is there’s an obvious disconnect.
