When the Bears traded for Nick Foles last off-season they did so -- in part, anyway -- because the veteran quarterback was familiar with coach Matt Nagy.
The two worked together in Philadelphia and Kansas City, so the theory was that if the Bears went to Foles, he would fit in seamlessly and be able to consistently move the team down the field.
But that's not what has transpired since Foles came in for Mitch Trubisky and led the Bears to a victory at Atlanta in Week 3.
Instead, there's been miscommunication on the sidelines, miscommunication on play-calling and miscommunication at the line of scrimmage.
Add it all up and it's led to a rather pedestrian stat line after five games as Foles:
• Has an 80.2 QB rating, one of the worst in the league.
• Averages 6.1 yards per pass attempt, second worst among starters.
• Has thrown 7 INTs, a number only two QBs have eclipsed.
Still, to lay the blame solely on Foles for this team's offensive woes would be silly.
"I would go back to the entire offense," Matt Nagy said one day after the Bears lost 26-23 in overtime to New Orleans at Soldier Field. "There's 11 people involved, and there's coaching involved as well. We know what we see on tape."
Which is a solid quarterback at times.
Look, there's no way Trubisky leads the Bears back from a 23-13 deficit against the Saints on Sunday.
The 31-year-old Foles did so by first going 6-for-6 for 55 yards on the TD drive that made it 23-20.
But the drive that tied the game was even more impressive, with Foles completing passes of 11 and 17 yards to Anthony Miller on do-or-die plays. The first came on fourth-and-8, and the second on third-and-19 when Foles fired a bullet to Miller, who was running a deep out pattern.
Those connections enabled Cairo Santos to boot a 51-yard field goal that made it 23-23.
So that's the good.
As for the large doses of bad that come during chunks of the game? Well, chalk that up to the fact that the offensive line is in utter shambles.
The Bears went into Sunday's game without James Daniel or center Cody Whitehair, then lost Bobby Massie early in the first quarter. Jason Spriggs was also out for a time.
"We had some luxury there early in the season with consistency in the offensive line," Nagy said. "Now what you're seeing is some guys get injured. It's new pieces, it's new voices. It's new. ...
"We've got to make sure that we look at the whole, big picture."
In the big picture, the Bears' running game looked vastly improved against New Orleans as David Montgomery racked up 89 yards on 21 carries. The threat of the run opened up the passing game early on as Foles connected with Darnell Mooney on a 50-yard bomb and Allen Robinson on a 24-yard TD pass just two plays later.
"The run game felt better yesterday," Nagy said. "So as much as it stings to lose the game, I do feel like that part was a little bit better. It's not where we want it to be. But it was better."
Next up for Nagy's squad are the Tennessee Titans, who have dropped to 5-2 after back-to-back losses to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
A victory for the 5-3 Bears could right the ship and propel them toward a playoff berth. A loss could have them pointing fingers -- something linebacker Robert Quinn is loathe to do.
"One of my mottos is you've got to look yourself in the mirror first and be completely honest with yourself before you try to go have a conversation with someone else," Quinn said. "I always start by looking at myself in the mirror and realize how good I might have played or terrible I might of played, or (something) in-between.
"But as men in this locker room we've got to be able to critique ourselves very critically and not get offended by that because we all just want to see each other succeed anyway. We're just brothers trying to make each other better and build from there and have a little fun.
"(Let's) not get discouraged by little mishaps (and) shortcomings these past couple weeks."
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Injuries on Bears' O-line making it difficult on Foles - Chicago Daily Herald
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