Chicago Bears: Having heated Nick Foles and Matt Nagy is great

Seeing Chicago Bears quarterback Nick Foles animated on the sideline discussing what is happening on the field with head coach Matt Nagy is a great thing.

The Chicago Bears came away with a huge victory last Thursday night. They came from behind to beat Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was their first victory against Brady in his career (1-5).

While Brady’s antics on the sideline, his forgetting the down at the end of the game, and his refusal to shake Nick Foles‘ hand after the game received attention, there was something that happened on the Bears sideline that caused a stir.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Bears were down 16-14. Foles, starting his second game with Chicago, saw something in the Bucs’ defense that he exploited.

He moved running back David Montgomery over and gave him the ball. Montgomery ran the ball for seven yards. Foles then went into no-huddle and found an open Allen Robinson for another eight yards. The Bears had a first down at Tampa Bay’s 15-yard line.

Foles wanted to keep going with the no-huddle, but head coach Chicago Matt Nagy wanted to huddle so he could bring in Cordarrelle Patterson and run a play to him. Foles was visibly upset.

On the ensuing play, Patterson was wide open, but Jason Pierre-Paul sacked Foles and forced a fumble. The drive was derailed and the Bears settled for a Cairo Santos field goal.

When the network came back from commercial, they showed an interaction between Foles and Nagy that seemed heated. Foles was upset and he let the coach know.

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While some people say that interaction is proof that chaos is running supreme with the Bears, I say the opposite.

Yes, Nagy is the coach, but Foles sees things on the playing field that perhaps his head coach doesn’t see.

Obviously, the quarterback saw something at that moment to change to a no-huddle offense. By going to a huddle, Tampa was able to adjust and they came away with a big sack.

Veteran QB knows more about what’s going on than the young Trubisky

What happened there was a big reason why Foles is the Bears’ starting quarterback today.

He read the defense and found something he could exploit. The coach didn’t and he went against him. Foles went to the sideline and let the coach know what happened and his thinking. This is great.

Mitchell Trubisky, the previous starter, would never have done that. First, he still has trouble reading defenses so he likely wouldn’t have seen what Foles saw. Second, even if he did, do you think he had the gumption to tell Nagy that as forcefully as Foles did?

Not likely. Remember, Trubisky is the quarterback Nagy told to “shut the f*** up,” on the sideline once.

In the situation last Thursday night, who was right? Well, both were right. The play Nagy called did result in an open Patterson and if the pass was completed, he probably scores a touchdown.

However, the flow of the game didn’t allow for that. The Bears lost guard James Daniels a few plays before that and the Bucs defensive line was starting to take over.

By giving the Bucs a chance to reset their defense, they were able to get settled and come up with a big play. Keeping Tampa’s defense on its heels could’ve resulted in a much-needed touchdown.

Was Nagy upset with Foles questioning him?

Some people speculated that the exchange might cause some friction between the coach and quarterback. Nagy apparently disagrees.

"“I think that’s where you guys will start seeing with Nick and I, when we start growing in this thing — and I agree with him, like once you get going and you’re in a little bit of a tempo, we kind of had them on their heels. And his point was, hey, once we got ’em on their heels like that, let’s keep them there and let’s do some things…I like the fact that he’s communicating that way. And now, we just got to keep growing.”"

One of the criticisms of Nagy is his play-calling. There are times when he leaves people scratching their heads with his calls.

For example, later in the game, with the Bears marching down the field, ready to hit a game-winning field goal, the Bucs had only one timeout. Instead of calling a running play and forcing Tampa to use their last timeout, Nagy called a pass play.

Of course, it was incomplete and it stopped the clock without the Bucs using a timeout. After Santos nailed the go-ahead field goal, Tampa had 1:13 and a timeout instead of about 40 seconds and no timeouts.

With Foles working in concert with Nagy, giving him an idea of what is happening on the field, the play-calling should improve. The two visions have to fuse to come up with the best game plan. Foles’ experience gives him the benefit of the doubt with Nagy.