3 takeaways from Bears vs. Falcons: The Foles era begins
How much longer will Dan Quinn have a job?
The Bears entered the fourth quarter down 16 and had two touchdowns taken off the board due to replay review after Mitch Trubisky was benched in favor of Nick Foles early in the third quarter.
And the Bears still won.
Credit to Foles – and Allen Robinson, who made a tremendous, WR1 play for a 37-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter – for engineering this comeback. His pass to a wide-open Anthony Miller just inside the two-minute warning was the winner, and was his third touchdown of the fourth quarter – equaling Trubisky’s total in Week 1 against the Lions.
But the Falcons’ aversion to making plays with big leads showed up again on Sunday, a week after an embarrassing loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
This is the kind of game that’ll get Quinn fired sooner rather than later. Atlanta called for three passing plays after taking over with 4:21 remaining, holding a three-point lead. The drive took all of 11 seconds off the clock, and the Bears took over in Falcons territory thanks to a personal foul penalty on the ensuing punt. Foles quickly made them pay.
The Bears, again, are fortunate to win – arguably for the third straight week – but certainly, they’ll take it.
How often does the starting quarterback of a 2-0 team get benched midway through the third game of a season?
Nagy, it would appear, saw Trubisky make the same mistakes he’s made over the last two years. The missed deep ball to Miller. Mis-reading coverage and throwing a crossing route to Jimmy Graham, who was not expecting the ball – probably because of the coverage he saw on the play (Trubisky threw it anyway and was picked off).
Facing an injury-depleted Falcons defense already light on talent, the Bears managed just 10 points with Trubisky in at quarterback. It was so below Nagy’s standard of play for his quarterback that he pushed “ignite” on Trubisky’s career.
Can Trubisky come back from this? I’m not sure. What Tony Dungy told me before the season is at the top of my thoughts right now.
“Now if you ever make the decision to go to Nick Foles, then you’re making a big statement,” Dungy said. “You’re saying hey, we gave Mitch every opportunity and it just didn’t quite work out.”
We’ll have plenty more coming on the QB change in the wake of Foles’ comeback win. So let’s finish out these final-whistle thoughts with a look at, maybe, the most disappointing part of Sunday’s game.
No team is spending more on its defense than the Bears. The Falcons were without Julio Jones and starting right tackle Kaleb McGary.
The Falcons scored 26 points. The Bears’ defense came up big in the end, with Akiem Hicks playing like a monster in the second half and Tashaun Gipson coming up with the game-sealing interception. So they do deserve credit there.
And a couple of questionable-at-best roughing the passer calls didn’t help here, and the first on Mario Edwards Jr. took away a game-wrecking strip-sack forced by Khalil Mack (who is absolved of criticism here – he played incredible today).
But there were too many inexcusable mistakes for a defense that expected to be – and is paid like – the best in the NFL. Allowing a 35-yard touchdown run on third and five in the first half was perhaps the most concerning play.
Scoring is up league-wide, with offenses seemingly ahead of defenses to begin this pandemic-altered season. But that does not completely explain away Chuck Pagano’s group getting torched on Sunday – and being a D’Andre Swift drop away from being at fault for a loss.
Still, the Bears are 3-0. Meaning they already have a three-game advantage on the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC North. That’ll work.
