Bears now Nick Foles’ team regardless of on-field struggles

The “win ugly” rant quarterback 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 myriad shortcomings. He wanted his teammates to hear it, too.

In the last month, Foles has gone from Mitch Trubisky’s supportive backup and mentor to an undaunted team leader. This isn’t a fill-in job for Foles like he had with the Eagles. Coach 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 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 has completed 64% of his passes, averaged 5.6 yards per pass and thrown three touchdown passes and three interceptions for a 76.9 passer rating. Trubisky got benched after completing 59% of his passes, averaging 6.5 yards per pass and throwing six touchdown passes and three picks for an 87.4 rating.

Foles looked like Trubisky’s twin against the Panthers, going 23-for-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 of his flaws and the volatile nature of his career, Foles has a stack of big-game performances on his résumé. For starters, he has gone 4-2 in the playoffs with 11 touchdown passes, an average of 272.2 passing yards per game and a 98.8 passer rating. The biggest of those efforts, of course, was his superb Super Bowl 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, Foles has credibility in the locker room when he defends ugly performances in victories and predicts impending improvement. 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.”