With Nick Foles, Bears’ offense needs to hurry up

The success of the hurry-up offense often is born of desperation. At the end of a half or the end of a game, with time running out, the two-minute drill can bring an offense to life.

When executed properly, it creates the focus, timing and -momentum that give the offense the rhythm any quarterback or play-caller craves — forcing players to only react and giving coaches no time to over-think. And at the same time, it often leaves a defense in a state of frustration — huffing and puffing, on its heels and often a step behind on every play.

And whether it was Brian Griese or Jay Cutler or Mitch Trubisky or Nick Foles at the controls, the question in the aftermath is always the same: How can you replicate the urgency that creates that dynamic during the normal course of a game?

Human nature says you can’t, but you can always try. And the no-huddle offense seems to be a workable solution for the Bears with Foles at quarterback.

It worked in the desperation moment at the end of the first half against the Panthers on Sunday, when the Bears went into no-huddle mode with two minutes left and drove 63 yards in 1:53 for Cairo Santos’ 55-yard field goal that gave them a 13-6 halftime lead.

And it worked again in the third quarter, when the Bears went no-huddle for most of a 10-play, 56-yard touchdown drive that gave them a 20-6 lead.

“I thought it was a good mix-up for us to be able to get into,” coach Matt Nagy said. “We were just at that point . . . where, ‘Let’s test it out.’ It can’t hurt, you know? And then we started getting some yards.”

Foles’ affinity for the tempo of the no-huddle has been a recurring theme since he replaced Trubisky as the Bears’ starting quarterback. Foles threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Allen Robinson out of the no-huddle to spark the comeback against the Falcons. Against the Buccaneers in Week 5, he wanted to go no-huddle during a fourth-quarter rally, wasn’t allowed to, then was sacked for a 13-yard loss. The Bears settled for a field goal.

“It’s always good to have that,” Foles said. “And for us to do that effectively is huge. I think it’s something we can build on, and it’s shown in games where we’ve been down and we’ve had to go to no-huddle, and it’s helped us get back in games where statistically we should have lost at that point in the game. It’s great to have the ability to do that when you need it.”

The tempo of the no-huddle even seemed to help the Bears’ beleaguered running game against the Panthers. David Montgomery had gained only 10 yards on eight carries when the Bears went into no-huddle. Montgomery then had gains of five and 11 yards in the no-huddle drive and ended up with 11 carries for 48 yards in the last 20 minutes of the game.

But as a change-of-pace mechanism, timing is everything. And that’s where Foles’ veteran feel for the game seems to make a difference.

“It’s just when you do it and how you do it,” Foles said. “The big thing is communication. I’m constantly talking to coach Nagy, and we have an idea of what we want to do and the coaching staff has an idea of what we want to do . . . so there will be specific times where you implement change of pace.”

The rest is up to Nagy.

“There’s a little bit of an arc to it, and it takes practice time to be really good at it,” Nagy said, “I don’t think you’re off [base] saying, is it good? Yeah. It just depends on how much you want to use it.”