Kill, kill!

And just like that, the Mitch Trubisky era came to an end in Chicago. Killed abruptly. No bang. Perhaps not even a whimper. Just change. After all, it is Chicago…land of the perpetual quarterback controversy. And we do so love our quarterback controversies, don’t we?

That’s where we found ourselves on the third Sunday of the 2020 NFL Season: smack dab in the middle of a quarterback controversy…on the road, trailing an Atlanta Falcons team playing inspired defense. After three quarters, the Bears and Trubisky trailed the Falcons 26-10. Was this the moment where Matt Nagy had finally had enough, or was that moment years past?  In either case, the Bears’ head coach loosened his visor and decided a change was needed, troops needed to be rallied, and sparks needed to be generated. Trubisky Truthers were put down and the Back-up-is-Better Club had finally gotten their wish: Nick Foles was in at quarterback!

With multiple 4th quarter comebacks under his belt, Foles came in and threw 3 TD passes in the 4th quarter to lead the Bears to victory, which, ironically, Mitch Trubisky also did in week 1 against the Lions. Yep, it’s a quarterback controversy all right. But we’re Bears fans. We know this road. 

Foles was able to come in off the bench and move the team down the field, find the open man, read the defense, and convert for touchdowns. Why wasn’t Mitch able to do that today? Maybe some quarterbacks are just better than others at reading defenses, changing the play call and calling protections against the defensive front. Not maybe. They are. 

When you heard Nick Foles yell out, “Kill, kill!” during that 4th quarter, you knew. This part of the game is something he does better than Mitch. Will Mitch get there eventually? Who knows? It likely won’t be here in Chicago. After all, the Bears chose not to extend Trubisky’s contract this offseason. As well, Nick Foles can opt out of his contract after the season provided certain performance milestones are met, which would leave the Bears without a starting quarterback next season. 

So I’m wondering what we all expected in this the most unusual of NFL seasons. Even setting aside the virus and the strange reality of empty stadiums and fake crowd noise, the Bears’ quarterback roster still consisted of an incumbent with 13 college games on his resume (drafted far above his accomplishments) and a journeyman with a resume that includes a Super Bowl MVP award. Add in the fact that both of these quarterbacks could be on other teams next year, and you have to wonder if Bears managers actually had a plan. Heck, the plan currently looks like this: whichever guy does the quarterback thing best, let’s try to re-sign that guy. That is so Bears. 

The situation begs the question, was the decision to keep playing Mitch coming from upper management? As Bears fans, we know the narrative by heart: the Bears passed up Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson to trade up to #2 overall to select Mitchell Trubisky in the 2017 NFL Draft. Ryan Pace, I’m certain, goes to bed every night and wakes up every day keenly aware of the narrative facts. How much pressure was Pace putting on the Bears coaching staff to play his biggest and most important draft pick of his career? Or by not extending Mitch’s contract, did Ryan Pace already know his quarterback pick was a bust?

We’ll likely never know. And to complicate matters more, Coach Matt Nagy declined to name the starter after the game. Because of course he did. It’s a Chicago quarterback controversy after all, right? It’s what we do here. The next 2 games are at home against considerably better defenses in the Colts and the Buccaneers. But, we are 3-0 in the 2020 NFL Season: Pandemic Edition. 3-0 in the NFL is something that isn’t easy to do. And if Nick Foles continues to perform in this offense, reading the defenses and taking what the defense is giving, the team has to keep rolling with him.