Foles named Bears starting quarterback

Nick Foles made a strong case for being the starting quarterback for theafter a 30-26 come back win Sunday over the Atlanta Falcons.

On Monday, coach Matt Nagy confirmed Foles had done enough in a relief effort of Mitchell Trubisky and selected the SuperBowl 52 MVP as the Bears new starting quarterback.

“He’s our starter moving forward,” Nagy said of Foles.

Foles had come on in relief of Trubisky following Blidi WrehWilson’s interception in the third quarter, and led a rally froma 2610 deficit.

Nagy said frustration over the way the offense was struggling in the first half and the interception led to his decision. But hewas also irritated by theway the Bears failed to come up with points on their first drive of the game when Cairo Santos missed a field-goal attempt. The coach had seen this type of situation too often in the past.

“We’re struggling on third down, we have 10 points, and then you get to the third quarter and we’re struggling a little bit and it’s an interception,” Nagy said. “And there’s just, you’re down 16, it ends up being a gut feel, you know what I mean?

“It’s what we felt at that time, what I felt. Wewent with it.”

In the fourth quarter, Foles threw three touchdown passes including a 28-yard TD against the blitz to Anthony Miller for the winning points with just un-

der twominutes remaining. The play was basically adlibbed by Foles with an adjustmentmade in the huddle to account for a blitz.

“That’s a strength of his that he has,” Nagy said. “He’s seen a lot of different defenses and I think that that will be something when it’s done the right way can be very effective.”

Foles was the Super Bowl 52 MVP in a Philadelphia Eagles victory over the New England Patriots. Hewent to Jacksonville as a free agent last year, struggled after a broken collarbone and the Bears traded a fourth-round pick to get him largely because of his experience with their style of offense.

Nagy said his team benefited on Sunday from Foles’ experience.

The Bears earlier in the game had run the same play Foles threw to Miller for the winning touchdown, but Trubisky had thrown the pass and failed to complete it. Later Trubisky admitted to Nagy it was a bad mistake.

“When you’re in those situations, and a defense presents a certain look to you, youhave to capitalize,” Nagy said. “And I thinkwe sawone that capitalized — one play that did and one play that didn’t.

“I credit Mitch for understanding that and admitting that, and that’s just part of the game.”

Trubisky has started for the Bears since the fifth gameof the2017 seasonafter being the team’s No. 1 draft pick, the second pick overall that year.

Trubisky had completed 13 of 22 for 128 yards with a touchdown Sunday before the interception by WrehWilson set up a field goal for a 26-10 Atlanta lead.

Foles threw a 3-yard TD pass to Jimmy Graham and a 37-yard TD strike to Allen Robinson before the gamewinning TD.