Speaking to reporters Monday, Bears coach Matt Nagy wasn't ready to name a starting quarterback for Sunday night's NFC North clash in Green Bay.
The progress that Nick Foles and Mitchell Trubisky make in recovering from injuries will be a key determining factor in that decision for the Bears (5-5), who return from their bye week looking to snap a four-game losing streak.
"With both these guys with where they're at and their injuries, that's what we're kind of working through right now to see exactly where they're at," Nagy said.
Foles was carted off the field with hip and glute injuries late in last Monday night's loss to the Vikings, but Nagy indicated the next morning that the injury wasn't as severe as first thought. Trubisky has missed the last two games after hurting his right shoulder on a 3-yard run Nov. 1 in a defeat to the Saints.
"The good thing for us coming off the bye is it happened over the bye for Nick and now we're able to kind of day-by-day just see where he's at," Nagy said. "We're going through and just trying to figure out, 'OK, health-wise, where they're at.'"
More clarity could come Wednesday when the Bears are required to release their first injury report of the week.
On Monday, Nagy echoed the comments he had made last Tuesday about the possibility of switching back to Trubisky, saying: "Coming through the bye, like I said, [with] us evaluating where we're at as a team, as an offense, all of that is on the table."
Where the Bears are at on offense is near the bottom of the NFL, ranking 31st in both scoring (19.1 points per game) and total yards (300.9).
Trubisky started the first three games of the year before being benched in favor of Foles in the second half of a Week 3 win in Atlanta. This season Trubisky has completed 59.3 percent of his passes for 560 yards with six touchdowns, three interceptions and an 87.4 passer rating. Foles has connected on 65.0 percent of his passes for 1,852 yards with 10 TDs, eight interceptions and an 81.0 rating.
In Foles' seven starts, the Bears have mustered just nine offensive touchdowns and averaged 16.7 points without topping 24 points in a game. Against the Vikings, the offense failed to score a TD for the second time this year, was limited to a season-low 149 yards by a Minnesota defense that had allowed an average of 412.9 yards per game and converted only 2-of-11 third-down plays (18 percent).
Nagy stressed Monday that the Bears need better performances across the board, not just from their quarterback, regardless of who it is.
"I think it's everybody," Nagy said. "My thing is as we're going through this, is let's just focus on, 'How can you be the best player possible at your position? How can you be the best coach?' And what that means right now with where we're at is being able to execute, get in a rhythm, get first downs, and then we have to score points. We have to be able to score points, and it has to be touchdowns. And really, when you play the quarterback position, I think that in the end all quarterbacks are judged on wins and losses. And for all of us, the way to win is to score touchdowns.
"When you have this defense that we have, the way that they're playing and the level they're playing at against these offenses we're seeing, they're doing a great job of keeping us in every game. And so now it's the offense's job to step up and to score more touchdowns—however that comes. If it's off of turnovers from the defense, if it's off of field position from special teams, when you get that opportunity in the red zone, touchdowns need to happen, and if that means you need to be a little bit more aggressive in certain areas, then you need to do that. But three points aren't winning games."
