John Fox has had a rough three years in Chicago, but with quotes like this, you’ll understand why.
John Fox is getting fired, that’s not going to be a surprise to anyone. While fans want it to happen sooner rather than later, it still probably won’t happen until week 17 at the earliest, and odds are, Fox will survive until January 1st.
Fox’s tenure in Chicago will be remembered for woeful records and very little upward growth. Many have questioned his in-game decisions and when you hear answers like this one, you’ll understand that John Fox is over his head.
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With the Chicago Bears leading 14-12, the San Francisco 49ers had driven down the field and given themselves a first and goal from the 7 with only 1:40 to go. The Bears had just spent their second timeout. With only one timeout remaining for Chicago, the 49ers could, in essence, take a knee and run out the clock and allow Robbie Gould a chip shot FG to win the game with time expiring.
Coming out of a timeout, there’s nothing the Bears could have done if the 49ers took a knee, but if the Niners gave the Bears a window, they could have given themselves a chance to win the game. If the 49ers ran an actual play, they could allow the 49ers to score and get the ball back down less than a touchdown with 1:35 to go and a timeout in the pocket.
Having Mitch Trubisky lead the team down for a game-winning touchdown may not have been the highest odds in the world, but they certainly were higher than what the Bears had. The 49ers did indeed run a play (handing the ball off to Carlos Hyde), but the Bears were not prepared properly and tackled Hyde at the three. The Bears took their final timeout and the 49ers ran the clock down and were able to kick the game-winning FG with only 4 seconds remaining.
When John Fox spoke with the media afterward, they asked him about his decision to not allow the 49ers to score. This, you won’t believe:
John Fox on why he didn’t let the #49ers score a TD at the end: “We felt good about the block we had on the potential field goal. Neither one of those are great options at the 5 and 4 yard line."
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) December 3, 2017
If you haven’t heard that quote yet, you’ve probably read it three or four times assuming you are missing something. No, you are not. That’s his quote, he felt the odds were better they could block the field goal, than have Mitch Trubisky lead a touchdown drive with 1:35 to go and a timeout. So you are probably thinking to yourself, blocking a field goal from that close of range has to be close to impossible, right? If that’s what you thought, you are correct:
As for John Fox's comment yesterday that Bears didn't let Niners score TD because Chicago felt good about their chances to block Robbie Gould's final FG -- there have been 2,431 FG attempts from inside 25 yards since 2001.....only 20 have been blocked (0.82%), per @ESPNStatsInfo
— Jeff Dickerson (@DickersonESPN) December 4, 2017
0.82%. Those were the odds that John Fox “felt good” about. These are the type of quotes you cannot make up. Fox and his coaching staff felt that the odds were better that they could block a FG with less than 1% chance of happening, than seeing if Trubisky could lead a touchdown drive.
That tells you one of two things (or maybe it’s both), either John Fox has no clue what he’s doing on the sidelines at an alarming level, or he literally has 0% faith in his rookie QB (because 0.82% isn’t much higher).
The NY Giants showed that firing a coach midseason can be the right thing to do when things are spiraling out of control. The Bears should take a hint from the Mara family and do the same, but the odds are very unlikely that they will.