Eagles have not been better with Nick Foles

While the Philadelphia Eagles have won more games recently. They have not been better with Nick Foles than Carson Wentz

Many seem afraid to jump in front of Nick Foles after his Super Bowl run last season bled into clean up duty for Carson Wentz that made a team 3-0 and got them into the playoffs.

In fact, the Eagles are 4-1 this season with Foles, while being 5-6 with Wentz. This has many questioning who the better quarterback is, and if Nick Foles should be the starter moving forward. However, the fact of the matter is that the offense was better when Wentz was under center. The defense has been better with Foles and combined with the situation of some of their opponents, the record could become more understandable.

The Eagles have a 44.9% pass success rate with Nick Foles. That number was up a 54.5% with Carson Wentz. Their explosive pass rate goes up from 12.2% to 14.9% with Wentz and they average 8.04 yards per attempt with Wentz compared to 7.6 with Foles.

The one area in which Foles does have over Wentz is sacks. Nick Foles has a 4.4% sack rate, while Wentz has a 7.2% sack rate. Taking sacks puts him in position to have more explosive passes for more yards.

However, that does not explain being more efficient on a snap by snap basis. What does explain it is their defense, and who they were playing. Wentz lost to the Cowboys twice, Vikings, Saints, Titans and Panthers. Foles lost to the Buccaneers.

Wentz also was around for the Jalen Mills days. As shown, Mills was easily the worst cornerback in the NFL this season.

Sidney Jones moved around from the slot to outside in his first year back from a major knee surgery before being shut down with an injury and Ronald Darby stuggled with injuries as well.

Corey Graham missed time, and caused cornerback Avonte Maddox to play safety and the entire back end of the defense was out of whack. That does not mention Derek Barnett getting hurt amongst others throughout the year.

However, with the all of turmoil, the Eagles defense managed to sort itself out just in time for Wentz to get hurt.

Graham is healthy and Maddox moved back to cornerback and has been a great addition. Douglas stepped up next to him and former Bears slot cornerback Cre’Von LeBlanc found a spot inside.

Haloti Ngata, Jordan Hicks and Michael Bennett have played some of their best recently and Nick Foles has gotten the wins despite Wentz being more efficient.

This will be a test for the Bears because Mitch Trubisky is taking on a defense that has won a Super Bowl. However, the fear of Nick Foles may be a bit misguided. While he has taken less sacks than Wentz, the Chicago Bears also have the best sack rate of any opponent on the Eagles schedule.

The idea will be to get to Foles. If they can sack him, and he is going to be less efficient than Wentz, than they are going to stress the defense. The Bears have to hope to stress their defense enough to crack them for a few scores, enough to shut down this Eagles offense.