Will Chicago Bears change QBs? Fox not saying much
A day after the Bears' 35-14 loss to the Packers, coach John Fox did not commit to staying with Mike Glennon at quarterback. But he also did not say the Bears would turn to rookie Mitch Trubisky - or nine-year veteran Mark Sanchez, for that matter.
Asked to clarify the situation, and if Glennon was still the starter, Fox said: "I'm not really trying to be clear. Actually quite the opposite. But we're evaluating every day."
Odds are, once Fox and his staff review Glennon's total of 5 interceptions and 3 lost fumbles, including 2 picks and 2 lost fumbles in Green Bay, Trubisky will be the starter.
"I don't want to close or open any possibilities," Fox said Friday afternoon regarding the QB situation. "We got home at 2:30 in the morning (Friday), and the team's still in there evaluating, and they'll know sooner than the world'll know."
The Bears have 10 days before their next game, a Monday night matchup at home against the Vikings on Oct. 9. So they have extra time to evaluate the quarterback position and everything else that has gone wrong during a 1-3 start.
But that also gives them extra time to coach up Trubisky for his first NFL start, if they decide to go that way. The second overall pick in the draft has never taken a snap in a regular-season game, and his last preseason action was in August.
In Friday's postmortem Fox would not offer a critique of the quarterback situation through the first quarter of the season.
"I don't single out one position," he said. "I know there are a lot of people out there that enjoy that, but there are 11 critical positions (on offense), and we've got to do a lot of work on all 11 of them."
With the possibility of being eliminated from playoff consideration before Halloween, and after losing two straight road games by more than 20 points, more than a tweak is needed.
Nothing shakes up a team more than a quarterback change, and players know that more than anyone. No one has publicly advocated for Trubisky or denounced Glennon, but there are veiled hints that a change might be in order.
The Bears won't have a longer break until after the Oct. 29 game against the Saints in New Orleans, but there is hope they can answer some questions during this 10-day window.
"Hopefully we get a lot of things answered, (and) address the changes that we need to make," defensive lineman Akiem Hicks said after the game. "Hopefully we make those changes. Hopefully we put our team in a position to win on defense and offense."
Glennon's 4 turnovers against a Packers team that had none put the Bears in position to fail on both sides of the ball.
The Bears' defense can be blamed for failing to create any take-aways, but they held the Packers to 260 total yards. The Packers took advantage of enviable field position because of Glennon turnovers and scored touchdowns on each of their five red-zone opportunities.
Their TD "drive" of 3 yards came after Glennon fumbled while being sacked, and the Packers had only to go 60 and 42 yards for TDs after Glennon's interceptions.
The Bears had 308 yards, not nearly enough to overcome a minus-4 in turnover/take-away differential.
"Where do you start?" said tight end Zach Miller, who caught 2 passes for 45 yards. "Stupid turnovers, stupid penalties. We just didn't execute at all, especially in this environment with this team at this stage.
"That is embarrassing."
• Safety Quintin Demps was placed on injured reserve with a fractured forearm he suffered in the Bears' Week 3 victory over the Steelers. The 10-year veteran started the first three games and had 11 tackles.