Nick Foles Doesn't Look Like Rams' Answer at QB After Early-Season Struggles

Almost everything went to plan for the St. Louis Rams Sunday.

In pursuit of an unlikely upset against the Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin, the Rams would have had a few key points of emphasis. The first would be containing Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense. Despite playing without the injured Alec Ogletree, the Rams managed that.

The Packers offense scored just 17 points. That alone was an incredible feat by the Rams defense. However, it didn't just do that. It also forced Aaron Rodgers to throw two interceptions and lose one fumble. The Rams forced Rodgers into the kind of performance he hadn't put on in years.

On the other side of the ball, the Rams knew they would need to be able to run the ball.

Entering the game, the Packers defense ranked 31st in run defense DVOA, per Football Outsiders. After his breakout game in Week 4, Todd Gurley was expected to have another big game. He didn't score his first touchdown, but Gurley did run for over 150 yards again.

Running for over 150 yards and containing an Aaron Rodgers-led offense to just 17 points while creating three turnovers is an achievement not many teams will ever come close to. Losing to the Packers is an experience many teams have endured though and the Rams joined them this weekend.

They joined them because of Nick Foles.

Foles threw for just 141 yards on 30 pass attempts. He completed 11 of those attempts, while also throwing four interceptions. He had one touchdown pass, but even that was an end-around where he pitched the ball to Tavon Austin instead of planting it in his chest.

When the Rams traded for Foles, they did so with the intention of making him a game manager. As the Rams starting quarterback, he has often been given clearly defined reads and worked off play action as the Rams rely on the running game to establish their offense.

This role is supposed to alleviate the pressure on Foles to make more difficult plays, but he still has to be effective enough to maintain the balance of the offense. Through the first four weeks of the season, Foles had shown off the positives and negatives of his skill set.

He has excelled at times in his role but also reached extreme lows. No low was more extreme than this display against the Packers.

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Foles' first interception came midway through the first quarter after the Rams defense had just forced a Rodgers turnover. The Rams failed to move the ball on the early downs, putting Foles in a 3rd-and-8 situation.

The Packers came out with just one defensive lineman, threatening to blitz with multiple defenders moving around the line of scrimmage.

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At the snap, the Packers blitz. The blitz is initially picked up well, allowing Foles to cleanly take the ball and hold it for a moment. He has his eyes to the left of the offense where there is nobody open. At this point of the play, the pressure is incoming.

Foles needs to move here. He has to hold the ball for a moment more before stepping up in the pocket to help his blockers gain better leverage.

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Instead of moving his feet or his eyes, Foles stands like a statue so the pressure can close in around him. As the pocket collapses around him, and he has no receivers open where he is looking, Foles has to hold onto the ball and eat the sack.

The quarterback tries to do too much, forcing up a limp, inaccurate pass that floats directly to a defender.

His intended receiver fell down before the ball arrived, but the placement suggested that the defensive back was always going to be the favorite for the ball. To compound the error, Foles' pass wouldn't have gone past the first down marker so any YAC-less reception would have resulted in a fourth down either way.

For as long as Foles has been in the NFL, dealing with pressure has been a major problem for him. He was able to be so productive in Philadelphia because he played behind a great offensive line with a great running game. Chip Kelly's scheme also helped to ease the pass rush and get receivers open.

In St. Louis, Foles is playing behind an offensive line that has recently been retooled. Unfortunately, the offensive line has not benefited from the retooling, and as a result Foles has experienced setbacks, as noted in a tweet by Bleacher Report's Zach Kruse:

As such, even while playing a complementary role, Foles could handicap the Rams season, despite the amount of talent they have around him.

There are plenty of NFL quarterbacks who struggled to handle pressure in the pocket. Many of those can be consistent when given time, though. Unfortunately that's not the case with Foles. His decision-making and accuracy have been consistently inconsistent throughout his career.

His third interception of this game was a result of his inaccuracy from a clean pocket.

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An understanding of situational football was extremely important for Foles on this play. It's 3rd-and-goal in the fourth quarter while his team is losing. However, the Rams are down by 11, and there are more than nine minutes left in the game.

Because of the two-point conversion possibility, the Rams can take a field goal in this situation. Foles has to understand that in his decision-making.

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Foles gets plenty of time in the pocket. The Packers only rush four, attempting to flood the coverage in the tightened space of the end zone. From the very beginning of the play, Foles is staring down Lance Kendricks running a crossing route.

Staring down any receiver in this situation is a dangerous move because there are so many defensive backs in position to read the quarterback's eyes.

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Kendricks was working against man coverage. The linebacker covering him bumped him initially before being aggressive in trailing him across the field. He had a safety in behind of him, so the linebacker was always looking to undercut the route as Foles' eyes followed him across the field.

Foles needed to throw a fastball to the outside of his intended receiver, but instead his pass arrived limply to the inside.

This allowed the linebacker to get his hands to it. He should have intercepted the ball, but he didn't. His hands only served to tip the ball into the air, where it was tipped again by the tight end before the safety could grab it out of the air.

It wasn't the pressure that caused Foles to miss this throw, he simply wasn't accurate enough. Todd Gurley, Tavon Austin and Tre Mason had combined to run for 73 yards on this drive. They got the offense into the red zone without Foles having to throw a pass.

Foles only needed to be a competent complementary piece and cap off the drive. Instead, he made a throw that would typically be described as a rookie error.

Veterans consistently making rookie errors are better known as bad quarterbacks. Foles can't afford to make these kinds of throws regardless of his role in the team as a whole. Scoring 10 points on offense will rarely result in a victory no matter who the opponent is.

For the Rams with Foles, it's the third time this year they've scored 10 or fewer points. They've lost each of those games.

Jeff Fisher is building his offense around his rookie running back. Todd Gurley is going to be a superstar at this level. He will be able to dominate opponents in the same way that Adrian Peterson has over the course of his career.

The Rams' fear is that Foles is going to be the Christian Ponder to Gurley's Peterson rather than the Brett Favre.