It’s been nearly three years since Nick Foles led the Philadelphia Eagles to a 41-33 win over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.

On Thursday Night Football, Brady and Foles will go head-to-head for the first time since that championship matchup. A lot has changed for both quarterbacks since then.

Here is the Morning Coffee for Thursday Oct. 8, 2020.

Brady vs. Foles

The last time these quarterbacks met, Foles elevated his game to a level that we really haven’t seen from him ever since.

He’s lost five straight starts and nine of his last 10 overall.

After a stopover in Jacksonville last season, Foles has taken over the reins in Chicago.

Two weeks ago, Foles delivered off the bench with 188 yards and three touchdowns in a 30-26 win over the Atlanta Falcons.

However, he wasn’t nearly as good in a 19-11 loss to the Indianapolis Colts last week, as he was held to 26-of-42 for 249 yards with a touchdown an interception.

Bears’ head coach Matt Nagy wants to be able to push the ball downfield with a strong vertical game.

Allen Robinson, Anthony Miller and rookie Darnell Mooney make up a decent trio, but it will be on Foles to be more aggressive and really spread the ball around.

Tampa Bay has held opponents to fewer than five yards per carry on 77.2 per cent of their defensive snaps this season – the highest rate in the NFL.

If the Buccaneers can slow down Chicago running back David Montgomery, it will put even more pressure on Foles to keep up.

Meanwhile, Brady is off to a solid start this season, as he has completed 65.2 per cent of his passes for 1,122 yards and 11 touchdowns through four games.

Tampa Bay leads the NFL in big play differential this season. Brady leads the NFL in deep pass completions with 13.

The Buccaneers have been hit hard by injuries, and it will be on Brady to get the job done versus Chicago without some of his best weapons in Chris Godwin and O.J. Howard.

Tampa Bay opened as a three-point favourite for Thursday Night Football and that line has hovered around 3.5. Brady is 12-1 in Thursday night games in his career and he’s never lost to the Bears.

Will those trends continue tonight?

Make sure you check out Luke Bellus’ Thursday Night Football preview on The TSN Edge this afternoon.

MLB Postseason Continues

Apparently, all it took was a speech from Ramon Laureano to light a fire under the Oakland Athletics.

Trailing the Houston Astros by three in the sixth inning and facing elimination in Game 3 of their ALDS, Laureano apparently laid into his teammates in an effort to try to push them.

It worked.

Chad Pinder hit a three-run home run to tie it in the seventh, and Sean Murphy hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth to bring home the go-ahead run.

Oakland won and survived in a game that was essentially a pick’em.

Meanwhile, betting favourites went 2-1 in the other MLB postseason games with the Atlanta Braves beating the Miami Marlins 2-1 and the Los Angeles Dodgers beating the San Diego Padres 6-3.

The lone upset was the Tampa Bay Rays (+125) with an 8-4 win over the New York Yankees.

Toronto FC Continue To Roll

Ayo Akinola scored the lone goal as Toronto FC (+170) beat the New England Revolution in one of three MLS games featuring a Canadian team on TSN last night

It was TFC’s fourth win in a row.

The Montreal Impact (+475) pulled off the upset win over the Columbus Crew thanks in large part to a penalty kick goal by Bojan Krkic in the 74th minute.

Meanwhile, the rematch between the San Jose Earthquakes (-180) and Vancouver Whitecaps wasn’t nearly as exciting as some thought it might have been as the Earthquakes rolled to a comfortable 3-0 win.