SWITCH MITCH
If performance, winning matter, Bears can’t waste any more time behind ineffective QB
The last time the Bears lost in Philadelphia, they returned to the stench of rotting sushi that had been left inside Halas Hall over Thanksgiving weekend in 2017. The Bears kept their stinking to a mere metaphor Monday. They haven’t won a game since September, and a look at the film from their 22-14 loss Sunday to the Eagles shows why.
GOING DEEP
Quarterback Mitch Trubisky threw two deep balls short. One was caught, the other dropped.
His 53-yard completion to receiver Taylor Gabriel gave the Bears a spark on their first drive of the second half after a historically impotent first 30 minutes.
Gabriel was the Bears’ only receiver on the field. The team had three tight ends in the formation, with Adam Shaheen to the left of left tackle Charles Leno, J.P. Holtz going in motion from left to right as a wingback and Trey Burton as the fullback in the offset I.
Trubisky rolled right behind extra blocking from Holtz and Burton. Only three players ran a pass route. From the right hash, Trubisky threw a pass to the outside of the left yardage numbers. The ball was in the air for 56.3 yards, the longest completion for any quarterback all weekend. After missing Gabriel on a deep ball last week, the throw was considered progress — even though Trubisky left it a bit short.
‘‘I’ll always take the 53-yard completion,’’ coach Matt Nagy said Monday.
Later in the third quarter, Trubisky dropped back out of the I and threw deep down the right sideline to receiver Allen Robinson, who had slipped behind cornerback Jalen Mills. Trubisky left the ball short. Robinson got two hands on the ball but dropped it.
‘‘Mitch took an extra hitch, double-hitched it,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘It would’ve been good to see one hitch and the ball’s up sooner, and there’s a possibility where it’s not underthrown.’’
SCREEN TIME
On second-and-nine from their 48 with about nine minutes to play, the Bears lined up with three receivers and one tight end. Receiver Taylor Gabriel ran a fake end-around from the left slot, and the Bears set up a screen left to running back David Montgomery.
When quarterback Mitch Trubisky threw the ball, there was one Eagles player outside the left hash and within 10 yards of Montgomery. And that man, linebacker Nathan Gerry, was being blocked by center James Daniels. Montgomery dropped the ball.
How far could Montgomery have run? ‘‘We’ll never know,’’ Trubisky said Sunday. Trubisky kicked himself for the next play, which proved to be the last time he touched the ball. After the Bears lined up in the same formation as the screen, Trubisky faked a handoff to Montgomery. With outside pressure from defensive end Brandon Graham, Trubisky tried to sling a sidearm pass to covered tight end Adam Shaheen at the original line of scrimmage. It fell incomplete.
‘‘I was actually thinking about running and leaving the pocket,’’ Trubisky said. ‘‘I should’ve put myself in [shotgun], not under center. I was looking deep, and it looked like [cornerback Ronald Darby] was jumping on [Gabriel’s] route, and I thought Adam was free. So I just tried to give it to him in the flat, but it wasn’t a good play. So I have to do better.’’
WHAT A RUSH
Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is known for rushing players from the ‘‘wide 9’’ technique, which is one theoretical player outside of the tight end.
In the second quarter, he showed a pass rush that took a wide edge rush to the extreme. Four rushers lined up outside left tackle Charles Leno’s outside shoulder. Three rushed, with safety Malcolm Jenkins blitzing behind them. Two more Eagles rushed on the opposite side.
‘‘That was unscouted,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘They have not shown that before, and that was a good play by them. We had enough guys there, but that was something that’s an in-game adjustment that we need to make.’’
Center James Daniels, who had no one rushing over him, tried to help to his right — not the left side, which had four pass rushers. He didn’t touch a single Eagles player until quarterback Mitch Trubisky had been hit. Jenkins and outside linebacker Genard Avery split the sack.
When asked about the play, coach Matt Nagy declined to offer specifics.
ANOTHER SACK
Coach Matt Nagy bemoaned the Bears playing from behind the sticks because of negative plays. He pointed to another of the Eagles’ three firsthalf sacks.
In the first quarter, the Bears split five receivers wide. Each ran quick routes — three stick routes to the right and a slant and a flat route to the left.
Quarterback Mitch Trubisky took the shotgun snap, looked right and then left before being sacked by defensive end Brandon Graham.
‘‘That would be one that I think Mitch would tell you he’d want back,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘That’s certainly one that we’d want back.’’