Same old stuff
Bears coaches still praise the same small gains when describing Trubisky’s play — the way you’d talk about a rookie. Nagy singled out thirddown throws but also Trubisky’s “cadence” and “progressions.” DeFilippo praised his “command” and “tempo in and out of the huddle” — which is a first cousin of “he practiced well.”
It all rings so hollow.
During a training- camp practice Aug. 20, Trubisky ran a pass play at the 1-yard line. Chased by a defender along the sideline, he stepped out of bounds for a loss. Had he merely thrown the ball out of bounds, it would have been second-and-goal at the 1.
“Those are critical errors that we can’t have,” Nagy said at the time. “He’s not going to do that again.”
On Sunday night, he did it again. On the third play of the second half, Trubisky scrambled right and ran out of bounds for a loss of three. He pumpfaked but never threw the ball away.
“Obviously, that can’t happen,” DeFilippo said. “And Mitch got a little confused on the run and where he was at on the field.”
DeFilippo said Trubisky’s “sight line” — how he got his hips and feet pointed toward the target — grew less sharp as the game wore on. That’s common for quarterbacks when they’re dropping back on almost every play, but the fact remains: Trubisky touted his improved footwork when the season began.
And then there’s decisionmaking that, four years into his career, still needs fixing.
As a young golfer, Ragone said he was taught that the good scorecards are the result of not how good your good holes are, but how good your bad ones are.
“The reality is, when you play quarterback, you just hope your bad decisions aren’t fatal,” Ragone said. “Your bad decision, you hope, lands incomplete, gets knocked down.
“When your bad plays, your bad decisions end up being some form of turnover, and then those situations start to build momentum for the defense, that’s not what you want.”
But that’s what they got.