Trubisky is locked in, steadying a resurgent offense
When Mitch Trubisky arrived for his postgame news conference on Dec. 6, there was something striking about his posture, his tone, his reaction.
The Chicago Bears had just lost their sixth consecutive game, and they had done it in ridiculous fashion : blowing a 10-point lead in the final 5 minutes at home and falling to the last-place Detroit Lions 34-30. Trubisky had fumbled inside his own 10-yard line on the Bears’ penultimate possession, practically handing t he Li o ns t hewinning touchdown.
That teamwide unraveling had been disastrous, the kind of meltdown that can torpedo a season and allow frustration to take over. The Bears wentfrom 5-1 in mid-October to 5-7 as they headed into the season’s stretch run.
Yet, in a seven-minute back-and-forth with reporters, Trubisky didn’t seem frazzled.
He obviously was disappointed. But he wasn’t distraught.
He was sour but not shaken.
He was asked to describe his emotions after another unsatisfying twist to a trying year.
“I don’t know,” Trubisky said. “I feel kind of mentally hardened throughout this whole process. There have been a lot of ups and downs throughout the season and with everything that has happened. But I feel like I’m in control of my emotions. So I just want to continue to be positive and make sure I’m lifting up my teammates so we can get this thing going in the right direction.”
Up to that point, Trubisky had seen the Bears decline the fifth-year option on his rookie deal. He saw coach Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace collaborate to trade for Nick Foles. He won a training camp competition for the starting quarterback job but then was benched in the middle of a Week 3 game in Atlanta.
Then, with the chance to start again after Foles’ hip injury and an offensive reboot attempt by the coaching staff, Trubisky lost his first two games back — Green Bay and Detroit— in demoralizing fashion.
In short, he has had a lot to deal with.
Last week, Trubisky expanded on that feeling of being mentally hardened.
“Mentally I don’t feel like I can be fazed right now, just with where my focus is at,” he said. “And that has nothing to do with how you’re going to perform or (your) outcomes or results. But I just think with where I’m at mentally, I’m focused. I know exactly what I want. I’m driven. I’m bringing a certain presence and energy to the facility every day that my teammates can feed off.”
The six-word conclusion: “I’m in a good place mentally.”
Just about everyone at Halas Hall has agreed, struck by Trubisky’s steady deportment, his immersion in the now, his ability to set a tone on a regular basis.
None of this, of course, will turn Trubisky into a Pro Bowl quarterback or help him become a game-changer on a regular basis. But it can aid the Bears’ lateseason push to make the playoffs. In fact, it has.
Sunday’s 33-27 win over the Minnesota Vikings was an important step in that direction. The Bears have a winning streak for the first time since October. More important, they seem to have discovered an offense that can move the ball consistently and suddenly is scoring early and often.
The Bears scored 20 points before halftime Sunday, a once unfathomable feat for this offense. They’ve now done that in three consecutive games.
With two games remaining in the season, the Bears are one game behind the Arizona Cardinals for the NFC’s third wild-card spot.
“We’re excited,” Trubisky said. “I mean, this is what you play for.”
Here’s our comprehensive Week 15 QB review.
Defining moment
Mitch Trubisky’s second- longest completion Sunday was a beauty, a 24-yard deep shot up the right sideline to Allen Robinson. Trubisky had his best receiver in man coverage against rookie Jeff Gladney and had a perfect pocket to throw from.
Good footwork. Good timing. Pretty throw. Great catch.
The Bears had emphasized the need to be productive and efficient on third down all week. And the early deep conversion to Robinson provided momentum.
The Vikings challenged the catch, doubting Robinson had both feet down in bounds. But the ruling on the field stood and the Bears had an early spark for another productive afternoon.
“The biggest thing for me on that play was being able to win my one-on-one matchup,” Robinson said. “We had been able to run the ball very well on that drive. And we set the tempo for the rest of the game.”
Robinson’s catch was part of a five-play, 58-yard touchdown drive that put the Bears on the scoreboard first for the third consecutive week. And for the fourth time this season, the Bears won a game without ever trailing.
“It’s always big to score first,” Robinson noted.
And bigger to keep scoring.
After that first TD drive, the Bears scored on six of their next eight series. The only possessions they didn’t record points on? They ran the ball on the final play of the first half to kill the clock. And in the fourth quarter, they turned the ball over in the end zone with Trubisky throwing an interception from the Vikings’ 6-yard line.
The rhythm of the offense was obvious all afternoon. Against the league’s best third-down defense, the Bears converted six of 12 attempts.
“Against this defense, I’ll take that every day of the week,” Nagy said.
The Bears were in thirdand-long only once, a thirdand-11 in the third quarter that they converted with a 13-yard completion to Anthony Miller. Their average third-down distance to go Sunday was 4 yards.
The Bears offense committed only one penalty: a questionable delay of game in the first half. (More on that later.) Trubisky was sacked only once — a 4-yard loss on the opening drive. Beyond that, the offense had only two other plays that lost yardage — runs by David Montgomery that lost 1 yard apiece.
“We feel like we like we keep getting better every single week,” Trubisky said. “And when you keep getting better and guys gain more experience playing together — 11 as one — that’s when guys really gain confidence. Then you’re just able to go out there and play free and play loose.”
On the bright side
After the Week 15 win, Matt Nagy seemed genuinely thrilled at the Bears’ commitment to the running game. And perhaps more important, their reliable production on the ground had again loosened everything up for an offense that forever seemed to be operating with a straitjacket on.
The Bears ran 64 plays Sunday. Exactly half were runs by David Montgomery, who responded with a career day: 146 yards, two TDs. Throw in five Mitch Trubisky scrambles, three designed Trubisky runs, one handoff to Cordarrelle Patterson and an endaround to Darnell Mooney and the Bears had 42 rushes compared to21 passes. (Trubisky also was sacked once.)
Still, it marked just the second time this season the offense had more rushes than pass attempts. The Bears had 32 runs and 28 passes in a Week 2 win over the Giants.
Trubisky expressed his confidence in the running game after the win.
“It’s huge,” he said. “We want to be a balanced offense, for sure. I think the run plays off the pass and the pass plays off the run really well.
“Our O-line takes a lot of pride in running the football, and so does David. When we have that going for us, I feel like everything else in our offense really opens up.”
In 47 games under Nagy, the Bears have had at least as many runs as passes just 16 times. They are 14-2 in those contests.
Nagy noted that the Bears’ ability to run the ball well on first down was important to keep the offense in a groove. To that end, the Bears called 18 first-down runs against the Vikings, averaging 6.6 yards on those attempts.
Up next
The Bears head to Jacksonville, Fla., next weekend to face a Jaguars team that has lost 13 in a row. Anything can happen in the NFL, obviously. The Los Angeles Rams will attest to that after watching the New York Jets come into SoFi Stadium in southern California on Sunday and leave with their first win of the season. (The Jets were 17point underdogs yet won 23-20.)
Still, if the Bears play to their potential, they should head into Week 17 at 8-7 and with their playoff hopes alive as they prepare for a season-ending clash with the Packers.
The Jaguars have given up the most yards in the NFL this season (418.2 per game). They also rank last in yards allowed per pass play (8.1). Opponents have scored at least 30 points on the Jaguars eight times in 14 games, including Sunday when Baltimore rolled up 224 yards before halftime to build a 26-0 lead on the way to a breezy 40-14 win.
The Jaguars rank 29th overall in sacks (17) and have given up a league-high 31 touchdown passes. The Jaguars are tied for 25th — along with the Bears and Las Vegas Raiders — with 15 takeaways.
University of Illinois product D.J. Smoot leads the Jaguars with 5½ sacks.