Another Late Failure for Mitchell Trubisky Against Packers
With this Bears season now reduced to going through the motions, wins and losses mean little.
They must continue to mean something, though, for quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
Trubisky has to keep trying to prove he's still progressing for GM Ryan Pace to consider an extension of his contract, if not to simply be considered for the starting job next year.
The 21-13 loss to Green Bay Sunday couldn't be hung entirely on Trubisky, considering the vaunted Bears defense came out of the locker room at halftime and gave up two touchdowns to make a comeback close to impossible.
In light of Bears offensive problems, a 21-3 deficit pretty much is insurmountable.
"It definitely was not that consistency that we were looking for," Trubisky said. "You want to start fast and finish faster and we made some mistakes that put us in tough spots.
"But we battled back, and that's what's going to happen when you do that and you put yourself in a hole early on."
Offenses ranked near the bottom of the league all year can never be the fault entirely of the quarterback.
There's plenty of blame to go around. If not, and he continued to play the position, then there have to be questions about the decision-making of the coaches.
Still, Trubisky had trouble at times getting it downfield against Green Bay's zone coverage until the Bears faced an 18-point deficit. Much like when he piled up some makeup statistics against New Orleans earlier this year, Trubisky padded his passing numbers in the second half while trying to rally against softer coverage.
Then, when the Bears had a chance to tie it, the Packers tightened it up and came away with a Dean Lowry interception, a drive killed on downs and finally stopped a desperation play 7 yards short of the end zone.
Trubisky had failed for a second time this season to rally the Bears against Green Bay in the fourth quarter.
"We weren't really able to get the run game going early on," Nagy said. "That's a little part of it but there's other things too."
One troubling aspect on offense was Nagy's game plan.
The Bears had moved Trubisky around with rollouts, bootlegs and a moving pocket at times against Dallas in their previous game, a 31-24 win. Against the Packers, there were no I-formation runs or bootleg passes like Trubisky seemed to use effectively in a three-game winning streak.
"They were pretty good, they had a really good front," Trubisky said. "I felt like our O-line played really well. I thought we could have taken more pressure off them moving the pocket a little more and getting me out."
Beyond the coaches' contribution to this loss, Trubisky himself flopped at the crucial times much as he had in the season opener when he threw a late interception to Adrian Amos from the Packers 16-yard line.
This time he chose someone much closer to throw it to, namely Green Bay's Lowry. Lowry made a volleyball-style bat at the line of scrimmage and juggling catch.
The defense had Trubisky's back, though, got the ball back, and he drove them to midfield before they turned it over on downs. He nearly authored another drive, but then a wild Stanford Band style play the Bears call "recess," took them to the 7-yard line before it ended and along with it the game.
In the end, Trubisky was 29 of 53 for 334 yards with a touchdown, one other interception on a first-half-ending Hail Mary, and a terrible passer rating of 64.5.
"There were times when he used his legs, he extended plays, he made some good throws on the run," Nagy said. "Then there's a few that he missed, as well.
"When you throw the ball that many times that's normal. That's going to happen."
It happens way too often with Trubisky, especially with the game on the line against the Packers.
It's something for Bears brass to keep in the front of their minds as they go through next week's motions at Soldier Field while they watch Patrick Mahomes, the player they didn't want because they wanted Trubisky.
Twitter@BearsOnMaven
