Bears Season Rides on Mitchell Trubisky's Resilience

When the season started the Bears had put their faith in Mitchell Trubisky, now against the Green Bay Packers they're counting on his ability to bounce back

Lambeau Field has been a chamber of horrors for the Bears too often in the past decade.

So it's, perhaps, appropriate they approach Sunday's game there against an ancient rival with the scary thought of Mitchell Trubisky returning at quarterback for what likely is the team's biggest game of the year. 

Because if there's one position making the difference in the Bears' 19 losses over their last 23 games with Green Bay, it's quarterback.

"Coming back, it's obviously a big rivalry game and then us being in a situation where we are now, we need to find a way to get in the win column," Trubisky said.

Trubisky has been no better than any other Bears quarterback of recent vintage at ending Aaron Rodgers' dominance. He's won one of his five starts against the Packers.

Now, if the Bears (5-5) fall three games behind the Packers (7-3) with a loss and pretty much seal their divisional fate, they could also leave themselves a steep uphill climb to reach the Arizona Cardinals (6-4) in the final playoff position.

There is also the rivalry to consider.

"All games matter, but when you're going through this type of rivalry that's throughout history so significant and so real, it's important that we all understand the magnitude of it," Nagy said.

It's possible it means more to Nagy in the long run as talk about the coaching regime's fate continues to build after a second straight season with four consecutive losses following another good start. 

Ownership always looks with favor on wins over the Packers.

Yet much depends on the quarterback who sat idle since Week 3.

"This is where we are at and I'm excited about the opportunity that sits in front of us," Trubisky said. "That's the nice thing of being able to play 16 games is that you get a chance and when you jump out to a 5-1 record like that you wish we've played a lot better but we haven't.

"So now here it is, these are long seasons and guys play in different spots in different times and that's the way that we roll."

They have more problems than quarterback.

The running game has dropped to last in the league and the winner in four of the last five games in this series wound up with more rushing yards at the end of the day.

"We're going to get this thing rolling on offense and come out with a W," center Cody Whitehair promised.

The offensive line is as healthy as they've been since Week 5, although not full strength. And running back David Montgomery is back after missing a game with a concussion.

The defense has held steady throughout the losing streak, although Rodgers promises to challenge their third-down and red-zone dominance which has kept the Bears among the league's best.

"We just have to be able to switch up the looks and challenge him as much as we can and just make plays on the ball," cornerback Jaylon Johnson said.

Teams have been in worse situations and pulled out playoff spots.

"We all as a team look ourselves in the mirror, realize who we are and what we have then break it down football-wise," edge rusher Robert Quinn said. "We just gotta go 1-0 six times and we give ourselves a great chance."

No doubt for all to flip the Bears' way Trubisky needs to show he can handle a defense which held the Bears to 13 total points in two games last year.

Until Week 3 this season Nagy had shown complete confidence in Trubisky's ability to get this job done. Then, after the ill-fated interception on a crossing route in Atlanta, everything changed and Nick Foles became their best shot.

"It wasn't just that shallow-cross interception that he threw the pick there in Atlanta there was obviously a lot more to it," Nagy said. "At that point and time for that game that felt like the right thing to do and it ended up being the right thing to do for that game."

The trouble was, Nagy did it for the rest of the season or until Foles' hip and glute injury occurred.

So the season rides on Trubisky's ability to do something he's never done and that's come off the bench to save the day.

"So now that he has an opportunity here I think this kid is just excited to get back out there," Nagy said. "And I don't want to make any predictions but I like the way that he's practiced all week."

A season and maybe even some jobs could depend on whether that practice was as good as they believe.

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