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How Mitchell Trubisky Shrugged Off Tramon Williams' Slam

Bears see Mitchell Trubisky's confidence as high after fighting his way through a rough patch to lead the team to four wins in five weeks.

Gone is the Chicago Bears quarterback who had so little confidence he wanted TVs shut off at Halas Hall to avoid hearing negative talk.

The guy who conveyed poor, defeatist body language in game telecast video is nowhere to be found.

An improved and more confident Mitchell Trubisky is running the Bears offense, and it's partially the result of some offensive changes but also a simple matter of succeeding and repeating the success.

"Mitch's confidence is through the roof right now," Bears wide receiver Anthony Miller said. "And so we're just taking advantage of that."

The more confident Trubisky isn't even bothered much when reminded of the comment Packers cornerback Tramon Williams made after Green Bay beat the Bears 10-3 to open the season.

"We wanted to make Mitch play quarterback," Williams said. 

Williams was referring to keeping Trubisky in the pocket rather let him run around and make plays. Trubisky more or less acknowledged the validity of the comment based on the way he played that day.

"I got enough motivation from the outside and I guess that's even more motivation," Trubisky said Wednesday. "I didn’t hear that. I don't really care. 

"I didn't play the way I wanted to the first game. That’s fairly obvious. So for him to say something about it, I mean, that’s just an obvious statement, I guess. I want to play better. Got a great opportunity to do that this week."

Trubisky has played more like a passer in the past three games. His 99.1 passer rating and an improved running game give the Bears hope they can pay the  Packers back Sunday for their season-opening 10-3 loss to them at Soldier Field, while avoiding playoff elimination.

"I just feel like we have a new-found identity of what we want to do, and everybody is really locked into what they have to do within their job description on the offense," Trubisky said. "We've just got to go out there and play hard and play hungry and come ready to play and execute what we've got to do."

Part of the new identity has been moving the pocket, letting Trubisky make plays using his arm and feet. Nagy doesn't want to go into great detail, but changes have been made.

"I told you we're problem solvers, we're looking for solutions," coach Matt Nagy said. "And we feel like we may have found some things, whater that is, and we'll kind of just go with that without getting into schemes."

Whatever the exact nature of what the problem-solving coaches found, there's no denying it worked. Trubisky had only a passer rating of 80.0 and five touchdown passes to go with three interceptions in his first seven games this season before the team won 4 of 5.

"I just feel like we're kind of in a rhythm now," Trubisky said. "We're a different team.

"There were some things that we had to go through in the first game and the beginning of the season that just didn't go our way, and there's things we definitely learned from as an offense."

Definitely they're different in personnel. They had different people at four of the five offensive line positions than in the season opener. They don't have any of their first three tight ends. Ben Braunecker continues to sit with a concussion. Wide receiver Taylor Gabriel is still out with a concussion. Yet, the offense has flourished.

It's been so apparent in the last two games, especially. The season-opening loss and complete offensive breakdown that night now seem so long ago.

"There's been a lot of growth for us all, and I think the biggest thing that you (media) would agree with, I believe in, is that we’ve all grown and become mentally stronger, a lot stronger from then," Nagy said. "That’s where we’ve kind of figured out who we think we are and now we'll get put it to the test again here against Green Bay."

Trubisky admitted he has been calloused, as Nagy likes to say. He's not letting negatives bring him down. One example was the interception he threw against Dallas early. Quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone marveled Tuesday at how Trubisky just shrugged it off without batting an eyelash, when earlier he might not have done so.

"I just would say mental toughness, the ability to block out things on the outside," Trubisky said. "Adversity, obviously, early in the season with people talking on the outside and then having to play through injuries and stuff, and just coming together closer as a team.

"My teammates having my back, that really gives me the most confidence. And then just going out there and, over the last couple of weeks just putting this team in a position to win. And it feels good when you're winning. So just keep that feeling going."

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