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Sun Rises in West, Man Bites Dog, Pro Football Focus Likes Mitchell Trubisky

It might be one of the signs of the apocalypse but Pro Football Focus has written an article praising Mitchell Trubisky, even if their research seems to be off.

The website Pro Football Focus has probably made more off of bashing Mitchell Trubisky than just about anyone except Michael Lombardi.

Suddenly, after two Bears victories the good people at PFF and in this case none other than the man himself, Sam Monson, decided Trubisky has improved.

What's next, Nancy Pelosi inviting Donald Trump to go to her favorite hair salon with her? .

PFF had Trubisky unranked among the top 34 quarterbacks in the league when it made its offseason ranking. 

Monson said Trubisky had a PFF grade of 80.2 against the Giants, his highest for a game since Week 12 of the 2018 season.

"Through two weeks, Trubisky has played at a level we haven't seen from him in a long time. He earned an 80.2 PFF grade against the Giants, his best single-game grade since Week 12 of the 2018 season," Monson wrote.

Well I hate to break the news to PFF, but Trubisky didn't play in Week 12 of the 2018 season or even in Game 12 of the 2018 season, which was Week 13 of the season.

Chase Daniel played against the Lions in Week 12, a Thanksgiving Day win at Detroit. And Daniel played in Game 12, against the Giants, which was Week 13. 

They couldn't have been talking about Week 11 and Game 10 because Trubisky played poorly against the Vikings in a win, with two interceptions and a touchdown pass, to go with several near interceptions. 

Nor could he have meant the game when Trubisky returned from a shoulder injury, because that was against the Rams at Soldier Field. The only reason the Bears won 15-6 was because the defense made a shambles of Jared Goff while Trubisky himself threw three interceptions. Even the super mysterious PFF grading system wouldn't give a quarterback an 80.2 rating for three interceptions.

Apparently they simply should have said Trubisky played better than some game we can't remember in 2018 at some point.

But whatever made-up PFF number or date it was, the Bears will surely take the compliment because they're really not used to getting many, and really haven't had many this year—even from their own followers.

It's generally been recognized they escaped by the skin of their teeth against two bad teams.

The offense has played sporadically, except for the running game. The defense has played just well enough, but showed more promise last week while again taking it needlessly down to the wire.

Trubisky has been slightly better than in the past in many ways.

One other PFF comment about Trubisky just shows what little they pay attention to all of this.

The new Trubisky supporters say he is not getting much help from receivers now,  and cited Anthony Miller with dropping a perfect TD throw.  

"All of a sudden Trubisky was the one being let down by his teammates—not the other way around," Monson wrote. "He completed 64.3% of his passes but he had two key passes dropped, both on third down, and one of which would have been an absolute dime of a touchdown." 

This isn't true.

It certainly is true enough Miller dropped the pass.

The thing is, it's nothing new. Trubisky was burned quite often last year by drops but no one at PFF seemed to care then. The Bears were tied for sixth last year in dropped passes with 32 accordinig to official NFL statistics. The drops this year would be right in line with what Trubisky has put up with the last few years.

So consider that 80.2 PFF rating for what it's worth.

What is interesting and is really more objective than the mysterious subjective PFF grading system is the percentage of throws past the sticks by Trubisky. It is displayed in a knockout chart which PFF posted. It shows Trubisky's progress, and it is dramatic.

PFF can look at where the sticks are on film, just like anyone else, and they determined the throws are getting to the sticks or beyond on his throws 60.9% of the time, a colossal jump over 2019 (44.6%), 2018 (44.7%) and 2017 (41.3%).

They mention how it's true the Bears did this against the Giants' disfunctional secondary. What isn't said is much of his success against the Lions came after Detroit lost two cornerbacks to injuries, had Jamie Collins ejected and didn't have cornerback Jeff Okudah due to injury.

So in the interest of fairness, Trubisky's improvement has to be taken with a grain of salt. But that one stat about the sticks is important.

Although Trubisky has only completed 59.4% of his passes this season and has an average yards per attempt of merely 6.8, he at least is recognizing when the downfield opportunities are there and throws to those receivers.  

This also acknowledges Bill Lazor's work with the offensive system in terms of getting plays to the sticks, and John DeFilippo's work with Trubisky's actual passing.

It means they are doing the right things.

If Trubisky continues following this course, he's going to become a hot fantasy choice. In fact, this week he might be anyway because they play Atlanta, which gave up 450 passing yards to Dak Prescott last week. 

PFF recognizes this, as well, and in this article about Trubisky now gives the Bears a shot at being back in the playoffs after they trashed the entire team all offseason with the exception of Allen Robinson.

It would be the first time the Bears are back in the playoffs since 2018, and that's one PFF doesn't even need to go back and look up. 

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven