Rest assured. There was plenty of blame to go around on Sunday in a brutal 17-16 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Matt Nagy fulfilled his commitment to run the football, which was good but also continued his remarkably disturbing trend of cute play calls in the red zone and bad clock management late in the game. Eddy Pineiro missed two field goals including the potential game-winner. The Chicago Bears defense gave up another 4th quarter touchdown to lose the lead. However, this disaster belongs at feet of Mitch Trubisky.
There were plenty of mistakes he made early in the game, but one only has to look at the final 15 minutes to grasp how effective he was blowing up his entire Bears career in the space of a few minutes. It started at the end of the 3rd quarter. Chicago begins their drive well, picking up a quick first down. Then Trubisky kills it with an underthrown ball that gets intercepted. On the next drive, he takes a bad sack and literally drops the football without his hand getting touched.
This enables the Chargers to take the lead on a touchdown. If that weren’t bad enough, the Bears drove into field goal range on the next series. Rather than simply throw the ball away though, Trubisky takes an inexcusable sack for a loss of six yards. This forces Chicago to punt, robbing them of a crucial chance to get the lead back and putting the game entirely on Eddy Pineiro in the final seconds from 41 yards out.
It was a true showcase of Trubisky’s entire career. Brilliant plays interspersed with streaks of atrocious decision-making.
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Mitch Trubisky is out of excuses at this point
People will likely use his final drive that included a couple of nice passes to get the team in field goal range as another excuse to give him more time. The reality is Trubisky has gotten enough excuses by this point. He made the key mistakes that coughed the game up and failed to make the plays the could’ve won it. People forget he also missed a wide open Taylor Gabriel that almost certainly would’ve been a touchdown in between that interception and fumble sequence.
Quarterbacks in their third years should not look this erratic and inefficient. Nagy may not be perfect as a play caller but he’s presented Trubisky with more than enough opportunities to create some big plays. It’s clearer than ever that the Bears don’t have a quarterback. Old news for a fanbase that has been tortured by this reality for decades. All anybody can ask is what do they do now?
Some will wonder if a trade deadline move is possible, but the odds are against it. Chicago is stuck with that they have until next spring. At that point, they’ll have an opportunity to reshuffle the position. As for Trubisky? His future seems clearer than ever, and very much a disappointment.
