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Mike Glennon fails to impress, Mitch Trubisky does OK in relief

Mike Glennon was given the Chicago Bears’ starting quarterback job, but he hasn’t done much to keep it.

Glennon, the Bears’ big free-agent acquisition this offseason, was underwhelming for the second straight preseason game. That will do nothing to quiet the excitement for rookie Mitch Trubisky, who was the second pick of the draft. Though, Trubisky didn’t look quite as good Saturday night in a 24-23 win against the Arizona Cardinals as he did during last week’s phenomenal debut.

The biggest mark against Glennon was that he threw a terrible interception for the second straight week.

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Glennon’s big mistake came near the goal line. On a slow delivery to Kendall Wright, Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu jumped in front of Wright and picked it off. It was just as bad of a mistake as the pick-six Glennon threw last week to Denver Broncos cornerback Chris Harris.

Glennon did rebound well. He had a nice throw over the middle to Cameron Meredith on a scoring drive. He finished that drive with a good read to Kendall Wright on a short pass for a touchdown. Glennon completed 13-of-18 passes for 89 yards. He didn’t take many chances downfield. It wasn’t a horrendous performance outside of the Mathieu interception, but it wasn’t enough to cool the hype with Trubisky either.

The Bears made the mystifying move of bringing in Mark Sanchez in for a series after Glennon was done. It was a waste of valuable preseason snaps. There isn’t a soul inside the Bears organization or outside of it who could truly believe getting Sanchez those third-quarter snaps is better for the present or future of the team than getting Trubisky as much work as possible. It was a bad decision, but thankfully lasted only a series.

Trubisky had some good moments. He had a very nice throw moving to his left in the fourth quarter, and it showed his athleticism and arm strength. He also forced a couple passes, including one near the sideline that should have been picked off by Cardinals cornerback Brandon Williams. He finished the night well, with an easy 6-yard touchdown toss to wide-open running back Benny Cunningham on a rollout. Trubisky finished 6 of 8 for 60 yards.

Trubisky was confident (sometimes too much) and looked calm again, but he didn’t blow anyone away like he did last week. However, Trubisky hasn’t been able to work with the starting offense in a preseason game, like Glennon has. Had Trubisky replicated his preseason debut, it might have opened up an interesting question about who starts the third preseason game.

Bears coach John Fox is notoriously conservative – it’s a reason he was ousted from the Broncos job despite winning four straight division titles – and that will likely cause him to make the safe choice and start Glennon in Week 1. Trubisky had just 13 career starts in college, so it’s not too crazy for the Bears to be patient with Trubisky before putting him in the starting lineup, if that’s what they do.

But two weeks into the preseason, Glennon hasn’t done much to prove he’s the right quarterback to lead the Bears. If he keeps playing like he did the first two preseason games, it’ll be tough for the Bears to resist the Trubisky temptation.

Mike Glennon threw another costly interception in Chicago's second preseason game. (AP)
Mike Glennon threw another costly interception in Chicago’s second preseason game. (AP)

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!