Mitchell Trubisky needs one half to break Bears' single-game record for touchdowns

Chicago Bears fans needed to worry about the future of their quarterback play for only one month.

Whatever doubt was placed on Mitchell Trubisky heading into Week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was quickly washed away as the second-year quarterback set a team record for passing touchdowns well before halftime while Chicago defeated the Bucs, 48-10.

In throwing six touchdowns — to five different receivers, no less — Trubisky now owns the Bears’ single-game record for passing TDs. After finding Trey Burton, Allen Robinson II, Tarik Cohen and Joshua Bellamy for scores early on, Trubisky hit Taylor Gabriel with a 6-yard shovel pass to set the record and put Chicago up 35-3 with five minutes left to play before halftime.

The Gabriel touchdown even came with a few wrinkles. That’s not a running back lined up next to Trubisky in the shotgun formation. That’s backup quarterback Chase Daniel.

What better time to work on some trick plays than when you’re destroying another first place team at home?

Each of Trubisky’s first five scoring drives went 70 or more yards and took less than four minutes to complete.

It might be the first game all year that Chicago fans were more excited to see the offense perform than the defense. In all, Trubisky completed 19 of 26 passes for 354 yards and six touchdowns to go along with three rushes for 53 yards.

This was an all out dismantling of a Tampa Bay team that had been on a magical run through the first few weeks of the season. What was supposed to be a matchup between two up-and-coming teams quickly devolved into a thrashing by the Bears.

Tampa quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (nine for 18 passing, 126 yards and one interception) was pulled in favor of Jameis Winston in the second half. Winston was coming off a three-game suspension and couldn’t do any more than Fitzpatrick could. He finished his day with 16 of 20 passes completed for 145 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

If the Trubisky hype is real, many will look back on Sunday in late September 2018 as the day his career took off.

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Blake Schuster is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at blakeschuster@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Schustee

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