Mitchell Trubisky completed eight passes on Sunday, only two are worth getting excited about
It’s a little bit easier to evaluate where things stand with the Chicago Bears now that their rebuild has begun in earnest.
With Mitchell Trubisky under center, football fans in the Windy City have a reason to tune on Sundays whether or not their team remains competitive. That’s good news for a team that won’t earn many wins this year, but will get to test drive new toys like their rookie quarterback.
And if the first two weeks are any indication of how the rebuild is going, Bears fans are going to need a lot of patience.
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Trubisky showed, at best, a few flashes of his potential, but didn’t get enough responsibility to make much of a dent in the Bears’ 27-24 overtime victory in Baltimore. The rookie completed just eight of 16 pass attempts for 113 yards with one touchdown. Previously the Ravens hadn’t allowed fewer than 150 yards to quarterbacks this season.
Trubisky mitigated any problems, and didn’t hurt his team, but to call this a victory by quarterback would be a miscalculation.
Consider that Trubisky attempted the fewest passes by any starting quarterback through the morning games save for Aaron Rodgers (four attempts) — who left the Packers-Vikings game with a broken collarbone. Trubisky has yet to attempt more than four passes per quarter after halftime. Instead, the Bears ran the ball 54 times on Sunday with Jordan Howard getting a career-high 36 carries for 167 yards.
The message here should be clear: Trubisky will have to earn every passing play the Bears call this season.
Of his eight completions against the Ravens, only two stood out. The first was a 27-yard strike to Dion Sims along the sideline in the end zone during the third quarter. The second came in overtime with Trubisky scrambling before hitting Kendall Wright for 18 yards over the middle. The latter help set up the Bears’ game-winning field goal. Both plays came on third-and-long, which may be the most encouraging sign of the day.
Still, there’s a long way to go for Trubisky and a lot to be desired. Chicago has plenty of issues with keeping wideouts healthy this season, but a good quarterback should make his receivers better.
Trubisky isn’t there yet. It may be awhile before he is.
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Blake Schuster is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at blakeschuster@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Schustee
