Chicago Bears: Victory doesn’t mask faults, work left ahead
While the Chicago Bears had an exciting victory against the Denver Broncos, it doesn’t hide the fact that they’re still struggling.
Well, that was exciting. And frustrating. And scary. The Chicago Bears escaped Denver with a 16-14 victory. They had one of the most incredible final 38 seconds of a game we’ve seen in a long time. They were winning, then thought they won. Then they were losing and thought they’d lose. Suddenly, however, Eddy Pineiro sent all the Bears fans home deliriously happy.
Yes, this was a great victory. It gave the Bears their first victory of the season. We all know the stats of how teams that start the season 0-2 since 2002 have just an 11 percent chance of making the playoffs (14 out of 133 teams). It also helped them keep pace with the rest of the NFC North. The Green Bay Packers are now 2-0 while the Vikings are 1-1 and the Lions 1-0-1.
While it was fun to experience this victory, it doesn’t hide the fact that there are problems that need to be fixed soon or this season might be one that’ll leave a bad taste.
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Look, I don’t want to be an alarmist here, trying to argue that the sky is falling. The fact of the matter is the season is already 12.5 percent done and they only have nine more points than the Miami Dolphins!
No matter how much people try to sugarcoat it, quarterback Mitchell Trubisky hasn’t taken that next step forward that we were promised. The coaching staff and players told us about how much of a better grasp he has of the offense. They told us he understood it so much he finished coach Matt Nagy’s sentences when he talked to the offense. Trubisky’s teammates said he had more confidence in his handling of players.
We haven’t seen that in the first two games, however. What I see is the same Trubisky who has trouble with the deep ball and the out route. He also misses receivers because he doesn’t go through his progressions.
Trubisky completed 16 of 27 passes for 120 yards with no touchdowns. Also, he didn’t have any interceptions either, so that’s a positive. Of those 120 yards, however, 30 of them came in the final 30 seconds. That means late in the fourth quarter he was still under 90 yards. That brings back memories of former coach John Fox’s passing game.
On the plus side, the Bears’ running game got 153 rushing yards. David Montgomery ran for 62 yards and got his first NFL touchdown. It started out slow for him as he got stuffed multiple times early on but he started to get his yards as the game wore on.
In their Week 1 loss to the Packers, Trubisky dropped back 50 times and handed the ball off only 15 times. Against Denver, that number was more balanced. While the Bears threw 27 times, they ran the ball 29 times. That helped Trubisky a bit. What also helped was the offensive line. After giving up five sacks and committing multiple penalties in Week 1, they gave up none and committed only one penalty in Week 2.
It seems that Trubisky only trusts Allen Robinson and Tarik Cohen. Once again, both players were targeted the most. Those two had 12 targets combined while six other receivers combined for 15 targets.
Trubisky did show again how he plays well in the fourth quarter. He made the big passes he needed to make to give the Bears a chance to win the game. Unlike in the playoff game, this time the kicker came through. However, Trubisky needs to play like that in the other three quarters as well.
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Trubisky needs to start showing what the coaches and players told us about him. Without seeing him in the preseason, what we’re seeing doesn’t compute with those statements. The schedule is only going to get tougher so he needs to step up. He doesn’t need to be Joe Montana but he needs to be better than what he is now.