Chicago Bears: 5 Takeaways from Mitchell Trubisky’s press conference

4. Did Trubisky try to pass the blame for 2019?

The 2019 season started out with such high hopes. After having a magical 2018 and having it end on a double doink, there were a lot of expectations.

Those expectations fell apart right from the start. In what would be a preview of the entire season, the Chicago Bears struggled on offense against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1. The Bears scored just three points but the defense did an incredible job on Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, allowing just 10 points. This is what happened all season, with the defense keeping the Bears in games waiting for the offense to finally come around.

It never did. The Bears finished with a record of 8-8, and the offense ranked 29th in points scored and total yards. Additionally, they finished dead last in yards per pass attempt.

What was Trubisky’s idea of what happened?

So with the health, it’s true that the Bears suffered through some injuries. The right side of the offensive line went down due to injuries. Trubisky himself went down, suffering a shoulder injury (the non-throwing one) in Week 4 against the Minnesota Vikings and missed the Week 5 game against the Oakland (now Las Vegas) Raiders in London.

Injuries weren’t the entire reason for the struggles, however. Trubisky still threw the ball without any noticeable trouble. If he did have any, he shouldn’t have played. Playing injured just hurts the team.

What many saw from Trubisky was the same thing we’ve seen from him since he became a Chicago Bears player — trouble reading the defense, zeroing in on one receiver and not progressing through all his choices, and indecision and holding on to the ball too long.

Yes, the offensive line had its troubles, but he didn’t help matters with his indecision. In this offense, decisions have to be made quickly. The quarterback needs to make pre-snap decisions by looking at the defense. Trubisky has shown that he hasn’t been able to do that. He needs to stop making excuses and start reading defenses better.

This isn’t the first time that Trubisky kind of passed the buck. When the Bears switched Cody Whitehair and James Daniels back to their 2018 positions, moving Daniels back to guard and putting Whitehair back to center, Trubisky supported that decision. That was because with the inexperienced Daniels at center Trubisky had to make more of the blocking scheme calls. With Trubisky having trouble reading defenses, the line blocking was a mess.

Moving the experienced Whitehair back to center more was taken off Trubisky’s plate. He didn’t have to help with the blocking scheme. The line did a better job of blocking in the second half of the season than it had in the first half.

The “lack of details on offense” could be considered a criticism of Nagy. Nagy received some criticism on his playcalling from others. Receiving criticism from a player who struggles himself, however?

Trubisky did apparently throw some shade on Nagy’s playcalling before. After their second loss to the Packers in December, he praised his offensive line and the Packers’ rush and criticized Nagy’s plays.

It appears he did it again with his “lack of details” comment. Trubisky needs to get his play in order before he goes out and critiques others. That is what players do to show they are good leaders.