Trubisky and Bears appear on right track
Chicago Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky has come a long way since his debut last season, when he threw a game-deciding interception to the Minnesota Vikings’ Harrison Smith in a 20-17 loss.
In a sense, Trubisky is back where it all started, facing the Vikings at home in a big night game — but this time it’s on Sunday and it’s a battle for first place in the NFC North.
“I think I’ve grown a lot since that play,” Trubisky said of the interception. “I’m not the same player, not even close. I’ve got better since that instance and I’m excited for the opportunity this weekend.”
Trubisky was baited into the throw by Harrison. It’s a concern he’ll have Sunday, even if he is more mature.
“(Smith’s) kind of like ‘where’s Waldo,” Bears head coach Matt Nagy said. “He’s everywhere. And there’s several safeties that are like him, where guys that can come down, play in the box, guys that blitz – very similar to (Jamal Adams) with the Jets.”
Smith is just one of numerous problems the Bears face, including a defensive front seven better than any they’ve played against all year.
In fact, the Bears haven’t beaten a team now above .500.
“We need this to get to where we want to go this year,” Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan said.
So the showcase game also can be one of validation for Trubisky and the offense.
“If we do our job, and take care of the execution we need to take care of, and have our right mentality, we can face anybody,” Bears tackle Charles Leno Jr. said.
Trubisky was being doubted a week ago by national media members, on social media and other skeptics, but his passer rating is 101.6 and is higher than those of Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun Watson, Ben Roethlisberger and Cam Newton.
It helped when he threw for a career-best 355 yards with three touchdowns against Detroit.
“I think just good feet, good eyes and I just played with conviction,” Trubisky said. “I made a decision that I was just in a good mind-state, just go out there and play confident.”
The effort on Wednesday earned him NFC offensive player of the week, something he didn’t seem too impressed by. And he used it as a chance to take a dig at his critics.
“I don’t know, really, you get recognized, it’s cool,” he said. “But people talked so bad about me last week, so why should this week be any different?
“So I got recognized for playing well. I expect to play well, Coach Nagy expects (me) to play well, I got better from the week before so I’m embracing that process, just continuously getting better and better.”
Nagy is seeing improvement in Trubisky in decision-making as well as mastery of the offense. And he’s part of the reason Trubisky downplays getting any awards.
“It is what it is, we want to make sure that with this thing again we talk about poison the noise, we talk about earmuffs, we talk about horse blinders,” Nagy said. “You know, don’t worry about anything. You just keep playing, if you played a good game great, now next game. And if you played a bad game, now next game and you just stay straight ahead. And that’s my job and our coaches job to keep him focused and he makes it easy because he doesn’t care.”
Trubisky is one 300-yard game from taking over the franchise record with five 300-yard passing games in a season.
The season was billed as a rebuild or start-over with Nagy in Chicago, and a growing or seasoning year for Trubisky in a new offense.
“I’m not surprised where we’re at, but I also know that we’ve got a ways to go,” Nagy said.
Trubisky’s and the team’s abilities to bounce back from adversity has shown through a three-game winning streak that followed consecutive losses.
“Going into the season, I really did truly believe talent-wise, people-wise, coaches-wise, staff-wise, organization-wise – it’s all right there,” Nagy said. “But how are we going to do it together when it hits? When you lose a game, how do you respond?
“We’re starting to figure out how we respond.”
SERIES HISTORY: 114th regular-season meeting. Vikings lead series, 60-51-2. Minnesota has won the last three and six of the last seven. The Bears’ last win came at Soldier Field, 20-10 on Halloween, 2016. There has been one playoff game in addition to the 113 played. On Jan. 1, 1995 the Bears upset Minnesota in the Metrodome 35-18.
