Bears get Trubisky ready for playoffs
Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is taking the Chicago Bears into the playoffs, and now the goal for two weeks is to continue his progress so he’s sharp enough to handle a win-or-go-home situation.
Facing the San Francisco 49ers and proving he can give a strong effort in a road game is the first phase, as the Bears try to avoid a letdown following the NFC North title they clinched with Sunday’s 24-17 win over the Green Bay Packers.
“It’s kind of like coming off a bye or coming off a loss,” Trubisky said. “It’s how you’re going to respond to it. We’ve clinched; there’s certain ways you can go about this and we’ve just got to have a workman’s attitude, come to work, continue to get better, stay rested and try to go 1-0 each week.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the regular season, postseason, we’ve just got to continue to get better, stick together and want to do great things. It starts every single day, every single week.”
Trubisky hasn’t been as sharp on the road as at home this season. The Bears will get at least one home playoff game, but they need to tie the Los Angeles Rams or New Orleans Saints to get a bye in the first round. So a playoff road game would be possible if they won in the wild-card round.
Trubisky owns a 97.2 passer rating at Soldier Field, but on the road his rating has been 87.6 and the Bears are 2-2. He missed two of the road games with a shoulder injury.
The offense has to prove something Sunday against a strong, 12th-ranked 49ers defense on the road.
“You just have got to look at your opponent and continue to go out there, do your job and play football,” Trubisky said. “So it doesn’t matter if it’s the regular season or the playoffs, we know that things will ramp up once we get there but I do believe we’re ready and we’ve just got to have that mindset. We’ve got to keep getting better and be ready for it no matter what.”
The Bears are 7-1 at home but 3-3 on the road, so they can prove a good deal by winning their final two.
“The great teams find a way to win on the road and take that to the next step,” head coach Matt Nagy said. “Our guys understand that. We’re going to have two road games here in a row that are going to be challenging. I don’t think there’s any magic to it. Every game is a little bit different when you talk about games on the road.”
Overall, though, Nagy doesn’t see the need for his offense to improve greatly despite being ranked 22nd. The Bears put five players in the Pro Bowl this week, but four were on defense — Khalil Mack, Eddie Jackson, Kyle Fuller and Akiem Hicks — and the other was Tarik Cohen for his punt returns.
“Our offense, what we did last week against a good (Green Bay) defense, was collectively our quarterback protected the football, we had the one fumble on the third-and-1, third-and-2, but overall when you look at the general scheme of where we’re at right now as a team offensively, I feel very comfortable going into the playoffs with that.”
No doubt Nagy would be pleased if Trubisky avoids interceptions like last week. The previous game he threw three in a win over the Rams.
“Our quarterback protects the football, he’s making good decisions right now, he’s gotten better overall,” Nagy said. “Our whole offense has gotten better. But we still have a ways to go. That’s why it’s important to get better each week.”
Nagy thinks the 120.4 passer rating Trubisky posted in the victory Sunday over Green Bay can go a long way toward a playoff game. A 12-yard touchdown pass he threw to Trey Burton was one of Trubisky’s best passes of the season, Nagy said.
“So, for him, I think it’s going to be a matter of staying within the system, trusting his coaches, trusting his teammates, not trying to do too much but yet not holding back,” Nagy said. “You saw in the game he’s still using his legs, he made a great throw to (Adam) Shaheen on the ad-lib play, scrambled and made a great throw. So he’s got all that in him.
“We’re not there yet. But in a couple weeks when we get there, the guys are going to feel that there is another level to it. That’s down the road. He’s got to keep growing here in the next two games.”
SERIES HISTORY: 64th regular-season game. Series tied, 31-31-1. The 49ers won last year 15-14. The teams have split the last four games. This is the first game in California since 2014. The Bears won that one 28-20 behind two Kyle Fuller interceptions. In addition, there have been three playoff games between the teams and all were won by San Francisco.
