By Jim Coffman
At least this team, and particularly the quarterback, possesses some self-awareness. The highlight of Sunday was when reporters asked Mitch Trubisky to talk about the positives that happened during the Bears’ brutal 19-14 victory over the Giants and he said, “We scored more points than they did,” with a knowing smirk.
A well-timed facial expression can go a long way. I am usually willing to make common cause with an athlete who declines to bust out the bullshit when that option is clearly available. And say this about Trubisky: It isn’t his fault that general manager Ryan Pace might be even worse at evaluating quarterbacks than all his predecessors.
And none of those guys hit on a quarterback in the past 79 years (except maybe Jim Finks bringing in Jim McMahon – McMahon’s career was cut short by injury but it didn’t help matters that he didn’t take care of himself at all). It is in fact exactly eight decades since Sid Luckman started his signal-calling career with the Monsters of the Midway. His teams won four championships in his 12 years at the helm. McMahon, of course, has the only championship for the Bears since 1963.
And then there is the fact that Trubisky is all the Bears have for the rest of this season. That much is crystal clear. Bring in some competition for him next year and then we’ll re-evaluate. The problem with that, of course, is that Pace almost certainly won’t be fired at the end of this one and that will mean the man who gave Mike Glennon $18 million will be in charge of bringing in the competition.
I’m relatively good with the quarterback at this point but the coach is starting to get to me. I know Matt Nagy can’t just unload on the only thing he has in terms of quarterbacking but he can also avoid doing things like praising how well Trubisky has played the past three weeks. Just so you know coach, he hasn’t played well. He remains in the league basement in passing yards per game and passing yards per passing attempt. Come on, Coach!
What a special display of football yesterday was. Both halves began with kickoffs that went out of bounds. That was really something. And it just got worse from there. Nagy finally called a quarterback run in the red zone and Trubisky waltzed in to give the Bears a two-touchdown lead in the third quarter.
[Editor’s Note: The NFL doesn’t want you to see Mitch Trubisky’s touchdown run.]
But then a comedy of errors played out as the Bears tried to obtain an extra point or two that was slapstick at its finest.
Trubisky completed a two-point conversion pass to Taylor Gabriel in the end zone but the play was nullified by an offensive pass interference call on Allen Robinson. This happened in a game last year as well, by the way. Nagy continues to believe that it is OK If one of his receivers hustles into the secondary and just stands in front of a defensive back on plays like that. He argued his case vociferously again yesterday, just like he did last year.
But not only did the back judge not agree with him, the Fox sports rules guy, Dean Blandino, pointed out that a receiver is required to make it at least look like he is trying to execute a route.
The killer here was that it didn’t matter what Robinson did on the play – Gabriel was open and Trubisky hit him in stride almost immediately. Argh.
The penalty was assessed and then the Bears managed to get another penalty for too many men on the field. That resulted in a 48-yard extra point kick that of course went wide left.
¿Cuantos más Eddy Pineiro? ¿Cuantos más? 😏#MeDuelesChicago pic.twitter.com/YCz9Qfsnqq
— Osos de Chicago (@Osos_de_Chicago) November 24, 2019
There were also two brutal interceptions on offense and a bizarre 97-yard drive allowed by the defense, capped off by the conversion of a fourth-and-18, that gave the Giants a chance late.
In other words, that is more than enough written about this game and about the 5-6 Bears. See you on Turkey Day.
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Jim “Coach” Coffman welcomes your comments.
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1. From Tom Chambers:
I don’t watch the Bears much, but I did yesterday because I had a bet. I figured Bears would win, and also that they wouldn’t cover the spread, which was too high.
There was a play late in the first half that said everything you want to know about the Bears and, especially, their “coaches.”
The Giants hit the guy short to their left, Bears right. The Bears guy had about a 65% grab, but should have made the tackle. FOUR FOUR FOUR FOUR Bears were standing there watching like Streets and San guys keeping close watch on a manhole. Don’t worry, HE’S got the tackle. So the guy breaks the tackle, stiff arms a Bear for two more yards and NONE of the many Bears in the vicinity closes in on the guy, except for one, but the Giant was running out of bounds anyway. This team is worse than its record, fundamentally bereft. They gave up on the play! Or is that how they’re taught? This team has quit.
Also, the fact they don’t have a kicker is a petri dish example of how inept the front office is. They staged a Manhattan Project search and still came up empty.
Virginia should have busted into the locker room afterwards and instructed them to dust off their luggage, because they’ll all be packing it up before the new year.
Posted on November 25, 2019