Winning in the NFL is hard. Really hard. Parity is so prevalent in this league. There’s a reason the famous quote always goes, “Any given Sunday.” The Chicago Bears won 12 games last year but the way things have gone in 2019 it’s been a struggle to just get five. At 5-6, the team needs a minor miracle to even be in consideration for a wild card playoff spot. A big reason for that is the continued ineptitude of the offense and one person who seems tired of it all is their quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
Sunday against the New York Giants was a mixed bag for the 25-year old. He was more productive than usual, accounting for 296 total yards with a touchdown pass and a touchdown run. He would’ve had two more throwing if not for a bad drop by Ben Braunecker and a 60-yard bomb to Allen Robinson being called back because of a penalty. Unfortunately, he also had two bad interceptions, one in the end zone and another that never had a chance.
The offense managed just 19 points on the afternoon. This against a defense that had been prone to giving up 30 or more most of this year. So one can imagine Trubisky wasn’t happy after the game despite the win. In fact, it went beyond simple disappointment. When he showed up at his post-game press conference, he looked genuinely angry.
One quote stood out the most. Something said with a conviction he’s rarely shown before.
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“Enough is enough; it’s the sloppiness, the mistakes, everything. It has to stop. We’ve got to get better as an offense. We have too much talent and we’re wasting it because we’re hurting ourselves. So we’ve just got to be better, and if everybody does their job, I think we’ll be fine and I think that’s what you see in the third quarter coming out.”
Mitch Trubisky might be finding his voice
Trubisky’s leadership was never in question. He’s been lauded for it many times. However, it’s never truly manifested publicly. He’ll say the right things but there haven’t been any times where it felt like he took it upon himself to truly challenge his teammates to be better. Sure, he’d say they need to play better but this is another level. For the first time, it felt like he was sending a message. It’s not good enough and guys need to step up their game if this team wants to beat actual good teams down the stretch.
Yes, this includes him but Trubisky was is not the only culprit. It’s easy to blame him for everything but the issues go way beyond that. The Bears offense led the league in dropped passes coming into the game and that lead is probably safe after a handful more including the brutal one by Braunecker. They still can’t run the ball effectively. David Montgomery averaged just 1.7 yards per carry. The penalties have continued to kill them at inopportune times. They have 31 through 11 games this year.
Good teams aren’t supposed to struggle this much to beat bad teams. Trubisky knows this and isn’t ready to stand for it anymore. Nor should he.
