It’s finally happening. After sticking to their plan on starting Mike Glennon for the first month, the experiment needed to die. Glennon turned it over eight times in four games, a rate that made life far too difficult for the defense. Coupled with two blowout losses in Tampa and Green Bay where they scored just 21 points? Everybody saw this coming. The Mitch Trubisky era officially begins Monday night, October 9th. So this begs the question. Have how previous Bears first round quarterbacks fared in their debuts?
More importantly it’s also curious whether those games were a sign of things to come. For the purposes of keeping things simple this was relegated only to the Super Bowl era. Why? Namely because records of when Bears first rounders prior to that officially started are sketchy. With that here are the details of what happened from who they faced to how they performed.
Jim McMahon (1982)
- vs. Detroit Lions
- 16-of-27, 233 yards, 2 TDs, 3 INTs
- Bears win 20-17
Jim Harbaugh (1987)
- at Los Angeles Rams
- 11-of-30, 108 yards, 2 INTs
- Bears lose 23-3
Cade McNown (1999)
- vs. Philadelphia Eagles
- 17-of-33, 255 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs
- Bears lose 20-16
Rex Grossman (2003)
- vs. Minnesota Vikings
- 13-of-30, 157 yards
- Bears win 13-10
Looking this over, it’s reasonable to temper expectations for Trubisky. All four of the previous debuts didn’t amount to much in the stat column. McMahon had the most touchdowns but also three turnovers. Both Harbaugh and Grossman struggled to complete passes. Both victories were aided by strong defensive efforts.
It is worth noting though that the two men who won their games were the two who managed to reach the Super Bowl.
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The Vikings defense is ranked 12th overall in the league. They allow just 19 points per game and are suffocating against the run with 71.2 yards per game. So it may be difficult for the Bears to lean on their running game. Minnesota does rank 24th against the pass, so they aren’t invulnerable through the air. The trick is whether the offensive line can protect him. The Vikings have 11 sacks this season including six yesterday against the Lions.
