A lot of experts are trying to pass off the day Mitch Trubisky had against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had as a fluke. He merely took advantage of a bad defense. Look, it’s true that Trubisky had a lot of easy throws on the afternoon with several wide open players. However, that sort of blanket statement is inherently flawed. One doesn’t throw six touchdowns without making some eye-popping tosses.
One of the big issues with Trubisky through the first three weeks of the season was his mechanics. Specifically his footwork. He was missing a lot of open receivers too high. The primary reason being his feet weren’t settled and his hips were often opened too much. These are classic issues young quarterbacks deal with when adjusting to the NFL.
It’s as if people are saying Trubisky just lobbed it up on every play and his receivers did all the work. The truth is hidden beneath the explosion of points, the Bears second-year QB demonstrated a significant step forward in his passing mechanics. Nothing demonstrated that more clearly than his repeated success at one of the most difficult throws in the game.
Mitch Trubisky hit a number of “bucket” passes all game long
One phrase that scouts, coaches and football experts like to use in football passing lingo is “dropped it in the bucket.” This often refers to the quarterback throwing a pass over one defender and in front of another defender to his receiver for a big play. Typically those passes occur along the sideline between a cornerback and safety.
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Trubisky hasn’t hit a lot of those throws so far in his career. Against the Buccaneers, that changed dramatically. There were four separate instances of him hitting that type of throw, and they were all damn near perfect.
The first throw to Tarik Cohen, in particular, was the example people should look to for an idea. Trubisky fires the pass towards the left sideline down the field right in the space between the corner and safety before they can do anything. Keep in mind that Cohen is 5’6 so that throw was about as on the money as anybody could ever put it.
This is another natural development for Trubisky as a passer. Often those throws are the last ones that quarterbacks learn to hit consistently because it takes good mechanics and touch to pull off. Bears fans saw for the first time in 16 games what can happen when Trubisky has the former part down consistently.
