Chicago Bears: Mitch Trubisky primed for big December
By Erik Lambert
The Chicago Bears are one of the most complete teams in the NFL, but most of the focus has centered around their electric defense.
That’s no surprise. In a year where defense has been almost irrelevant thanks to the massive amount of points scored and yards gained across the league, they are one of the few bright beacons carrying the torch forward. This isn’t a traditional defense either. Not one that simply suffocates a team into submission. Those days are gone thanks to the rampant rule changes made by the league.
No this is a new age unit. One built on forcing turnovers. Lots of turnovers. They hold the overall lead with 29 takeaways this season including a whopping 20 interceptions. Make one mistake against them and opponents are liable to pay for it. Yet what they’re doing wouldn’t have the Bears at 8-3. Not alone. They’d need major contributions from the offense.
They’ve been getting that, and a big part of the effort has come from young quarterback Mitch Trubisky. He’s accounted for 23 touchdowns in 2018. That puts him seven away from the franchise record of 30 total, held by both Jay Cutler (2014) and Erik Kramer (1995). With five games left, there’s a reasonable chance he breaks it.
In fact, there’s reason to believe he might shatter it. Here’s why.
Mitch Trubisky has been near perfect against bad defensive teams
Sometimes the best cure for a learning quarterback is simply facing bad defensive opponents. Trubisky is no different. This season he has played a defense ranked 19th or worse in either yards or points allowed. In those games, he has thrown for 1,245 yards, 14 touchdowns, and one interception. That’s fairly good (sarcasm). So why is that so important?
A glance ahead at the remaining Bears schedule will tell the story. Chicago has five games left. Three of them will be against mediocre to bad defenses. The New York Giants are 23rd in yards and 25th in points allowed. Los Angeles, for all their offensive might, is 20th in both yards and points allowed. Then there’s San Francisco who is 26th in points allowed. The Rams are the “best” of the bunch and the Bears will get them at home.
Suffice to say he’s primed to finish strong this year and carry that momentum (hopefully) into the playoffs. Given how well that Chicago defense is playing, this is not something other teams in contention care to think about. A team that can take the ball away from you and then scores almost every single time is the worst nightmare. Trubisky has made that possible.