Everything comes back to the Eagles in the end. Mitch Trubisky has to wonder how different things might be for him right now if not for what happened back in January. The script was being written. He drove the Chicago Bears down the field in the final second against the defending champions. All the team needed was a 43-yard field goal to advance, which would allow them to put their young quarterback center stage as a hero.
Then Cody Parkey clanged it off the upright and the crossbar. The stunned look on Trubisky's face after it happened told the whole story.
Since that moment, nothing has been quite the same. The Bears quarterback has never once played with the same confidence and aggressiveness he had during the final stretch of that season. It feels like that game is still in his head somehow. Like he feels he needs to do more in order to make sure it doesn't happen again. As a result, his overall play is suffering. He's missing wide open receivers, making bad reads, isn't attack down the field a lot, and won't even run anymore.
Now the Bears have the 29th ranked offense in the NFL. They're 3-4 with the Eagles seemingly poised to deliver the killing blow on Sunday. Pretty much everybody expects it to happen. It'll be the classic setup. Jordan Howard gets to have his revenge while Philadelphia gets back over .500 going into their bye. It feels almost inevitable.
Mitch Trubisky is the only one standing in their way
Yes, the Bears defense is still good and they've discovered a bit of a running game finally on offense. However, nobody is stupid. Philadelphia will find ways to score. They're way too talented not to. That means Chicago will need to score too and this offense hardly looks up to the task. They ran the ball for 162 yards against the Chargers last week and still managed just 16 points. The odds of them repeating that against a steady Eagles run defense is remote. Especially on the road.
No. This game will rest on the shoulders of #10.
Truth be told, it's fitting that way. This season was defined by that loss to Philadelphia in the playoffs. Its ultimate fate and Trubisky's hold on the starting job should be decided in the rematch. No national cameras this time. Just a classic early afternoon kickoff. A hostile stadium. No momentum and the entire football world expecting you to fail.
If ever Trubisky wanted to change the narrative and save his Bears career, this is the game to do it. If he can somehow deliver a victory and potentially alter the course of 2019, his arrow may pull up before it crashes into the ground.
