Mitch Trubisky finally got off the canvas in Washington. Against a struggling Redskins defense, he almost had a flawless night. He finished with 231 yards and three touchdown passes. His lone major blemish was a bad interception in the red zone in the second half. One that robbed the Chicago Bears of at least three points. In the end, it didn't matter but it was another reminder that he still has flaws to work out.
With that said, an ongoing theory about Trubisky was also confirmed. A positive one that head coach Matt Nagy alluded to a couple of weeks ago. The Bears QB is often at his best when he can get into an early rhythm. The faster the start, the better he tends to play. This is most often done when he is able to string together completions. Such a trend held up multiple times in 2018 during all of his best performances.
- vs. Tampa Bay – started 8-of-11
- vs. Detroit – started 12-of-13
- at Miami – started 9-of-15
- vs. Green Bay – started 10-of-14
This helped to explain his tough start to the season as well. In the opener against Green Bay, he completed just five of his first 11 passes. He was 8-of-13 in the first half against Denver, none of them of a deeper variety. It wasn't until the Washington game where the Bears finally got the sort of start they were looking for.
Mitch Trubisky could hardly miss early in Washington
Matt Nagy had a great game plan for this game and a lot of it involved getting easier completions for Trubisky. This certainly worked out well. The quarterback connected on 10 of his first 11 passes. The only incompletion probably would've been good too if Tarik Cohen were 5'10 instead of 5'6. Regardless, it became apparent that Trubisky found his groove by the second quarter as he delivered all three of his touchdown throws on three-consecutive drives during that 15-minute sequence.
The question moving forward will be whether the Bears can replicate it against a far better defense in the Minnesota Vikings next week. There's no reason to think they can't. After all, they did before during the team's last meeting on December 30th. Trubisky started out 11-of-13 in that game, aided by a steady dose of the ground attack. Nagy should look to replicate that same game plan, presuming he can get a good performance out of an offensive line that has been a little inconsistent to start the year.
Hopefully this Redskins win confirmed some things for them on tape and offered further instructions on how to handle their young quarterback.
