When Bears starting QB Mitch Trubisky went down with a left shoulder injury on the sixth play of the Bears’ opening possession, backup QB Chase Daniel was thrust into action.
No warm up. No time to prepare. Daniel jogged out onto the field and proceeded to lead the Bears on a scoring drive — a 10-yard TD pass to RB Tarik Cohen to give Chicago a 7-0 lead.
Daniel swears he didn’t feel any nerves in the moment.
“I’ve been in the league a long time — I don’t want to show my age (32) too much,” Daniel said, via the Chicago Tribune. “But you never really know when (your opportunities) are going to come as a backup quarterback. My mindset is always just be ready, be ready. … I tried to just stay calm and cool, and I’ve been in this situation before. The two starts last year really helped me just with communication, especially with the offensive line. We’re doing a bunch of no-huddle stuff. So it felt good.”
Daniel’s execution of the offense was crisp and efficient as he helped lead the Bears to their third consecutive win.
“Chase knows the entire offense inside and out,” wide receiver Anthony Miller said. “This is like his 10th year in the league, so we didn’t miss a beat when he came in.
“He just said, ‘The next play.’ It was like, ‘All right, let’s roll.’ There was no hesitation. We just kept things going.”
That bodes well for the Bears this week against the Oakland Raiders, where they’re likely to be without Trubisky as he recovers from a dislocated left shoulder.
