The Sun-Times’ Mark Potash breaks down Saturday’s practice, the second of 2019 training camp:
And the fans love it
It wasn’t quite like the glory days of the Ditka Bears in Platteville, but the first practice open to the public drew an exuberant crowd of 8,385 fans to Olivet Nazarene — a noticeable uptick in palpable enthusiasm from recent seasons. There were even several fans sitting in stands at Field 3, where little or no football activity was going on.
“What we just experienced as a team, coming out to that sea of fans and everybody out there,” coach Matt Nagy said, “I don’t even know how to put it into words how much that means to us — just who are fans our, what our city is all about. It literally gives you goose bumps.”
One-on-one battles
Taking a page from the kicker competition, Nagy is putting receivers and cornerbacks to the test with stand-alone one-on-one matchups. On the first one, Allen Robinson beat Kyle Fuller with a double-move to catch a deep ball from Mitch Trubisky — drawing a big reaction from the crowd. Later, Trubisky misfired on a pass to Taylor Gabriel, trying to beat Prince Amukamara on a buttonhook.
This and that
Mitch Trubisky threw a touchdown pass to Taylor Gabriel on a well-thrown touch pass over Fuller. … Backup Chase Daniel threw a touchdown of 50-plus yards to Anthony Miller down the sideline. … Long shot receiver Thomas Ives made an impression with a couple of big plays for apparent touchdowns from third-string quarterback Tyler Bray.
