The Cowboys will run onto Soldier Field on Thursday wearing a navy jersey, silver pants and a silver helmet.
Maybe Mitch Trubisky can squint and turn the navy into Honolulu blue. Because the Bears need their quarterback to play against the Cowboys — and the Packers, Chiefs and Vikings — the way he does against the Lions.
He’s thrown six touchdown passes against the Lions this year — and seven against everyone else. He has a 124.4 passer rating against the Lions this season — and a 72.15 against the rest of the league.
Under Nagy, Trubisky has a 133.1 passer rating, nine passing touchdowns and one interception in three games against the Lions — and a 83.24 passer rating, 28 passing touchdowns and eight interceptions in 22 games against every other team.
“Regardless of who our opponent is — and sometimes players play better vs. some opponents — I said it [Thursday] night — it’s been three games, really four games now that Mitch has really stacked some strong games together with decision-making,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said. “And again, others have stepped up. And we got a nice balance going. And can it improve? Yes, absolutely. But we like what we did [Thursday].”
What he did Thursday was beat the NFL’s third-worst passing defense which continually dared him to beat man coverage. He exploited a matchup, and a strategy, that he’s beaten time and again.
“I mean, look, he’s a good player,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said. “He makes some good plays — and obviously made some great plays against us.”
But what does it mean for the rest of the season? Or for his growth as a quarterback?
Trubisky has a chance to enter the 2020 season as the favorite to be the Bears’ starter, though the team will undoubtedly bring in a veteran more capable of wrestling the starting role away from him than Chase Daniel is. To get there, though, he’ll have to look like the Thanksgiving version of himself in the last Bears’ final four games — and the Lions aren’t on the schedule.
Nagy said Friday that Trubisky’s success can carry over.
”The biggest thing is just the confidence that you felt from him making conviction throws,” he said. “And then just the one interception that occurred, you never felt like something bad was going to happen on the next play. You didn’t feel that on the sideline.
“He came back and just started firing away. Guys were making plays and the run game was going.”
One of Nagy’s favorite throws Thursday — on the fourth play of the second quarter — actually came against zone defense. After receiver Anthony Miller’s fumble was changed to an incomplete pass, the Bears lined up on third-and-5 from their own 25.
Trubisky took a shotgun snap, dropped back, planted his back foot and rifled a 14-yard completion to Allen Robinson. He was one of three receivers running a hitch route.
“That’s the timing of this offense,” Nagy said. “When you throw the ball, a three-hitch throw and they popped a zone on us and he threw it to the right guy in zone, it’s hard to stop. …
“The decisions that he made were on time. And I think this offense is built on timing and when you make the right decision on time, usually good things happen.”
Regardless, they hope, of the opponent.
