With the Bears nursing a 13-10 lead over the Jaguars and the offense facing a fourth-and-five at the Jaguars 36-yard-line early in the third quarter Sunday, Mitch Trubisky took command.
“It all starts with communication in the huddle,” Trubisky said. “Me letting guys know what the down-and-distance is. ‘It’s fourth-and-five — we gotta have it.’ Obviously everybody knows that. But I think me saying that gets everyone locked in; everyone listening to the play. We’re believing in the call and then we just go out and execute it.”
That’s how it works with the good quarterbacks — the ones who with a tone or a look in their eyes instills the focus necessary that almost wills the good teams to success in key moments. This wasn’t the Super Bowl. It wasn’t the Packers. It was only a key game against a 1-13 team with the 32nd-ranked defense in the NFL. But give Trubisky and the Bears credit. They came through in the moment — and the payoff was big.
Beating a Jaguars blitz, Trubisky simply and methodically threw a short pass to an in-cutting and open Allen Robinson over the middle for an eight-yard gain and a first down at the Jaguars’ 28 with 11:44 left in the third quarter. It was a well-designed play without complications — with the line picking up blitzing linebackers and Darnell Mooney crossing in front of Robinson to draw cornerback Chris Claybrooks out of the middle. It was an easy throw for Trubisky.
“They gave us a good look,” Trubisky said. “They brought a little pressure. I just faded to the left and A-Rob beat the guy up on a nice slant route and it worked out for us. It starts with all 11 guys playing as one and it starts with communication and doing a great job getting in and out of the huddle.”
Five plays later, Trubisky artfully scrambled for an easy six-yard touchdown through a gaping hole in the Jaguars’ defense that gave the Bear a 20-10 lead and they were on their way towards a 41-17 rout Sunday at TIAA Bank Field.
Against an accommodating defense, the offense made it easy for Trubisky, who only had to overcome one grievous decision-making error — an ill-advised throw into a pack of defenders in the end zone for an interception late in the first half — to lead the Bears to another high-scoring day.
Trubisky completed 24-of-35 passes for 265 yards, two touchdowns and the one interception for a 97.9 rating. He again was more efficient than prolific, but is giving the Bears what they need at quarterback. Next week will tell the tale, but right now Matt Nagy’s offense is making a quarterback out of him.
“He’s very comfortable schematically in what we’re doing,” Nagy said. “We get the game plan to where he feels really good. We have great weeks of practice. We keep defenses on their heels. And if they decide to shut something down, then we’ve got to be able to counter with something else.
“That’s a little bit of what we got into today, because they did a good job in the first half of shutting down some of our under-center runs. So credit our coaches for making some adjustments. We got some different things and it worked.”
Trubisky and the offense were good enough that Trubisky’s interception was a footnote and not a turning point. Scrambling to find a receiver, he rolled to the right side and lofted a pass for Robinson into a crowd of defenders in the end zone. Linebacker Joe Schobert picked it off.
“It was frustrating because I knew right away I made a bad decision trying to do too much extending the play,” Trubisky said. “I frustrated myself in making that decision. I just talked to Flip [quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo]. He got me right. I was able to lock back in [and] make some adjustments at halftime so we could have a big third quarter.”
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