Mitch Trubisky isn’t going to change his pregame routine even though the Bears quarterback has a 73.7 passer rating in the first quarter — and a 107.7 in the third. And even though the Bears offense has totaled six points on their first drive of game — and allowed two on a blocked punt-turned-safety — yet, somehow, has scored touchdowns on the first drive of the second half in each of its last five games.
“It’s been good,” he said Tuesday, “but we want to start the first quarter like that. We’re making adjustments at halftime. But we have to come out of the gate ready to go and have success right away and play four quarters instead of just starting off the second half really well.”
Trubisky has yet to play four good quarters in a game.
The Bears’ running game is third-worst in the NFL and their passing game is the second-worst. They’re averaging 17.1 points per game — and their defense is giving up the exact same average. Which means, quite simply, that the Bears make every defense they play look like the their own fourth-ranked unit.
It’s Week 13, and the Bears are still sorting through questions that should have been answered months ago: What is their offensive identity? What fits Trubisky best? If he’s more comfortable in a no-huddle, up-tempo offense, why not do that? If Trubisky steps up in the pocket when he feels comfortable, or likes to run in the red zone, why not tailor the offense?
The Bears enter their Thanksgiving showcase as a team still searching.
“We’ve got to have more pass yards, more rush yards, more everything on offense,” Trubisky said. “We’ve got to score more points. Just continue to stay hungry, take what the defense gives us, making the smart play. There were a couple times I didn’t do that last Sunday.”
After the win against the Giants, Trubisky said scoring only 19 points was unacceptable. He stood by that again Thursday, though that the Bears could win “a good amount of games” that way because their dominant defense. Had the Bears scored 19 points in each game this season, they’d be 8-4.
“From an offensive standpoint I don’t think it’s good enough, and I think having a quick turnaround definitely helps with the mindset,” he said. “We won the game, it was good — put it behind us. But it’s not good enough.
“We want to be better, especially as an offense going forward. Nineteen points, it is what it is. But we want to score more and we know we have much more potential within us. … We’ve just got to be hungrier. You can’t be happy with where we’re at.”
When head coach Matt Nagy said Trubisky had been making marked improvement starting with the last Lions game, it was easy to roll your eyes.
Lions coach Matt Patricia, though, offered a similar analysis of the quarterback Tuesday.
Still, to borrow a Trubisky phrase: is it good enough?
“In the last couple games you can really see maybe more command of the offense,” Patricia said. “I think they’re doing things maybe a little bit more like what they were doing last year — there’s tempo, there’s a lot at the line of scrimmage.
“I think Trubisky’s doing a great job of kinda changing plays and seeing what the coverage is, what the defense is, and getting the offense into the right plays. And you can see how explosive they can be when they can do that.”
