Bears: Boring and Blasphemous
Mitchell Trubisky’s woeful decision-making ruined everything and a glimpse of hope from running plays.
Back in 1920 when it all started, the National Football League only consisted of ten teams which are Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Tigers, Dayton Triangles, Decatur Staleys, Hammond Pros, Muncie Flyers, Chicago Cardinals, Rock Island Independents, and Rochester Jeffersons. From all ten, only two teams left from the founding members. Staleys later become Chicago Bears, and the Cardinals moved from Racine, Chicago to Phoenix to become the Arizona Cardinals.
One year later, The Green Bay Acme Packers who are established in 1919 joined the league. Staleys would move to Chicago in the same year and changed their name to Chicago Bears the year after, and since 1967 when the conference system was introduced and NFL-AFL merger in 1970 Bears and Packers were placed in the same division.
Being the longest tenured teams in the league and competing in the same conference, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have met 199 times with the record of 98 wins for Packers, 95 wins for Bears, and 6 draws. This serves as NFL’s most played fixture, making it the oldest rivalry in the league.
To celebrate its 100th season, National Football League chose the match between Chicago Bears versus Green Bay Packers as the opening day match on September 5th, 2019. Packers, led by 2-times MVP Aaron Rodgers looking to bounce back after a woeful last season of notching only 6 wins. Meanwhile Khalil Mack and the new Monsters of the Midway are expected to win the NFC North and make it even further to the playoffs, especially after the misfortunate event of “double-doink” where Cody Parkey missed the winning field goal against Philadelphia Eagles in last year’s NFC Wild Card.
In this article, I will breakdown the main takeaways for the Bears in a short and brief manner, without omitting the essence of in-depth analysis.
Let’s start with Mitchell Trubisky. The second overall pick out of UNC completed 228 yards out of 26/45 passes. Out of 32 starting quarterbacks in week 1, Trubisky ranked 28th in completion percentage with 57.8% and 31st in quarterback passer rating with 62.1. To put into context, the league’s average on both stats are 67.3% and 103.1 respectively and Trubisky’s stats margin relative to it is considerably big.
Number-wise, it’s an awful performance. To justify the numbers given, let’s look at some of Trubisky’s snaps. Second quarter, 12.51 left, 1st and 10. Anthony Miller was in motion to identify the coverage.
Then Bears attacked the defense with double hitch from the right. Miller in the slot doing a post route to Packers’ 40 and curl back, and Taylor Gabriel hitched the go route after 15 yards running. Tight end Adam Shaheen with the go route and Allen Robinson II in the slant route. You should notice Packers’ Kentell Brice is following Miller, which identifies the man coverage.
In a man coverage with 8 yards apart and doing a hitch route, it should be easy for Miller to catch the ball as he would have enough space. But instead, Trubisky passed the ball to Robinson with close and tight marking.
Yes, the pocket is collapsing and it’s best to throw the ball as soon as possible. But looking at how Robinson and Miller both crossed Trubisky’s line of sight, it’s unbelieveable how he chose Robinson who is tightly marked instead of Anthony Miller with plenty of space.
Let’s look at another awful reading. Second quarter, 2.20 left, 3rd and 14. Bears were in trips left, two receiver running hitch and the the one in the middle going flat. And the Packers responded with a cover-3 zone defense.
I’m relatively new to American Football analysis. I don’t have such experience in analyzing routes versus different covers. But let’s be logical; if someone running straight and turn back, who is the runner actually trying to fool? It’s obviously the defender in front of him. To anticipate from being “fooled”, the defense responded by adding another player to cover the zone BENEATH just in case the runner did turn.
Now let’s look further down to the situation. With Allen Robinson II and Taylor Gabriel hitching from the trips, the one Trubisky must read is the defender beneath the hitch. In this case, it’s Blake Martinez being in between them. It’s a situation where he would have to choose one between two receivers, and Trubisky should be in an advantage knowing this is a 50:50 situation.
Trubisky locked his eyes on Robinson and never looked at Gabriel, not even a single peek. Martinez read the situation and it’s already becoming a 2v1 situation for Robinson. If he didn’t anticipate by surging towards the ball, it would’ve been an easy interception for Darnell Savage.
Trubisky did have several good passes and correct reads, one I noticed is when he read the situation right in an RPO scheme like this:
Trubisky read the red linebacker who committed to the run, pull the ball from Montgomery and pass it to Tarik Cohen on the slant. Basic, textbook RPO done well.
In a passing-heavy scheme established by Matt Nagy as there was 30 (yes, you read it right, THIRTY) straight passing play and Trubisky’s total of 45 attempts was fifth (tied with Matthew Stafford) most in week 1, you can’t afford having a quarterback with only “several” good reads. A second-overall pick playing in his third year but still making reading mistakes like that won’t be good for the long run.
However, there’s a good glimpse of how Bears would compete through their young and energetic running corps. Rookie David Montgomery showed flashes of skill and relentlessness meanwhile second-year running back Tarik Cohen was reliable on both running and receiving short passes as shown in the latter RPO analysis.
This is Montgomery finding the gap between the Center and Left Guard:
And this is my favorite play from Montgomery when he bull-rushed Packers’ defense to get the first down. Bears linemen did a great job on providing the block but what excites me is how Montgomery keep on hustling even when the block is already penetrated.
Montgomery and Cohen contributed a combined 94 yards out of Bears’ total of 254 from 65 plays. Not to mention Cohen ability on returning punts with a total 36 yards on 4 carries. In a team with an emphasis on passing game but having a quarterback that got a lot to learn, it wouldn’t hurt to add running game in the mix.
I won’t be talking much about the Bears’ defense as it was scary good as usual. The rushers sacked Aaron Rodgers five times and only allowed 203 passing yards. On rushing, Bears allowed 47 yards from 22 rush attempts. But it’s worth mentioning that Bryan Bulaga and David Bakhtiari did a great job on nullifying Khalil Mack from the edge, and it costs them a touchdown on this play:
Nevertheless, I’m still pretty confident that the Bears will go all the way with this defensive corps. Khalil Mack is still the best EDGE rusher in the league, along Roy Robertson-Harris & Akiem Hicks they will not make easy of the opposition’s quarterback. There are also Eddie Jackson and Kyle Fuller on the back, which are elite defenders and will add extra protection if things went south for the main rushers.
The game next Sunday against Denver Broncos would be a tough one, especially with a defense orchestrated by their own former Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio and a talented pass rusher of Von Miller and Bradley Chubb. And it will all comes down to how Matt Nagy manages his offensive options with the current situation presented. He must find a way to optimize the potential of running plays and work on Mitchell Trubisky’s decision-making.
Play analysis snaps taken from NFL YouTube & NFL Game Pass Condensed Game
