Chicago Bears beat the Arizona Cardinals: Offensive grades

Quarterbacks: B

Naturally, evaluating the quarterback was the toughest aspect of this game for the Bears. On one hand, Mike Glennon did, in fact, play better than his first outing last week while Mitch Trubisky struggled a bit more.

However, Glennon likely himself as the Week 1 starter, don’t take that to mean that he’s the better quarterback.

Glennon

Most of Glennon’s 13 completions for 89 yards came within five yards of the line of scrimmage as the Bears sought to raise his confidence and protect him from scrutiny. He took many of those easy throws thankfully, though to be fair, he did convert a few third downs with nice quick throws.

He also made a savvy read on the goal line when he threw his touchdown to Kendall Wright. Seeing the all-out blitz coming, he identified his hot read and made the quick throw to Wright in the right flat. Wright ran in for an easy touchdown.

But interspersed with those good moments were some bad ones. Some were harmless. One wasn’t.

Glennon only had one good downfield throw all night, a completion over the middle to Cameron Meredith. Aside from that, any time he pushed downfield or aimed for a sideline window, he looked awful.

He almost bounced a simple crossing route to Meredith, which his receiver caught. He nearly got picked on two outside throws to Meredith—one on a third-down comeback and one on a goal-line slant—consistently throwing late and behind his man. Then, he also tried to force a ball downfield to Zach Miller while rolling to his left, a throw he simply cannot make—both strategically and physically.

But the coup-de-grace was definitely his interception to Tyrann Matheu.

Glennon predetermined his target, Wright, on an out route in the slot. Matheu baited him. Glennon threw late and behind his man. And the Honey Badger swiped the ball, taking it the other way for a huge return. The Cardinals went on to score on that drive, causing a 14-point swing.

The Bears tried their best to hide Mike Glennon’s weaknesses, but they couldn’t completely do it. Everyone’s getting an idea of what he can and can’t do now. And what he can’t do—throw more than five yards down the field—could cost the Bears later.

Trubisky

Yes, I’m skipping over Mark Sanchez and his one series. No one wants to hear about him.

Trubisky started the game with the third quarter more than halfway finished and the Bears up 24-14. And he immediately had a tougher time than he did against the Denver Broncos.

He got absolutely crushed for a sack on his first drive, though a face-masking penalty negated it. But he did take a sack in the fourth quarter as he couldn’t pull the trigger before the pocket collapsed around him. Then, later, he took a shot to the knee/shin area that could’ve been disastrous. Fortunately, he emerged unhurt and generally unfazed.

However, while he did show off refreshing velocity compared to what we saw from Glennon, his accuracy wasn’t as outstanding as it was last week.

He left a fade route to Tanner Gentry too far inside, causing Gentry to commit pass interference to save an interception. Then, he made a bad decision along the right sideline, trying to hit a blanketed Titus Davis. The Cardinals’ corner dropped the interception, but it was still a poor throw. Fortunately, it was probably his only truly bad decision thus far. The Bears will coach him through it.

And of course, Trubisky still gave Bears fans something to smile about, capping off his game with what would be the game-winning touchdown. Overall, he finished 6-8 for 60 yards and a touchdown.

Let’s keep everything up front: John Fox is bungling his quarterback situation right now. And we can only hope it doesn’t hurt Trubisky.

Playing Glennon for a whole half made sense, given his own inexperience and need to prepare. But Fox’s aversion to even consider Trubisky as a viable option could cripple his own job prospects. After he can Dowell Loggains went through all that trouble to save Glennon from himself and still couldn’t do it, why isn’t this a real discussion?

Trubisky, despite playing with a terrible third-string offensive line and very few playmakers, still managed to keep the Bears moving and get them on the board with a touchdown. He did look more like a rookie this time, but he’s still arguably a better player right now than Glennon is.

This is not the same situation as the Brett Favre/Aaron Rodgers, Joe Montana/Steve Young, Drew Bledsoe/Tom Brady pairings. In those cases, the starters were actually established, solid NFL quarterbacks while the young guys were completely unproven. Here, Glennon is a backup-caliber quarterback. Trubisky is a second-overall pick.

Glennon will start Week 1 and probably will get a shot until midseason. Assuming the Chicago Bears offense will struggle the way I expect it will, Trubisky will take over from there.

Even after coming down slightly from an outstanding debut, he still played better than Glennon.