Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings: Offensive Grades

Quarterback: C+

The one you’ve all been waiting for, I’m sure…

Well, what can I say? It wasn’t a bad performance by Trubisky, to be sure. That said, he didn’t blow anyone’s doors off, finishing 12-25 for 128 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. While I think the numbers belie the more important things I noticed in his play, especially for a first start, there’s a lot to work on.

On one hand, he clearly gives the Bears the best chance to win with his raw play-making ability.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/917766978437132289

The throws he’s capable of making are truly elite, like the McBride one early that was called back. I the Bears will absolutely love his ability to get on the run and make plays if they don’t already.

But there were a few instances where his rookie-ness showed up, both pre- and post-snap.

I’m not even really talking about the 4^th down delay-of-game penalty either. The way it sounds, it seems as if John Fox didn’t even know what the hell he was doing on that play.

I did see a play in the third quarter, however, in which Trubisky appeared to catch Miller off-guard with the snap count as he wasn’t really in position when the play started. And he also missed a couple of protection adjustments and nearly threw another pick on a third-quarter screen pass.

And…well, I’ll show you a few tweets explaining my thoughts on multiple across-his-body throws to Miller outside the pocket.

First one falls incomplete with 13 minutes left in the second quarter:

His second one goes for a touchdown:

And the interception.

In the end, it’s not the worst thing that this happened to him last night.

Of course, you’d rather him just show up and play perfectly from the jump, but reality doesn’t work that way. He needs to fail and see what he can’t get away with in order to succeed later. In this case, he got away with making this type of throw twice, and he got burned the third time.

He’s going to learn to throw these footballs away or tuck them and run. Watch him the next time he gets on the edge. You’ll even be able to see him considering things whereas I think he was just slinging the ball last night.

Next: Trubisky flashes but also crashes in Monday Night debut

Now, don’t get down about Trubisky posting a pretty so-so game in his first NFL action. As excited and hopeful as we were, this was the more likely reality with this team. He’s not truly going to take off until he gets some playmakers back on offense.

The fact that he still acquitted himself decently in primetime and managed to keep the Chicago Bears within striking distance should encourage fans.

After all, his teammates are already behind him. Hopefully, this is only the beginning.