Missing Mitch
Mitch Trubisky has been very good this season, improving each game and exceeding my wildest expectations for this season. Yet there was still a small faction of Bears fans who continue to doubt him. There is even a smaller faction who had called for Chase Daniel to start early in the season — especially after his sterling performance in the third preseason game.
To those fans, I ask: “how much do you miss Mitch now?” Look, Chase is a very solid backup quarterback. He’s probably one of the best in the league. But there’s a reason he’s a backup, and it has less to do with talent and more to do with inconsistency. His inconsistency reared its ugly head yesterday.
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On the very first drive of the game, backed up in their own end of the field, Daniel threw an awful (and I mean crippling) interception to Alec Ogletree who promptly walked it into the end zone for a pick-six.
Then, early in the second quarter, the Bears were driving with the game tied 7-7. Daniel dropped back to pass on first down and had Tarik Cohen wide open on a seam. All he had to do was put a little touch on the ball. Instead, he threw it on a line and failed to recognize Ogletree jumping in front of the pass and once again intercepting Daniel.
At a minimum, they should have come away with three points. Add that to the pick-six and that’s 10 points Daniel was responsible for handing the Giants. In a three-point overtime game, those points were obviously huge.
Finally, there was the final drive in which Daniel had 19 fumbles. Alright, a slight exaggeration, but it felt like that didn’t it? Yes, Cody Whitehair‘s snaps weren’t great but Daniel should have caught all of them — even the ones earlier in the game. But he didn’t and put the team in bad down and distances in overtime.