Chicago Bears: Outside noise affecting Trubisky’s play?

Through two regular season games, Mitch Trubisky hasn’t played like a confident franchise quarterback for the Chicago Bears. While he’ll never publicly acknowledge it, could outside criticism be the source of his struggles?

If not for a miraculous fourth- and-15  catch by Allen Robinson, to go along with Eddie Pineiro‘s improbable 53-yard game-winning field goal going through the uprights as time expired, all fans and media pundits everywhere would be talking about is the head-scratching, maddening play of Mitch Trubisky holding the Chicago Bears back thus far from greatness.

While the Bears’ 16-14 road-game victory against the Denver Broncos has fans everywhere excited, at least temporarily, there are still plenty of worrisome signs that shouldn’t be ignored regarding this team’s performance. Most notably, Trubisky’s regression on the field to date.

Coming off an impressive sophomore season, Trubisky was viewed by many people around the league as being a possible darkhorse MVP candidate in 2019. After all, heading into this season, it was expected that Trubisky would take his game up a couple more notches, given that he now had a full season under his belt playing in head coach Matt Nagy’s high-powered offense.

Unfortunately for Bears fans, after rumblings about Trubisky’s shaky performance throughout offseason training camp were spreading like wildfire across Chicago, thanks in large part to social media, it only got worse for Trubisky and the Bears’ offense, when Nagy determined that three measly hand-offs in the first preseason game was all he needed to see from his starting quarterback leading up to regular season action.

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The Bears head into Week 3 with a .500 record, yet could have easily been 0-2, given Trubisky’s shaky play. He’s been a shell of his former self, looking lost at times when surveying the defense,  all while exhibiting little confidence in his decision-making. All of this has led to drives stalling out, resulting in more three-and-outs than ever before under Nagy, and erred throws that make you nervous as heck that another Trubisky turnover is on the horizon.

If the Bears want to get back to playing winning football consistently, it all starts and ends with Trubisky’s play. This team will ultimately go as far as Trubisky takes them, because their defense won’t be able to bail the offense out all the time. You saw how a tired Bears’ defense let up in the final minute against Denver, ultimately giving up the lead because the Trubisky-led offense couldn’t give Khalil Mack and company a breather throughout the afternoon.

During offseason and now into his regular season post-game press-conferences, Trubisky has continually shrugged off any notion that outside criticism from people has affected his play on the field. After all, players, regardless of their position on the field, are taught to block out noise that is perceived as being negative. Too bad we all live in a world where that is easier said than done.

Trubisky is going to continue saying all the right things when speaking to the media following a down performance, but how much of what he says is actually true?

Unless Trubisky has now decided to live his life away from the football field in isolation, it’s practically impossible for him to become oblivious to what people are saying, or in this case…writing about him. Nowadays everything revolves around social media, for better or for worse, and Trubisky knows this first-hand.

Trubisky no doubt would rather let his play simply do all the talking in response to all his critics. Yet, when your play on the field is only justifying how critics feel about you to begin with, there lies the problem. One that shows little signs of being fixed anytime soon.

Nagy has routinely come to Trubisky’s defense during his early season struggles, often shouldering the blame for an offense that has lost its mojo from a year ago. And to be fair, Nagy deserves plenty of blame for the lack of offense shown thus far through two games. No one will deny that obvious.

But, when a play breaks down, doesn’t go as planned, or if there’s a wide-open throw to be made, that’s on Trubisky to execute. And very little have we seen him do just that.

Playing quarterback for the Bears is not easy. Just ask Jay Cutler, who endured years of criticism far worse than what Trubisky has gone through thus far. Cutler wasn’t oblivious to what fans and media pundits thought of him.  After all, Cutler often participate in radio talk shows the day after a Bears’ win or loss with him under center.

Some people are better equipped to handle criticism and adversity than others. Unfortunately, when you’re the number two overall pick, you’re prone to more backlash, given the expectation to perform well is far greater than pretty much everyone else on the team.

Will Trubisky be able to turn his season around in a hurry? Hopefully so, because if not, those boos at Soldier Field will only continue getting louder from here on out. And there’s no escaping that.