Chicago Bears: MNF presents huge opportunity for Mitch Trubisky

The Chicago Bears travel to the nation’s capital this week to take on the Washington Redskins in what should be a huge opportunity for Mitch Trubisky.

Even though the Chicago Bears won a thriller against the Denver Broncos this past Sunday, a lot of the discussion this week has been around the continued poor play of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

His very pedestrian numbers laid the groundwork for another week of listening to the talking heads agonize over “what could have been” if the Bears drafted either Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson. Look — Trubisky is not either of those players. He will likely never be on the same level as Patrick Mahomes and is still a long ways away from Watson. Let’s accept that and move on so we can focus on the quarterback who does suit up for the Bears.

No amount of handwringing is going to change anything. You want to criticize Ryan Pace — go right ahead. But continuing to beat the same drum just distracts from the fact that Trubisky is the Bears quarterback for now and the foreseeable future and the team needs to figure out a way to get him right before this Super Bowl window slams shut.

This week’s matchup against the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football should give Trubisky and the Bears every opportunity they need to get rolling and for Mitch to get a monkey off his back.

First, the monkey. Trubisky was significantly worse in primetime games last season as noted in the tweet below from Johnathan Wood. Those numbers also don’t include his performances against the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoff game or Week 1 this year against the Green Bay Packers — both of which were lackluster on balance. But Mitch gets another opportunity under the bright lights this week. Why should we think this game will be any different?  Well, that brings me to the opportunity No. 2.

The Redskins defense is — well — a sieve. They rank 30th in the league in total yards (455 per game), 25th in passing yards allowed (287 per game), 31st in rushing yards allowed (168 per game) and 31st in points per game allowed (31.5).

In other words, if Trubisky doesn’t come out and carve up the Redskins defense, we may have to accept the fact that it may never happen. Against the Broncos, it felt like Matt Nagy overcorrected and really dialed back what he allowed Trubisky to do. However, there was at least a plausible explanation for it — to neutralize the pass rush of Bradley Chubb and Von Miller.

If he is similarly handcuffed or limited against a defense as porous was Washington’s, then it’s probably time to sound the alarm bells.

Fortunately, I don’t think that will be the case. I think Mitch and the rest of the offense will come out firing and will carve up the defense in both phases. Hopefully, the final pass of the Broncos game will also provide him with some confidence and momentum heading into another critical matchup on Monday Night Football.