Bears: Was Mitchell Trubisky’s alleged hip injury a smokescreen?

As if it wasn’t enough for the Chicago Bears’ season to be all but over, we now have to deal with a quarterback controversy.

Sunday Night Football proved to be one of the final nails in the coffin for this 2019 Chicago Bears football team. The Los Angeles Rams won by a score of 17-7 on their home field, as Mitchell Trubisky and the Bears offense had a tough time finishing drives all night long.

Before diving too far into Trubisky, real quick, I must add that kicker Eddy Pineiro did miss two field goals in the first half. Had those kicks went through the uprights, who knows how this one would have ended.

What I can say, though, is that the ending of this game is what everyone will be talking about all week long.

Late in the fourth quarter, head coach Matt Nagy decided to pull Trubisky in favor of Chase Daniel. Right away, both Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels said they didn’t see Trubisky near the medical tent, nor did he look injured.

They did, however, say that Trubisky was visibly upset after a conversation with his coach during the most recent commercial break.

Following the break, Daniel came out onto the field with the Bears trailing by 10 and just under four minutes remaining. The Bears did have all three timeouts, plus the two-minute warning to work with.

After Daniel entered the game, the team’s PR department tweeted that Trubisky had suffered a hip injury and his return was questionable.

For the majority of the game, Trubisky actually looked better than he’s looked all season. Many of the halted drives came due to receivers dropping passes that were put right on the money by Trubisky. Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel and Anthony Miller all dropped what would have been first-down balls at various points throughout the night.

Here is the head-scratcher, though: On Trubisky’s final pass before being benched, he looked completely fine. There were no visible or obvious signs of pain. By all accounts, Trubisky was not hurt. Even from the broadcast booth, Michaels and Collinsworth stated that, unless there was an unknown or unannounced injury, they weren’t sure why he was pulled.

While Trubisky wasn’t perfect, he was quite honestly a bright spot in this game. If he was indeed injured, then all of this can be forgotten. But, part of me doesn’t buy the so-called injury. There is something weird about this situation, and I wonder if we’ll find out more about it as the week goes on.

Has Nagy finally seen something in Trubisky which changed his mind? Is he looking at riding with Daniel down the stretch to try and save his job? Whatever lies behind the potential smokescreen we saw with this late benching, I’m here for it. The season is essentially over. Fans want something to talk about. This is it.

Who will be next week’s starter against the New York Giants? That’s what I’m eagerly awaiting, as are Bears fans everywhere. For now, we can only sit and speculate. A hip injury? I’m not so sure.