Chicago Bears: Mitch Trubisky is in a tough spot vs. Lions

The Chicago Bears quarterback is in a tough spot Sunday.

When the Chicago Bears take the field on Sunday to face the Detroit Lions, all eyes will be on quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. After winning the quarterback competition over Nick Foles in training camp, expectations are incredibly high for the fourth-year signal-caller. But is it possible he is walking into a lose-lose situation in Week 1? More on that in a minute.

Despite high expectations, Trubisky has an opportunity to ease into the 2020 season a bit, as his first two opponents were both near the bottom of the league in passing defense.

Moreover, Trubisky’s history against the Lions has been lights out. For a variety of reasons, including the Lions insistence on playing mostly man coverage and refusal to blitz, Trubisky has lit them up.

His career numbers against them deviate so significantly from the mean, the fans have often joked that he’d be the MVP if he only had to play Detroit. In his career, he’s 3-0, throwing for 866 yards, nine touchdowns, and one interception. Those are darn good numbers, and fans would kill for that kind of production against the rest of the league.

However, is it possible his success against the Lions puts him in a bit of an unwinnable situation? Let’s say Mitch goes out on Sunday and puts forward another very good performance against the Lions. To use a Wall Street analogy, has the good news already been baked into the stock price? In other words, are fans already expecting a solid performance against the Lions such that they will dismiss it as such?

While it would be unfair to Mitch to discount a good performance, it would be equally unfair to reach the conclusion that he’s “back” after one performance.

On the flip side, however, what if he has a poor performance? In that scenario, fans could become apoplectic. If Mitch bombs against a team he’s handled comfortably in the past, the doubt amongst fans will continue to grow. It would be fair to be concerned if this happened. Sure, you could use the excuse that he had no preseason games, but this is year four, and fans won’t be accepting of “excuses.”

Unfortunately for Mitch, there is very little he can gain from Sunday’s game in the eyes of the fans. Fortunately, for him, that’s not what matters. What matters is that he continues to progress and strings together multiple quality performances. That starts with a good one in Detroit, but even if that happens, there will still be a lot to prove. Now if he falters, well then, it’s best we all stay off Twitter.