Did Trubisky threw his head coach under the bus? |
Earlier this season, the Bears got off to a 3-1 start, and things were looking up. That was until the Bears endured a brutal 1-5 stretch in which the offense saw their fair share of criticism from the top-down butting plenty of blame to go around on everyone’s shoulders. After ripping off three straight wins, the Bears postseason hopes were ripped away as the Packers did them in on Sunday 21-13.
Despite the scoreline, the Bears refused to give up as they mounted a big fourth-quarter comeback only to come up two yards short of a potential game-tying two-point conversation attempt had they put the ball in the endzone. Even with the offense putting up decent numbers, especially Mitch Trubisky, it appears that he and Matt Nagy were not on the same page Sunday as that could have been an indication of the slow start. This performance came just ten days after the Bears may have played their most complete game of the season against Dallas, where everything seemed to be in sync from the start. It was evident throughout the game on Sunday that both the coach and the QB were indeed not on the same page in the defeat against the Packers. When Trubisky was questioned about the Packers pass rush as if that was the reason for his struggles, it seemed as if the QB answered in a way that it showed some frustrations with his head coaches play calling throughout the game. “I feel like they were pretty good and have a very good defensive front,” Trubisky said. “With that being said, I feel like our offensive line held up most of the day, but we could have taken some pressure off them had we gotten me out of the pocket and on the move more often.” When you investigate that quote, it certainly seems as if Trubisky is criticizing the way Nagy used him and the way the game plan was designed. To be clear, I do not think Trubisky was intentionally trying to throw him under the bus, but when given a chance to take the offense to the next level, Nagy has done everything he can without flat out blaming his signal-caller. It happened again on Sunday when Mitch looked lost at times before ultimately playing well during the second half. Whether that had to do with play-calling in the first half or not will never be known, but Mitch is not 100% wrong when it comes to his thoughts on the offense. Everything they did so well the past three weeks was nonexistent against the Packers. The balanced play-calling, moving out of the pocket, throws to the playmakers in space; basically everything that allows Trubisky to succeed was gone. It has been this continued inconsistent play from the offense that has been called out all season. However, those issues take even more life when a quarterback who has dealt with his share of criticism this season points it out on his own. Although his play has been up and down much of the season, Trubisky continues to go about his business and say the right things you would expect from a leader. However, it seemed as soon as the Bears started to play well toward the end of the season, Trubisky became even more opinionated regarding what was happening on the field. Good for him. That is what a leader should do. It took him long enough to show that at times, but it is about time that he started to speak up regarding the offense and what his thoughts are about it when things go well and bad. He could have said this all season long, and no one would bat an eye, but of all times to bring these issues up, you wait until you were just eliminated from the Playoffs by Green Bay? That just doesn’t seem right or isn’t the right time to do it. Maybe it was in the heat of the moment. Maybe it was weeks of buildup frustration watching your offense play to the way you had hoped only to see them take significant steps back with your season on the line. Regardless of the reason, Trubisky certainly threw his coach under the bus even though it was not intentional. Now we will see how the play calling and their relationship going forward the next two weeks will be as this could be the wake-up call Nagy and the organization need regarding the offense.
