Chicago - A message from the station manager

SportsMonday: About That Hip

By Jim Coffman

We will not forget.
Bears fans will not forget that 90 percent (minimum) of the professional sports commentariat in this town promised us that Mitch Trubisky and Ryan Pace would be joined at the hip forever. That if Trubisky wasn’t good enough, Pace would be removed as general manager.


Sure, there were a few people who questioned Pace’s insane decision to trade away four draft picks to take Trubisky second in 2017. There were a few people at the Beachwood who questioned it immediately – yes I am tooting our own horn but if I don’t who will? Later, the sane Kansas City Chiefs, for whom Matt Nagy was the offensive coordinator at the time, traded up from 27th to 10th to take Pat Mahomes.
And the rest is torment . . . for what, the next 12 to 14 years? Minimum?
Trubisky doesn’t completely suck but he is so much worse than the defending NFL MVP. You can try to make excuses for him but they don’t stand even the slightest scrutiny. Shockingly, toward the end of their broadcast Sunday night of the Chiefs’ 26-3 victory, ultra-announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth half-heartedly made the case that a big difference between Trubisky and Mahomes is that the latter has a much better supporting cast.
What. A. Joke.
The Bears have missed tight end Trey Burton, who apparently suffered the worst groin pull of all time at some point during training camp and has essentially been sidelined for the entire season. And yes there was a surgically repaired hernia in the offseason but come on.
And the Bears have missed speedy wide receiver Taylor Gabriel, who has been sidelined for multiple games twice this season by concussions.
But they still have Allen Robinson, easily one of the top 10 receivers in the NFL. And Anthony Miller had been coming on as a second option with strong performances recently. He seemed to check out yesterday (or maybe it was Nagy and/or Trubisky who checked him out) after a fumble on a reverse in the first quarter. By “checked out” we mean “failed to impact the game in a meaningful fashion the rest of the way.”
And they still have Tarik Cohen, whose performance has to stand as one of the mysteries of the NFL this season. How could the Bears have been so good at getting him the ball in space and then watching him go in 2018 and then have failed so completely to do the same this time around? So strange.
Anyway, Trubisky has had plenty of weapons throughout – especially plenty of weapons to score more than three points. Collinsworth showed a couple of impressive Trubisky throws on the run from the last few games and compared them to Mahomes’ throws on the run. But strangely he didn’t show Trubisky, operating out of a perfectly clean pocket, flub his footwork and overthrow a wide open Robinson on a bomb that would have pulled the Bears within 10-6 in the second quarter on Sunday.


Trubisky blew that throw and blew plenty more. The Bears actually did a better job protecting him than they had against the Packers, and the line achieved a running game with 101 yards gained on 22 carries overall. Still, the Bears offense was massively inept.
The quarterback still hasn’t even learned when to hand off and when to keep the ball during read option running plays. The Bears ran several of those in their first two possessions, and after Trubisky kept on the first one, he decided to keep the ball several more times. Not surprisingly, the runs became less and less successful as the quarterback kept doing the same thing over and over.
This is the biggest problem with Trubisky – he struggles mightily to process two options on a given play, let alone the three or four that Mahomes casually works his way through whenever he wants.
And if Trubisky can’t compete with Mahomes in fundamental ways, Pace needs to be gone, tomorrow. The McCaskey family won’t do it, not with multiple years left on Pace’s contract after this season.
But the McCaskeys will have to force him to bring a veteran quarterback to compete with Trubisky for playing time next year. If the young signal-caller posts a performance in 2020 like he did against the Chiefs, there will need to be a different starter at the helm the next week. And a different general manager at the helm at the end of the season.
P.S.: Pace has been the general manager for five seasons. His teams have made the playoffs once and have not won a postseason game.
He absolutely should be gone.
P.P.S.: Trubisky’s numbers were just about identical to Brissett’s from the week before: both went 18 for 34 with 0 picks and 0 TDS.
(Editor’s Note: Coach the Prophet: Mitch More Jacoby Than Drew.)
–
Jim “Coach” Coffman welcomes your comments.

Permalink

Posted on December 23, 2019