Is There Time To Mature?
The Chicago Bears are in first for the first time in what seems like forever. The Bears defense is clearly a top five unit in the game, and has forced 8 takeaways through their first three games. But the Bears’ offense has struggled to consistently impress, and it feels like fans have an obvious fix making it even more frustrating.
Bears quarterback, Mitch Trubisky struggled again on Sunday, throwing for a season high 220 yards on 24 for 35 passing. But it was his inaccuracy that has fans concerned. He was lucky to come out of the game with only a single interception, and his inability to hit open receivers (which has become a regularity now) is the biggest frustration. Throwing across his body into coverage, overthrowing and underthrowing open receivers, inconsistent footwork, not trusting the pocket, and having difficulties against blitzing defenders is troublesome and looks like Mitch is taking steps backwards and not improving.
While it is easy to wash inaccuracies away by explaining Mitchell’s inexperience, footwork, and lack of presence in the pocket will come with more familiarity in the offense and experience behind center. While this is true, teams lose on development quarterbacks more than they win on them and we can all look to Deshaun Watson and Pat Mahomes and their early career success.
As Bears fans that have seen a history of losing instead of the storied history of success, a lot of us don’t have the appetite to wait and we see what looks like a championship caliber defense already. We can also see the framework of some incredibly good damn offensive players.
The Bears 1-2 punch of Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen put the Chicago backfield in the top thirdin football. The team’s offensive line has several pieces that should be mainstays for years to come. Then the team’s receiving corps has the weapons to be dangerous in this league. But the quarterback appears to be the piece holding them back. Well, him and the head coach.
The first 18, scripted plays in each game have been incredibly effective. In the first three games, the Bears have scored two touchdowns and botched a field goal on their opening drives. As an offensive head coach, this shows incredibly well on Matt Nagy, but it’s the play calling once the game gets going that leaves fans scratching their heads.
Taking Sunday’s game into account, the Bears became incredibly predictable on first downs, running in nearly all of these situations. Because of this, from about mid-third quarter on, the Arizona Cardinals became very successful at stopping these plays for very minimal gains. There are still issues on short yardage situations, and the ineptitude of the clock maintenance at the end of Sunday’s game would make you pull your hair out.
While this team is in first, and is either an interception or a running play away from being undefeated, it doesn’t feel like a first place team. It feels like there are far too many fans completely upset with the quarterback play and the play calling, and just will not allow Mitch or Nagy to mature. Even knowing they both are incredibly inexperienced.
Matt Nagy keeps telling anyone that will listen that Trubisky will develop into a good QB.
“I’m telling you,” Nagy said. “I know people don’t understand this: It takes time. We will get this.”
There is an overwhelming amount of faith and patience in the Bears locker room, but it doesn’t stretch much further outside of those walls. Should fans allow this process to mature? Or should we be calling for a switch behind center? Is Mitch a bust and was hiring Nagy the wrong decision? These are questions a lot of Bears fans don’t have time for. They want hard proof that this is working, and have very little bandwidth for development.
I have said this on many occasions since Ryan Pace has been here, unlike baseball fans and what we saw with the Chicago Cubs, football fans rarely have the tolerance for a rebuild. They have seen teams play horribly one season and make the playoffs the next. They will time and time again point to those types of teams, but more often than not those teams drop back into mediocrity soon after a playoff run.
What the Bears are trying to do is create long-term success. They want to be the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and dare I say Green Bay Packers. You can’t do that with quick one year turnarounds, that happens with a complete organizational overhaul. It happens with years of selecting better players than you did the year before. It comes through a singular voice throughout the organization, from ownership down to an equipment guy.
But most importantly, it starts with a quarterback. The Bears believe they have that quarterback, will the fans allow him to mature? That’s the biggest question.
