When the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills kicked off for their preseason matchup on Saturday, there were a plethora of juicy storylines to follow.
Most importantly, Justin Fields was about to play in his second NFL game. Fans were obviously thrilled to see their prized first-round pick once again.
But, another quarterback was making his return to Chicago — former no. 2 overall pick Mitchell Trubisky, who was making his first appearance against Chicago, as the Bills’ backup quarterback.
The Bears saw a good chunk of their defensive starters play in this one, and all were fairly familiar with Trubisky’s tendencies. Still, the former Bears signal caller carved them up.
Although Mitchell Trubisky’s numbers were fantastic, we shouldn’t panic about the Chicago Bears defense.
It was difficult to watch; that’s for sure. But, in the end, the 41-15 beat down wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be.
Trubisky finished 20-of-28 for 221 yards and a passing touchdown — a beautiful touchdown pass, I will admit.
However, just about 80 percent of Trubisky’s passes were to wide open receivers. Now, normally that would be cause for panic. But, on this occasion, there was no reason for legitimate concern.
New defensive coordinator Sean Desai was mentored by Vic Fangio, the Bears’ former coordinator. One thing Fangio did, every preseason, was not allow any game film to be had of his schemes. Similarly, Desai seemed to have the same mentality on Saturday.
Chicago’s defense allowed everything under 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. In fact, it wasn’t even that Buffalo’s receivers were making any spectacular moves. There weren’t many Bears defenders in the middle of the field for the majority of the day.
If you go back and re-watch the game, you’ll notice Trubisky had a cake walk of a day. Again, his touchdown pass to Jake Kumerow was a phenomenal throw. Other than that toss, though, most of his completions were underneath or via screens.
Other than Desai allowing the underneath throws, you could tell Bears defenders weren’t truly “in” the game. They weren’t going to play full throttle and risk injury. One specific play saw Devin Singletary run right pass both Robert Quinn and Eddie Jackson on his way to the end zone. Quinn did not pursue and waited for Singletary to make a move, while he sprinted right past.
In a regular season game, Quinn would have gotten an earful for such a lack of effort. The same goes for Jackson. However, they were not going all out in this one. It was obvious to anyone’s eyes.
So, while all of the headlines will tell you that Trubisky shredded his former team, the tape shows otherwise. Trubisky was the same guy he was in Chicago, dinking and dunking his way through the offense and hardly reaching past his first read.
Have no qualms about it: this Bears defense will bring the energy under Desai, just as soon as Week 1 rolls around.
In the regular season, Desai will unleash more blitzes and disguises. With the talent they have on that side of the ball, the Bears will be able to get to the quarterback and force turnovers in a way they hadn’t under Chuck Pagano. It’s hard to wait for the regular season. It’s hard not to panic over yesterday’s showing. But, keep even keeled and just wait for what Desai has in store once he is able to play his power cards.
