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.