BOURBONNAIS, Ill. — Ideally for Mike Glennon, it already would be Saturday night and he’d be warming up in Glendale, Ariz., in his first game opportunity to move on from Thursday night. But he didn’t sound like someone stewing on the pick six he threw or his 0.0 quarterback rating that added fuel to a much-asked question since: Is there a quarterback controversy in Chicago?
“Kind of the good and the bad of the preseason is, that was one quarter and if it was a full game, hopefully we would’ve responded, and then it’s not quite as big of a deal,” Glennon said of his four ineffective series Thursday. “But when it’s a preseason game and that’s all you do, it kind of leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth. So it’s good to get out here at practice and it’ll be good to get to Arizona on Saturday.”
Coach John Fox liked how Glennon responded in practice after Thursday, and while his weekend wasn’t completely clean — Prince Amukamara picked him off in seven-on-seven Sunday — it wasn’t bad, either. The Bears are still rolling ahead with Glennon as QB1, with Mitch Trubisky’s breakout preseason debut not changing much, at least, not yet.
“I don't really pay that much attention,” Fox said. “You know, we're excited about (Trubisky), so I imagine that people on the outside are excited.”
Glennon, too, isn’t searching his name in Google News or on Twitter to see how those outside of the locker room and front office are framing him and Trubisky.
“I just really don’t get online,” Glennon said. “I watched the preseason games but I just avoid the possible distraction of hearing what people may say. The only thing that matters are the coaches and the players in the locker room and what they have to say. That’s where my focus is.
“… I understand as writers you guys have a job to do. There may be some speculation but I don’t know.”
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That even-keeled mentality is helping Glennon not put any added pressure on himself heading into Saturday night’s game, even if ideally he could flush Game 1 sooner than this coming weekend.
But having the right mentality and having success on the field proved to be two different things for Glennon in his first preseason game with the Bears. Glennon said he thought mental preparation was good, but he just didn’t execute well enough. Eventually — and, ideally, by this weekend — he’ll have to produce as the starting quarterback of the Bears.
“There are going to be days like (Thursday),” Fox said on Saturday. “It’s life. So we’ll just grab the bull by the horns and go about trying to get better. It was our first preseason game. Our whole first unit didn’t do well. We had an errant shotgun snap. We didn’t block real well. We didn’t ID some things like we’d expect. It’s like anywhere I’ve ever been as far as first preseason game with a lot of new guys out there, they look at the film. They’ll get better for it.”