EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Mitch Trubisky threw on the field at MetLife Stadium a few hours before the Bears’ ludicrous 30-27 overtime loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, another sign the second-year quarterback is progressing toward a return to the field next weekend against the Los Angeles Rams.
Coach Matt Nagy did not make any declarations about Trubisky’s immediate future, saying his quarterback is feeling better but remains “day to day.”
“Today, he went and did some more throwing, where (is he) at? And then same thing for the rest of the days this week,” Nagy said. “That’s our plan this whole time is communicate and see. I said last week, his arrow’s going up. Every day he feels like (that), and you can see when he’s throwing. So we’ll continue to keep our fingers crossed.”
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Nagy said last week the Bears’ opponent — the eight-loss, last-place Giants — was not a factor in the team’s cautious approach to resting Trubisky’s banged-up shoulder for the second consecutive week. And the team did enter Sunday with confidence in backup Chase Daniel, though it wasn’t repaid by the veteran, who set the tone for a largely sloppy game with two interceptions in the first quarter. One of those was a pick-six on the second play of the game.
“As an offense, especially as a quarterback, your No. 1 job is to take care of the football. I didn’t do that today,” Daniel said. “I let my team down. I’ll be the first one to say that. It’s sad, because I pride myself on taking care of the football and playing with an edge. And for the first, at least three quarters, we really didn’t do that today.”
The Bears’ offense didn’t find a rhythm until the final two minutes of the game, with Daniel taking five sacks and missing plenty of throws he surely would like back. In the absence of consistent play by Daniel, the Bears rode Jordan Howard to 69 yards on 13 carries in the first half — and then only gave him the ball three more times the rest of the game, gaining seven yards on those carries.
After impressively leading the Bears back by leaning on a massive day from running back Tarik Cohen — 12 catches, 156 yards — Daniel fumbled three times on the Bears’ overtime possession, and accepted responsibility for one that seemed to be due to a poor snap by center Cody Whitehair.
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“I gotta catch the football,” Daniel said. “Bottom line.”
The Bears were able to beat the Detroit Lions last week with Daniel playing a clean game, not throwing any interceptions or even putting the ball in harm’s way. For whatever reason, Daniel was off against the Giants, finishing with 26 completions on 39 attempts for 285 yards with one touchdown, two interceptions and a passer rating of 75.3.
"Chase puts us in a position, he can run this offense inside-out,” Nagy said. “And if you talk to Chase, there at the end — there’s a guy that we weren’t really in rhythm, we weren’t really getting first downs, starting the game with a pick-six, not how you want to start. But to his credit and to the rest of the guys’ credit, they figured out a way to give us a chance at the end of the game as hard as it felt throughout the game. He did everything that we asked him to, I appreciate how Chase has been this whole time and it’s who we are as a team and I’ll never put a win or a loss on one guy.”
The Bears going 1-1 with their backup quarterback may look like a positive once the dust settles on the 2018 season. Right now, it feels like a missed opportunity as the focus returns to the status of Trubisky's shoulder over the next few days.
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