With Mitchell Trubisky waiting, Bears insist it's not all Mike Glennon's fault

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TAMPA — The Bears aren’t planning on replacing Mike Glennon with Mitchell Trubisky, at least not in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s mistake-laden 29-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. Glennon threw two interceptions — including a pick-six — and lost a fumble as the Bears’ offense imploded a week after showing some promise against the defending NFC champion Atlanta Falcons.

“I don’t think anybody, without even seeing the tape yet, (could say) that you can pin that on the quarterback,” coach John Fox said. “Everybody had their hand in that.”

Fox flatly said “no” when asked if he’s considering starting Trubisky next weekend against the Pittsburgh Steelers. And Fox’s message of everyone, not just Glennon, making mistakes was echoed by the quarterback’s teammates in the visiting locker room after the game.

“We have confidence in Mike,” wide receiver Kendall Wright said. “Y’all might not have confidence in Mike. We have confidence in Mike. If you — most of y’all don’t really do it — but if you go watch the game and break down the film instead of just going off what you see, you’ll see. And you’ll see why we’re confident in him. He’s our quarterback and we’re behind him. So whatever we gotta do to keep him up and be in the right spots for him, that’s what we gotta do.”

Said tight end Dion Sims, who was the intended target of Glennon’s first interception: “Mike’s doing a great job, man. Everything’s not going to be perfect. We’ll just lean on him and correct the mistakes and be ready for Pittsburgh next week.”

And offensive lineman Cody Whitehair: “We gotta protect him better and give him a little more time.”

The mistakes made by Bears players not named Mike Glennon were numerous and costly. Tarik Cohen’s attempt to field a bouncing punt in traffic led to a turnover and Tampa Bay’s first touchdown — “That was a dumb mistake,” Cohen said — and the Bears were whistled for defensive holding on three third downs, aiding a pair of Buccaneers scoring drives. The Bears’ offense, defense and special teams all failed to cover each other’s mistakes.

The Bears also couldn’t run the ball. Jordan Howard gained seven yards on nine carries, and Cohen only picked up 13 yards on seven rushing attempts.

“It’s on all 11 guys on offense,” Whitehair said. “Obviously we gotta protect better, we gotta block better for the run game so we can get that started too and not have to focus on the pass so much.”

So yes, this was a total team effort to lose in such comprehensive fashion. But Glennon is the most important part of that team effort with the ball in his hands on every offensive play.

Glennon said the first interception — that short throw to Sims — was a quick gain concept that Buccaneers linebacker Kwon Alexander jumped (Sims was blanketed by defenders on the play). On his second interception, Glennon said he should’ve moved on in his progressions and not thrown toward Josh Bellamy. And the fumble, Glennon said he’ll look on film to see if he should’ve moved in the pocket differently or got the ball out quicker.

“Three of those fall on me and ultimately I have to do a better job taking care of the football and giving us a chance to win,” Glennon said.

Until the Bears’ coaching staff believes Trubisky gives them a better chance to win than Glennon, it’ll be status quo in the quarterback room. It didn’t sound like Fox had got to that point after the game, though that’s without the benefit of reviewing the tape. Perhaps the coaching staff decides after watching Sunday’s film that they need to make a change.

But for now, the message was clear: This wasn’t all on Glennon, even if the box score reads like a lot of it was.

“We have to get better as a football team,” Fox said. “That wasn’t the Mike Glennon Bears, that was the Chicago Bears. It was our team. I haven’t looked at all the stats and all the exacts, but there’s a lot of people that had their hand in it and we’ll leave it at that.”

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