Film review: How Bears QB Mitch Trubisky fared vs. Eagles

The last time the Bears lost in Philadelphia, they returned to the stench of rotting sushi that had been left inside Halas Hall over Thanksgiving weekend 2017. The Bears kept their stinking to a mere metaphor Monday.

The last time the Bears lost in Philadelphia, they returned to the stench of rotting sushi that had been left inside Halas Hall over Thanksgiving weekend 2017.

The Bears kept their stinking to a mere metaphor Monday. They haven’t won a game since September. A look at the film from the Bears’ 22-14 loss to the Eagles shows why:

Going deep

Trubisky threw two deep balls short. One was caught, the other dropped.

The 53-yard completion to receiver Taylor Gabriel gave the Bears a spark on their first drive of the second half after a historically impotent first 30 minutes.

Gabriel was the Bears’ only wide receiver on the field — it was one of two snaps with Allen Robinson on the sideline. The team had three tight ends in the formation — Adam Shaheen to the left of left tackle Charles Leno, J.P. Holtz motioning from left to right as a wingback and Trey Burton as the fullback in the offset “I.”

Trubisky rolled right behind extra blocking from Holtz and Burton. Only three players ran a pass route. From the right hash, Trubisky threw a pass on the diagonal, the outside of the left yardage numbers. The ball was in the air for 56.3 yards, the longest completion for any quarterback all weekend. After missing Gabriel on a deep ball last week, the throw was considered progress — even if he left it a bit short.

“I’ll always take the 53-yard completion,” Nagy said Monday.

Later in the third quarter, Trubisky dropped back out of I formation and threw deep down the right sideline to Robinson, who had slipped behind cornerback Jalen Mills. Trubisky left the ball short. Robinson got two hands on the ball, but dropped it.

“Mitch took an extra hitch, double-hitched it,” Nagy said. “It would’ve been good to see one hitch and the ball’s up sooner and there’s a possibility where it’s not underthrown.”

Screen time

On second-and-9 at their own 48 with about nine minutes to play, the Bears lined up with three receivers and one tight end. Gabriel ran a fake end around from the left slot and the Bears set up a screen left to running back David Montgomery.

When Trubisky threw the ball, there was one Eagles player outside the left hash and within 10 yards of Montgomery. And that man, linebacker Nathan Gerry, was being blocked by James Daniels.

Montgomery dropped the ball.

How far could Montgomery have run?

“We’ll never know,” Trubisky said Sunday night.

The quarterback kicked himself for the next play, which proved to be the last time he touched the ball. After the Bears lined up in the same formation as the screen, Trubisky faked a handoff to Montgomery. With outside pressure from Brandon Graham, Trubisky was forced to try to sling a sidearm pass to covered tight end Shaheen at the original line of scrimmage. It fell incomplete — not that it would have mattered.

“I was actually thinking about running and leaving the pocket,” Trubisky said. “I should’ve put myself in [shotgun], not under center. I was looking deep, and it looked like [cornerback Ronald Darby] was jumping on [Gabriel’s] route and I thought Adam was free. So I just tried to give it to him in the flat, but it wasn’t a good play. So I have to do better.”

What a rush

Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is known for rushing players off from the “Wide 9” technique, which is one theoretical player outside of the tight end.

In the second quarter, he showed a pass rush that took a wide edge rush to the extreme. Four rushers lined up outside left tackle Charles Leno’s outside shoulder. Three rushed, with safety Malcolm Jenkins, lined up as an inside linebacker, blitzing behind them. Two more Eagles rushed on the opposite side.

“That was un-scouted,” Nagy said. “They have not shown that before and that was a good play by them. We had enough guys there. But that was something that’s an in-game adjustment that we need to make.”

Center James Daniels, who had no one rushing over him, tried to help to his right — not the left side, which had four pass rushers. He didn’t touch a single Eagles player until Trubisky had been hit. Jenkins and Genard Avery split the sack.

It’s unclear whether Daniels or Trubisky should have called out a blocking change at the line of scrimmage, but the center should have looked left. Asked about it, Nagy refused to offer specifics.

Another sack

Nagy bemoaned the Bears playing from behind the sticks because of negative plays.

He pointed to another of the team’s three first-half sacks. In the first quarter, the Bears split five receivers wide. Each ran quick routes — three stick routes to the right, and a slant and a flat route on the left.

Trubisky took the shotgun snap, looked right, and then left, and was sacked by Graham.

“That would be one that I think Mitch would tell you he’d want back,” Nagy said. “It’s a quick ball out type of deal. That’s certainly one that we’d want back.”