Ladies and gentleman, the Chicago Bears have found their kicker, Eddy Pineiro! After the kicking circus of 2018, the Bears seem to have found their guy — music to Bears fans ears.
The University of Florida standout is 4/4 to start his NFL career, including 2/2 from over fifty yards out and the game-winning 53-yard field goal on Sunday vs. the Denver Broncos. Now that the kicking issues seem to be in the rearview mirror, it is time for quarterback Mitch Trubisky to step his game up and take this team to the promised land.
Sundays 16-14 victory over the Denver Broncos
What a wild ride that ending was. Ultimately, a win is a win, and the Bears are sitting at 1-1 to start the season. It may not have been the prettiest of games, but in the NFL, wins are hard to come by.
My biggest takeaway from the victory is that the Bears have a kicker who has full confidence in himself and isn’t a liability to this team. Now that what seemed like the only issue with last years team is resolved, its time for the offense to put points on the board. The offense needs to be better, and that starts with quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
Mitch Trubisky needs to play better.
The Bears defense is good enough to carry the team to victories, but if the Bears want to go far into the playoffs, Trubisky has to play better. It is now year three for Trubisky, and there are no more excuses to be made. Plain and simple, he needs to start playing better than his performance on Sunday. 16-27 for 120 yards and 0 touchdowns will not cut it against good teams.
Although he made the big throw to set up the Pineiro game-winning field goal, he was bailed out by the questionable roughing the passer call. The Bears could have easily lost this game, and it would have been close to panic time in Chicago with an 0-2 start. Instead, the team gets the victory despite his poor performance and are sitting at 1-1 after two weeks just like last season.
Week 4 was the week Trubisky turned things around last season with six touchdown passes against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Hopefully, this year Trubisky can turn things around in Week 3 against the Washington Redskins.
Roughing the passer on #Broncos’ Bradley Chubb. Straight garbage. pic.twitter.com/NmMxqP0We9
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) September 15, 2019
Washington Redksins Monday Night Football
Trubisky’s prime-time struggle is very well documented. He has completed 153-246 passes for 1316 yards, six touchdowns, and 12 interceptions in his career while in prime-time. Versus 374-590, 4448 yards, 25 touchdowns, and eight interceptions in all other games. This trend needs to end, especially against a struggling Redskins defense which allowed 32 points against the Philidelphia Eagles and 31 points against the Dallas Cowboys.
If the Bears offense struggle and don’t put up at least 20 points for the third straight week, the nay-sayers are going to come at Trubisky. Can you blame them? With one of the best defenses in the league and a kicker who is locked in, Trubisky needs to start playing better if the Bears want to reach the Super Bowl.
Jeremy Hoffman is a writer for PFN covering the NFC North. You can find him on twitter at @HoggNFL.