Mitchell Trubisky has a track record of not performing in front primetime games

All eyes will be on the Chicago Bears this upcoming Monday Night when they travel to the nation’s capital to take Redskins. The main focus of those eyes will be quarterback Mitchell Trubisky who has struggled mightily to start the season. With a prove-it game needed to silence his critics, Trubisky has not fared well when playing in front of a national audience. Monday night will be Trubisky’s 30th start of his career with a fifth of those starts in primetime or nationally televised games.

Of those seven games, the Bears quarterback has compiled a 3-4 record. His NFL debut back in 2017 came at home on Monday Night Football against the Minnesota Vikings.

In his debut, Trubisky completed 12 of 25 passes for 128, one touchdown pass, and one interception that set up the Viking’s game-winning field goal in a 20-17 final. Although not impressive, many believe that the Bears quarterback played well against a Vikings defense that was top-five in the league at that time.

His next nationally televised game would come in week 15 when the Bears traveled to Detroit to face the Lions for a special Saturday afternoon game. In the 20-10 loss, Trubisky recorded his first 300-yard passing game and had a passing touchdown, but threw three second-half interceptions with one coming in the end-zone. Again, despite the three interceptions, many still though Trubisky played well as he made some very impressive throws and drew the Lions offsides several times with a hard count.

Last season, The Bears appeared on primetime five different times, with their first two games of the season on Sunday night and Monday Night Football. Chicago split the two games as Trubisky played ok in the first game in Green Bay, but failed to lead the offense on a game-winning drive at the end of the game. At home against Seattle in the second game, He threw two touchdown passes but outside of the first offensive drive of the game looked extremely uneasy.

Seattle’s defense picked Trubisky off twice and dropped a third interception that would have been a pick-six. The same issues that have plagued the third-year quarterback to start 2019 were on display against the Seahawks also which included inaccuracy on deep throws and failing to go through progressions.

Late in the season, the Bears were flexed into two Sunday Night games against the Vikings and Rams. Trubisky performed even worse as he was intercepted twice against Minnesota and three times against the Rams. Although the Bears won and he threw a touchdown pass in each game, he failed to have a completion percentage higher than 65 percent and failed to pass for over 200 yards.

Similar numbers were seen by Trubisky against Green Bay in the season opener two weeks ago. In the six games, he has thrown four touchdown passes, rushed for a touchdown, and thrown 11 interceptions. Trubisky has had four multi-interception games while recording just one multi-touchdown. Although the Bears have won three of the seven games, their quarterback has failed to throw for more than 200 yards in any victory.

Trubisky’s best chance to improve on this negative trend will come this Monday Night against the Redskins. Washington’s defense has an average of 287 passing yards in their first two games. They have also allowed six passing touchdowns and three plays of 50 yards or longer in the first two weeks. It won’t get much better as Washington placed starting cornerback Dominique Rogers-Cromartie on injured reserve Wednesday.

If Trubisky can’t have a big night against the Redskins, he may solidify his inability to play on primetime.

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