On Tuesday, QB Mitch Trubisky spoke to the media prior to practice and was asked about being conservative and if taking care of the football take precedent over being aggressive in taking shots downfield. Trubisky responded that it’s important to have an aggressive mindset as a quarterback, but also not try to press too much to make a mistake that could hurt the team.
“There’s a fine line between protecting the football and you wanting to be aggressive,” Trubisky said to the media Tuesday on video from the team’s website. “So, you want to be aggressive as a quarterback, but when you have a great defense, you also want to protect the football, because they’re always going to keep us in games. So, it’s that fine line. I got to protect the football, but we want to be aggressive. So, we’re just going to figure out where we go from there and we got to make plays is the bottom line, but we also got to take care of the football. So, if you do those things, that’s what you want.”
Tomlin’s big point of choosing Trubisky to be the starting quarterback was his intangibles as a leader as well as his experience and ability to take care of the football. Through three preseason games and the team’s first regular season game, Trubisky took care of the football well. However, that streak came to an end Sunday when he threw an INT on a tipped pass over the middle of the field that was caught by Jalen Mills. On the play, Trubisky forced the ball where it shouldn’t go with a defender sitting right in the area he was trying to go to, having Mack Wilson tip the pass that was intended for Diontae Johnson.
Trubisky has mentioned in the past that he must be aggressive in attacking downfield and give his receivers a chance to make plays. Still, he has yet to find that balance of taking shots down the field but also making sound decisions and take care of the football. He has been more conservative than aggressive as the veteran is only averaging 5.1 YPA through two games this season. The offense desperately needs to stretch the field more to open up plays underneath, whether it be the short passing game or establishing the run.
Ultimately, it all comes down to Trubisky making sound decisions quicker, processing whether it would be advantageous to take a shot or check it down. While Canada may have most of the control on the play call, Trubisky is “the man in the arena” and is the one that must make the decisions. Thus, him stating that he needs to walk a fine line being aggressive yet protect the football is true, but he needs to be better at making those decisions more consistently if the offense is to see notable improvement in the near future.
