Mitch Trubisky has always had a gambler’s mentality. A good arm, a willingness to throw downfield, the chance to make the big play. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Unfortunately for his career, he’s died by the sword far too often. That reared its head again coming off the bench in Sunday’s 20-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, throwing two picks and nearly getting intercepted once or twice more.
His first interception was a crushing one. With Pittsburgh trailing by only seven, Trubisky forced a throw over the middle with three Jaguars defenders in the area and was intercepted. After the game, Trubisky took the blame for a bad decision leading to a turnover.
“Forced the throw on my part, trying to make a play downfield,” he said via the team website. “They were playing a lot of [Cover 2] the second half, us playing behind. We needed to push the ball down field a little bit. Clouding George a lot. That one was specifically was invert. I was trying to get the ball to [WR Allen Robinson II]. It was a force. Good play by them. So that’s on me. I gotta be better.”
Here’s a look at the play. Trubisky fired down the seam but safety Andrew Wingard stepped in front of Robinson and took the ball away.
To decode what Trubisky said, “cloud” means they were rolling a corner in the flat against Pickens. “Invert” is him referring to the Jaguars playing an inverted Cover 2 with cornerbacks playing in the deep half as opposed to safeties. We’ll have a better view of the play when the All-22 drops later this week but clearly, this was a critical mistake by Trubisky.
Down just seven with more than nine minutes to play, Trubisky acknowledged he should’ve gone with a safer play.
“Just take what they give me,” he said. “Especially with us only being down seven at that point. I should have probably checked it down and hopefully move on from there.”
Pittsburgh is a team that can’t afford turnovers. Their simple formula is when they take care of the ball they win, when they don’t they lose. Turnover differential doesn’t even always matter. Pittsburgh was plus-one in differential today (plus-two if you discount the meaningless Hail Mary) and it still didn’t feel competitive throughout most of the game. It’s an offense where protecting the ball is more important any other unit and Trubisky has made a habit out of these risky plays that don’t go his way.
It remains to be seen if he’ll get redemption this weekend. QB Kenny Pickett has a rib injury and the Steelers a short week before taking on the Tennessee Titans Thursday night. If Trubisky gets the starting nod, he’ll have to clean up these mistakes or Pittsburgh will have its first losing streak of the year.
