It is accurate to say that patience is a lost virtue in today’s world. Sports fans expect instantaneous success and it’s understandable when your favorite team has not made the playoffs since 2010 or played a meaningful December game since 2013.
In no way is two weeks enough time to evaluate how an NFL team will play over the course of a 17-week season. Football is a game of matchups and is so gameplan dependant that a team can look amazing one week and terrible the next making it hard to gauge how good a team is early on.
In those two short weeks, though, the Chicago Bears defense has looked really good for essentially all but one quarter against the best quarterback not only of our generation but possibly of all time.
Unfortunately, the offense has really struggled at times and has lacked the consistency it takes to win games in the NFL.
Mitch Trubisky has not looked all that good in his first two games in a real NFL system. He is two for two on opening drive touchdowns, but outside of those drives, he has struggled.
Watching second-year quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who of course was taken after Trubisky in the 2017 NFL draft, throw six touchdowns last Sunday did not help ease the expectations for the young Bears signal caller.
And then Trubisky went out in prime time and had a mediocre game leaving many pessimistic fans doubting his ability to lead an NFL franchise.
It was clear all Monday night what the Seahawks were trying to do which was stopping Jordan Howard while limiting any big passing plays. They wanted Trubisky to try and beat them by throwing short passes and methodically moving the ball downfield.
For a while, it looked like Trubisky was not going to be able to do that. He threw two interceptions, and nearly a third, before halftime. After the first two drives in the second half led to punts, it seemed like Russell Wilson would inevitably take over, and for two weeks in a row, Bears fans would go to sleep wondering what the hell happened.
But luckily that never happened.
After the Seahawks second drive of the second half went for negative one yards, the Bears finally showed what this offense is capable of outside the opening drive script.
This was the drive that should have Bears fans optimistic that future success will come for this offense and possibly very soon.
It was creative, it was meticulous, it was promising, and it was all this Bears fan needed to be optimistic about where this team is headed. Eight players touched the ball on the six-minute, 11-play, 66-yard drive that ended in a touchdown throw to Anthony Miller and put the Bears up by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
On that drive, Trubisky completed all four of his passes for 31 yards and a touchdown. A combination of Howard, Tarik Cohen, Taylor Gabriel, and Trubisky had five rushes for 35 yards.
That is the exact type of balance this team needs.
The Bears did not even have eight players worthy of touching the ball last season! Oh, and none of those eight players were Allen Robinson, who was undoubtedly the most consistent Bear for the offense in Week 2.
The entire drive Nagy was at his best and kept the Seahawks off balance with well-timed screen passes, fly sweeps, jet sweeps, culminating in a play-action pass with Trubisky rolling out to his left and hitting Miller in the end zone.
It is very clear that this offense is nowhere near where they need to be … yet. But in the meantime, the defense is top-three in the NFC and can carry this team until the offense makes drives like the one above the norm.
The most important thing I saw Monday night was a young quarterback, and young coach for that matter, bounce back from a rough first half and responded when their team really needed them to. If and when the offense begins to consistently move the ball, the Bears will become a team to look out for in the NFC.
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