Mitchell Trubisky wants to fight the New Orleans Saints on Sunday afternoon.
In the aftermath of the season, the Chicago Bears quarterback said the offense needs to pack points against an excellent defense to put pressure on the Saints.
“I think we should definitely open it up a little bit,” Trubisky told the Chicago Sun-Times. “As for the aggression, I like to go down on the fourth. It’s just an attitude, but I think, more importantly, we need to get more touchdowns in the red zone …
“Our special team unit is doing incredibly well, and we have to keep it up. But we have to help our team and put our defense in better positions by concluding with a save. It just makes you a better attack and a better team, so I think this is the most important improvement we want to see this week. ‘
In the Week 17 loss to Green Bay, the Bears converted five of six fourth descents as they sustained long rides and kept Aaron Rodgers on the sidelines. Yet Chicago repeatedly got stuck in the red zone (1/5), leading to the blowout loss.
Matt Nagy has handled Trubisky carefully over the past few weeks – not unlike what we’ve seen Sean McVay with Jared Goff or Kyle Shanahan with Jimmy Garoppolo. him on the move, and play think-and-dunk instead of home ball. If you take out the ball faster, the pressure window for the QB becomes smaller.
Trubisky in weeks 1-3: 2.9 Time to throw; 10.2 air values per attempt; 2.6 average target separation; 22.6 printing speed.
Trubisky in the week 12-17: 2.56 Time to throw; 7.0 air sites per attempt; 3.4 average target separation; 14.0 print speed.
Nagy named Play-Action for Trubisky at a rate of 35.2 percent, the highest in the NFL, according to next-generation statistics. Expect it to continue Sunday. The Saints allowed 11 TDs on passes this season (T-6th most in the NFL) and awarded a 100.6 passer score, compared to 77.8 without play action.
In the Bears game against the Saints earlier this season, with Nick Foles in the lead, Chicago did take a few shots, with 10 out of 41 attempts yielding more than ten yards – including 3 of 4 on 20 plus attempts per NGS.
Although Trubisky may want Nagy to give another shot on Sunday, the coach will have to choose his place – and they will surely have to come off the game action. Trubisky has the lowest completion percentage (32.4 percent) and is on average the least meters per attempt (3.1) under pressure in 2020. The Saints put the opposing QB at 31.2 percent of the setbacks (the second highest rate in NFL) and leaves the second- the lowest percentage completion (39.2) and the rating (51.1) against quarterbacks under pressure this season.
Trubisky believes the subterranean Bears need fear nothing to face the NFC South Champs Sunday.
“We have nothing to lose,” Trubisky said on the team’s official website. “We know everyone is looking out for us. They have the back half of the season. I think we just played with that lead, that slide on our shoulder. We have nothing to lose. We have to go there and play free. “
The wild card game Bears-Saints begins Sunday at 4:40 p.m. ET and can be viewed on CBS, Nickelodeon, Amazon Prime Video, CBS All Access.