Mitchell Trubisky wants to fight fire with fire on Sunday afternoon against the New Orleans Saints.
Going into the postseason clash, the Chicago Bears quarterback said the attack needs to accumulate points against an excellent defense to put pressure on the Saints.
“I think we definitely need to open it up a little bit,” said Trubisky, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “As for being aggressive, I like to try on the fourth down. It’s just a mentality, but I think, more importantly, we have to score more touchdowns in the red zone …
“Our unit of special teams is doing very well and we have to continue like this. But we have to help our team and put our defense in better positions, finishing with touchdowns. It just makes you a better attack and a better team, so I think that is the main improvement that we want to see this week. “
In the week 17 defeat to Green Bay, the Bears converted five of the six attempts to fourth down, sustaining long shots that consumed the clock and kept Aaron Rodgers on the sideline. Still, Chicago stagnated again and again in the red zone (1/5), leading to a blowout loss.
In the past few weeks, Matt Nagy handled Trubisky with care – not unlike how we saw Sean McVay’s play-call with Jared Goff or Kyle Shanahan with Jimmy Garoppolo – giving QB quick readings, mostly short launches, getting him moving and playing dink-and-dunk instead of the home run ball. Getting the ball out faster decreases the pitches from the tight window to the QB.
Trubisky in weeks 1-3: 2.9 Time to launch; 10.2 air yards per attempt; 2.6 average target separation; 22.6 pressure rate.
Trubisky in weeks 12-17: 2.56 Time to launch; 7.0 air yards per attempt; 3.4 average target separation; Pressure rate of 14.0.
Nagy called on Trubisky to play play-action at a rate of 35.2%, the highest in the NFL, according to Next Gen Stats. Expect to continue on Sunday. The Saints allowed 11 TDs in game passes this season (T-6th in the NFL) and allowed a passer rating of 100.6 compared to 77.8 without an action game.
At the Bears’ encounter against the Saints earlier this season, with Nick Foles in charge, Chicago fired a few shots, with 10 of 41 attempts generating over 10 aerial yards – including 3 of 4 out of more than 20 yard attempts, by NGS .
While Trubisky may want Nagy to take more shots on Sunday, the coach will have to choose his seats – and they will almost certainly leave the game. Trubisky has the lowest percentage of completion (32.4 percent) and the average of the least number of yards per attempt (3.1) under pressure in 2020. The Saints put pressure on the opponent’s QB by 31.2 percent dropbacks (a second highest rate in the NFL) and allowed the second lowest completion percentage (39.2) and passer rating (51.1) for defenders under pressure this season.
Trubisky believes that the underdog Bears has nothing to fear when facing NFC South Champs on Sunday.
“We have nothing to lose,” said Trubisky, according to the team’s official website. “We know that everyone is ignoring us. They have the second half of the season. I think we just played with that advantage, that chip on our shoulder. We have nothing to lose. We should go there and play for free.”
The wild card game Bears-Saints starts Sunday at 4:40 pm ET and can be viewed on CBS, Nickelodeon, Amazon Prime Video, CBS All Access.