Tuesday open thread: Grade Mitchell Trubisky’s NFL debut

It’s Tuesday, meaning we’re now around 48 hours removed from the Detroit Lions’ disappointing loss to the Carolina Panthers. We’ve broken it down and discussed our feelings about the team at this point, and it’s just about time to move onto this week’s game against the New Orleans Saints.

But before we do that, let’s go back to last night. Monday night was a fairly interesting one for the NFC North. The Chicago Bears unleashed their new toy—franchise quarterback Mitchell Trubisky—for the first time. Trubisky and the Bears fell to Minnesota Vikings 20-17 thanks to a last-second field goal.

For Trubisky, there were some ups and some downs, but his overall stat line looked disappointing. Trubisky went 12/25 for 128 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT (60.1 passer rating). However, sometimes stats can be misleading. So today’s Question of the Day is:

How would you grade Mitchell Trubisky’s NFL debut against the Viking?

My answer: I would give Trubisky a solid C+/B-. First, it’s important to put his performance in context. Trubisky played this game against one of the best defenses in the league. He did so with Kendall Wright as his far-and-away best receiver and a mediocre-at-best offensive line.

Trubisky didn’t have much of any supporting cast on Monday, yet still managed to keep the Bears’ offense moving for most of the day, which helped the team dominate the field position battle.

Trubisky looked very comfortable on the run. He rushed for 22 yards on three carries and threw a couple accurate balls while out of the pocket. Chicago clearly likes and knows about his mobility, as evidenced by this extremely well-designed two-point conversion play:

But it’s hard to give a quarterback too much credit when he makes a game-deciding mistake. Trubisky made it obvious he’ll need to reign in some risky choices at this higher level of play. His only touchdown pass was an ill-advised throw against his body as he rolled to the right. The pass was nearly picked off, but bounced off the defender’s hands right into the waiting arms of Zach Miller.

Later in the quarter, Trubisky would take a similar risk, but this time it would end up costing him the game:

Like any rookie quarterback, there will be some grooming that needs to be done along the way, but I still think this was a pretty impressive debut for the young passer.

Your turn.