Chicago Bears Sackwatch 2018: Week 8 vs New York Jets

After a rough start to the season, the Chicago Bears’ pass protection has tightened up, and a big part of that is Mitchell Trubisky’s pocket awareness improving. Those two things always go hand in hand. Better awareness leads to getting the ball out when a play breaks down or escaping to pick up yards on a scramble.

The New York Jets came at Trubisky quite a bit, blitzing him on 17 of his 35 drop backs. He was 6 of 13 for 128 yards and a TD on those. The Jets ended up hitting him five times and sacking him twice. Teams are going to keep blitzing him until he proves he can beat it, and that’s something he’ll learn with experience. Head coach Matt Nagy can help slow down the blitz with screens, draws, or some sprint out action, but he also has to trust his QB to find the hot reads.

Sackwatch after 7 games

2010 - 31 Martz
2011 - 21 Martz
2012 - 25 Tice
2013 -11 Trestman
2014 - 17 Trestman
2015 - 13 Gase
2016 - 13 Loggains
2017 - 17 Loggains
2018 - 16 Nagy

Sack 15 - First Quarter 8:47 - Brandon Copeland
This was a good play by the Jets’ defense. Brandon Copeland (#51) was showing blitz over right guard Kyle Long, but he dropped off to spy Trubisky. The Jets only rushed three, and with the Jets in man coverage underneath, Trubisky thought he could pick up the three yards he needed for the first down. As soon as left tackle Charles Leno pushed his man past the pocket, Trubisky took off that direction. Copeland, sensing the QB on the move, decided to attack as soon as Long turned his head to the right. He dove and clipped Trubisky’s foot and picked up the sack. The smart play by Copeland puts this in the Sacks Happen category.

Sack 16 - Fourth Quarter 2:06 - Frankie Luvu
These types of sacks usually annoy me, but in this case I’m okay with it. When a quarterback is out of the pocket they are allowed to throw the ball out of bounds to avoid the sack, but in this instance Trubisky just wanted to keep the clock running so he took the dive.

No fault on any Bears here either, so both in the Sacks Happen category this week.

Individual Sackwatch through 7 games:

Sacks Happen - 5
Mitchell Trubisky - 4.5
Kyle Long - 2
Bobby Massie - 2
Charles Leno Jr. - 1.5
Dion Sims - .5
Eric Kush - .5