Chicago Bears Sackwatch 2019: Week 12 vs. the New York Giants

If you’re one of those Chicago Bears fans that get all fired up if anyone dare say a disparaging word about Mitchell Trubisky, then consider this a spoiler alert and your cue to click away.

Trubisky took another unnecessary sack against the New York Giants.

Here’s another spoiler alert. If you’re the type of Bears fan that is mortified if anything Packer related is ever mentioned then skip over the next quote.

“Football is a game of inches and inches make the champion.” ~ Vince Lombardi

In a game where every inch matters, why hasn’t Trubisky mastered the art of chucking the ball out of bounds when he’s outside of the pocket?

It’s no longer intentional grounding when a player behind the line of scrimmage throws the ball out of bounds when out of the tackle box, so why does Trubisky continuously give away valuable inches by taking sacks?

I’ve watched him slide down while outside the pocket, run out of bounds while outside the pocket, try to force the ball into double and triple coverage while outside the pocket, but I’ve rarely seen him toss the football out of bounds to save the loss in yards.

I’m sure it’s possible that on some instances he willingly chooses to take the sack when considering the game situation, but if he’s that aware then why take a sack when throwing the ball away is the smart play?

Let’s check in on the historical Sackwatch after 11 games:

2010 - 41 Martz
2011 - 27 Martz
2012 - 35 Tice
2013 - 17 Trestman
2014 - 27 Trestman
2015 - 19 Gase
2016 - 22 Loggains
2017 - 27 Loggains
2018 - 23 Nagy
2019 - 32 Nagy

Sack 31 - Second Quarter 7:27 - Markus Golden
This was a third and 10 and Trubisky has a nice clean pocket to work from. He gets to the top of his drop and starts to work up, but just as he does he’s sacked by Markus Golden.

Golden was on an island with Bears left tackle Charles Leno Jr. and Leno got beat with a hump move. It’s where the defender works outside, but then uses his inside arm to push the blocker past him to come underneath. It’s a move that has success if the defensive player is physically imposing like with Reggie White or Julius Peppers, or when an offensive tackle has too narrow of a base. On this play Leno has his heels too close together on his shuffle and Golden times the hump perfectly.

This sack allowed is on Leno.

Sack 32 - Second Quarter :27 - Lorenzo Carter
Trubisky again has plenty of time to scan the field on this 2nd and 4 from the Giant 7 yard line and his scramble takes him from one side to the other before deciding to run out of bounds. The Bears only had one time out remaining so I get Trubisky wanting to save it by getting out of bounds, but he could have saved the loss in yards, and avoided the sack, and still stopped the clock, by simply firing the ball out of bounds.

This one is on Mitch.

If you’ve made it this far I’ll reward you with another famous quote about football being a game of inches. Enjoy...

2019 Individual Sackwatch after 11 games:

Mitchell Trubisky - 12.5
Sacks Happen - 6
Chase Daniel - 2.5
Charles Leno Jr. - 2.5
Bobby Massie - 2.5
Cody Whitehair - 2
Kyle Long - 2
Ted Larsen - 1
James Daniels - 1