Mitchell Tropesky wants to fight fire with fire Sunday afternoon against the New Orleans Saints.
In the post-season match, the Chicago Bears midfielder said the attack needed to pile up points against an excellent defense to put pressure on the Saints.
“I think we definitely need to open it up a bit,” Tropesky said. Via Chicago Sun-Times. “In terms of staying aggressive, I like to go fourth. That’s just a mentality, but I think, most importantly, we have to score a lot more landing in the red …
“Our Special Teams unit is doing an amazing job, and we have to keep doing it. But we have to help our team and put our defense in better positions by finishing the relegation. That makes you a better attack and a better team, so I think that’s the major improvement we want to see this week.”
In Week 17 of the loss to Green Bay, the Bears turned five of six fourth attempts down as they continued a long, clockwise lead and kept Aaron Rodgers on the sidelines. However, Chicago was stopped time after time in the red (1/5), resulting in a loss for the explosion.
In the past few weeks, Matt Nagy has handled Trubisky with care – unlike the way we saw Sean McVeigh with Jared Gough or Kyle Shanahan with Jimmy Garoppolo – giving quick QB readings, mostly short throws, placing he on the go, and playing Dink & Dunk instead From a home-run ball. Faster ball ejection reduces QB’s narrow window throws.
Trubisky in weeks 1-3: 2.9 throw time; 10.2 air yards per attempt; 2.6 average target separation; The compression ratio is 22.6.
Trubisky at weeks 12-17: 2.56 Time to throw! 7.0 air yards per try; 3.4 Average target separation; 14.0 Compression rate.
Nagy called Trubisky’s play movement a rate of 35.2 percent, the highest in the NFL, according to Next Generation stats. We expect it to last on Sunday. The Saints allowed 11 TDs on pass playing this season (T-6th most in the NFL) and allowed a 100.6-pass rating compared to 77.8 without play action.
In a Bears vs. the Saints meet earlier this season, with Nick Falls at the head, Chicago took some shots, with 10 of 41 attempts to generate over 10 airfields – including 3 of 4 in 20 yard attempts, per NGS.
While Trubisky might want Nagy to shoot more shots on Sunday, the coach will have to pick his positions – and she will almost certainly be out of play. Trubisky has the lowest completion rate (32.4 percent) and average lowest yards per attempt (3.1) under pressure in 2020. Saints squeeze the corresponding QB at 31.2 percent drop off (the second highest in NFL) and allow the second-lowest completion rate (39.2) ) And the rating of passers-by (51.1) for midfielders under pressure this season.
Trubisky thinks vulnerable bears have nothing to fear in facing NFC South Champs Sunday.
“We have nothing to lose,” said Trubsky. According to the team’s official website. “We know everyone is ignoring us. They have the back half of the season. I think we were just playing with this edge, that chip on our shoulder. We don’t have anything to lose. We have to go there and play for free.”
The Bears-Saints wild-card kicks off Sunday at 4:40 PM ET and can be watched on CBS, Nickelodeon, Amazon Prime Video, and CBS All Access.
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