Bears vs. Rams: Battle of the struggling quarterbacks

The Chicago Bears are traveling to Los Angeles to take on the Rams Sunday night. Which offense is struggling more? Which quarterback has played worse?

When we saw the Los Angeles Rams on the schedule again this season, many thought this was a loss despite the Chicago Bears beating the Rams just last season. We are now heading into Week 11 and so much has changed.

Both of these teams are struggling yet are still in the playoff hunt. With Russell Wilson playing at an MVP level and the Seahawks beating the 49ers in Week 10, both the Bears and the Rams path to the playoffs will likely need to go through the Vikings.

In the grand scheme of things, a win here is more important for the Bears as the team is 4-5 on the year. The Rams are currently 5-4 on the year but 5-5 still gives them a shot. If the Bears drop to 4-6 they might as well start prepping for 2020.

What is crazy is how both of these teams started the season at 3-1. However, a three and four-game losing streak has put them in a position of needing to crawl out of the depths of despair.

The Rams are coming into this game off a 17-12 loss to the Steelers. The Bears are coming off a 20-13 win over their divisional opponent Detroit Lions. Although Trubisky threw three touchdowns in the game, at times it felt too close for comfort.

Jared Goff did not play as well last week and although he’s racking up yardage, he is struggling to consistently do what is needed to win. He threw two interceptions and finished with a 51.2 quarterback rating.

Let us do a quick comparison, shall we? On the year, Jared Goff has a 60.3 completion percentage rating. He is averaging 290 passing yards per game. Not bad there to be honest. However, his air yards per attempt is down from 8.5 last year to 6.8 this year. Yet, he’s averaging only three less passing yards per game. This tells us his receivers are still gaining significant yards after the catch.

From a scoring standpoint, Goff has 11 touchdowns over 10 games. He has also thrown nine interceptions. He is way behind his pace of 32 touchdowns last season, but unfortunately, he is on pace to throw a decent amount more interceptions. After two seasons of over a 100 quarterback rating, Goff finds himself at 82.7 this year.

Mitchell Trubisky has not been any better. From a yardage standpoint, he is way behind Goff. I almost threw up a little reading this, but Trubisky is averaging 173 yards per game. Yikes, I know, but it gets worse. That is nearly 10 yards per game less than his rookie season under John Fox.

Trubisky has at least been more accurate than Goff. Trubisky has a 63.6 percent completion percentage on the year. He has eight touchdowns and three interceptions over eight games. Trubisky has fumbled the ball twice. Goff has nine fumbles on the year. Ouch. Shockingly to me, Goff has two rushing touchdowns though whereas Trubisky has none.

No matter how you dissect it, it seems that these two teams are playing in a rival movie titled, “The Tales of Two Struggling Quarterbacks.” The movie obviously stars Jared Goff and Mitchell Trubisky. The good news is that in most movies the stars persevere. I am not sure if both will find a way to turn things around, but I would like to hope Trubisky figures it out.

I would like to hope that although not perfect, Trubisky turned the page last week. He struggled against the Rams last season, but their defense is not the same. Still a good run-stopping defense, Trubisky will need to find a way to succeed through the air. Oh, and is it too much to ask that Goff does not figure things out versus our beloved Bears and instead throws another four interceptions as he did in Soldier Field in 2018? Sunday night will be interesting. Bring home a win Bears.