Mitch Trubisky spoke with one Chicago outlet when he was in Atlanta for Super Bowl 53, Bear Goggles On, check out the conversation.
The Chicago Bears won 12 (or more) games for just the third time in the last thirty years. A tremendously positive season ended with a rough loss in the first round to the Philadelphia Eagles.
The on-field general for the Bears’ 12 wins was their young quarterback, Mitch Trubisky. Trubisky sat down with Bear Goggles On prior to the season to talk about his offseason with Matt Nagy and what he expected for the 2018 season, and luckily enough for us, Trubisky sat down with BGO once again to talk about his 2018 season, the team’s success and what’s ahead.
Trubisky sat down with us thanks to Gatorade and their new product, Gatorade Zero. Gatorade zero still has all the hydration properties of regular Gatorade but with no added sugar, it’s only 5 calories.
After Mitch and I shot the breeze about Gatorade for a little bit, we jumped right into a great conversation about the Chicago Bears. Check it out below.
It’s been about a month since what I’m sure was a bitter loss against the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs. Have you gotten over it yet and put it behind you?
I don’t know if you ever really get over it, but it’s definitely motivated me for this next year. I can’t wait to get back to work and get back to Chicago. We had such a great year, I didn’t think it would end the way it did, but sometimes that’s how life happens.
You just deal with it how you can and let it motivate you for next year and I can’t wait to get back to work already. We had such a great year, a great step in the right direction and a building block for years to come hopefully. But we had a lot of fun and have to make sure that motivates us to get back to work and go even further next year.
Let’s talk about the success of this team. You guys go from a last place finish in 2017 to a 12-4 record and a division championship in 2018. What was the key for this team to make such a huge jump in just one season?
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Let’s be honest, nobody saw that. Everybody counted us out. We were last in the division last year, we were first in the division this year. It was a whole turnaround.
We really blocked out everything from the outside. It didn’t really matter what was going on in the outside, we believed what we were doing in our locker room and that’s all that mattered. We believed in the locker room that we had a chance every single week and we were going to prove everyone wrong, but more so, prove each other right. Play with the guy next to you, unselfish football, leave it all out on the field and that’s what we did all season long.
You’re not worried about results, you’re going out there playing, having fun, and then you look back and say, wow, we accomplished a lot this year, getting 12 wins. But we’re even hungrier next year, that’s just the type of guys we have. We’re not worried about predictions for next year, if anyone is counting us in or out, it doesn’t matter, we’re going to play our game and do what we do best.
Okay, two parter here- Matt Nagy. What did he do with you personally to help you grow as a quarterback and then overall, what did he do to create such a great locker room this year and lead you guys to such a great season?
It was so much fun. He brought everyone together and he’s just so competitive and passionate and genuine and down to Earth. He’s just a guy you want to be around and he really brought everyone together.
We just had a close-knit coaching staff and we had a close locker room: offense, defense special teams, we really played as one unit this year; just pulling for each other and having each other’s back and playing together all year-long.
And you put that with how brilliant he is on the offensive side of the football. He really helped me develop as a quarterback. Just learning the terminology of the offense, him being a great teacher, breaking it down for me, doing exactly what he envisioned for this offense and just learning and growing together.
He gave me a lot of confidence because he’s like, “I don’t care if you make mistakes, mistakes are going to happen. Just make sure you learn from it and we get better and we continue to learn and grow as an offense.” That just gave me a lot of confidence throughout the whole year, I always knew he had my back and nobody else believed in me, Coach Nagy did and that’s all I needed all season long to continue to get better and better. We have a great relationship so I’m thankful for that and what we’ll be able to build and grow moving forward.
One more on Nagy, what is it like for the team, not just the offensive guys, but the defensive guys as well, when, and I call it the mad scientist, when Nagy comes in with this crazy new play with some crazy personnel that he wants to implement on the goalline or on a 2-point conversion?
It’s awesome and it’s so much fun. Every single week you’re like, everyone is pulling for one another because you have defensive guys saying every week “I want to get on offense, I want to get on offense,” and I think that just brings the team together.
We would have meetings as coaches and quarterbacks and we could just go in and draw up a play up on the board and he would never discredit it, he would say, oh, that could work. Then he would draw up a play and we would say, wow, this is crazy. Then it goes to the game and it scores a huge 2-point conversion or a touchdown and we’re like, wow, nothing is too outside the box for Coach Nagy and that something that just makes it fun to come to work every day.
Having a guy like that always being creative, looking for the next best thing, looking for ways to continue to push the limit of the offense and how creative we can be.
Obviously just getting reps and playing was huge, but what was the biggest reason for your huge strides this season? You started off a little slow, but then you had some huge games like against Tampa and Detroit and even in December when the numbers weren’t as gaudy, you clearly had a firm grasp of the offense.
Just getting all those reps in was huge. I’m so excited for next year because we have a whole year of film to watch of our players and our plays and where we’re going with this offense.
He just helped me so much from a footwork standpoint, how to be on time within this offense and adjusting to all the new routes and throws. He just let me be myself, just go out there and use my play making ability, scramble and make plays, but while also staying within this offense.
He helped me a lot through progressions, watching film and how to prepare every single week. And then his competitiveness and his ability to be hard on me and want the best for me and push me to be the best player I can possibly be this year and I can’t wait push the envelope more this year and continue to work with him and he’s going to make me the best I can possibly be so I’m very fortunate to have him as a coach.
One thing that I think was unfair to you was the criticism piled on you all year long. I know you try to block it out and stay off social media, but there was one particular week where the critics were really loud and even your teammates were coming to your defense. But you go into the game that weekend against Detroit and at one point you score a touchdown, spike the ball, and just let out this scream. Was that kind of aimed at your critics and you basically, saying, “Get off my back!”
Yeah, it kind of was. One, it was a really big play in the game, but the other thing it was just like, it is what it is, people are going to criticize you no matter what but it was kind of a moment where I could just let it all out, be myself and make a big play for the offense.
It was a lot of fun, I’m not worried about all that criticism because all that talking is done on the field. We are the ones on the field, the criticizers and everyone outside of the media, they’re not so they only know so much.
It is what it is, I don’t take any of it personally but I’m going to continue to grow and play my game and be appreciative and blessed for the opportunities I have to play in Chicago.