Chicago Bears vs. Detroit Lions: 3 Must-know statistics before the game
No. 1: The Lions, historically, haven’t blitzed Trubisky often
Mitchell Trubisky may have missed out on his fifth-year option this past spring, but of the money he has made, he might consider throwing the NFL schedule makers a cut of the salary. There’s an unusual amount of pressure on him, by Bears’ quarterback standards, to come out of the gates firing. The most surefire way to ensure that? Opening the season against one of the few teams he’s dominated.
The Lions are one of only two teams that Trubisky has a 100+ quarterback rating against, and has played more than once. The reason among the reasons for that? Matt Patricia has thought twice against sending blitzes his way.
ESPN’s Michael Rothstein took a deeper look, and offered some telling statistics, per ESPN Stats and Info. In their last three meetings, Detroit has only sent pressure his way on 9.6 percent of his dropbacks. His numbers in those three games: 68-of-91, 866 yards, 9 TDs and 1 INT (with one rushing TD and 30 yards to boot).
Quick math tells us that of those 91 pass attempts, the Lions sent blitzes on about … 9 of them. They’ve generated pressure. But Trubisky’s mortality has always been found in how he struggles against pressure. PFF gives him a 77.1 grade in a clean pocket, and a 41.4 in crowded ones.
To his credit, Patricia’s been successful in negating Trubisky’s defining trait, his versatility on the move, and outside the pocket. Nagy’s play calling had a little bit to do with that, too. It doesn’t change the fact that Trubisky has been hot enough to leave tire treads across Ford Field, and it leaves one to wonder what’s stopping him from doing it again.
The Lions are debuting a new defensive coordinator in Cory Undlin, and his inexperience (in this job setting) is something that the Bears could use to their advantage. He’s something of a Belichick disciple — that’s where he first began with Patricia — and that’s never a good thing.
Defenses anchored by Undlin are normally elite at forcing turnovers, but passers have produced 93.4 and 90.8 QBRs against his former team, the Eagles, over the last two years. Philly was middle-of-the-pack to below average in every pass-rushing statistic, too under Jim Schwartz.
The fact that Patricia went with an old friend who likely shares similar philosophies is reassuring. No. 10 could be poised to burn the Lions’ defense like a bad perm or a fourth straight game.