There's obviously still room for improvement, but there was a lot about Mitchell Trubisky's performance in Monday night's 31-15 win over the Redskins that impressed coach Matt Nagy.
The Bears quarterback had his best game of the season, completing 25 of 31 passes for 231 yards with three touchdowns, one interception and a 116.5 passer rating.
"I like that he threw completions," Nagy said Wednesday. "I like that he played the game fast. I liked that he made some plays on his own that were kind of unscripted, like that touchdown pass for instance."
On the unscripted play referenced by Nagy, Trubisky avoided pressure in the pocket, stepped up and launched the ball downfield to Taylor Gabriel, who made a sensational catch for a 36-yard touchdown with :43 left in the first half.
"There's not many plays that quarterbacks make like that throw and that pushing the pocket and that arm angle," Nagy said. "That was a hell of a play."
According to NextGen Stats, the pass had a completion probability of 10.4 percent, the least probable completion of the NFL season through three weeks.
"It was a great job by all the guys believing in the play," Trubisky said Wednesday. "O-line did a great job picking up the stunt up front. I just bought a little time. T.G. made a great catch. It was awesome how he could get his feet in bounds and make that happen. It was a big play, especially for the situation, getting another touchdown before the half."
Nagy also lauded Trubisky for another pass he threw late in the game that didn't garner as much attention. It came with 3:45 left in the fourth quarter and resulted in an 8-yard completion to Javon Wims on third-and-five. The Bears led 28-15 at the time and were trying to run the clock out.
"He easily could have zeroed in on a particular receiver and just forced it," Nagy said. "They gave him a look that we haven't practiced very much and he made a hell of a decision and a great throw to keep that four-minute thing alive there at the very end.
"Those little plays sometimes to outsiders can go unnoticed, but that was a big-time play that he made again in an end-of-game situation, decision-making-wise."
Trubisky said that his first read on the play was Allen Robinson II deep down the field. But the quarterback decided to dump it off to Wims when he saw a Redskins defender bail out of the flat and follow Robinson deep.
"That was more of a check-down or second or third read in the progression," Trubisky said. "It was just a veteran corner trying to read the quarterback's eyes seeing where he was going. He drifted off and I just took a completion for a first down. It was just not predetermining what the defense gives you but trusting your eyes and making a play on third down. It was big for us to stay on the field and continue to chew up time in the fourth quarter."
The Bears scored three touchdowns against the Redskins—all in the second quarter—after mustering only one TD in their first two games. The offense also produced four TDs in the first three games last season before Trubisky threw six touchdown passes in a Week 4 rout of the Buccaneers.
"We're not close, but we're slowly getting better," Nagy said. "The good part is, we're 2-1, right? We know that there is a ton of room to improve and that's the part that's exciting to me as a teacher, as a competitor, and then our players feel the same way."
Trubisky is on board with that plan. Asked what he needs to do to help the offense get better, he said: "Just continue to make good decisions, do my job and be a great leader for this offense. Get the guys motivated and keep them locked in at practice, especially on a short week, and keep communicating, keep everybody on the same page. Really, just go out there, do my job and make good decisions. When my team needs me to, just go out there and make a play and have fun doing it."
