Through the first three weeks, the Chicago Bears' offense looked stunted, shaky, and a shell of what we expected with new coach Matt Nagy.
Then Sunday happened.
It all seemed to coalesce for quarterback Mitchell Trubisky against a bad Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense in a 48-10 romp. The second-year quarterback sprayed the ball all over the field, hitting wide open targets in stride while tossing for 354 yards and six (6!) touchdown passes, with a 154.6 passer rating.
After the young QB struggled for three weeks, Sunday felt like an awakening.
"Hopefully this is something I can look back on and say, 'This is where it all started,'" Trubisky said, via ESPN's Emily Kaplan.
Sunday certainly felt like a watershed moment for Trubisky and the offense. The signal-caller looked more poised in the pocket than any game of his career, made the proper reads, and didn't appear reticent to pull the trigger.
Outside of the opening-drive scripts Nagy's offense has struggled to move the ball consistently to start the season. That wasn't the case Sunday, as the Bears looked like a version of the Kansas City Chiefs offense we expected to see in 2018. Nagy consistently schemed wide open receivers dancing free in the secondary. The creativity was on display with a bevy of beautifully designed bunched-receiver sets. Utilizing running back Tarik Cohen as a matchup nightmare all over the field also opened the entire offense.
It all added up to a Bears field day.
"I have been here a while and I have never been a part of a win like this," veteran offensive lineman Kyle Long said. "It feels really good to sit here with a smile on my face. For the last five, six years I've been saying, 'We're getting better, we're getting better, we're young. We're going to get there.' And you could see it. But now you guys get to see what I'm seeing. It feels good. The secret is out."
The secret to the Bears' offense is Trubisky. After spending his rookie campaign with the worst collection of talent in the league, he's now buffered by playmakers all over the formation. Sunday showed the potential Chicago's offense can have when Trubisky is playing point-guard, deftly distributing to his weapons.
Entering Sunday's tilt Trubisky had tossed nine total touchdowns in his 15 career starts and had only one multi-touchdown week in his career (Week 2 vs. Seattle). Sunday he became the first Bears QB to throw for six touchdowns in a game in the Super Bowl Era.
Most Pass TDs in a Game in Bears History:
1943 Sid Luckman: 7 TD passes
2018 Mitch Trubisky: 6 TD passes
1949 Johnny Lujack: 6
1937 Ray Buivid: 5
Yes, it was against a porous Buccaneers defense that has more holes than a colander. The caveat can be thrown out the window. A game like Sunday could propel Trubisky past his struggles, helping build confidence for the future.
With one of the stingiest defenses in the NFL, the Bears will be a force in the NFC if Trubisky continues to play even half as well as he did Sunday at Soldier Field.