MORRISSEY: Somebody tell John Fox that Mitch Trubisky’s time is here

SHARE MORRISSEY: Somebody tell John Fox that Mitch Trubisky’s time is here
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Bears quarterback Mike Glennon doesn’t like what he sees from the sidelines during his team’s 29-7 loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday.(Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)

It’s Trubisky Time. Maybe it arrived at warp speed, but it’s here.

Somebody please tell that to Bears coach John Fox, who doesn’t seem to be listening or, for that matter, seeing. After his team’s awful loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday, he said he’s not considering a change from Mike Glennon to Mitch Trubisky.

“I don’t think that loss was all about the quarterback,’’ he said.

It mostly was, the quarterback said.

“Three bad plays by me were costly,’’ Glennon said.

If a switch to Trubisky seems too soon, too risky, too something, well, too bad. Blame Glennon for that. It’s time to acknowledge the obvious, that the Bears are better with the rookie as their starting quarterback.

He could have done what Glennon did in Tampa. Heck, there are Bears fans who could have done what Glennon did. Two bad interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, and a lost fumble in a 29-7 loss.

You can’t be billed as a low-risk quarterback, as Glennon is, then make generous donations to the opponent. You can get away with moving the ball as if it’s a grand piano. You can’t get away with selling it for a song.

But let’s boil this down to its most basic element. Trubisky can make something out of nothing. Glennon can make nothing out of something.

What was it Fox had said going into Week 1? That the players knew Glennon had done enough to be the starter. It’s time for a new vote. If Bears players care about winning, then surely they want the quarterback who can best help them do that. That’s Trubisky, even if he has never played a minute in the NFL, even if he has only 13 college starts to his name.

What happened against the Bucs is exactly what the Bears feared, with Glennon looking like a guy making his second start since 2014. They feared having their hand forced on the Trubisky question by a bad Glennon performance. They feared seeing a mob at their door. The mob is at their door.

Glennon gives the Bears no chance of a big play. Zero. But if that’s their basic approach, if any pass longer than 20 yards is considered a sin against football, then it’s incumbent on the quarterback to be mistake-free.

It’s true that Trubisky can throw interceptions and lose fumbles, too. But at least he can run away from trouble. If need be, he can stand in the pocket like a tree, but it’s not because of his athletic shortcomings, the way it is with Glennon.

The Bears can’t win like this. They can’t hide Glennon’s deficiencies. They were down 26-0 at halftime, and before and after Glennon was still throwing those short passes. That’s really all you need to know. That and that the Bears are 0-2 with the Steelers coming to town next week.

Whoever the quarterback is will have to work with a receiving corps that’s tissue-thin. You can make the argument that it would be wiser to expose Glennon to that instead of a rookie. But at some point this season, the Bears were going to have to throw Trubisky out there. That point has arrived. He’s the better quarterback.

There’s nothing holding him back, unless the Bears aren’t telling us everything or they’re worried about crushing the kid’s confidence. But this is a big-boy league. When a team uses the second overall pick to choose a player, as the Bears did with Trubisky, they’re saying he’s a big boy.

The big boy can learn on the job. All he’s learning on the sideline is that Glennon isn’t very good.

I’m sure we’ll hear about the epidemic of dropped passes in the fourth quarter, but that’s not the story. The Bears were down 29-0 at that point. Dropped passes were paper cuts.

The Bears had four turnovers in the first half, including a terrible decision by Tarik Cohen on a punt. There were more than a few bad defensive penalties.

But most of this was on Glennon, no matter what Fox said.

Maybe the Bucs would have done the same and more to Trubisky. But they would have had to respect his arm. They sneered at Glennon’s.

The Bears have a plan, and it wasn’t supposed to go like this. But it did. If Trubisky is as good as they think he is, and if he’s the wonderful leader/learner/improviser they’ve made him out to be, then he’ll be fine.

The question is simple: Where are the Bears going? The answer is even simpler: Nowhere without Trubisky.

Follow me on Twitter @MorrisseyCST.

Email: rmorrissey@suntimes.com

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