Bears QB Mitch Trubisky 'exciting,' but John Fox mum on Game 2 role

Bears QB Mitch Trubisky ‘exciting,’ but John Fox mum on Game 2 role

By Patrick Finley

Mitch Trubisky threw for 166 yards Thursday. (Brian O’Mahoney/Sun-Times Media)

BOURBONNAIS — Virginia McCaskey sat in a shiny orange golf cart just beyond the end zone Saturday, chatting with Bears coach John Fox while his players went through drills.

And, no, the owner didn’t bring up the brewing quarterback competition .

“She probably figured we already had enough of that,” Fox said with a smile.

Two days after saying he wouldn’t change his quarterback depth chart because of one preseason game, Fox lived up to his word — at least during practice at Olivet Nazarene University.

He was predictably vague, however, when asked whether Mitch Trubisky would grab the No. 2 spot away from Mark Sanchez in the next preseason game. Fox would only say the Bears would develop a game plan this week.

“We’ll keep you posted on that,” he said.

Probably not. Even if the Bears decide to give Trubisky more playing time in Game 2 — at the expense of Sanchez, who doesn’t need the snaps — Fox likely won’t divulge his plan.

In the interim, all eyes will be on both Trubisky, who went 18-for-25 for 166 yards and a touchdown in an electrifying debut Thursday against the Broncos, and starter Mike Glennon, who posted a passer rating of 0.0.

“If you’re asking me if I was excited about how he played, I was,” Fox said of Trubisky, who wasn’t spectacular in practice. “It beats the alternative. I’m sure glad he played well and not poorly.

“There’s a reason why we drafted him with the second pick of the draft. I think for the first time people got to see that in a Bears uniform, which I think is exciting.”

Glennon, who never looked as bad in training camp as he did Thursday, started Saturday with a flourish. He found Kendall Wright down the sideline on his first play of team drills, then completed a pass to Kevin White. However, he became less consistent as practice continued. But Fox still said Glennon responded “real well.”

“These guys are all big boys, they’re professional athletes,” Fox said. “They get it. There are going to be days like that. It’s life. So we’ll just grab the bull by the horns and go about trying to get better.”

Fox said other starters were also to blame Thursday. The first unit didn’t block well. Center Cody Whitehair snapped the ball over the 6-6 Glennon’s head, a mistake he repeated Saturday.

The receivers dropped passes, Fox said, and couldn’t separate from man coverage.

“A quarterback gets a lot of the credit, a lot of the blame, regardless of what happens,” Fox said. “But our whole first unit was not very good.”

Fox and his staff preach a coach-speak motivational formula to their players: Events + Response = Outcome.

“Your response typically equals the outcome,” he said. “If you haven’t dropped a ball, haven’t missed a pass, you haven’t thrown a pick, you haven’t played. It’s how they respond. We feel good about how he’ll respond.”

If Glennon doesn’t, the Bears will have a full-fledged quarterback controversy on their hands. And Trubisky will have earned it.

“He looked like he settled in right when he came out there,” tight end Adam Shaheen said, “He drove us down in two-minute and from there it just kept rolling for him. It was awesome to see.”

Rookie guard Jordan Morgan, called Trubisky’s play an “amazing thing” to see.

“Just to go out here and see him perform like that, that’s a great feeling,” he said. “And then seeing him play so well, that’s awesome. That’s the type of stuff we talk about our rookie meetings: teaching each other to hold each other accountable and be able to raise the bar for one another.”

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Email: pfinley@suntimes.com