With the Bears’ offense struggling, Mitch Trubisky must make better throws

A whopping 27.8 percent of Trubisky’s passes so far this season have been classified by Pro Football Focus as “uncatchable.” Only the Panthers’ Cam Newton — who changed his throwing motion after having offseason shoulder surgery — has made more such throws.

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Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky signals at the line of scrimmage Sunday.

AP Photos

Coach Matt Nagy doesn’t want to lay the Bears’ offensive struggles at quarterback Mitch Trubisky’s feet, but he knows they inevitably will find their way to him.

‘‘I don’t want to put it on one guy,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘But he knows that — and I know that — it always comes down to me and him.’’

Nagy has been a good soldier in terms of trying to make it about himself, taking the blame for aspects of the Bears’ offensive struggles ranging from penalties to play-calling to too many personnel groupings to a lack of rhythm.

But at least one of the solutions is simple: Trubisky needs to make better passes. His 25-yard pass to receiver Allen Robinson, which set up kicker Eddy Pineiro’s winning field goal Sunday against the Broncos, was easily his best of the game.

His next game needs many more like them.

A whopping 27.8 percent of Trubisky’s passes this season have been classified by Pro Football Focus as ‘‘uncatchable.’’ Only the Panthers’ Cam Newton, who changed his throwing motion after having offseason shoulder surgery, has thrown more such passes.

Too many times, Trubisky’s overthrows are obvious. Sometimes, the mistake is subtle. Nagy detailed the latter in his post-mortem Monday.

About halfway through the second quarter Sunday, the Bears had a first-and-10 from their 42-yard line. Trubisky took the snap and faked a handoff to his left. The Bears double-teamed Broncos outside linebacker Von Miller, who rushed between the right tackle and tight end, to buy Trubisky some time. Receiver Taylor Gabriel, who was bunched to the right, jogged across the field, selling the play-fake, before speeding up.

‘‘A little sneak play when he sneaks down the sideline,’’ Nagy said.

Broncos safety Justin Simmons figured out what was happening, albeit a bit late. He took a deep angle toward Gabriel down the left sideline, trying to prevent the deep ball. Trubisky tried to throw one anyway and sailed it over Gabriel’s head with Simmons closing in.

‘‘Their guy, he noticed it and went to run high to take it away,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘Now you adjust. They played good defense. They see it. But you can still make that happen.’’

A line-drive throw wouldn’t have gotten the Bears the 58-yard touchdown they were hoping for, but it might have gotten them a 17-yard gain. Nagy happily would have taken that.

‘‘That angle of where Taylor was and where Mitch was wasn’t the greatest of angles,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘I think Mitch would tell you, ‘If I had that over again, it would be more of a line-drive shot and kind of a back-shoulder [throw].’

‘‘Instead of a touchdown throw for 60 . . . it would be a gain of 17.’’

A 17-yard catch would have qualified as the Bears’ fifth-longest play of the game. They would have had some momentum and another first down.

‘‘We had a few of those against the Packers,’’ Nagy said. ‘‘We had a couple in the second half [Sunday], and then what did we have? We had penalties that pulled us back. So you lose all that rhythm.

‘‘We’ve got to get away from that. We’ve gotta make that completion, make those plays. Then it’ll help get the ball rolling more.’’

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