Mitchell Trubisky’s arm couldn’t beat the Patriots. But his legs almost did

The Patriots had a plan for Mitchell Trubisky. They were going to bring plenty of pressure on the second-year quarterback and force him to make rushed throws downfield.

Trubisky had other ideas. When New England’s defensive linemen broke through the line of scrimmage, he decided to just outrun them. And it nearly worked — even when the Chicago QB was called on to uncork a last-second Hail Mary to lead his team back from the dead.

Trubisky almost rewrote his own narrative with one last-ditch drive. Trailing by seven points with 24 seconds to play, the quarterback completed three of four passes to set up a Hail Mary effort from the Bears’ 45 yard line. The young passer rolled left, stood up to Kyle Van Noy’s pressure, and launched a pass that traveled 54 yards — on a play where his team needed 55.

Those last second near-heroics nearly papered over Trubisky’s up-and-down afternoon against the Pats. The Bears’ signal caller led his team in rushing yards in a 38-31 loss, picking up his team’s biggest play of the afternoon — that is, until the Hail Mary — in the process. That included this run that saw Trubisky cover nearly 72 total yards and go from sideline to sideline to cap off an 8-yard touchdown scramble.

He’d set up his team’s third touchdown of the afternoon — and give Chicago a fleeting 24-21 lead — with another long run that saw him gain 39 yards and give the Bears a first-and-goal opportunity.

Trubisky finished his day with 81 rushing yards on six carries and a touchdown — more yards than the dynamic platoon of Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen combined.

When the Patriots brought the pressure Trubisky couldn’t turn into yards downfield, the Bears’ offense languished. Chicago scored 31 points on the afternoon, but 14 of those points came as the direct result of New England turnovers deep in their own territory. A third touchdown came after a Tom Brady interception at the Bears’ 34. Only two of the team’s scoring drives weren’t preceded by a Patriot mistake.

He completed just 5 of his first 17 passes, only recovering against a New England prevent defense to close out the final seconds of the second quarter. When given the chance to sling the ball into the end zone from the NE 40-yard line with one second left on the clock, Trubisky instead settled on a 5-yard route to tailback Tarik Cohen instead.

Trubisky stabilized late in the game to push his completion rate over 50 percent, but he still missed countless throws — sometimes in the face of pressure, and other times in a relatively clean pocket. He finished his day with 25 completions on 49 passes for 279 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions — though one of those picks, arguably, wasn’t his fault

He only completed six passes to his wide receivers. And Trubisky’s line should have been even worse than it was. He also had two interceptions bounce off the hands of Patriot defenders in the end zone.

But the Bears were still in this game until the final whistle thanks to their young quarterback. Just not because of his arm. Trubisky kept the New England defense guessing with some impressive scrambles out of the backfield — and that’s a skill that’s going to make Chicago difficult to plan against going forward.