Chicago Bears' Trubisky maintains his focus
It's human nature to put it in cruise control after an epic performance such as the one Chicago Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky delivered in his last outing.
But Trubisky doesn't believe in cruise control, which is understandable for a guy who talked about driving his 1997 Toyota Camry (a hand-me-down from his grandmother) up to Chicago from Chapel Hill after he was drafted.
"There's definitely a lot of things in my game I still need to work on," said Trubisky, who posted a career-best 154.6 passer rating and threw 6 touchdown passes against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4. "Every game you strive to put up numbers and produce for your team like that.
"But there's never a complacency with me. I'm always looking at the things I made mistakes on, what I can better at, and it's still a long, ongoing process that I'll continue to strive to get better and better."
Bears coach Matt Nagy was asked if there were any examples from his past of quarterbacks dealing with maintaining their focus after an extraordinary performance. He recalled Alex Smith's 4-touchdown, 368-yard strafing of the New England Patriots in the Kansas City Chiefs' season opener last year but said he wouldn't have to go there with Trubisky.
"The best part about all of this is, I don't really need to do that because that's just who he is," Nagy said of the even-keeled second-year quarterback. "He was like that in the (Bucs) game, talking to (quarterbacks) coach Rags (Dave Ragone) and (offensive coordinator Mark) Helfrich on the sideline.
"He didn't care what his numbers were; he just wanted more (input), just keep feeding me more. More, more, more, so he's not going to change because he had one good game; he's going to try to continue to make that a consistent process."
Trubisky's huge day, which included 19 completions in 26 attempts and zero interceptions with just 1 sack, catapulted his passer rating from 77.6 to 101.6. He ranks eighth best in the NFL, just ahead of Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Carson Wentz and Tom Brady.
The heady numbers are nice, but winning is nicer.
"The most important thing for me is winning and continuing to get better," Trubisky said. "If I can put my team in a good position every single week to be in a good spot to win and continue to get better in the process and just continue to focus on that, then we'll be in good shape."
As the Bears look to stretch their winning streak to four games Sunday against the Miami Dolphins in South Florida, Trubisky, who has thrown just 3 interceptions, faces a defense that has a league-best 10 picks. He has his career-best game to provide momentum, but that will only take him so far.
"It definitely gave me confidence," he said. "But looking back on it, it was just like any other win for the Bears. It's important. You definitely go back, watch the good things, watch the bad things, and put it behind you and move on."
• Bob LeGere is a senior writer at Pro Football Weekly. Follow Bob's Bears reports on Twitter @BobLeGere or @PFWeekly.