Legacy of "meh"

It was all about history last night in Soldier Field, as two ancient enemies clashed again for the umpety-umpteenth time. It was the Green Bay Packers vs. the Chicago Bears, and there were legacies afoot in this official opening of the 100th NFL season, legacies that strolled unseen but not un-felt through the splendid September night.

Curly Lambeau was out there somewhere, and George Halas, too. Johnny Blood. Sid Luckman. Don Hutson and Red Grange; Butkus and Sayers, Nitschke and Hornung, Favre and Sweetness and the 46 defense -- which actually was there, because they trotted out the '85 Bears last night to get everyone properly stoked.

Legacies. And then the game started, and we got to see another one on the Bears side of the ball, a legacy with which everyone who's been following the Bears for the last half-century is well familiar, even if they don't like to admit it.

Which would be: Mediocre to cruddy quarterback play. "Meh" quarterback play, to put it another way.

Mitch Trubisky upheld that legacy in fine style last night, quarterbacking the Bears to a gargantuan three points in a 10-3 loss that was itself a tribute to, I don't know, the single wing or something. Trubisky put up a quarterback rating of 18, throwing for 208 yards while being sacked five times and throwing a pick in the end zone to strangle a Bears comeback. It was the perfect Bob Avellini/Bobby Douglass/Jack Concannon kind of night.

Which is to say, a perfect Bears quarterback legacy night.

It's strange how it all works sometimes. There are teams that always seem to have a quarterback, like Green Bay. And there are teams that always seem to have running backs and middle linebackers, like the Bears. And then there are teams that never seem to have that platinum-grade, Hall of Fame QB, also like the Bears.

In 50 years following the Monsters, I've yet to see any Bart Starrs, Joe Montanas or Tom Bradys playing quarterback in Chicago. I have, conversely, seen a lot of Avellinis and Huffs and Concannons and Jim Millers, not to say the immortal Peter Tom Willis. Some of them weren't bad. Some of them were atrocious. But none of them ever made me sit up and say, "Dee-yam, let's see Elway do that!"

Or Peyton Manning or Dan Marino or Drew Brees or Roger Staubach, for that matter.

No, sir. The only QB who ever won anything for the Bears in the last 50-some years was Jim McMahon, and even he wasn't that good. The '85 Bears were the 46 defense and Sweetness and Willie Gault occasionally sprinting downfield like the Olympic-grade  sprinter he was. McMahon, on the other hand, was ... serviceable.

Threw for 2,392 yards that season. Threw almost as many interceptions (11) as touchdowns (15). Had a completion percentage of 56.9.

Fifty-six point nine percent might win you a backup job in today's NFL. Probably not, though.

As for Mitch Trubisky ... well, he's better than that. But not by much at this point, which only makes sense.

He is, after all, a Bears quarterback. It's a lot to live down to.