NEWSLETTER
We should be talking about how the Bears head coach, Matt Nagy, trusted Mitch Trubisky to make a read/throw on the road and how the young quarterback flashed growth and development by perfectly executing in the guts of a game …. but a well-designed play, sharply-run route, solid throw, and clutch catch were all wiped away by an ill-timed Allen Robinson fumble:
https://twitter.com/49ers/status/1076992354777616384
And for what it’s worth, Robinson owned up to his mistake … sorta: “Just trying to make plays,” Robinson said, via The Athletic’s Kevin Fishbain. “That’s on me. I need to make sure I protect the ball at all costs. That’s on me. I can leave it to our defense at that point in time. We had the game won based on it being a first down. I have to make sure I secure the ball, get the first down and we win the game.”
Indeed, the obvious – and correct – play here is to go down after making the catch. It’s the smart move and the right one from a situational perspective. A first down meant a win, and Robinson risked that by continuing to run (and eventually fumbling the football). That’s a mistake. But while it’s easy to say “just go down” several days removed … it’s not always that easy to do in the moment. It even happened in the Super Bowl for cryin’ out loud. As far as I’m concerned, the real lesson here is probably just to be better at ball security.
But this entire play does bring up a related issue: In general, I’m okay with a guy doing something risky in an attempt to make the big play. It reminds me of Cubs shortstop Javier Baez going against the grain to make something special happen: more often than not, it turns into something magical for the highlight reel. But sometimes, things don’t go his way and it looks ugly.
Obviously, the big difference here is that Robinson didn’t need to make the big play, because the Bears had just iced the game with a first down, but you don’t exactly what to coach that out of a player either. In that respect, it’s a tricky balance. Ultimately, I think Robinson would’ve gone down if he could have a do-over, but that’s not how this works. And on the whole, I rather he keep taking risks. Sometimes it’l be ugly, but more often than not, with his talent, it’ll be something special.
Michael Cerami contributed to this post.
