Mitch Trubisky knows the outside world is criticizing both him and his team. The Bears haven’t won a game since September.
The quarterback, though, doesn’t need to see it pumping out of the televisions inside his own practice facility.
“Trying to get some of these TVs in the building turned off,” he said Wednesday. “Because you’ve got too many people talking on TV about us and what they think about us — what we should do, what we are and what we’re not — but they don’t really know who we are. Or what we’re capable of as people. Or what we’re going through. Or what we’re thinking.
“It’s just the outside viewers looking in.”
The Bears have flat screen televisions throughout Halas Hall. They’re a place for the team to display their schedules, motivational sayings and even playbook information. Other televisions in the building air sports channels — the league-owned NFL Network and ESPN — though the sound is often muted.
Trubisky defended his team from criticism by television talking heads after being asked whether he’s continued to keep up social media silence — something guard Kyle Long dubbed “Zero Dark 10” last year — this season. Trubisky said he’s been “pretty good” about tuning out outside noise.
“So, tunnel vision, ear muffs,” he said, quoting two of coach Matt Nagy’s favorite sayings. “And just come to work everyday and try to get better and get back to what we know we’re capable of doing.”
Receiver Taylor Gabriel said he hasn’t paid attention to what is — or what isn’t — on the televisions inside the building.
“Now you’ve made me want to go walk around and see if something’s on the TV,” he said.
But he said he knows how to tune out the outside world.
“Me personally? Stay off your phone. Stay off social media,” he said. “But at the same time that’s hard to do. Because nowadays everyone’s on social media. It’s just being focused and playing through that.
“That’s our job. People are going to have their opinion on everything. It’s just overcoming.”
The Bears know they have a lot to overcome.
Trubisky’s 80.0 passer rating ranks No. 29 among regular NFL starters — ahead of the Bengals’ Andy Dalton, the Browns’ Baker Mayfield and the Jets’ Sam Darnold. Dalton has been benched, for the foreseeable future, starting Sunday, and the other two are in their second season.
The Bears quarterback is 31st with 173.9 passing yards per game, leading Dolphins starter Ryan Fitzpatrick — though, in fairness, Trubisky played only one series before leaving the Vikings game with a dislocated left shoulder.
A Bears team that started the season with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations sits at 3-5.
Making the playoffs would take a miracle — the Bears have a 2.6 percent chance of reaching the postseason, per Football Outsiders. In the NFC, only the Buccaneers, Falcons, Cardinals, Jets and Dolphins have a worse projection.
The Bears seemed to acknowledge as much after their latest loss — a 22-14 defeat against the Eagles on Sunday that featured the franchise’s worst offensive first half in 40 years.
Many players sat in their lockers inside Lincoln Financial Field, staring straight ahead and saying little — as if they knew their fate had become that much more likely.
That feeling lingers.
“It is now or never,” receiver Anthony Miller said Wednesday. “It’s win or go home, really, for us.”