Tar Heels in the Pros: Holcomb, Trubisky shine in matchup of former roommates

Former Tar Heels Cole Holcomb and Mitch Trubisky have both had intriguing starts to this season, but for entirely different reasons.

The two former teammates faced off on opposite ends of the ball, as Trubisky and the Chicago Bears highlighted a Monday Night Football matchup against Holcomb and the Washington Redskins.

Cole Holcomb

Holcomb has been one of the biggest surprises, not just on the Redskins, but throughout the entire NFL this season.

The rookie linebacker amassed 15 total tackles, three of which were for losses, taking place in his first two career NFL games.

Despite five turnovers from Redskins quarterback Case Keenum, resulting in the Washington defense being on the field for extended periods of time in its 31-15 loss to Chicago, the impressive start to the No. 173 overall pick’s career didn’t stop in Monday night’s matchup against the Bears.

Holcomb tied the team-high of nine total tackles against Chicago, making him one of the few bright spots in an otherwise poor defensive performance by the Redskins.

The former UNC walk-on, who lived with Trubisky while the two played together at North Carolina, failed to get his first sack or interception of his career in the matchup with his past roommate. 

Through the first three weeks of the season, Holcomb has been one of the more consistent aspects on a defense that is conceding about 31 points per game.

This season, 16 of Holcomb’s 24 total tackles have been solo tackles. Through three weeks, the rookie is second on the team in combined tackles behind Landon Collins (26).

Mitch Trubisky

While Holcomb has spent the early weeks of the season in the headlines for all the right reasons, Trubisky has had the opposite reaction from the media in the start of the former Tar Heel’s third season in the NFL.

Trubisky was unable to throw a touchdown pass in either of his first two games of the season, adding an interception in Chicago’s season-opener against the Packers to his list of early season mistakes. 

However, Monday night’s game against the Redskins was a return to last year’s impressive performances for the former UNC quarterback. 

Against Washington, Trubisky completed over 80 percent of his passes for 231 yards. The young quarterback gave up his second interception of the season to Josh Norman late in the third quarter, but that didn’t take away from Trubisky's three touchdown passes, all to Taylor Gabriel, in the second quarter. 

Trubisky’s stellar performance provided a jolt to Chicago’s offense that couldn’t have come at a better time.

After ending last year’s regular season with a 12-4 record and suffering an early disappointing loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round, the Bears nonetheless entered this year poised to be one of the league’s best teams.

After a 1-1 start to this season that featured two lackluster performances from Trubisky, analysts were beginning to question whether or not the Bears made a mistake trading up in the 2017 NFL draft to select Trubisky at No. 2 overall.

Monday night’s performance certainly silenced those critics, at least for another week.

@McMastersJ

@DTHSports | sports@dailytarheel.com