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1. If this season is all about the development of Justin Fields, there were some positives to take away from yet another loss to the rival that is most important to the McCaskey family and the fan base.
Justin Fields became the eighth Bears quarterback to lose to Aaron Rodgers and was clearly outdueled, but the rookie showed a little something. There will be teachable moments and corrections. The interception in the end zone is unacceptable, whether defensive tackle Kenny Clark was in the neutral zone before the snap or not. (More on that play in a bit.) The Bears should have come away with at least a field-goal attempt at the end of the second quarter. Fields is losing too much yardage when he takes sacks, and while there’s risk/reward with his superior athletic ability and the opportunity for him to turn broken plays into big gains, he needs to develop a better sense of when and how to escape danger. The Bears left some yardage on the field, but faced with a 17-7 deficit to open the fourth quarter, Fields put together an impressive drive that gave the defense a chance to keep the team in the game.
The Bears went 80 yards in 10 plays, with Fields finding a wide-open Darnell Mooney for a 5-yard touchdown to draw them within a field goal with 8:44 remaining. The defense didn’t do its part — and we’ll also get into that in a bit — but this was a really nice drive. It was how you want to see a young quarterback perform when trailing in the fourth quarter against a good opponent, even if the Packers were missing key frontline players, especially in the secondary. It was the kind of drive the Bears have to be able to replicate because the bottom line is they’re not scoring enough points and they won’t beat many quality opponents unless this offense can get rolling.
“I’m really proud of where he’s at,” coach Matt Nagy said of Fields. “And every day he’s going to keep growing, every single day in practice, these games he’s going to grow. He’s doing a really good job of making sure he communicates with us where he’s at, and in the game he’s going to keep getting looks. He’s starting to see more and more defenses. He’s starting to get more and more timing with these wide receivers and tight ends. The beautiful thing about Justin is he’s a competitor, he stays extremely positive, he’s hard on himself in a good way.”
Fields hit Allen Robinson for a 20-yard strike on third-and-3 to reach midfield. On the next snap, he connected with tight end Cole Kmet over the middle for a 21-yard gain, the longest pass play of the game for the Bears and the kind of connection these two should start making with regularity.
Justin Fields is confused why refs didn’t throw a flag on the play that became a momentum-killing interception. ‘I need to be better,’ the Chicago Bears QB says. »
Two snaps later, Fields scrambled around the left side for a 14-yard gain. He ran for a season-high 43 yards on six carries, and those kind of numbers will boost the offense’s yards per carry, which was 5.4 for Sunday’s game. The problem is with the sacks — he took four for a combined loss of 37 yards — those numbers are almost a wash. Included was a 10-yard sack on third-and-13 from the Packers 38 with 20 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Throw the ball away — or better yet find a short check-down for a minimal gain — and Cairo Santos has a shot at a long field goal.
Ideally a quarterback loses 5 yards or fewer when he’s sacked. For the longest time I’ve called sacks for big yardage “Krenzels.” Former Bears quarterback Craig Krenzel, another Ohio State product, had a knack for taking really bad sacks when he was a rookie in 2004. Krenzel had 16 sacks on which he lost 6-plus yards and eight on which he lost 8-plus yards. He took only seven sacks on which he lost 5 yards or fewer. In no way am I comparing Fields to Krenzel; I’m noting that the Bears want to see Fields rush for close to 50 yards and lose significantly less when he’s sacked, which will happen from time to time. It’s something he will get better at as he gains more experience.
“He can make plays with his legs,” Nagy said. “When something’s not there, he’s going to look to try to make plays. We tell him that. We want him to do that. He’s a very smart quarterback that makes a lot of good decisions. Every now and then there’s a lot of quarterbacks that make decisions where you end up taking a sack and you don’t throw it away. You’ve got to get into understanding what happened on the play. Was it a protection issue? Was it a Mike (linebacker) ID? Was it he had somebody open and he should have (thrown it)? There’s a lot of things that go into it. After we watch the tape, we’ll be able to evaluate it. As you go into this you understand, in particular (on) third down, you come into situational football and how you have to grow from it.”
On the snap after the 14-yard scramble, a holding penalty backed up the Bears to first-and-20 from the Packers 26. There was no panic. Fields connected with Robinson and Kmet again to create a manageable third-and-2, and after a Khalil Herbert run, they scored on the pass to Mooney.
The Bears opened the game with an 80-yard, eight-play touchdown drive, but other than that, it was a slog moving the ball and that is where they need to be better. Fields, who finished 16 of 27 passing for 174 yards, needs to have four or five high-quality possessions a game, not two.
“I should have played better,” he said. “I didn’t play as well as I wanted to. The drive before the (first) half ended, we should’ve got points right there, so that’s on me. And I mean, I’ve just got to play for my teammates. I think Bill (Lazor) was calling a great game, what we were doing. I’ll take the blame. I just need to be better.”
Going back to the drive at the end of the second quarter, Dean Lowry sacked Fields for a 13-yard loss on third-and-13 from the 38. It knocked the Bears out of range for Santos. I’m not sure what Fields could have done. It was a tough call. The Packers were playing 2-man coverage and the Bears had three deep curls, all at about 15 yards. It takes a long time to develop and that is a tough route to throw against 2-man. Fields waited for Robinson to come open before feeling the pressure. In that situation, the Bears might have been better off with leveled routes in the middle of the field. A target at maybe 7 yards and another at 12 to 15 yards against a team that plays a lot of split-safety coverage. There just weren’t any windows for Fields on this play. The Bears were counting on a receiver to get a one-on-one and no one did.
Fields should be better the next time the Bears face the Packers on Dec. 12 at Lambeau Field. Who knows? Maybe the passing game will be clicking by then. It would really help. It’s crazy that in the entire history of the Bears-Packers rivalry, a series that includes 203 games, the Bears have passed for 300 yards in only six of those meetings. That’s not suggesting passing yardage always correlates to winning, but it does underscore how abysmal the team’s passing history is.
Justin Fields shows some encouraging signs — but needs to cut down on the ‘Krenzels.’ Brad Biggs’ 10 thoughts on the Chicago Bears’ Week 6 loss to the Green Bay Packers.
10 thoughts after the Green Bay Packers came to Soldier Field and won for the 11th time in their last 12 visits — playoffs included — defeating the Chicago Bears 24-14.
