Fields gives hope to Bears
Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields had 281 yards and 2 touchdowns in their victory over the New England Patriots to put an end to their losing streak.
Justin Fields was drafted 11th overall in 2021 by the Chicago Bears, but until yesterday, he never really showed off what he could do. Going into Monday’s game against the New England Patriots, the Bears were on a three-game losing streak and Fields didn’t look any different than he did last season. A 10-day break gave the Bears time to rest and prepare by reworking their offensive scheme in a way that clearly works well for Fields and the Bears offense. They beat the Patriots 33-14.
The Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy called for lots of movement in the pocket and designed quarterback runs that would get their offense going and it was a success - Fields led the offense with 82 rushing yards and 5.9 yards per carry. He ran the ball nine times on designed runs and posted a career-high 54 yards on the carries. He finished with 63 rushing yards on designed runs.
“It just makes our offense more complex,” said Fields. “Just getting us out of the pocket, just more design quarterback runs, and it brought a whole different element to our offense.”
74 of Fields’ rushing yards came in the first half, the most by a quarterback against New England since Bill Belichick started as head coach in 2000. Fields joined Russell Wilson as the only player in the past 30 seasons to have more than 100 passing yards, 70 rushing yards, and at least one passing and rushing touchdown in an opening half. It was the Bears’ highest-scoring game with Fields as the starter since he was drafted last year.
“I think [the design QB runs] creates an issue sometimes for the defense, depending on what defense they’re in,” said Bears head coach Matt Eberflus. “Certainly when you have a quarterback that can have the design runs, with the run-pass off of it, and then also doing some other things, just have the ability to scramble and make first downs.”
On Fields’ one touchdown pass of the night, he was under pressure and forced to reset his footing and twist around to avoid the tackle and get the ball away and he did, just before getting hit by two Pats defenders. The ball landed cleanly into the hands of Khalil Herbert, who ran it into the end zone for the touchdown.
Fields could have taken the sack or pulled the ball down or fumbled and lost it. Instead, he got creative and turned a difficult play into a touchdown for the Bears.