Bears talk 2.0; Fields era begins for real for real

[Lexluthor]

It crazy how the bears passed on Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson .

[Jeffster81]

Fields will be fine. My only concern is Nagy's playcalling will hinder Fields development.

[bad knees]

If Fields averaged this game for the season, it would be by far the worst season in the history of the NFL. So yeah, it was an awful game.



Failed to get in the end zone despite multiple short fields
Threw an interception at a point that could have swung the game
Consistently failed to move the chains
Only 60 yards of total passing offense
Took 25 yards of loss in sacks
Overall combined for 66 yards on 25 plays between his rushes / passes / sacks
Didn't visibly appear to go through progressions well and tended to stare down his receivers

Again, I'm not trying to bust on Fields long term. I think he's going to be a gem. This game was a turd though, and he'll probably have plenty of other growing pains too. That's okay. I'm not hating on the guy for it, but he looked far worse than Dalton right now on the field, and Dalton's one of the worst starting QBs in the NFL. It might take him some time and that's just fine. I'm okay letting him take his lumps and grow even if it means losses. I'm just not going to pretend I saw something great when I clearly didn't.

I'm with Doug on this one. I love JF and think he ought to keep starting, but today he was overall bad. Dalton was better when he was in. Fields got bailed out by the defense. That does not mean that all of our excitement about JF is misplaced. It's just going to be a process. I have every confidence in him, and I look forward to watching him play after spending my Sunday afternoons doing something else these past few years.

Start naming some plays that he was *awful* on. He had that one pick.

-He made good decisions, the game was a little quick for him but he kept his composure the entire game. Burrow is a stud and he lost his chill and threw 3 picks. Young QBs lose their cool pretty easy, the fact that he didn't is a good sign.
-Robinson and Mooney dropped his best balls
-The Bears were ahead which kind of makes the offense predictable
-The gameplan was for Dalton - plays that make Dalton play his best - I dunno if you know but those two players have drastically different strengths

Bad plays off the top of my head:
- the first false start penalty on him - how often do you see that called on a quarterback?
- the second false start penalty on him - I've watched many, many football games and have never seen two illegal motion penalties called on the same quarterback in one game.
- the play were he was sacked and stripped but used his athleticism to recover the ball - held the ball too long.
- another play where he was sacked, having held the ball too long.
- I'm sure there are others - like a few of his incompletions - that I am not remembering because I am not reviewing the tape.

Look, he said himself that he did not play well. He had some plays that were great and that showed his huge potential. I think he will be a star. But overall, the Bears won in spite of him today.

[nomorezorro]

i assume lots of people are doing some self-reflection after this game and thinking "you know, it was maybe a little silly to have a hardline stance on whether justin fields needed to start the very first game of his career, and the professionals who were at every practice possibly had a rational case for starting andy dalton instead"

[Dresden]

Fantastic game tonight by baltimore and Lamar jackson. And what a gutsy call by Harbaugh to go for it on 4th and 1 from his own 45 with 1:20 to go.

[Dresden]

Read on Twitter

This was the play that I called special.

Especially considering he just threw that pick which led to a quick TD, giving Cincy all of the momentum. Breaking the tackle, having the speed to get the first, staying in bounds.

Speed, strength and smarts in a huge moment. Cincy was getting the ball back and most likely scoring if he didn't pick that up.

He got tackled, that's why he went down at the end. I didn't see anything intentional about him going down to stay inbounds on that replay.

[fleet]

i assume lots of people are doing some self-reflection after this game and thinking "you know, it was maybe a little silly to have a hardline stance on whether justin fields needed to start the very first game of his career, and the professionals who were at every practice possibly had a rational case for starting andy dalton instead"

Never assume. Is the “rational case” the 14 points in game one? 7 of which were scored by Fields, and as in this one, his 6 yards per completion? By the way you want to degrade people for being irrational, silly fans who need reflection go ahead. There are “professionals” all over NFL publications and media that want Fields starting and learning ASAP, and I am going to call it a significant majority. Not to mention local NFL professionals who can see practice that inevitably get impressed. Nothing is hard in the world that is truly learned by watching others do, it is time to get it on. Most people expected plenty of growing pains so not sure where the vindication comes in either way.

[dougthonus]

Start naming some plays that he was *awful* on. He had that one pick.

-He made good decisions, the game was a little quick for him but he kept his composure the entire game. Burrow is a stud and he lost his chill and threw 3 picks. Young QBs lose their cool pretty easy, the fact that he didn't is a good sign.
-Robinson and Mooney dropped his best balls
-The Bears were ahead which kind of makes the offense predictable
-The gameplan was for Dalton - plays that make Dalton play his best - I dunno if you know but those two players have drastically different strengths

The bad:
Well he had two false starts, I can't even remember the last time I saw a QB false start.

He took two bad sacks and fumbled on one of them and almost cost the Bears a TD on it because he was careless with the ball.

He threw a pick at a point that almost cost the Bears the game and was completely unnecessary. There's literally almost no worse mistake he could make.

Also, being awful isn't just about making terrible mistakes, it is also about failing to achieve anything on the field, which is what happened. The Bears weren't ahead by multiple scores all game. For much of the game it was a 1 score game and he failed to produce anything.

The Neutral:
He almost had a TD to Moody but he missed the throw by about 6 inches. Close enough to get excited about how close he was, but he still missed the throw.

The good:
He should have had a TD to Robinson but Robinson dropped it. Bad play by Robinson, but a good throw by Fields.

Again, I'm thrilled we have Fields and willing to let him take his lumps and get better and think he will. However, he took his lumps out there today.

[Susan]

Start naming some plays that he was *awful* on. He had that one pick.

-He made good decisions, the game was a little quick for him but he kept his composure the entire game. Burrow is a stud and he lost his chill and threw 3 picks. Young QBs lose their cool pretty easy, the fact that he didn't is a good sign.
-Robinson and Mooney dropped his best balls
-The Bears were ahead which kind of makes the offense predictable
-The gameplan was for Dalton - plays that make Dalton play his best - I dunno if you know but those two players have drastically different strengths

The bad:
Well he had two false starts, I can't even remember the last time I saw a QB false start.

He took two bad sacks and fumbled on one of them and almost cost the Bears a TD on it because he was careless with the b
all.

He threw a pick at a point that almost cost the Bears the game and was completely unnecessary. There's literally almost no worse mistake he could make.

Also, being awful isn't just about making terrible mistakes, it is also about failing to achieve anything on the field, which is what happened. The Bears weren't ahead by multiple scores all game. For much of the game it was a 1 score game and he failed to produce anything.

The Neutral:
He almost had a TD to Moody but he missed the throw by about 6 inches. Close enough to get excited about how close he was, but he still missed the throw.

The good:
He should have had a TD to Robinson but Robinson dropped it. Bad play by Robinson, but a good throw by Fields.

Again, I'm thrilled we have Fields and willing to let him take his lumps and get better and think he will. However, he took his lumps out there today.

So we're being clear, I took issue with the word "awful". I'm not saying he played great, or even good. Awful would mean there's play out there that's deeply concerning - like what Zach Wilson did today.

[dougthonus]

So we're being clear, I took issue with the word "awful". I'm not saying he played great, or even good. Awful would mean there's play out there that's deeply concerning - like what Zach Wilson did today.

I wouldn't be concerned with anything Fields did, even if he threw five Ints and the Bears lost. I expect him to take lumps.

That said, things that need improvement:
The Int could have cost the Bears the game
The fumble could have cost the Bears the game
Multiple false starts from your QB is something I don't recall ever seeing before
He stared down receivers and visually didn't seem to go through progressions
His pocket presence / scrambling needs improvement. He's fast but he wasn't effective moving around and often made poor decisions about when to hold onto the ball and wasn't able to find seams to run in when he wanted to scramble

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think Cinci is a particularly good defense, but they still bottled up our offense really well. This isn't entirely on Fields obviously.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

Fields is fine. We had the luxury of him learning some lessons while we had a big lead. Defense looked good but we have a bigger test next week. Just glad we won.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

It crazy how the bears passed on Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson .

It is among other teams. Part of me wonders if they would be as good as they are if we did draft them.

Hopefully we have something with Fields.

[nomorezorro]

Never assume. Is the “rational case” the 14 points in game one? 7 of which were scored by Fields, and as in this one, his 6 yards per completion? By the way you want to degrade people for being irrational, silly fans who need reflection go ahead. There are “professionals” all over NFL publications and media that want Fields starting and learning ASAP, and I am going to call it a significant majority. Not to mention local NFL professionals who can see practice that inevitably get impressed. Nothing is hard in the world that is truly learned by watching others do, it is time to get it on. Most people expected plenty of growing pains so not sure where the vindication comes in either way.

i think it's fine to think fields should have started since game one. in fact, i think it's such a fine opinion that i chose to make it my own!

i also think it was and is silly to have a rabid, authoritative position on something that doesn't really feel like it will be a big deal either way in the grand scheme of things. if fields is good, he'll probably be good whether he starts from the jump or sits his entire rookie season. i think the silliness of "fields MUST start game one" became even starker when the bears played a game in which the offense looked noticeably better when andy dalton was at the helm and fields was very shaky.

i still think fields should start, btw. let him learn through his mistakes; dalton isn't dynamic enough to carry this offense and the team feels destined for mediocrity no matter what. if the team thinks fields isn't quite ready, though, no skin off my back if he sits a few more games

[nomorezorro]

unfortunately the opinion "whatever, doesn't really matter that much" isn't a particularly well represented point of view in most sports media

[GetBuLLish]

i think it's fine to think fields should have started since game one. in fact, i think it's such a fine opinion that i chose to make it my own!

i also think it was and is silly to have a rabid, authoritative position on something that doesn't really feel like it will be a big deal either way in the grand scheme of things. if fields is good, he'll probably be good whether he starts from the jump or sits his entire rookie season. i think the silliness of "fields MUST start game one" became even starker when the bears played a game in which the offense looked noticeably better when andy dalton was at the helm and fields was very shaky.

i still think fields should start, btw. let him learn through his mistakes; dalton isn't dynamic enough to carry this offense and the team feels destined for mediocrity no matter what. if the team thinks fields isn't quite ready, though, no skin off my back if he sits a few more games

This post perfectly sums up my thoughts on the situation. Great minds really do think alike.

[Dresden]

i assume lots of people are doing some self-reflection after this game and thinking "you know, it was maybe a little silly to have a hardline stance on whether justin fields needed to start the very first game of his career, and the professionals who were at every practice possibly had a rational case for starting andy dalton instead"

Never assume. Is the “rational case” the 14 points in game one? 7 of which were scored by Fields, and as in this one, his 6 yards per completion? By the way you want to degrade people for being irrational, silly fans who need reflection go ahead. There are “professionals” all over NFL publications and media that want Fields starting and learning ASAP, and I am going to call it a significant majority. Not to mention local NFL professionals who can see practice that inevitably get impressed. Nothing is hard in the world that is truly learned by watching others do, it is time to get it on. Most people expected plenty of growing pains so not sure where the vindication comes in either way.

It could be the fact that Dalton's QBR was about 100 points higher than Fields' was in yesterday's game....

[Dresden]

In any case, it was announced today that if he's healthy, Dalton will start next week. They are saying it is a bone bruise, although they aren't sure. But not anything major like an ACL tear.

[Dresden]

One point that is being missed is that Nagy is trying to win games, not just develop Justin Fields. Fans may be anxious to see Fields play, but if the coaches think they have a better shot at winning on Sunday with Dalton at the helm, that is what they will do. It's not fair to the rest of the team to play a qb that hurts their odds of winning. I know many will disagree with that statement, but I think players are more interested in winning games than they are in developing a new qb as well.

[fleet]

i assume lots of people are doing some self-reflection after this game and thinking "you know, it was maybe a little silly to have a hardline stance on whether justin fields needed to start the very first game of his career, and the professionals who were at every practice possibly had a rational case for starting andy dalton instead"

Never assume. Is the “rational case” the 14 points in game one? 7 of which were scored by Fields, and as in this one, his 6 yards per completion? By the way you want to degrade people for being irrational, silly fans who need reflection go ahead. There are “professionals” all over NFL publications and media that want Fields starting and learning ASAP, and I am going to call it a significant majority. Not to mention local NFL professionals who can see practice that inevitably get impressed. Nothing is hard in the world that is truly learned by watching others do, it is time to get it on. Most people expected plenty of growing pains so not sure where the vindication comes in either way.

It could be the fact that Dalton's QBR was about 100 points higher than Fields' was in yesterday's game....

It would be great if they used Dalton’s QBR on the scoreboard . We were talkkng about the ‘ratuonal case” for starting. Which will be tough for me, I get it. Just wondering how 6 yards per completion will dent the scoreboard much unless you think Dalton will set the completion percentage record this season. I can predict how this goes eventually. Just like it did for Trubisky. Dalton’s little dink passes are gonna be stopped and the Bears will be forced to go deep. And them we have a problem in pass protection

[Ctownbulls]

Read on Twitter

This was the play that I called special.

Especially considering he just threw that pick which led to a quick TD, giving Cincy all of the momentum. Breaking the tackle, having the speed to get the first, staying in bounds.

Speed, strength and smarts in a huge moment. Cincy was getting the ball back and most likely scoring if he didn't pick that up.

He got tackled, that's why he went down at the end. I didn't see anything intentional about him going down to stay inbounds on that replay.

He went down on his own but I wouldn't call that "special". If he ran out of bounds it would have been moronic. Staying inbounds is what any decent, aware QB would do.