NEWSLETTER
After basking in the good vibes of Justin Fields’ record-setting day all afternoon and evening, I woke up today feeling better than I have about the Bears quarterback situation than I can ever remember.
We learned two things on Sunday. First, that we still don’t know what pass interference is (and neither does the NFL’s officiating department). Second, and more importantly, that Justin Fields is that guy.
Today is one of those weeks where this space will be light on film because, quite frankly, I don’t have anything negative to say about Fields, something that I’ve been dying to type all year. Let’s start this with a bang and look at everyone’s favorite play of the game: The 61-yard scamper for six that pulled the Bears within a field goal of the Dolphins early in the second half.
We’ve seen a ton of success in the designed runs for Fields in recent weeks, but this was just Fields seeing an opportunity and making special things happen with his special talents.
One thing I want to be sure to note in this play is that Fields stepped up through the collapsing pocket, and instead of committing to taking off as he has done in the past, he kept his head up and scanned his receivers before committing to the run.
I often noted earlier this season that when the pocket broke down around him, he would take off and be fully committed to the scramble, missing open receivers downfield for potential home run plays. He shows growth in his game by shifting his potential launch point and giving it one more look before taking off. This kind of change can be attributed to Fields getting more comfortable and slowing things down and the offensive line doing a better job in pass pro recently.
Next Gen Stats has Fields clocked at 20.33 mph on that run, marking the fourth time since Week 7 that Fields has been clocked at 20 or more mph, the most in the NFL (along with Jacksonville’s Travis Etienne).
On Fields’ first touchdown pass, he does a great job of dodging Jalean Phillips and hitting Cole Kmet on the naked play, and Kmet does the rest with help from Equanimeous St. Brown — who has been an excellent blocker this season, but nothing more — for his second touchdown catch in as many games.
Touchdown No. 2 on the afternoon was a thing of beauty by Fields. With Bradley Chubb bearing down on him, Fields stayed tall and delivered a dime to Darnell Mooney in the end zone. Seriously, throws like this one are just … 🤌
Passing touchdown No. 3 on the day was an excellent red zone call with perfect execution. Kmet runs a little delayed flat, with Blasingame taking his place as the blocker in front of Fields, and Fields delivers a strike to Kmet in the end zone for the score.
The film hardly ever lies, and that masterful performance was full of examples of why the Bears have their guy under center in Fields. The eyes test agrees, but more importantly, so does the rest of the NFL. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said after Sunday’s game that Fields was a point of emphasis in their gameplan, a difference maker that changes the complexion of the offense.
“That was a big point of emphasis going into the game,” McDaniel said. “just knowing how he’s really helped really change that offense’s complexion the last couple weeks.”
McDaniel went on to discuss what makes Fields different from the rest of the modern-day mobile quarterbacks and how he wrecked their game plan with his elite ability:
“Well, he’s as fast as any skill position runner. Like he is really, really fast, and he can cut and break tackles. There are a lot of running quarterbacks. This one in particular, I think, is very elite and adept at that. In those type of situations, it ultimately comes down to like an arm tackle a lot of times and a difference between a sack and a 40-yard explosive, so you have to go back to the drawing board. Then when you ultimately are in a situation against a player like that, you have to recognize how big of arm tackles those are, where you’re half engaged with a lineman and you’ve got an arm on the guy, you’ve got to find a way to wrap up a leg or do something like that, because he makes those very small windows of opportunity to these gigantic (windows) very fast.
“We had a plan. They definitely got the better of us in that regard, so we’ll take a look at the tape and see how we can improve, because that’s something that will always be the case in this league. There’s going to be dynamic players at that position.”
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who I consider a perfect example of the type of jump we would like to see Fields take next season, was also highly complementary of Fields after the game.
“He impressed me a lot,” Tagovailoa said before asking reporters how many rushing yards Fields had on the day while lobbing a — not too far off — guess of 200 yards. When a reporter told him the accurate number, Tua smiled and said, “jeez … I mean, dude is a baller, and he was making some plays in the pass game as well.”
Tua went on to say that he was happy for the success Fields is finding and that he believes the rest of the league is beginning to recognize how talented he is with every performance like this one.
It’s one thing for us — from a local perspective — to recognize the strides that Fields is making in his development of late. It’s entirely different for opposing head coaches and players to begin to notice. For most of my life, the Bears have had game-managing quarterbacks. Now they have a game-changing quarterback, which is the key to success in the NFL.
