Nobody can ever accuse Matt Eberflus of beating around the bush. The Chicago Bears head coach has always come across as practical. He isn’t a guy that will try to downplay something, regardless of whether it’s good or bad. He’ll acknowledge it for what it is. That became apparent again after the Bears’ rough loss in Green Bay to the Packers. Few things went right in that game. They couldn’t stop the run on defense, and Kyler Gordon got abused through the air. Offensively it was even worse.
David Montgomery was brilliant on the ground. Green Bay had no answers for him in the second half. So how did the Bears manage to only score 10 points? The answer isn’t hard to find. They couldn’t throw the ball. Justin Fields threw 11 times for 70 yards and an interception. He was also sacked three times. Darnell Mooney had one catch for negative four yards, and Cole Kmet didn’t have a catch at all. Eberflus didn’t mince words. He admitted this is a problem.
“Yeah, so we’re looking at that. I think that it is a concern. We want to get better there. We want to improve. There’s no question of that. We want to improve in a lot of parts of our football team. A lot of aspects of our football team. But that’s one of them. The touches. Who are we looking at? Getting touches early. Getting guys involved. All those things are being looked at.”
Eberflus also said part of the problem was not getting Mooney and Kmet more involved early. That is something that has to change.
Oh no, @adamjahns wasn't kidding — EQB comes wide open on 3rd & 9, Fields doesn't pull the trigger. Ouch. pic.twitter.com/R0TrN8pGnf
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) September 19, 2022
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Matt Eberflus needs to find answers on Fields soon.
The young quarterback has looked out of sorts too often thus far. The head coach made it clear this wasn’t unexpected. It’s been two weeks in a brand new offense. Both of them came against Super Bowl-caliber defenses. Expecting him to play like a top-tier starter was never realistic. Eberflus remains confident things can and should get better with more time. Quarterbacks tend to improve as they get more comfortable in an offensive system.
That is reasonable. The Bears’ schedule appears to ease up a little bit next week against the 0-1-1 Houston Texans. Their defense has struggled this season, ranking 27th against the pass. Fields will be at home and likely not playing in a torrential downpour. Everything should be in place for him to play better. Matt Eberflus and the coaches will probably have plans in place to help him do so.
Please, no one tell me how Nagy had success with Mooney as a number one receiver last year. Using Allen Robinson as a decoy, and Allen was always a possession receiver. Getsy doesn’t know what he’s doing…not yet.
I wouldn't even categorize them as OK at this point. Mooney nor Kmet have shown to be legit targets this year as the true #1s on this team. I'm beginning to think that Mooney just isn't a #1. #1 receivers can create plays no matter what. This far the opposing #1 CBs have shut him out completely. We might see a little bit of growth from Fields with the things he can control this year but until he has better weapons that growth can only go so far. He's going to get hurt trying to do too much to win… Read more »
I agree on all accounts. Where were the plays that Fields ran vs Cleveland where he carved up the defense? The roll outs, the play action, the bootlegs? No QB can get into a rhythm throwing the ball 8 times until the final 2 minutes of the game. Those attempts were spaced out as well. As well as we ran the ball vs GB think how much better it would have been with a healthy dose of pass plays that worked to Fields strengths. Most of his passion plays last night were straight drop backs. Why run a QB keeper… Read more »
If 85 doesn't stop dropping balls he might gain some more trust. It's a process and I'm confident he'll get there. His head is still spinning and rightfully so. He's in his 3rd offense in 3 years.
Even a year. Cutler famously stated that it takes 3 years to master an offense. Fields is on offense #3 in as many years.