Chicago Bears: Fields’ And The Offense’s Day On Tuesday

The Chicago Bears offense, led by quarterback Justin Fields, had its up-and-downs on Day 11 of training camp.

I had the privilege of attending Chicago Bears training camp on Tuesday, the eleventh day of practice.

Watching the players up close lends a different idea of how things are. You can study film and listen to the experts who are there, but once you are there for yourself you get a better idea of what is happening.

There are a lot of expectations on quarterback Justin Fields‘ shoulder (or better yet, his arm). General manager Ryan Poles spent the offseason tailoring the offense for him. Fields now has an array of weapons to target and his protection should be a lot better than a season ago.

Watching Fields on Tuesday there were shades of what critics said about him since he entered the NFL — consistency. He made some tremendous throws that wowed the fans. However, he also made some throws that were head-scratchers.

Concern over the deep throw?

Poles added a lot of speed to the offense. With Moore, Darnell Mooney, Chase Claypool, Tyler Scott, and Velus Jones, the wide receivers corps has plenty of speed.

The idea is to stretch the defense and create space underneath in case the deep ball isn’t there. Fields has been inconsistent in throwing the deep ball, though.

It is unclear whether this day the deep ball wasn’t a priority but there weren’t very many balls thrown deep. There was one that Fields targeted Mooney. However, the throw was severely underthrown. Rookie cornerback Tyrique Stevenson got a beat on it and intercepted the throw.

That there haven’t been enough connections on it so far. That’s it.

It’s really simple.

Only 2 days left of camp at Halas Hall. I’ve seen one bomb in person, and that was a double move by Tyler Scott.

Typically, there would be more by now. Something I’ll monitor. https://t.co/h7wVVWcQ02

— Greg Braggs Jr. (@GBraggsJr23) August 8, 2023

Justin Fields goes deep downfield to Darnell Mooney and its intercepted by Tyrique Stevenson who was all over it.

Also, could’ve been a sack by Dominique Robinson. Great rep from the defense.

• Ep 134: NFL Week 2 Studs And Duds
  by Full Press Coverage on September 20, 2023 at 7:07 pm

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My concern is building for the vertical passing game. Just haven’t seen enough of it.

— Greg Braggs Jr. (@GBraggsJr23) August 8, 2023

As Braggs noted, Fields could have been sacked as well. This is something we saw at times with Fields during the regular season. He sometimes just chucked the ball when he was under pressure. He has to realize that sometimes taking a sack is not the worst thing to happen.

Perhaps the coaches are a little concerned about the protection. They might not want to call many deep throws until the line jells a little more.

On the throws that did go deep, Fields overthrew a lot of them. There is still more time left to work on that so it should not be too much of a concern now. However, there should at least be a little bit of concern.

The wide receivers (other than Moore) struggled with drops

Looking at the offense, it has the ability to make some big plays. New wide receiver D.J. Moore is phenomenal at catching the ball. It did not matter if the ball was thrown high, low, or wide, he was grabbing it. If he continues this into the regular season he will be Fields’ biggest security blanket.

The same could not be said about the other receivers. There were dropped passes all over the field.

Another receiver of note is Scott. His speed and elusiveness is more incredible up close. He made some very nice double moves that created a lot of space between him and the defender. He had a couple of drops himself, though. Going forward he needs to make those catches when he has a lot of space.

A nice thing to see is how Fields and Claypool have connected. As training camp progresses, the two have created good chemistry. It is imperative that Fields has that chemistry with more of his receivers than just Moore or Mooney. Remember, last season he had great chemistry with Mooney. Things really became difficult when Mooney was out for the season because of an injury.

The Bears don’t want a repeat of that.

Fields and the offense did well when it counted

Fields led the offense well when they ran the game-winning drives drill. They set the clock at 55 seconds and had the offense try to set up a game-winning field goal.

On the first play, Fields connected with tight end Cole Kmet for a big play. However, Kmet clearly committed a pass interference penalty, knocking down the defender as the pass arrived.

That penalty put the offense in a bad situation. On the next play though, Fields connected with Moore on a beautiful 12-yard completion.

Later on the drive, Fields suffered a sack. On third-and-17, Fields found Scott for an 18-yard gain and a first down.

With the clock winding down, Fields again completed a pass to Moore. He then spiked the ball with 0.6 seconds left. Cairo Santos then proceeded to hit the game-winning field goal.

It was nice to see Fields and the offense recover from tough plays, bounce back with big plays, and come out with the win. That is what we want to see from the offense. Nothing is perfect. However, you want to see the offense overcome their mistakes.

As mentioned earlier, there is still some time to see the offense improve. There is still a month left before the regular season begins.

We’ll get a bigger idea of how well they’ve progressed when they start the preseason games. The preseason schedule begins in three days when the Bears host the Tennessee Titans. Let’s see how the Chicago Bears offense looks in game situations.