raw

To sum up Fields' first real playing time.... Ugly: - The fumble. He was too careless with the ball. Holding on with just 1 hand while trying escape a messy pocket is a bad idea. Young player mistake, trying to do too much to salvage a play that was unsalvagable. Take the sack, live to play another down. Quietly though, him getting on that fumble that was a clear TD the other way waiting to happen may be the difference between 1-1 and 0-2 right now. - The false starts. While the 2nd one, I'm going to put more on Mustipher for not snapping the ball (also late getting the plan in and out of the huddle, Mustipher has to know the clock is short and snap the ball). But this is a muscle memory flaw Fields has to correct. He's rocking/stepping back in anticipation of the snap. It's not a penalty if the ball is snapped, but it's also not something he should be doing. Makes it tough for him to field a low or bad snap if he's retreating at the same time. Equivalent to a WR trying to run with a ball before he catches it. Bad: - The interception. Could call this ugly, but Fields in the postgame knew exactly what he did wrong without having to "watch the film" like other QBs would say. It was a well designed call by the defense. Show 7. Bring 6. But have the 1 LB fake blitz and drop into the area that they correctly guessed would be Fields' hot read. - Missed Mooney for a TD in the redzone. Threw it out of bounds and didn't give him a chance to make a play on the ball. Hopeful: - If you add the Robinson dropped TD to Fields' numbers, his QB rating goes from a dismal 27.72 to just a bad 70.99. If you add the ball that hit off Mooney's palm (more of a timing issue of not practicing together than a miss or a drop), then 6-13, 60, INT goes to 8-13, 118, TD, INT. Add in the 13 yards on the would-be 3rd down conversion minus a horrible OPI call on Kmet, and his QB rating is respectable in the low 80s. And that's not to mention, he's probably not even throwing the ball late on the INT if it's 27 or 30 to 10 instead of 20-10 because the Bears converted these other plays. - He did hit that same route to Mooney after the first incompletion on that play. Mooney ran the route pretty much the same way. Flattened out at the sidelines, where previously it looked like Fields expected him to angle it more. Same exact play. Incompletion was at 23 yards. Completed for 21 yard gain. Like I said before, it seemed like the Dalton gameplan, but Fields took more shots down the field. There were 0 moving pockets. Still very little playaction (which just may be a thing Nagy doesn't do much). Wasn't really a gameplan built to help Fields succeed. Be interesting to see if the gameplan is very Fields specific next week or if another DPOTY on the other side means another checkdown happy gameplan. Overall, he probably showed he wasn't ready. But who cares? This team isn't competing this year and Dalton being ready isn't any better.

OL was pretty decent yesterday. Tackles in particular, I thought played well (especially Ifedi). Mustipher is ass cheeks, but at C, that shouldn't kill the offense. Whoever is the QB, all I ask for is execution in the red zone. The Bears have had mistakes (penalties, drops, bad play calls) take them out of several points thru 2 games already...Dalton and Fields very much included. They are doing a half decent job moving it between the 30s then have to punt around midfield or have a TO on downs. If Fields is the QB, use his legs, get in the endzone. 17PPG (13.5 on offense) is NOT enough to win this game or many NFL games. They gotta start scoring, I don't care who is the QB.

It will be interesting to see how he does if he plays next week with a full week of game install. It's a much better D and if he comes out crisper we may chalk it up to not having a game plan installed and 1st team snaps all week. Of course even if he plays out the season and generally proves he's ready I'll expect some big up and down moments still. Especially with young QBs, I think fans make the mistake of treating every positive and negative game as determinate of a direction when in reality, sometimes it's just gonna be noisy. Yeah, felt like he was running the Dalton game plan with the read option plays mixed in as the ones he'd be running if he were coming in for a play here and there. Also, not having thrown much to ARob, Mooney, etc. seemed to show as a lot of the timing was just off and a couple times they didn't seem to know what to expect with the ball placement (ARob in the end zone twice). I don't really expect too much more (catchable passes caught being the difference) with only a week of reps with the 1s if he does start this week. But a change in the gameplan should make a huge difference....like maybe get more than 7 offensive points per half?

He was only signed this week because Goldman didn't go. Played 5 snaps. Ultimate JAG

Oh yeah forgot about that. That was the 3rd and 2 before the only punt of the game. That would have also put the Bears about 5-6 yards from FG range with a fresh set of downs.

Ok, I'm going to defend Nagy a little bit. While I hate that the Bears didn't even threaten the intermediate and deep part of the field, the game plan did sort of work until mistakes happened. - If Kmet doesn't jump on the opening drive, it was 3rd and 1. Bears had a pretty decent chance of converting. Even if they don't, 3rd and 6 forced Dalton to throw and turn the ball over. 3 points taken off the board. - If Dalton throws to Kmet, who was open in the middle of the field on what became the 3rd and 6 play, the Bears score 7 instead of 0 there, obviously. - 2nd drive, Dalton again missed Kmet, who was wide open on crosser with tons of room to run, when he threw behind a covered Robinson on 4th and 4. Kmet certainly would have moved the chains and likely gone at least 10-15 yards, putting them in clear FG range. -3rd drive, Dalton gets sacked on another 4th and 4 and fumbles when Peters didn't know who to block. Mental error on the vet Peters. That was at the LA38, so a conversion meant 3 more points. -4th drive. The only one that ended in a punt. At the LA47, likely goes for it on 4th and 2 had the Bears managed to convert either of the previous two 4th down plays. Cowardly punt, but probably no faith in his QB at this point. Would have liked to seen Fields in there to run that play he did on the goaline. 5th and 6th drives were TDs. -7th drive was the 4th and 15 failure that basically ended the game. That 4th down play is what it is, but from the 30, the Bears likely kick for 3 if they had been able to get points on just 1 of the previous drives. Would have made the score 20-27 if just 1 FG in any of those first 4 drives. So, I know it doesn't necessarily work this way, but the Bears were a bad penalty and a couple bad reads from potentially putting up a respectable number of points. All in all, I'm not really any higher or lower on Nagy or the team. They were always going to lose to the Rams. I'm encouraged by the production in the run game against a good defense and the willingness to stick with it throughout the game. Also, the ability to move the ball up and down the field without any 3 & outs. That being said, this was basically what we saw last year. They'll probably be good enough to beat the Lions, Vikings, Bengals, Giants, and maybe the Raiders just like they were able to beat the Lions, Jags and Texans late last year. But they are clearly not ready to compete with the Packers (unless Rodgers is really not interested), Steelers, Browns, and NFC West teams. Which ultimately is exactly what we expected, so I don't see how Nagy's seat would be any hotter than it was on Saturday.

Agreed. That's also known as "not good enough". It also concerns me that when and if Fields takes the helm that this is the offense that he will be forced to run. Nothing about Nagy screams to me that he'll open things up with a rookie, especially for the first few (to several) weeks. And if that's the case, they can keep him sitting. Maybe it was because the OL uncertainty. Maybe it was because of Aaron Donald and the Rams pass rush. But then what are you gonna do when you play Zadarius Smith and Kenny Clark vs GB twice? What about TJ Watt in Pittsburgh? The Ravens usual strong pass rush? JJ Watt and Chandler (5 sacks in week 1) Jones for Arizona? The OL is gonna be an issue all year. There will be great pass rushers every other week, and mediocre ones that look much better because of facing a bad OL. At some point, you gotta stop worrying about what other teams do well and figure out what you do well as a team. They've been trying to figure it out since 2018, and will be on their 4th QB with a 4th different skillset soon enough. Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

Again, the decisions don't bother me. But there is no logic to anything. Why Week 4? Are you OK with starting 0-3, but no worse? They've said "we'll know when Fields is ready", does that mean they estimate he needs at least 3 more weeks to be ready? What's that based on? If he's not ready why is he coming on the field in redzone? Why not all redzone, just some plays in the redzone? Oh and why the random short yardage play in the middle of the field? Is he some short yardage plays, some goalline plays? It all just seems random and arbitrary. And I know they don't have to tell us why they do what they do, but it doesn't give me any confidence they actually know what they are doing when what they are doing has no rhyme or reason. And I know teams do this stuff all the time with packages for their young QBs. But they do them with veteran QBs who are actually starting caliber players with experience in the offense.

Highlight of my night is arguing this point against former Bears Dez Clark. But yeah, maybe not all the 3 & outs (actually 0). Only 1 punt. In opponents territory all night. But again 14 points scored is never going to be enough. And again, held off the board until the final 2 minutes of the half. Made a point to add a bunch of speed to the offense, but 0 completions longer than 11 yards. I'm not sure they even had an attempt over 13, and that 13 yarder was on 4th & 15. Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk Do you.. Personally know Dez or was this a Twitter exchange you can link? Twitter Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

It’s a rock and a hard place. There’s a 1% chance Daltons noodle arm finds someone 15 yards downfield and maybe a 3% chance the Rams commit a penalty to give the Bears a 1st. But a FG does nothing. Also there’s the fact that it doesn’t matter because the Rams are scoring on every possession anyways This Bears D can't stop the Rams twice in 10 minutes. I get the 4th and 15 is like an onside kick but it was by far the right move by a magnitude of infinity. Highlight of my night is arguing this point against former Bears Dez Clark. But yeah, maybe not all the 3 & outs (actually 0). Only 1 punt. In opponents territory all night. But again 14 points scored is never going to be enough. And again, held off the board until the final 2 minutes of the half. Made a point to add a bunch of speed to the offense, but 0 completions longer than 11 yards. I'm not sure they even had an attempt over 13, and that 13 yarder was on 4th & 15. Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

If the Bears only have 3 legitimate DBs on the roster, then they still have 3 legitimate DBs playing tonight with Shelley out.

This time of year is usually filled with optimism. "Maybe the QB has turned the corner." "Maybe Nagy has a solid game plan for this game." "Maybe a change at QB will give this offense a boost." We've said it all before. Yet we still get 3 & outs early, 3:1 time of possession disadvantage in the 1st quarter, and the defense holds it together enough so that a late FG in the 1st half gives us hope that maybe the 2nd half the offense will come out stronger......then they score like 1 offensive TD in the 3rd quarter last year. This preseason did very little to give me optimism that this time will be different. Preseason 1st half drives: - 3 & out - 3 & out - 3 & out - 3 & out - Fields leads late FG drive - 3 & out - 3 & out - 3 & fumble - 3 & out - Adams great catch downfield w/ 28-0 score - 6 & turnover on downs - 4 & INT (8 yard drive in 2 minutes drill) - 3 & out - 7 play, 20 yard drive, failed on 4th & 1 - 4 & out - Fields miraculous TD pass in 2-minute drill I know, vanilla playcalling and all. But I don't care what level of game or scrimmage you're playing, 3 & outs is never a goal. Especially for a team that has a history of bad offense. I'd be much more optimistic if Fields was the guy starting, but not even necessarily because of what he would do, moreso of what he could do and become. Because a lot of those preseason drives were with him at QB. Not that he was the reason for the lack of production, just that maybe now that we have seen 4 QBs run this system...maybe it's the system. I'd like to think we'll see the refreshed Nagy from early in 2018, calling his creative plays and putting some points on the board early. But a leopard doesn't change it's spots. I have a hard time imagining a scenario where this isn't an extremely boring first half and the Bears aren't down 10-14 to 3 going into the lockerroom.

My feelings on last season's playoff game, summed up: "Oh well, extra football game that I care about the results, but I know it's going to be another inept primetime offensive performance on national TV" "Oh wow, they are still in this if they can get a big play" "Reverse! Oh Big play opportunity! Wims is opennnnnnnn!" "Why is he still on this team?" "Welp, Miller won't be on this team either" "Oh well, they didn't deserve to be in this game anyway" "Hey, cool catch Jimmy."

LOL. Question sparked a lot of conversation. I posted it because I think it's actually a really tough choice. It's funny because people answering on both sides think their side is a no-brainer.

Saw an interesting poll asked on Twitter. It asked would you rather have Dalton start 16 games, with Fields in final game, and the Bears win double-digit games, but lose in 1st round of playoffs (2017 Chiefs scenario) or would you rather Fields come in relatively early in the season, but the team wins 6 or so games, but Fields wins Offensive Rookie of the Year (2020 Chargers scenario)? It's really a tough call. While winning games would be really great, I feel like starting Dalton for 95% of the season is a waste of time. I think I'd rather know that Justin Fields is good, with elite potential (like Herbert) at this point next year. Fields being good is much more important to this team's future than another 1st round playoff exit.

7 ILBs made the initial 53 man roster. LOL 4 CBs and 1 of them is Xavier Crawford. 8 DBs total 5 TEs 10 OL, and I hate like 7 of them There's a move still to be made with Jenkins to IR. So, they can add someone. But there's also a move to be made when Mario Edwards comes back from suspension, so they have to lose someone Week 2 or 3 (can't remember how long the suspension was for). Definitely seems like they kept the best 53 players. I guess they figured on the best special teamers out of the depth guys. The Bears have kept their draft picks almost by law under Pace, so cutting 2 at a couple of the least deep positions is a surprise, though neither Newsome or Graham are probably top 53 guys right now. The biggest surprise to me is Marqui Christian. I thought he had a real shot to start at nickel and has some position versatility at S and is a former above average special teams player. IDK what his contract situation is, but he may be a guy they bring back after week 1 to save some guaranteed money or something.

The Bills ran that same blitz 2 more times in that game. Fields caught both of them and I believe had 1 completion and 1 drop if I'm not mistaken. Fields isn't really a "lean on your mobility" type of QB. He's not a 1 or 2 read and go type like Mitch was when he was most dangerous in 2018. I get the 3rd bullet. But that's only the ideal situation if you aren't wasting time on another option. If this was last year and you had Trubisky, who still could have turned into something or even with Foles, playing the "won SB MVP with this offense" card and with multiple years on his contract...then it makes some sense. But Dalton is 35 and on a 1-year deal. Even if he's great, you aren't re-signing him. Even if he had another year or two on his deal, you aren't going to be able to trade him for anything worthwhile because of his age. I'm not saying Fields HAS to start or even that Nagy is handling this all wrong, but most of these reasons are bad. Fields could definitely read blitzes better pre-snap. He needs to improve feeling pressure and getting rid of the ball quicker. He can definitely stand to go thru his progressions a tick faster. He could use a bunch of work on throwing with anticipation. If those are the reason he's not starting, then that's fine. And I know they don't have to tell us the reasons, but it makes 0 sense to never give him a legit shot to start because of a predetermined plan of some sort.

I think Zach is going to feed off of these guys too and keep improving on D. If Patrick Williams continues to get closer to some of his defensive upside, this is a team that can score and stop.

Well at this point, I'm expecting Cohen to be PUP and out the first 6 weeks at least. Haven't heard any update. I think Byrd and Goodwin are fine as replacements for Miller. While Miller showed flashes he was pretty inconsistent, didn't seem terribly smart, and has continually had shoulder issues. Not expecting much from Adams, but if Fields is a star we'll eventually get to regularly experience that thrill of no name WR becoming household names and solid contributors. Even with Cohen still out, the RB room looks deeper too. Really I think all the skill groups got deeper. It's on Kmet and Mooney (and perhaps Montgomery) to elevate their games to improve the high end. I'm very high on Mooney personally. Less so on Kmet and Montgomery, but if one of those 3 had a huge breakout year, the other two would be fine as is, probably. I think I side more with the former comment than the latter. While I do think the Bears are slightly better off at WR than last year (Mooney a year of experience, Byrd/Goodwin as the #4 is an upgrade over Wims as the #4 last year), I don't think they are improved enough. I like both Goodwin and Byrd, but they both have only produced in 1 NFL season each. Byrd's season was just last year, so that's promising, but that big season was essentially what the Bears had been getting from Miller. Goodwin's productive season was 4 years ago now and it was when he was basically the #1 WR for the Niners due to a bunch of injuries. So, I don't think the Bears should have much problem matching last year's production: Robinson is Robinson. Mooney should be better. Kmet should give you what Graham did last year. Graham should be able to chip in with 2020 Kmet like numbers as TE2. Byrd and Goodwin should be able to make up for Miller's lost production + whatever Wims, Ginn, etc. gave them. But the issue is the production last year wasn't good enough, and it doesn't project to get much better unless the OL can hold up and Fields plays way more than he sits, and gets that deep ball working. I would look for the Bears to be active on the waiver wire within the next 2 weeks. If a decent WR becomes available, I think the Bears jump all over him and either try to stash Adams or Dazz on the practice squad. FWIW, I also see them looking hard at CBs and OL that are cut. They could definitely add 1 more body at both spots and cut some dead weight (Hambright, Roberson/Trufant) who are only going to make the roster out of desperation.

If the Raiders would have been willing to give up a 1st round pick or even like a 2nd and a 4th or something like that, AND were paying the remaining 40Mil guaranteed on Mack's contract, I would have made the deal. Before the draft, it would have been ammo to get a QB. After the draft, it would have been cap space and recouped picks from trading for Fields. I love Mack, and he's still a great player, but the Bears need to balance the use of assets more on the offensive side of the ball, and the defense could stand to get younger.

Honest question, what is the potential negative repercussions of starting fields before he’s ready. Development of bad habits? Loss of confidence? I feel like on the job training would be more valuable than having him watch and learn from umm Andy Dalton. If he’s the best QB or at least has the highest ceiling I’m struggling to understand how we can “break him” by playing him too soon. But maybe I’m missing some obvious reasons why playing him too soon would be bad Every QB is different. You can have a Justin Herbert get thrown out there at last second notice and win Rookie of the Year or DeShone Kizer and Josh Rosen get thrown to the wolves on an awful team and lose all confidence right away. Or you can have Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes sit a year or two and become franchise guys. From what I've read from Bears beat guys, Fields hasn't really separated himself from Dalton much at all this camp and despite Dalton's poor play so far in preseason, he's still playing with no Robinson, Mooney, Montgomery, Kmet against #1 guys while the Bears are hiding Fields against #3's. Yeah, there isn't a magic formula for when to play a QB. Some need the time to sit and learn, some don't. I wouldn't say Mahomes and Rodgers needed to sit as great as they are. I wouldn't say Rosen and Kizer shouldn't have played, because they are still bad. I think there are 2 reasons why you sit a highly drafted QB. 1. You have a veteran starter that can lead your team into contention (ala Alex Smith (Mahomes), Brett Favre (Rodgers), Jimmy G (Lance)) 2. The QB simply isn't ready to run the offense I'm perfectly fine with Dalton starting. My issue is the reasoning. We don't NEED to see him in the regular season. And he certainly doesn't fit into the #1 scenario. If #2 is the reason for sitting Fields, then Nagy has failed to get him ready, because by all account Fields seems like a guy that could be ready to play right now.

Best case scenario with Dalton starting is he plays not terrible enough to allow the defense to carry him and the offense to 9+ wins and another playoff season. But the problems are A) the defense doesn't appear capable of doing that. Not even based on today with several missing starters, but on paper the back 4/5 is below average with probably liabilities in Trevathan and Quinn in the front 7. And B) even if Dalton leads the team to a decent record, he's gone after this year because he's 36 and you have the future QB on the roster already. Why are we wasting time on a 35-year old QB who has won only 11 of his last 33 starts? You want to see him in the regular season? Throw on some tape that has gotten progressively worse in the last 5 years. If the issue is you don't think Fields is ready to start, then say that. But don't give me this crap about needing to see Dalton in the regular season.

Only the Bears can make a meaningless game, even more meaningless by learning absolutely nothing about their team. Dalton didn't do anything to show he upgraded the 28th best QB situation in 2020 to any higher than 28th. But Fields didn't do anything to make Nagy re-consider his dumb ass idea that Dalton is the clear #1 with no competition. OL was bad with 3 backups on the 1st team, but Sam Mustipher also sucked today. Nagy talked about getting starters more reps this preseason so they wouldn't get off to the slow starts of past years, yet the Bears haven't played WR1, WR2, TE1, TE2, WR3, WR4, RB1, or 3/5 of their starting OL (due to injuries on the line, which I know) for more than 5 total snaps between them. Justin Fields isn't 100% ready to take the reins and never look back, but Dalton isn't capable of winning games. Fields at least can do some damage with his legs, which also makes the defense commit another player to him and not the passing game. But you aren't doing your offense any favors by not letting Fields throw to the #1 offensive weapons. And if you're hellbent on Dalton starting, then you aren't even doing him any favors because he's not playing with them either. Just frustrating to see the same old terrible offense, vanilla gameplan or not.

i've been seeing a lot of people whose opinions on OL play i would respect say pretty positive things about borom in camp. it would be cool if he could win the job now and turn out to be a solid LT...then just throw jenkins into the shallow end to start at RT if/when he's ready. then switch them next year if you want to get crazy. but yeah i realize it's crazy to expect anything out of a 5th round rookie LT. In the crazy event that Borom is a solid LT, there's no way I'm switching them around next year. That would be crazy. Would be great to see a Peters-Borom competition at this point though. I'm not a huge fan of the Peters move. But either way, it's going to be a competition. I'd love it if Borom can flat out win the LT job in the next 2-3 weeks and the Bears can cut Peters (he should be available to bring back on waivers). But even if Peters is the guy, Borom is going to be out there at some point based on Peters' recent history.

I think the OL talk is overblown. If you think the OL has issues and isn't figured out because Jenkins had surgery, then it had issues with Jenkins as none of us have ever seen him play an NFL practice, not to mention a game. One thing is for sure though, Pace definitely tried. I know everyone hates the trade up for Jenkins, especially now that he's probably going to miss his rookie season, but it was a legit attempt to improve this OL. Pace added a 1st round talent after making a move for the only more important position on the OL. Then he doubled up with Borom in the 5th. The OL stuff isn't for a lack of effort this time, at least. This group, with or without Jenkins, was never going to be great. The hope was the increase of talent (2nd round pick) + a healthy Daniels (another high 2nd round pick) + Whitehair in his best position was enough to make this unit serviceable while guys like Jenkins, Borom, Mustipher and even Daniels improved during the year.