https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2023/9/13/23871256/bears-quarterback-justin-fields-i-was-too-conservative-packers-loss-deep-shot-dj-moore-sunday-nflJustin Fields needs to let it fly.
He knows it and his coaches do, too. That’s what the Bears quarterback, head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy talked about when they debriefed after Sunday’s 38-20 shellacking by the rival Packers.
“I felt like I was a little bit too conservative at times during the game,” Fields said before Wednesday’s practice.
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Fields wasn’t being critical of Getsy’s play-calling; rather, he was upset about his own decision-making. Getsy called screens, sure,
but Fields was the one who missed opportunities to throw deep with receivers open. He instead checked down — running backs caught 11 of his 24 passes — or ran it himself.
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• No one threw less often into tight coverage — defined as having a defender within one yard of the receiver — than Fields. His aggressiveness rate was an NFL-low 2.7%.
• Only one player, the Falcons’ Desmond Ridder, threw shorter passes. Fields’ 3.3 intended air yards — the vertical distance traveled from the line of scrimmage on both completions and incompletions — was the second shortest in the NFL.
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The Bears can call deep shots, but Fields has to make the decision to throw it.
“When you’re taking your shot down the field on a 50-50 ball, you’ve gotta let it ride,” Eberflus said. “If the [cornerback] is really high on top of the [receiver], which I think was the case a couple times, then it’s just the discernment of the quarterback. If he’s real high on him, then you just go ahead and go to your next read.
“But we certainly have some guys that can get some 50-50 balls. If you feel good about where the location is of the corner, we’re gonna go send it up.”
Asked whether that was a point of emphasis for Fields this week, Eberflus said his staff preaches it every week.
“That’s just all part of the read,” he said. “When we’re talking about taking shots down the field, that’s just how you read it. We’re always coaching that.”