This line of thinking makes absolutely no sense and precisely shows how little attention was paid to Justin Fields’ actual performance versus the Bengals on Sunday and how little credit he was given for overcoming the obstacles in his way.
The Chicago Bears offense looked dangerous with Justin Fields at the helm.
Now, going into week two, here were the elements working against Justin Fields:
He ran the scout team all week, which means he took minimal (if any) reps with the first-team offense.The plays installed for this week were suited to Andy Dalton’s skill set and not Justin Fields, for who the coaching staff only prepared a small package of plays for.
Despite all this, Fields flashed every bit of his potential against the Bengals. Due to his limited practice time with the first-team receivers, he and Darnell Mooney missed out on two major connections, one of which was a surefire TD. Additionally, he had what would have been the throw of the week, dropped by Allen Robinson and another completion to Cole Kmet called back due to offensive pass interference.
Furthermore, due to likely limitations with the playcalling, Fields had to do his damage from the pocket. There were almost no designed rollouts to simplify his reads by eliminating half the field and he also lacked the same support from the run game that Dalton had supporting him in week one.
This is what makes the criticism of Justin Fields extremely alarming. He was thrown into a situation no one in the Chicago Bears’ organization anticipated and managed the game following a game plan not tailored to his strengths and without developed chemistry with any of his weapons or his own offensive line.
To top it off, when the game was on the line and a play needed to be made, he delivered by picking up a first down with his legs on third and nine while breaking a tackle that would have almost certainly resulted in a sack or potential fumble had most other QBs been carrying the ball.
Now, the most significant thing I want to mention about the game is the interception he threw. First off, this is a mistake that all young quarterbacks are going to make in their careers. No amount of running scout team is going to help someone avoid this “welcome to the NFL” moment.
The linebacker faked his rush and dropped into coverage to be in the perfect position to intercept Justin Fields’ pass that was headed to the right place. These are the kinds of mistakes Fields will make once and a while but probably not often throughout his career.
