Chicago Bears: What to Watch for in Week 2 vs Green Bay Packers

Justin Fields continues his development

Once things settled down Fields really showed what he could do. He made some big plays downfield, rolled out to buy time, and used his legs to gain key yards. Fields ran for 28 yards and the offense woke up when he picked up a few first downs with his legs.

Fields also showed great handling of the new system. He had his teammates in the huddle and ready for the next play quickly. Under former head coach Matt Nagy, there were many times when the offense took too much time to set up and ended up either having to waste a timeout or take a delay of game penalty.

Things are different with Getsy and Fields.

Head coach Matt Eberflus was impressed with Fields’ composure after a horrible first half.

"He was able to move all those things aside. Figuring it out how he was going to grip the ball better, how he was going to operate and then figure out the game as the game went on and move the ball down the field. That’s what, to me, is outstanding. What an outstanding thing for a young quarterback to have that mental toughness."

It is unknown whether it was the bad conditions or the pressure by San Francisco early on that had the Bears call a lot of short passes. In fact, 8 of Fields’ 17 passes were completed behind the line of scrimmage.

We have to see if this week the game plan is to have more passes thrown downfield. It will be a big boost if Velus Jones Jr. plays. He is a dynamic player with blazing speed who could help on both offense and special teams.

Jones can stretch the defense, opening up things underneath. That would give more targets to tight end Cole Kmet, who didn’t have any catches and was targeted just once.

Hopefully, we can see how Fields plays on a clean surface. However, there is a chance we might not see that. There is a 60 percent chance of rain forecasted for Green Bay. The game is on Sunday night so if it rains throughout the day the Bears could see another bad field surface. We already saw that Fields can handle that. Let’s hope he can show that he could also handle the game in good conditions.

The Chicago Bears may not win this game, but they will do a lot to earn some respect. This is the first look that many of the “experts” will really have. Chicago hopes to make a great first impression.