Chicago Bears win but there are big concerns about the season and Fields

Despite a thrilling victory, the Chicago Bears have concerns about the health of both the offense and Justin Fields. The Chicago Bears came away with a thrilling victory over Lovie Smith and the Houston Texans. As of this writing, they are in first place in the NFC North. None of the NFL “experts” predicted that would be the case at this point of the season.

Despite the victory, there is not much to be happy about. Yes, the defense had its moments, but the unit did not really pressure Texans quarterback Davis Mills throughout the game.

Major concerns about Chicago Bears, Justin Fields despite win

On offense, the Bears rushed for an impressive 281 yards, including 157 by Khalil Herbert. However, the starting running back, David Montgomery, got injured early in the game and did not return. Additionally, Justin Fields completed less than 50 percent of his passes and he only threw 17 passes. He did make it to triple figures in passing yards, but barely. He finished with 106 passing yards.

Furthermore, the offensive line was awful. They doubled their sacks allowed. They allowed five sacks in the first two games. Against the Texans, however, they gave up five.

Fields was once again left running for his life in many plays. Entering the game, he was pressure on almost 43 percent of his dropbacks, most in the NFL. Things were not different on Sunday.

Many fans are starting to turn on FIelds now. Yes, he missed easy passes. However, when you are running for your life in nearly every play, you start to hear footsteps when there aren’t any. He threw two interceptions on passes that were admittedly bad. However, look at the first one to Cole Kmet, for example. He had a receiver open by the sideline. People question the throw to Kmet but he was open. The problem was that Fields overthrew him.

After the game, Fields said all the right things about how he was frustrated with himself for making mistakes and lauded the defense for coming up big.

"I didn’t play as well as I wanted to. Like I always say, I have higher expectations than everyone else. I just have to play better for my teammates. I’m just proud of the defense, how they played. I’m proud of everybody on the team. Of course, wanted to play better, but it’s just everybody in the locker room fighting for each other."

Fields is a young player. He will make mistakes. It is to be expected. Even the great Patrick Mahomes admitted that he had trouble recognizing defenses for the first couple of seasons as the starter.

Guess what helps a young quarterback improve? Making more throws. The Chicago Bears coaching staff doesn’t agree, though. Including the sacks, Fields dropped back 22 times. Many quarterbacks throw that many in just one half.

We heard from head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy that they need to throw more and involve key players like Darnell Mooney and Kmet more involved. Well, that did not happen against Houston. Dropping back 22 times (and not calling nearly enough slants or curls so that Fields could get high-percentage completions and some confidence) is not enough.

Mooney and Kmet were targeted a total of nine times out of 17 attempts. They had four catches for a total of 63 of the 106 yards Fields had, but there was absolutely no rhythm to the passing attack.

The more we see this Chicago Bears offense the more we see a similar offense to what former head coach Matt Nagy had. The offense still cannot move the ball consistently and there is no balance. Under Nagy, it was an imbalance leaning on the passing game. Under Getsy/Eberflus, it is leaning on the running game.

While the Bears have already won two games, there won’t be very many more should this continue. They got their win against the Texans because their run defense is so horrible. A decent run defense and the Bears don’t win.

Poles is doing Fields a disservice

What is happening to Fields is criminal. General manager Ryan Poles is putting all of his eggs into next offseason’s basket. He signed a bunch of third and fourth-string players in free agency many draft picks who won’t really compete this season. Heck, his third-round pick, wide receiver Velus Jones Jr, has yet to play due to an injury.

Cornerback Kyler Gordon, the first of two second-round picks made by Poles, is struggling mightily. He could become a very good cornerback in the future, but he looks pretty bad so far.

Braxton Jones has his moments. He looks good at times but at others, he looks like the rookie he is. Will the Bears continue with him as the starter or will they decide to use veteran Riley Reiff? The question is what happens to Jones if they make that move.

With subpar receivers and offensive linemen, Fields is suffering. Yes, he will make young quarterback mistakes. However, when everything else is falling apart around him, those mistakes are amplified.

We are seeing that with more and more people now starting to question whether he is the right guy at quarterback. It is nearly impossible to make an assessment of him with such low-quality weapons. He didn’t need to have All-Pros all around him, just decent players.

We mentioned Mooney earlier. Well, those two catches actually doubled his output from the first two seasons. The two catches are Kmet’s only catches for the season. These are the two players who were supposedly most in tune with Fields. They spent the most time with Fields in the offseason and so far they have just six catches in three games between them.

Poles is willing to wait until next season when he will have deep pockets to work with. In the meantime, Fields is taking a beating and not developing. At what point does this start to really grind on him?

There was a shot of him sitting on the bench after a drive late in the game before Roquan Smith‘s big interception. He looked hurt and exhausted. In fact, after the camera panned away from him, he went into the medical tent to get checked out.

Poles better have a great free agency class next season. No more looking for basement-bargain deals. He better have great pitches to available players to convince them to come to Chicago. The question is will Fields survive 2022 to see 2023?