FINE-TUNING WITHOUT FIELDS
Despite bugs to work out, QB and many offensive starters will sit Saturday vs. Colts
WESTFIELD, Ind. — Justin Fields looked like he needed more work, but instead he’ll get less this week.
Minutes after a shaky offensive performance Thursday in the second joint practice with the Colts at their training-camp facility, Bears coach Matt Eberflus said Fields and select starters would not play against the Colts in the second preseason game Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“He’s not playing,” Eberflus said of his quarterback. “And the selected starters are not playing in that game because of the work we’ve done here.”
Fields, who took seven snaps with the starting offense in the preseason opener against the Titans last Saturday, also might not play in the preseason finale against the Bills on Aug. 26. That would mean his next game would be the season opener against the Packers on Sept. 10 at Soldier Field.
The joint practices carry that much significance for the Bears’ coaching staff. Last year, when the Bears didn’t have joint practices during the preseason, Fields played 57 snaps in preseason games, including 30 in the finale against the Browns.
“The joint practices, that’s not something we always do, but it’s something we’re doing this year,” Eberflus said. “[Sitting Fields on Saturday is] what we thought was best for our football team at this time, and then we will discuss the third game [next week].
“We’ve got a bunch of good practices next week against each other heading into that Buffalo week. We’ll decide at the latter part of that week what’s going to happen.”
Eberflus said Fields, as expected, wanted to face the Colts.
“He always wants to play,” he said. “I mean,
he’s a football player. He’s an elite competitor. He wants to compete every single down. But we’re going to do what’s best for the football team.”
That Fields and likely most of the offensive starters won’t play is not a big surprise. Fields was likely to get only token snaps at most. But after another inconsistent performance Thursday, it’s clear there’s a lot of work to be done before facing the Packers.
Protection was leaky at times, with center Cody Whitehair leaving practice early and right guard Nate Davis limited. Fields threw an ugly interception when a jump-pass over the middle intended for tight end Cole Kmet was deflected and grabbed by Colts linebacker E.J. Speed. Fields completed a downfield pass to DJ Moore on the final play of that team drill. He also was 8-for-8 in a seven-onseven
drill with a short field.
Eberflus accentuated the positives and said Fields is where he expected him to be at this point of training camp.
“I think he’s right on pace,” Eberflus said. “He was 8-for-8 with four touchdowns in seven-on-seven — that was excellent. Rhythm, timing. He’s getting better there.”
But Eberflus tacitly acknowledged the offense as a unit still needs work.
“Sometimes it’s a protection breakdown,” he said. “It’s always everybody. It’s the other 10 guys that need to operate. Are we running the routes correctly? Are we protecting [Fields] the right way, giving him time? And doing those things it takes to have an efficient passing game?”
Eberflus is always going to protect his quarterback. On one play Thursday, Colts cornerback Kenny Moore blitzed Fields and seemed to make contact — a training-camp practice no-no. Moore, an undrafted free agent from Valdosta State who blossomed into a Pro Bowl player in Eberflus’ defense in Indianapolis, heard about it from his former coordinator.
“I know Kenny, and I love Kenny, and he’s a great player and a great man,” Eberflus said. “He came off the edge. We had our protection breakdown, and at the very last moment, our tackle pushed him.
“I told Kenny after that play, ‘You’re athletic enough to move out of the way and veer from that,’ and he agreed. We just need to do a good job of staying away from both quarterbacks and keeping them safe.”
It remains to be seen if the offense’s inconsistent play is part of the growth process or a harbinger of things to come. But even tackle Teven Jenkins acknowledged it should look better than it did Thursday.
“Yeah, yeah, of course,” he said. “I mean, like four weeks ago, we have a bad day, we have a good day. Today, we go have a bad day, good day. It is what it is. It’s football. Somebody has to win, and sadly, today we didn’t make as many plays as we wanted to.”