FIELDS IN BLOOM
Amid growing buzz, Fields trying to not let it affect him
Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy had the same reaction as most of the rest of the football world Sunday as he watched quarterback Justin Fields’ 61-yard touchdown run unfold against the Miami Dolphins.
“Honestly? It was like, ‘Holy cow.’ But not with that type of talk,” Getsy said. “It was a pretty unbelievable play.”
A moment later at his Thursday media session, Getsy turned back into the levelheaded coach, explaining how the play was supposed to develop before Fields weaved through the Dolphins defense, leaving players diving to the ground at his feet.
“As you review the film, it probably should have been a 15- or 20-yard completion to (Darnell) Mooney,” Getsy said. “The way he (Fields) slid up in the pocket, you want to see him keep his shoulders a little bit more perpendicular to the line of scrimmage and rip the ball. He was headed there, he just got there a tick late because he squared his shoulders and then it turned into, like, an unbelievable play after that.
“Once he got to a certain point and I saw Mooney in a position to be able to cut the guy off, I was like, ‘There’s no way anyone’s catching that guy.’ So it was pretty cool.”
There’s a balance this week at Halas Hall as Chicago buzzes about how Fields rushed for a regular season NFL quarterback record 178 yards Sunday in the 35-32 loss to the Dolphins and as local and national talking heads forecast great things for his future.
The Parkins and Spiegel show on WSCR-AM 670 brought balloons into the studio Monday for a “QB1 party” and played a love song to Fields, who also threw for 123 yards and three touchdowns Sunday. Former NFL coach Mike Martz, who in August wrote an article predicting a “rough career” for Fields, did an about-face, declaring Fields “just so impressive. He’s just special in every way.” Numerous national analysts weighed in with phrases such as “a star in the making” and “franchise QB.”
But inside the Bears facility, Getsy, Fields and the rest of the offense are trying to harness the excitement that comes with such a performance — and stay focused enough to continue making needed improvements.
Getsy said his former Packers boss Mike McCarthy used to say often that it’s harder to handle success than adversity, that remaining humble and sticking to your philosophies become even more important when “people are telling you they love you and patting you on the back.”
It doesn’t seem to be too difficult for Getsy, who was equally even-keeled when the football world was decrying Fields’ lack of progress in the first month of the season.
In the span of a few sentences Thursday, Getsy called some of Fields’ plays “miraculous” and “pretty unbelievable” — and then noted the quarterback needed to throw the ball away on an interception that was negated because of offsetting penalties.
“Hopefully the environment remains consistent to where we are about getting better every single day,”
Getsy said. “No, we’re not in our room gloating about it, nor were we (worrying about it) when everybody else was saying the other direction of what we’re talking about. We’re a pretty focused group, and (Fields) is the center of that focus for sure.”
When asked about the outside buzz, which included being named the NFC offensive player of the week Wednesday, Fields said his approach is “just don’t let it affect me.”
“Just go about my day like I would before all this hype came, or so-called hype,” Fields said. “Just put my head down and keep working. My main goal is to keep improving and keep getting better each and every day.”
Getsy stressed Thursday that Fields’ showing against the Dolphins wasn’t a sudden breakthrough but a result of building up players’ comfort and understanding of the offense.
To the coach, it was a product of the process, one that must continue this week.
“There is no magic potion, right?” Getsy said. “This isn’t like ‘Space Jam,’ where you’re drinking Michael Jordan’s drink, you’re drinking a special water or whatever. This is the work you put in back in April all the way through now. And the guys are just doing a really good job of buying into our philosophy of our play style and the way we want to play the game and being the most physical football team on the field. That’s where we’re staying committed to that.”
Bears tight end Cole Kmet said the next step is to finish close games with a win after the Bears failed to score on two late drives.
Yes, officials missed a pass-interference call on a ball to Chase Claypool on third down of the final drive. But Getsy pointed to the fourth-down play, in which Equanimeous St. Brown dropped a nice pass from Fields, saying, “it’s about executing like anything else.”
Fields pointed to room for growth in the passing game, which is averaging 125.7 yards per game, worst in the league. He said he is looking to improve his pocket presence, getting to the checkdown faster, getting the little completions when needed and not forcing the big play.
“Just take what the defense gives you,” Fields said. “Play every play out. Situationally, what’s the down and distance? What do we need to accomplish on this play? Of course, if there is a big play there, then take it. We have certain plays where we want to call a shot, we are taking a shot downfield. There’s other plays where we just want to get a few yards or just get a completion.”
The Bears have a prime opportunity for a big offensive performance — and perhaps a win — Sunday at Soldier Field against the Detroit Lions. The Lions defense is the worst in the league, giving up 417.3 yards and 29.3 points per game. Their run defense ranks 31st with 149 yards allowed per game, and their pass defense ranks 29th.
Lions coach Dan Campbell was among those praising Fields this week, calling him “very dangerous.”
“You’ve got to use a little bit of everything,” Campbell said when asked how to stop him. “Really, I think there’s a place to spy, there’s a place to pressure, there’s a place to really play more coverage and keep everything in front of you and then rally to it.
“There’s no easy answer to playing this guy because you see it all over the tape week after week. It’s the cast the net, close the net. Man, you talk about you have to be as unselfish as you’ve ever been as a rusher against this guy on third down because if you give him even a crease, you get pinned in the A-gap, he rushes high upfield, your defensive end and the B-gap’s open and now look out. He’s got a lot of grass and he can run.”
Campbell might not be getting tips from Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel.
The viral social media clip of the week was from the third quarter of Sunday’s game, when Fields ran out of bounds for 8 yards for what would have been a first down if not for a Bears holding penalty. McDaniel walked toward Fields on the sideline and yelled something.
The broadcast caught clearly the end of McDaniel’s message: “Stop it!”
“I just wanted him to stop scrambling,” McDaniel told reporters in Miami this week. “And it was pretty irritating because he didn’t listen at all, and he didn’t take the coaching. At that stage of the game, I figured no one had asked him to stop it. So, you know, I gave that a try. I think other coaches can learn from my experience that he does not listen. So rely on other tactics.”
As the rest of the NFL catches on to what Fields can do — and tries to find countermeasures — Mooney and Khalil Herbert said they weren’t surprised by anything that unfolded Sunday.
“Everybody is seeing what we’ve already seen in practice,” Herbert said. “He does that stuff all the time.”
Added Mooney: “We know what he’s capable of. It’s nothing too crazy for us. It’s something normal to us. He’s capable of a lot more things, too, so get ready.”