For the two-and-a-half years they’ve been together, receiver Darnell Mooney has considered himself to be of Justin Fields’ most vocal supporters. So it was no surprise Friday when he stuck up for the Bears quarterback who two days earlier had singled out coaching for a reason he felt he was playing too robotic — and later tried to chide the media for reporting his very words.
“I think he was more frustrated with what everything turned out, with the coaching in quotation marks,” Mooney said. “Other than that, no. I think he’s good, I think we’re good. And we’ll be fine. … It’s Week 2. Chill out.”
Those around Halas Hall have little reason to relax after one of the most tumultuous weeks in years. The Bears are 0-2 and are riding a 12-game losing streak with the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs ahead Sunday. Their defensive coordinator quit Wednesday amid murky circumstances. And Fields — who has a 70.7 passer rating and fewer rushing yards than six NFL quarterbacks, including the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes —lashed out against the way he was being coached.
Mooney had no issue with Fields’ criticism of his own play. When Fields said he wanted to play more freely, “that was just him just being open and honest about how he felt about himself,” Mooney said.
“He wants to stay within the means of the play and what his technique is, but he also wants to play his best game as himself,” Mooney said. “That’s what he did to get here and that’s what he’s gonna continue to do. He also wants to take a step forward … It’s all a work in progress.”
While Fields took issue with the way he was being coached, Mooney seemed to have no beef with his own coaches. He said that, in practice, “everything is good, whether it’s schematically, team-wise, player-wise.”
Mooney repeated the claim general manager Ryan Poles made Thursday.
“Nobody in this building ever thinks he’s a point-finger guy,” Mooney said. “He’s never like that. I’ve been knowing him for what, three years or whatever? Never been that type of guy. Never ever. So. We’ll see, man. We’ll see how this thing goes on Sunday. [If] we win Sunday everybody’s going to be on us and we’re the best team in the world.”
The Bears are 12 1/2 -point underdogs. Losing would be a fitting end to a week that was melodramatic, even by Bears standards.
“Since I’ve been here it’s been a lot of rollercoasters,” Mooney said. “So I’ve been kind of used to dealing with all the things outside but we do a good job inside here of just squashing it out, flushing it all out and just understanding that we have a game to play. And that’s where our mindset is.’
Flushing it can be easier said than done.
“You can’t handle it — I mean, you can’t worry about it,” Mooney said. “You just gotta handle what you can do today. There’s nothing we can do but go try to win this game.”
