The Bears looked like the Ravens at times Monday night, and with good reason — they installed some of Lamar Jackson’s designed runs for quarterback Justin Fields to use against the Patriots.
“We just took some of the run plays that they had,” Fields said Wednesday at Halas Hall. “Of course, Lamar’s the best running quarterback in the league. Any time you can run like him, it’s always going to help your offense out, for sure.”
Field watched film cut-ups of Jackson running the Baltimore offense during the week.
“I mean, he’s just quicker and faster than everybody else,” Fields said. “So ... I’m just hoping to be quick like that one day.”
Fields ran an unofficial 4.4-second 40-yard dash at Ohio State’s pro day before the 2021 draft; that figure would rank fourth among quarterbacks at the NFL Scouting Combine since 2000. Is Jackson faster than that?
“Faster than me? I don’t know,” Fields joked. “We’d have to race. But he’s definitely quicker than me and more shifty than me, for sure.”
The Bears’ planned quarterback runs worked nonetheless — 10 of them gained 56 yards in a 33-14 upset win.
Fields has 364 rushing yards this season, second-most among NFL quarterbacks. Jackson leads all quarterbacks — and is fifth among all rushers — with 510.
“When you have that quarterback who has the ability to run, he certainly gives you another element and another dose of yards in the running game,” Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said of Fields. “It’s been good so far.”
The Bears had the element of surprise against the Patriots, though. That won’t be the case Sunday against the Cowboys.
Fields, though, is willing to run.
“To be honest with you, it doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “If the coaches think that it’s going to help us win, then you guys already know that I’m going to do whatever for this team to help us win games. If it’s going to be more quarterback runs, then that’s what it’s going to be. I do expect teams to, of course, prepare for that more.”
