Bears quarterback Justin Fields has not had the best start to the 2023 football season.
Chicago has started the year 0–2, losing to Green Bay in Week 1 by 18 and Tampa Bay last Sunday by 10.
A significant reason for the Bears’ struggles so far this season has been the declining play of Fields, who came on strong late last year and appeared to be turning a corner as an NFL quarterback.
That appears to have been undone through two weeks this season. Last Sunday, Fields completed just 16-of-29 passes for 211 yards and a touchdown to two interceptions. He was sacked six times in the loss and only ran for three yards on four carries with a touchdown.
“I wasn’t necessarily playing my game,” Fields said on Wednesday. “I felt like I was kind of robotic. Not playing like myself. My goal this week is just to say ‘F it’ and just go out there and play football how I know how to play football.”
Nam Y. Huh/AP
It certainly appears that NFL defenses studied Fields after his strong performances towards the end of last season and found a way to contain his ground game, which proved to be a weapon and a key reason for the quarterback’s improvement. Fields has not seemed comfortable playing from the pocket, and if more teams can replicate the defensive performances of the first two weeks against the Bears, Fields will need to improve from the pocket in a hurry before things get ugly in Chicago.
Fields and the Bears will look to have a better performance this Sunday against the Chiefs in Kansas City.
