Letting it fly last week didn’t go so well for Bears quarterback Justin Fields, so he overcorrected Wednesday by saying next to nothing. He kept his answers mostly brief and took just six minutes of questions — half as long as he spoke last week and most weeks.
He talked about the “bright side” of adversity, identified the path forward as “just doing what we’re doing” and said the team somehow is close to finally winning a game but also has a lot of work to do.
Those six empty minutes will keep him free from controversy like the one he ignited last week when he vented frustration about, among other things, being overcoached. But they were far from inspiring as the winless Bears look to keep their season from spinning out of control against the Broncos on Sunday.
Then again, what’s he supposed to say?
Fields’ performance, in a season that he hoped would be his breakthrough, has left him in a spot where there’s no right thing to say. There’s no way he can talk about playing poorly that’s going to be palatable, not in Year 3.
The Bears have lost every game by double digits, including a 41-10 blowout by the Chiefs, and Fields has been one of the NFL’s worst quarterbacks. The only relevant topic to discuss is how badly everything is going.
That’s where some straight talk from Fields, coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy would be nice. What’s wrong and why? Clear answers to straightforward questions. Instead, this sounds like the Matt Nagy era, where the soundtrack to every losing streak was him rambling about sticking together, focusing on the details and having great meetings.
Fields said last week everyone should “put it on me” when the offense is bad and added, “I need to play better, that’s it, point blank,” but when asked Wednesday how his film from the Chiefs game looked, he gave a non-answer.
“Just gotta focus on details within each and every play,” he said. “Everybody’s gotta do their job.”
A better explanation is needed for why the Bears have scored the sixth-fewest points and Fields ranks 30th in passer rating (67.7) out of 34 qualifying quarterbacks.
After saying he wanted to get back to “playing free and being myself,” Fields managed four completions for 40 yards in the first half against the Chiefs and was down 34-0.
He finished 11 of 22 for 99 yards with a touchdown and an interception for a 58.7 passer rating. It was his 14th career start with a sub-80 passer rating and fifth start failing to throw for at least 100 yards.
Asked if he at least felt freer and not so “robotic” as he described the first two games, Fields said only, “Yes, I did.”
It’s hard to throw for fewer than 100 yards. His opponent this week, the Broncos’ Russell Wilson, has been under 100 just twice in 12 years. Of the other 2021 first-round quarterbacks, Zach Wilson has four starts with double-digit passing totals, Mac Jones has two, Trey Lance has one and Trevor Lawrence has zero.
The Bears did empower Fields to throw downfield more against the Chiefs, and NFL Next Gen Stats charted him at an average of 14.8 air yards per pass — a league-high that week. But his completions averaged just 5.2 air yards.
That’s why it’s hard to get excited about the Bears’ chances this week even though the Broncos gave up 70 points to the Dolphins. That was against quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who has steadily climbed over the past three seasons and is top-five in every major category this season. He’s the betting favorite to win the MVP.
So if the Bears are looking at the Broncos opportunistically, be certain Denver sees them the same way. There’s no doubt the Broncos flew back from Miami with a slight exhale knowing they’d get Fields and the Bears next.
