Chicago Bears QB rewind: Justin Fields’ development has been temporarily interrupted. On a short week, it looks like Andy Dalton’s show in Detroit.
The Chicago Bears rookie left Sunday’ s loss to the Baltimore Ravens early in the third quarter and did not return. His availability for Thursday’ s Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit is in serious jeopardy. Coach Matt Nagy wouldn’ t confirm that part of the diagnosis when asked about it Monday morning.
Justin Fields’ growth process has been interrupted. For now, anyway, the focus is on Fields’ injured ribs. The Chicago Bears rookie left Sunday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens early in the third quarter and did not return. His availability for Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit is in serious jeopardy. A more concrete timeline for his return has yet to emerge.
What exactly is the severity of Fields’ injury? It’s difficult to say. In a video a friend posted on Instagram on Sunday evening, Fields said his ribs weren’t broken but just bruised. Coach Matt Nagy wouldn’t confirm that part of the diagnosis when asked about it Monday morning.
“I can’t rule out anything,” he said. “All I can say is we’re waiting to get feedback and then that’s what we’ve got to go off of.”
Still, it’s unlikely the Bears will push Fields back into action this week with a significant injury and such a short turnaround. Fields has never experienced the Sunday-to-Thursday recovery and preparation process, which is incredibly demanding even for players who are physically well. Plus, with the Bears now 3-7, the risk-reward quotient of playing Fields with injured ribs doesn’t seem to line up.
Nagy acknowledged Monday that even if Fields wanted to fight through his discomfort and is cleared by doctors, the Bears must weigh the value of getting him game reps Thursday against the prioritization of his overall safety.
“Justin is extremely tough,” Nagy said. “And you have to know how to manage that and protect him from himself sometimes.”
In other words, expect Andy Dalton in the driver’s seat of the offense this week. Here’s our Week 11 QB rewind.
Defining moment
With less than two minutes remaining and the Bears facing a desperation fourth-and-11, Dalton looked across the line of scrimmage at the Ravens defense and knew an all-out blitz was coming. While setting his “first wide vision,” Dalton took a moment to process what he was seeing and the options he had available.
Then he made a play. A big play. A stadium-shaking play that seemed like it might be the tonic that would finally halt the Bears’ exasperating five-game losing streak.
With two receivers to the left and one to the right, Dalton took the shotgun snap and eight Ravens rushers came at him. Wide receiver Marquise Goodwin put a move on cornerback Chris Westry and broke open deep.
Dalton fired long and immediately took a hit from edge rusher Odafe Oweh. Goodwin’s eyes grew big.
“I didn’t see a safety. I didn’t see anybody,” Goodwin said. “I just ran my route. It was a simple go route and Andy made the perfect throw. He made my job very easy. I know it looks like I made this crazy play, but I literally just ran under the ball. Perfect ball from the quarterback.”
Added Dalton: “That’s the style of play Baltimore likes to use, and we had an answer for it.”
It was a timely answer and seemed like it would be a game-winning contribution. But the defense quickly surrendered a five-play, 72-yard touchdown drive, and all the good vibes inside Soldier Field disintegrated.
Said Goodwin: “It’s like when your girlfriend breaks up with you. Y’all are having a good time and she just dumps you out of nowhere.”
Uh-oh
After the Bears offense exploded for 287 yards and 17 points in the second half of a Week 9 road loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, there was widespread confidence inside Halas Hall that the momentum could carry forward Instead, the Bears were shut out in the first half and held below 15 points for the fifth time in 10 games this season.
The Ravens defense has proved susceptible to big passing plays throughout the season. And while the Bears hit seven explosive passes (completions of at least 16 yards), there was not enough consistency or rhythm to the offense the entire day.
Before suffering his injury, Fields completed 4 of 11 passes for 79 yards. Second-year tight end Cole Kmet, coming off an 87-yard receiving day in Pittsburgh, wasn’t targeted in the first half and made his only catch for 12 yards with 3:38 remaining.
“I don’t know,” Kmet said. “There was just a lot to it. From an execution standpoint, I look at us as players, we have to be better at making plays. We’ll put that on ourselves.”
Asked how he and other players will retain belief in the Bears’ direction when the results aren’t providing much to believe in, Kmet shrugged.
“As players, we have faith in one another,” he said. “We have a good group of guys out there. We feel like we’re a talented group. So we just have to come together as players and do our part.”
On the bright side
With the Bears at 3-7 and well outside of the playoff picture, the most important storyline for the remainder of the season is how much Fields will continue to grow. But with the rookie likely sidelined Thursday, the offense will remain in capable hands.
Dalton was the Bears’ Week 1 starter and has made 148 starts, including the playoffs, during his 11-season career. In a rapid-turnaround situation, his experience and command may be a plus.
For Nagy, who so badly needs a victory to slow the onslaught of outside criticism, Dalton’s presence and advanced understanding of the game may be a decent prescription in this short week to prevent the Bears from losing to the winless Lions and reaching a new humiliation nadir.
In six second-half possessions Sunday, Dalton threw for 201 yards with two touchdowns. His first throw was a play-action dart to tight end Jimmy Graham that provided some life.
On the next snap, with a run-pass option called, Dalton went to Darnell Mooney on a quick pass to the right. Mooney knifed between perfect blocks from tight ends Kmet and Jesse James and gained 62 yards after the catch on his 60-yard touchdown.
“That was clinic blocking,” Nagy said. “The thousands of times we’ve run that play in this offense in the last 10 years, that’s one of the best ones we’ve had because of the blocking.”
Dalton gets only so much credit for that basic pitch-and-catch sequence. And the entirety of his afternoon was up and down with obvious timing issues and more than a few wayward passes. He threw incomplete on 12 of his 23 attempts.
On one third-and-5 misfire in the third quarter, Dalton seemed to throw hot toward Goodwin. But Goodwin ran a different route than Dalton expected, and the Bears were forced to punt.
Still, with Fields likely out this week, Dalton is capable of helping the Bears play winning football Thursday at Ford Field. And with a victory needed, the Bears shouldn’t feel overly distressed.
“He just brings a good poise in the huddle,” Kmet said.
Odds and ends
- The Bears went scoreless in the first half with only 126 total yards and six first downs. That marked the 21st time in 43 games since the start of the 2019 season the offense failed to score a touchdown before halftime. Perhaps even more troubling, the Bears offense has been a disaster in the first half throughout this five-game skid, averaging 142 yards, eight first downs and five points. Feel free to interpret those numbers any way you’d like, but it’s difficult to find evidence of notable progress.
- The Bears’ lone turnover came in the middle of the second quarter when Fields lost a fumble while trying to climb the pocket. While Fields has lost only three fumbles this season, he has put the ball on the ground nine times and must work on ball-security fundamentals as part of his development. On Sunday’s giveaway, neither left tackle Jason Peters nor right tackle Larry Borom held up well enough in pass protection. As Ravens outside linebacker Tyus Bowser worked inside of Peters, he swiped at the football. Fields appeared to have both hands on the ball at the time but didn’t have a strong enough grip. The ball came loose, and the Ravens recovered. That was one of two first-half possessions the Bears took into Ravens territory and failed to score.
- Much has been made of the confusion that addled the Bears before a critical fourth-and-1 early in the fourth quarter. Dalton missed a deep shot to Mooney on third-and-1, and communication issues arose immediately after as Matt Nagy, Chris Tabor and Bill Lazor tried to get on the same page for what should happen next. Nagy’s headset went out in the process. “Of all the times for a headset to go out,” he said Monday, “the dang thing goes out right there.” Initially, the Bears sent their punting unit onto the field. But after Nagy’s headset came back on, they opted to go for it. Said Dalton: “I was (initially) ready for the next play. I think there was a little bit of time in between. They said the punt team was going out, and the next thing you know the offense is on the field. Which is fine.” A timeout was needed to get aligned. After that break, a direct snap to David Montgomery for a run up the middle was swallowed at the line of scrimmage. Even if it hadn’t been, right guard James Daniels was called for holding. The entire sequence seemed to be a fitting snapshot of the 2021 season.
- Fields had only four completions in five drives. Still, his 29-yard completion to Mooney on the opening drive was subtly spectacular, an on-the-move dime dropped right over the top of Westry and in front of safety Chuck Clark. It was another promising display of Fields’ playmaking instincts and precision on downfield passes, a chain-moving contribution that helped push the Bears into field-goal range. That possession ultimately stalled and resulted in a missed 40-yard field goal by Cairo Santos. But in a season that will revolve around the flashes of promise Fields shows, that was an underrated moment and a throw that deserves praise.
- Ten games into the season, the Bears rank 31st in the NFL in total yardage (287.9 per game) and 29th in scoring (16.3 ppg). They are 29th in third-down conversion rate (33.1%) and 27th inside the red zone, turning 25 trips into 13 touchdowns (52%).