Bears play calling continued to limit Justin Fields in Week 12
The Chicago Bears came away with a narrow 12-10 win in Week 12 against the Minnesota Vikings, but the outcome should have been much larger if not for the team's play calling on offense. The Bears finished the game with zero touchdowns and became the first team in 2023 to win a game without scoring […]
The Chicago Bears came away with a narrow 12-10 win in Week 12 against the Minnesota Vikings, but the outcome should have been much larger if not for the team's play calling on offense.
The Bears finished the game with zero touchdowns and became the first team in 2023 to win a game without scoring a single touchdown. However, the team had ample opportunities to do so.
The Bears forced 4 takeaways in the Week 12 win, yet the team's offense only scored three total points off of those turnovers. Monday ended up being the second straight game the Bears failed to capitalize on numerous defensive takeaways.
The play calling and play designs by offensive coordinator Luke Getsy are primarily to blame. Bears quarterback Justin Fields finished the game with 217 passing yards, 0 passing touchdowns, and lost two fumbles. According to Next Gen Stats, Fields had a career-low 2.7 air yards per attempt in Week 12.
"That was a big emphasis earlier in the week, just to get the ball out and let those guys work the outside and get the ball out quick because they'll either have everybody at the line of scrimmage, blitz everybody or you know the drop out into coverage," Fields said after the game. "The guys handled the well and that was the main emphasis."
Fields completed 14 passes behind the line of scrimmage against the Vikings, a new career-high. The team wanted to game plan against the blitz-heavy Vikings by getting the ball out quick but certainly there can be some better play designs than what Getsy cooked up on Monday night.
Fields was blitzed on 52% of his drop backs in Week 12 and the best strategy Getsy could come up with to combat the heavy pressure was running 13 screen passes on 37 of the team's drop backs, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
After the game, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus attempted to defend the play calling and how it translated to the team's ideal game plan going into Monday night.
"You can decide to do a couple of different things," he explained. "You can split the ball on the perimeter, or you can max it up and have a two man route and try to see if you can get it done that way. So, there's a bunch of different ways you can do it. You get the ball to DJ [Moore] on the perimeter, he makes it make some things happen. I think it's always a good thing, but we'll look at it. We'll see how we can improve for next time and we'll see what we can do."
The creatively on offense was lackluster and completely held the Bears offense back against the Vikings. The best plays the Bears made in the win came in the two minute drill or on plays where Fields extended the play by himself on a scramble drill. Fields ended up finishing the game with a team-high 59 rushing yards on 12 carries.
According to Next Gen Stats, Fields has thrown five passing touchdowns and one interception with a 112.5 passer rating on throws of 20+ air yards this season. In Week 12, Fields attempted two such passes, and his only completion ended up being the longest play by either team and came on the Bears final drive of the game.
After the game, Fields noted that the big play to Moore was a design the team had drawn up for weeks and was finally able to hit on.
"That's the play we run all the time in practice," Fields said. "We've been running that play since I can remember. The O-line did a great job protecting and it's a great play call by Luke. It's just a play that goes back all the way to training camp and the guys executed it at a perfect level. We put into practice multiple times on our defense in a two minute situation. So, just going back to those bank reps and everybody executing when we needed to."
While the interesting play calling throughout the game managed to work out in the end, Fields was clearly flustered all night. The Vikings defense quickly latched on to what the Bears were doing schematically and the offense had no adjustments.
With five games remaining in 2023, the time is ticking for Fields to prove he can be the Bears long-term answer at quarterback. How is he able to do so by throwing 13 screen passes and having 21 of his 37 passes being thrown at/behind the line of scrimmage? It's a ridiculous and inexcusable game plan given the team's current situation for the remainder of the season.
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