Bear Digest

Bears Passing Game Turns into Real Sideshow

Every throw by Justin Fields seemed to go to the side Monday night and coach Matt Eberflus attempted to explain this as the Bears broke for bye week.

Gene Chamberlain

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The bye week means no explanation from Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy about an excessively horizontal passing attack Monday night in the 12-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings

By the time Getsy talks with media again, it will be so far in the future people could be more preoccupied with Bears-Lions II or Christmas shopping to care. However, coach Matt Eberflus did offer an explanation Tuesday at Halas Hall for all the screen passes, after he had touched on it Monday following the game.

The Bears threw 16 passes behind or at the line of scrimmage to various targets in an attempt to catch the Vikings blitz in the wrong place. They completed 14 but rarely gained significant yards.

"You're always wanting more chunks," Eberflus said. "Explosive plays are where it's at. I think we had eight (total) explosives (for the game) where we're at in terms of goal-wise.

"We, certainly, when you're playing a team that pressures that way and they're vulnerable in the coverage, I believe that we should have more and we're always looking to get that. Certainly we had some opportunities to hit some more of those and we want to take advantage of those."

The downfield throws were few and far between but they did have some. In particular, the 36-yarder game-clincher to D.J. Moore by Justin Fields was one. The screens rarely popped for more than a few yards.

Teams will often use quick slant passes to battle blitzes but the Bears didn't.

"They pack the paint, so to speak," Eberflus said. "Some of their coverages are three deep and they've got two guys in the middle.

"So, really, the open spots on a lot of those are the perimeter. And you certainly can hit some high side pockets on those, which we did with DJ a couple times. Certainly, they give those things away. You've just got to do a real good job of spitting the ball out there and blocking well on the perimeter, which we did at times. You saw DJ get a couple nice runs there towards our bench, there were a couple times. But that's really where you can take advantage of it."

One of the more disappointing sequences came after Jaylon Johnson's interception of Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs in the second quarter.

The Bears threw two short passes for an incompletion and 1 yard, had a false start penalty and then threw incomplete deep on an impossible third-and-15 situation.

They punted to waste that chance.

"It's not what you want, of course," Eberflus said of missed chances. "And it's disappointing to be able to move backward when you have that, and we have to capitalize on that momentum and those situations where our team has built momentum, and we've got to seize the momentum at that point. 

"Obviously we want touchdown first and field goal second. And to have negative plays by either TFL, sack or penalty is not desired."

The short throws did eventually enable Moore to gain 114 receiving yards and he went over 1,000 yards for the fourth time in six seasons.  

It also enabled him to catch a single-game career high of 11 passes.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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