Developing a Bears Connection

Allen Robinson finds establishing the route with rookie quarterback Justin Fields can happen if the two keep working at it.

The thing about the usual rookie quarterback thrill ride is it's all-inclusive.

Everyone on the team must go along on it, and for the Bears having a change at quarterback to Justin Fields has meant a reduced number of receptions so far for wide receiver Allen Robinson.

Of course, the desired ultimate result is eventual success on a greater scale for everyone.

Robinson has averaged 100 catches the last two years, and admits there has been some frustration involved but not necessarily because of the fact he's only had 13 receptions through four games. Instead, it's the overall offensive struggles causing frustration.

"Obviously for me, myself, it has been some frustration there, but I would say across the board as an offense," Robinson said. "Like you said before, we haven't been what we wanted to be at in the first four weeks.

"Granted, we're 2-2, but as far as the things we wanted to accomplish, you know, it's been up and down. We obviously want to be better. We consistently want to continue to get better."

The Bears are last in passing and 30th in scoring, but the one abysmal game in Cleveland accounted for much of their statistical trouble. It's not easy to recover from 1 net yard passing as a team.

"I think that's the main thing, is that as a player it's not really being frustrated with things, people, or anything like that, but maybe just based on you not being able to contribute how you may want to," Robinson said.

Making big catches to help in the 24-14 win may have helped remove any of this feeling. Robinson caught three passes for 63 yards, a much healthier yards-per-catch than he has enjoyed not only in this season but throughout his time in Chicago.

Fields got the ball downfield and Robinson and Darnell Mooney caught it. 

For Robinson in particular it was a 28-yard toe-dragger with a ball thrown into what was more a slit than a window in the coverage. He also made a 27-yarder on a "dagger" route, a play over the middle deep. Those throws by Fields were impressive.

"He's a person who, I think the biggest thing for him to me that I notice, is that his wanting-ness to be able to make a big play," Robinson said. "I think that's the big thing.

"I think anybody who knows him, anybody who has been around him, or has probably been around him in college or watched his college tape, knows that for him he wants it. He's seeking the big play. When you have somebody with that mentality, it's always exciting and it's always fun because you have a guy who can shake out of a situation and maybe throw one deep or who when a play looks it's breaking down can break a 20-yard run or something like that. Him having that mentality, especially as a young player, that's the fun and exciting part."

Excitement and fun don't necessarily have to intertwine, but in Sunday's game they did. Fields showed how the deep passing game can really work when he hit Darnell Mooney for 64 yards before Robinson's 28- and 27-yarders.

It's been two games now and a few weeks of working with Fields, and Robinson sees the chemistry starting to develop in practice. In training camp it couldn't really develop when Robinson was working with the first team most of the time and Fields was with the second team.

The two hold discussions regularly during the practice week about how to handle different defensive coverages.

"That's the main thing of developing chemistry, of being able to talk through or foresee different things that may happen on Sunday to whereas you may be kind of expecting that," Robinson said. "To say that we may get this look or this look, 'but hey, if for some reason we do get this look what are you expecting?' That's when you kind of talk through that."

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