Justin Fields Leadership Shines Through
Justin Fields picked up a teammate who could have been way down after a decisive fumble and a critical holding penalty.
Wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette wasn't the only player Fields picked up Sunday in a 29-22 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
Fields enjoyed his best career game in terms of passer rating and had a 9-yard jet sweep flip to Velus Jones but never got the chance to rally the Bears for the second time in the game after Smith-Marsette had the ball stolen away from behind by Cameron Dantzler. Fields spent all day lifting the offense with his arm and legs but to no avail.
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"It's tough but I know Ihmir, I know he's feeling down and out," Fields said. "Our job is to pick him up. He's a great player. Me, personally, I know what he can do on the field.
"He's young, his seocnd year, so he just has got to learn from that mistake and keep going, but he can be one helluva player in this league for sure."
Until recently, what Fields himself could do when teammates actually held onto the ball seemed in question, or at least what the Bears would let him do seemed in question.
On Sunday, though, there was no holding him back. That all vanished as he passed or ran to kick the offense into gear after they trailed 21-3.
"Justin had one of the best days of his career," coach Matt Eberflus said.
A 15 of 21 day for 208 yards wasn't his best yardage-wise. He had actually thrown for more four times before Luke Getsy's offense got ahold of him, including 77 more yards against the Vikings in a game last year.
But Getsy had to open up the playbook with his running game going very short distances, and the Vikings piling up points with each possession.
Fields had a 39-yard deep ball to Darnell Mooney to get everything going on a jump-ball play leading to a touchdown by David Montgomery.
"After seeing a video of him (Mooney), that was a great play by him," Fields said.
They weren't all great. Eberflus noted one that wasn't.
"He had a drop," Eberflus said of one pass Fields threw.
Actually, it was two drops by Dante Pettis one week after he had another one against the Giants.
Not all of Fields' big plays were passes. He ran for more on one play than he did all game long with the rest of his carries, but his 52-yard TD scramble didn't count due to Marsette-Smith's illegal block penalty.
"Can't dwell on it," Fields said. "I'm looking up in the stands and I'm seeing all the Vikings fans point back (saying) 'this and that,' so I'm already knowing it's a penalty.
"But in that setting you've just got to reset it and try to score again."
Eberflus felt the pass blocking improved greatly and it impacted Fields' ability to throw. He was sacked just twice and wasn't scrambling every other play like he had to last week.
"It was cleaner, he had time to deliver," Eberflus said. "He could see down the field without being in a rush and ride the pocket like we talked about last week.
"So that's definitely an encouraging thing to see. He had like two sacks for 15 yards. That's an encouragement to keep that thing clean."
Of course, it didn't start out smoothly.
Fields had a fumble on an aborted play when Sam Mustipher snapped the ball in shotgun to him as he walked up closer to the line to holler out the snap cadence. Fields took the blame for that one since they operating on a silent cadence at the time.
The Bears struggled after an opening drive to a field goal, but worse than this was the fact fullback Khari Blasingame didn't get on the field for the first play from scrimmage when he should have been. It resulted in delay of game before they'd even snapped the ball once on offense.
"That should never happen, to be honest," Fields said. "I mean we go over the first 10 plays as a walk-through so I don't know. I think KB is on kickoff. I don't know if he forgot or I don't know if that was a coach's thing, but I just broke the huddle and looked out there. He wasn't out there.
"So yeah that was definitely frustrating to see for sure that first play."
The real frustration was for later when the final drive ended at the Vikings 39 with Smith-Marsette's lost fumble to Cameron Dantzler.
"Just keep going," Fields said. "That's all you can do. Just keep fighting, keep grinding."
Twitter: Bear Digest@BearsOnMaven
