There’s no way to sugar coat it. Even though the Bears managed to beat the Texans 23-20 in Week 3, Justin Fields did not play well.
“Straight up, I played likeー I want to say the “a” word, but I won’t, so I’ll say I just played like trash,” Fields said. “Played terrible, and really just gotta be better.”
When asked what specifically went wrong for him, Fields said it was a lot of things. But the No. 1 problem that bothered him was throwing two ugly interceptions.
“One of our keys to victory on offense is 100% ball security, so really just the turnovers,” Fields said.
After the game Fields took responsibility for each interception, saying he made a bad throw on one, and a bad decision then a bad throw on the other.
“First one, I just missed it,” Fields said. “Cole was wide open, I just missed it. Second one, I got pressure, saw Cover 2, MIKE was running with Darnell... When I saw that, I got hit while I was throwing, so next time I’ve gotta take the check down. So that’s one thing that I’m going to work on this week: Getting pressure, boom, check down. But yeah, at that time I wanted to get the ball to Darnell, he was running with the MIKE linebacker, so I wanted to get the ball to him back-shoulder or something like that, ball sailed too high.”
It wasn’t just the two picks that plagued Fields, however. He missed open receivers and overthrew balls throughout the game. Instead of taking a step forward, Fields and the offense took a step back. On the day, Fields completed 8-17 passes for 106 yards, no touchdowns and the two interceptions. That’s one week removed from an equally paltry 7-11 for 70 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. Even those with the utmost confidence in Fields should have some concern about his slow start to the season.
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But Fields’ confidence isn’t wavering. Sure, he knows he’s got to play better, but he won’t let his poor showings bring him down.
“After the two picks, it’s 20-20, the score’s 20-20,” Fields said. “The two picks aren’t going to do anything for them now, so it’s like ‘F it’ at that point. I’m going to do whatever I can to help us win a game. Of course I want to play better, but my team still needs me so I can’t be sulking. ‘Oh, I threw two picks. Oh, I’m playing bad.’ This and that. There’s still more time on the clock for us to win the game.”
Fields also dismissed using the offense’s relative inexperience in Luke Getsy’s scheme as an excuse for his poor play.
“You can really throw that out the window for me, because I want to be as productive as I can be.”
Last week, Fields said he was changing his routine following the loss to the Packers on Sunday night football. Whatever he did clearly didn’t work, so we’ll see if Fields tweaks his routine again to try to jump start his production. Regardless, he’s convinced that things will turn around.
“Again, I played terrible today. I’m going to get better. We’re going to get better.”