The Ringer NFL Show - Justin Fields and the Bears' Offensive Adjustments Are Working | The Play Sheet [VIDEO]

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

The Ringer’s Ben Solak talks about Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields and the adjustments that offensive coordinator Luke Getsy has made to help Fields after his struggles early in the season. Wide receiver D.J. Moore has been a boon to the Bears offense, and the schemes and routes that Getsy has implemented have fans in Chicago hopeful for more performances like the Bears' win over the Commanders in Week 5. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Howdy, I'm Ben Solac. This is the play sheet. It's a weekly Wednesday podcast we do where I break down some film. It's a video pod. So click in your Spotify app, click on the episode and watch the video unless you're driving, in which case, finish driving and then do all of that and then watch the show. This is the play sheet. The opening script, did the Bears fix everything? In the first two weeks of the season, there was no team more embarrassing than the Chicago Bears.

They entered the year with expectations for a second year leap under head coach Matt Iberflus and a third year leap for quarterback Justin Fields. They faced Green Bay in week one, Tampa Bay in week two, and completely face planted. Offensive issues were myriad and easy to see. Receivers were running the wrong routes. The offensive linemen were blowing assignments of pass protection. The play caller couldn't help the quarterback, and the quarterback couldn't help himself. Watching Fields was so frustrating to start this season because he had the same issues now that he had, like, as a rookie in 2021, he felt exactly the same. The timing was terrible, his feet in the pocket, atrocious, his pocket presence, abysmal.

He was taking sack after sack. He was missing receivers. inaccurate throws all over the place. It was like he'd been dropped in an offense that he had never practiced before. Really frustrating to see. So yeah, there'd be that cool deep bomb or a nice scramble outside of the pocket. But those plays had always been there, and you can't keep hanging your hat on that. So I had promised myself that I had sworn off Justin Fields.

Okay? And then the last two weeks happened. Home against Denver and Thursday night against the commanders, the offense explodes. Fields has over 600 passing yards. He has eight touchdowns. He has only two turnovers. and they were bad turnovers, but there were just two of them, which is nice.

And it feels like this offense might actually kind of be good. Now, we've all been fooled by the Bears' offense before. So we're going to look at what was good and try to figure out if it's sustainable. And to do that, we go to play action. So number one thing I like about the Bears' offense these last couple weeks is that they're taking the responsibility for, like, who needs to win in order for this past play to work?

They're taking it off of Justin Field's shoulders and putting it somewhere else, namely on DJ Moore's shoulders. This is a third and nine conversion. It was the first drive of the game, right? They had this huge explosive DJ Moore catch bottom of the screen, wide open. It's an easy throw. You don't have to worry about a contested catch. DJ Moore can run and then you're inside the red zone.

Why does this work? It works because the bears are going to make this look like it's like a concept, right? This initially is going to look like, okay, this is something that fields might be reading out, right? We're going to have Darnal Mooney coming and settling right here. The economy of St. Brown might be breaking right here. DJ Moore is taking this big step to the end. inside. So it looks like, right, we're trying to maybe like high, low, a zone defender, and we're going to try to run some spacing and field's going to have to make a choice from the

pocket. Do I throw this route? Do I throw that route? Whatever. But it's none of that. Again, it's meant to look like we're running an actual full-on concept here. But in reality, this is a double move from DJ Moore, right? It's a dig and go. And if we go back and we actually like watch how he starts this route, it's a mandatory inside release, right? He gets inside of the corner right away and now you want to present that in breaking route you want to you want to show this because what we're trying to do is we're just trying to get you on a nine route we're trying to get you isolated one-on-one down the field we think you're going to beat the other guy but by drawing it up this way and by giving that inside release and giving that that rock or step that fake to the dig before he gets vertical you help

hold the safety for a little bit longer right the safety doesn't feel DJ Moore screaming down the field he's just hanging out in the middle of the field you let fields keep his eyes middle of the field a little bit longer again just helps to hold that safety and then you also get the corner beat right You fool the corner. You get him jumping on that route at the sticks. And again, it makes a throw so much easier for Justin Field. So it's meant to, again, look like, oh, we might have him process something, but it's not. It's really just one read and go, and that's smart.

Here we are in the red zone. Stuff gets a little bit tighter, a little quicker in the red zone, but you can still run slant and go. That's what we get from DJ Moore, top of the screen. It's going to be this outside whip route from Darnal Mooney and Colquette's going to run the pipe and St. Brown's on the fade. There's pre-snap processing that goes on here. Like if this safety is going to buzz really hard to the middle of the field and you can throw this one-on-one, if you feel like this corner is in a position where he's pressing, you don't want to throw this.

There's pre-snap homework to do, but in general you have more on an isolation route where you expect him to be able to beat the guy opposite him. And so snap the football. There's our little head fake to the slant, right? This looks like it might be slant flat right here. So a nice little design. And then we're just going to put the ball up high on the back pylon. And this is good coverage. He's in great position.

But DJ Moore is quite good at football. And Justin Fields was a great ball. DJ Moore catches it on the top shelf. And that's six. Third and four, just outside the red zone. We've been hitting them with double moves all day. So they're going to see it coming, right? Top of the screen, DJ Moore.

Hitch, go. I mean, we win it again. And this time, Fields just misses the throw by a half inch. There's still meat on this bone. All right, so we've had the dig and go. We've had the slant and go. We have the hitch and go. Now we put DJ Moore in motion, right?

Hide our best player in the slot. That's good offense coordinatoring. And from the slot, what do we do? We run the out and up, right? It's not like a true double move, but it still functions like a double move. We run the post here, and the post just holds the single high safety.

And then more gives that 10-yard outbreak and then he just wheels up field, right? And you don't even have to actually like break out and look for the ball. You just get that motion to break the corner's leverage and then just wheel it up field. Again, we're getting to like a fade route, like a deep sideline throw.

Fields is great at these, but adding something into the route to make it easier for the receiver to win and then simplifying the ask for Justin Field. So we run it. There's our outbreak, right? It's right at the stick. So the corner thinks, okay,

this ball's coming to the out. and then more gets on top of them. Beautiful throw, beautiful catch. That's seven. Now, you'll notice we said Justin Fields a lot in that segment, but we also said DJ Moore a lot in that segment. And if there's anything that's working right now for the Bears' offense, it is selling out to get DJ Moore activated.

And it took a few weeks, but Justin Fields is showing more trust in DJ Moore, just willing to burr-dog him and throw it at him. And given the state of the rest of the Bears wide receiver room, that is a great choice. This is a third and ten against the Broncos. I love this play. This is my favorite play, which sounds weird, of the entire show here.

Because it's third and ten, and they're just going to run seam, seam, and then it's slant, and it's slant. DJ Moore's the top of the screen. So this is mirrored, and it's truly pick a side, right? It's who do you want to throw this ball to? You want to throw it to him? You want to throw it to him, and it's one step, right? We can't really choose to do anything else. The ball has got to come out to him.

And in a lot of these instances in the past, Fields would, like, pick a guy, and he'd be late, and he'd be waiting for him to get open, and then the rush would come, or the window would close and because it's a one-step concept and it's mirror you have to pick a side and go there'd be nothing else for him to do like there's no backside route to get to and you try to scramble and it'd be terrible on this play the bears below the protection right i mean like i don't know what happens on the snap count right like watch watch watch the left side of this line like the entire line actually just fails to get up in time left tackle larry borougham he's a backup he's in for uh for brxton jones just doesn't know the protection he thinks he has a back to his side i have no idea what

happens, but we blow this, this protection, right? Free rusher to the side that Fields wants to to throw this slant to. Watchfields get the throw off in a tight window early, knowing that DJ Moore is still going to win this for him. And Moore makes a tough cast through contact, picks up a first down. End zone view. This is trust right here. This is first of this quarterback talent, right? Because we're going to snap this football. We get free rusher and watch Fields just hold, hold his water for as long as he can and then change the arm angle, right? Change the release window, fast release, arm get this around the rusher and it's far from a perfect ball but it's good enough that my receiver can make me right that's trusting your guy to win trust your guy to make a tough catch

which fields hasn't had over the course of darnel mooney dante pettis allen robinson nobody had the trust to make this sort of a catch huge play don't know why i said dante pettis he's like the second bear's receiver to come to mind whatever some of the fields trust in dj more is like totally forced and i that's fine like i actually like the fact that's like we're just going to throw it Adam. This play is a really, really, really important one. This is the first drive, third and 15 against the Broncos in week four. Concept wise, we're going to run through Darnal Mooney. St. Brown is going to get to 15 yards and turn around, right? Against off cover, you'll like that route to the bottom of the screen. You're also going to get DJ more on the backside running a dig. He's running about like 14 yards,

where he's not going to actually get to the sticks. And that's also an option for you to pick up this first down at 15 yards. So let's run the play. All right. Fields gets the top of his drive. drop. Like I said, this is technically the front side over here and then Moore's running the backside dig. But Fields pretty much the whole time is looking backside. And because the safety here is opening his hips to the front side, he's looking that direction, you do like the dig. If you're checking your work down here, you can still like this. Like this is still good for you. Watch, watch St. Brown throttle down and turn. Like if this ball's out on time to St. Brown, it's a first down here. So this is available to you. But Fields decided pre-snap. And like in general,

We don't want quarterbacks to decide pre-snap where they're going to throw the ball. But for the Bears right now, it's legitimately helpful for Fields to just say, I'm getting this ball to DJ Moore and he's going to beat coverage for me. So when Moore hits this route, he runs a dig. He runs an in-breaking route. Fields was not throwing these routes. And he throws it to DJ Moore, accurate pass. DeJ. Moore makes a nice catch through traffic.

Run after catch. Can you get the line to gain? No, he doesn't get there, but you get to a fourth and two. So you can either make a decision, you can go for it, whatever. But that play right there, even as he forces the ball to DJ Moore, when a different receiver was open that may have gotten the first down, I still like it because A, he's throwing the freaking dig, and B, he's understanding to get at the ball to DJ more when he has a window.

He's trusting him to win even in spaces that he doesn't typically feel comfortable throwing the ball. Like this play right here was legit two weeks before the Broncos play. Third and 13, DJ Moore at the top of the screen. Fields top of the drop, clean pocket. DJ Moore, breaking on the dig. Like, and the safety that was here bailed single high. So we should know that we have this potential window. Like, this is the sort of fields is just eyes front side.

It just does not give DJ Moore the look. When you play with a star receiver, you have to change the way your eyes work. You have to change the way your feet work, change how you choose what routes to throw. Fields is not used to having this guy, so he doesn't think to throw it to him. Misses a wide open conversion on third down week two. Comes back in week four and says, I'm getting the ball to DJ Moore. To me, that's improvement. This is what the bears were buying when they got DJ Moore for Fields.

They thought this would be like an AJ Brown-esque effect on a quarterback like Jalen Hertz. And through the first three weeks, it looked nothing like that. through the last two weeks it has. Huge win for them. And that's not the only personnel win. Obviously, Fields is playing better, but we have left guard, Tevin Jenkins, who's doing a nice job stepping in, came off his cap injury, he's improved the pass protection. We have the absence of wide receiver Chase Claypool, it's been shipped to Miami. He was a net negative on basically like every play he was in just by getting him off the field. The bears have improved. But there's also macro-level scheme stuff that officer coordinator Luke Getsy is doing better

after the first two weeks of the season. Take, for example, this, that I wrote after that Tampa Bay game. Fields led the league in the percent of his passes that were thrown behind the line of scrimmage and was also worse in the league in completing those passes. Doesn't make sense. Well, through the last three weeks, they've taken away a lot of the behind the line of scrimmage targets. Their rate of called screens is just down. And then because you have more one read, just trust DJ more stuff, Fields is just inherently checking the ball down less. Take designed quarterback runs, not scrambles, designed runs, the most low hanging fruit for a quarterback like Fields. Through the first two weeks of the season, they had only five such called

runs. Well, in two of the last three games, they've called more than five design quarterback runs in a game alone. Take those in breaking routes. He wasn't throwing them the first two weeks of the season, so they legit just took them out of the offense in week three. And now they're trying to fold them back in. And last but not least, the freaking rollouts, man, just getting fields on the move, simplifying the amount of field he has to read, letting him throw with athleticism, the stuff that he's the best at is being reintroduced into the offense. Look at this throw, man. I wasn't initially going to do this play. But just, watch this throw oh goodness gracious with the pressure in his lap gosh just let him do that all the time

the fact that it took time for these changes to be made that they walked into the season with a different offense and then how to adjust on the fly is frustrating this sort of stuff that's working for fields now is either the sort of stuff that's always worked for him or the sort of stuff that you just want to do when you have a receiver like DJ more when you have a star guy so this should have been more intuitive it should have been easier and it's frustrating that it wasn't. But we're here now. They're doing better stuff and we have to ask, is this sustainable? It's a tough question to answer.

Like, obviously no, because they're being super successful in like third down right now and really successful in plays 20 plus yards down the field. And like, that sort of stuff tends to be really noisy. You have a really good week and then you have a really bad week. So like obviously not. They're living on big plays and third down conversions. That's not going to keep up. On the other hand, if anything was going to work for Justin Fields,

if anything was going to be sustainable, it was. going to be this. The Justin Fields Bears offense always needed to be quarterback run and mobility oriented with rollouts, with simplified reads. It always needed to be DJ more oriented, where he gets a massive lion's share of the targets. It always needed to be one read throw oriented, downfield oriented. Let's run some double moves. Let's try to get huge chunk gains from our quarterback who can launch a beautiful ball down the field. If a bear's offense is going to be sustainable, it's going to be this one. So it's a very tough question to answer. I frankly just want to see it for longer because I've had flash moments of Justin Fields in seasons past. I've had

the Patriots game and the Cowboys game and the Dolphins game where he's looked like a guy who's going to put it all together. And then the offense loses whatever magic touch it had found and he crashes back down to earth. So do not put it in the newspaper that Ben is back to believing in Justin Fields because I'm not. Do not put it in the newspaper that I think the Bears' offense is fixed because I don't. But if Justin Fields is back and the Bears offense is fixed, it'll be because it looks like this. And now it'll do it for us here on the play sheet. Thank you for watching. Don't say that Ben said Justin Fields is back.

The number one takeaway in this episode should not be that Justin Fields is back. I'm not saying that. Thank you for watching, though. Thank you to Corey McConnell for producing. Thank you. Subscribe to YouTube channel. I love you. Bye.