Chicago Sports

Matt Eberflus commented on Justin Fields’ status Friday

Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields was noticeably frustrated following the teams’ loss on Thursday Night Football. Head coach Matt Eberflus tried to downplay Fields’ complaints on Friday afternoon. But Fields’ point of view late Thursday night made sense. The Bears had several chances to score a second touchdown to win the game. But they fell short. Bad drops, errant throws, and turnovers cost the Bears a chance to win their third game of the season.

The Bears’ offensive line didn’t help matters. Injuries to Lucas Patrick and Teven Jenkins made the second-year quarterback a free-for-all for the Washington Commanders’ aggressive defensive line. According to Pro Football Focus, Fields was hit four times and pressured 15 times Thursday. He was sacked five times by the Commanders.

Following the game, Fields told reporters that he re-aggravated a shoulder injury. According to Adam Jahns of The Athletic, Fields also said he was tired of where the Bears are at currently.

“We always get told that, ‘we’re almost there, we’re almost there.’ Me, personally, I’m tired of being almost there. I’m tired of being just this close. I feel I’ve been hearing it for so long now. But at the end of the day, all you can do is get back to work.”

Matt Eberflus said Fields would be ok

Fields looked sincere when he made his statements Thursday. However, Matt Eberflus appears to think Fields’ comments were just post-game irritation. According to Courtney Cronin with ESPN, Eberflus told reporters Friday that Fields is in a good spot Friday.

Matt Eberflus sounds delusional Friday. Fields was visibly frustrated with the pathetic help surrounding him on the offensive line and at wide receiver Thursday. Fields made a few bad throws, especially the interception in the red zone. But Fields’ efforts of 190 yards passing and 87 yards rushing should have been enough to set up the team to score more than seven points.

He knows his surrounding talent sucks. Fields called out himself and his teammates for not finishing. And a lot of Fields’ post-game comments were directed at his supporting cast for failing the Bears.

There’s no way Fields is pumped about the next few games on the schedule. The Bears go to Foxborough to play the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football in Week 7. Following that game, the Bears will face the NFL’s best pass rusher, Micah Parsons, in Dallas Week 8.

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Matt Eberflus commented on Justin Fields’ status Friday

Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields was noticeably frustrated following the teams’ loss on Thursday Night Football. Head coach Matt Eberflus tried to downplay Fields’ complaints on Friday afternoon. But Fields’ point of view late Thursday night made sense. The Bears had several chances to score a second touchdown to win the game. But they fell short. Bad drops, errant throws, and turnovers cost the Bears a chance to win their third game of the season.

The Bears’ offensive line didn’t help matters. Injuries to Lucas Patrick and Teven Jenkins made the second-year quarterback a free-for-all for the Washington Commanders’ aggressive defensive line. According to Pro Football Focus, Fields was hit four times and pressured 15 times Thursday. He was sacked five times by the Commanders.

Following the game, Fields told reporters that he re-aggravated a shoulder injury. According to Adam Jahns of The Athletic, Fields also said he was tired of where the Bears are at currently.

“We always get told that, ‘we’re almost there, we’re almost there.’ Me, personally, I’m tired of being almost there. I’m tired of being just this close. I feel I’ve been hearing it for so long now. But at the end of the day, all you can do is get back to work.”

Matt Eberflus said Fields would be ok

Fields looked sincere when he made his statements Thursday. However, Matt Eberflus appears to think Fields’ comments were just post-game irritation. According to Courtney Cronin with ESPN, Eberflus told reporters Friday that Fields is in a good spot Friday.

Matt Eberflus sounds delusional Friday. Fields was visibly frustrated with the pathetic help surrounding him on the offensive line and at wide receiver Thursday. Fields made a few bad throws, especially the interception in the red zone. But Fields’ efforts of 190 yards passing and 87 yards rushing should have been enough to set up the team to score more than seven points.

He knows his surrounding talent sucks. Fields called out himself and his teammates for not finishing. And a lot of Fields’ post-game comments were directed at his supporting cast for failing the Bears.

There’s no way Fields is pumped about the next few games on the schedule. The Bears go to Foxborough to play the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football in Week 7. Following that game, the Bears will face the NFL’s best pass rusher, Micah Parsons, in Dallas Week 8.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — Through two games, the Blackhawks have been what the hockey world expected them to be: Losers.

They’ve been fairly competitive losers, they’ve been losers in very difficult matchups and it’s not exactly the players’ or coaches’ faults they’ve been losers, but there’s no way around the fact the Hawks have lost both games.

The two losses — 5-2 at the Avalanche on Wednesday and 1-0 at the Golden Knights on Thursday — did finally provide some meaningful data worth analyzing, though. So before the Hawks wrap up their opening road trip Saturday against the Sharks, here are four major takeaways from their first 120 minutes of hockey.

Penalty kill adjusting

One of new coach Luke Richardson’s most noticeable and discussed early changes was to the Hawks’ penalty-kill strategy. The new approach is far more aggressive, pressuring opposing power plays in the neutral zone and even at times forechecking into the offensive zone.

“A lot of teams fall back into a 1-3 and take their chances at the blue line,” Richardson said during training camp. “I don’t like those odds against the best players in the world. I’d rather disrupt things up ice. They’re not used to it, they don’t like it, and it bodes well for our team, especially adding a little more speed this year.”

The preseason results were encouraging: the Hawks’ penalty kill allowed thefourth-fewest shot attempts and second-fewest scoring chances in the NHL.

But the Avalanche’s loaded ‘PP’ units — Cale Makar in particular — were able to break through the Hawks’ pressure Wednesday, take advantage of the extra space they found after doing so and score four times on six opportunities.

On their second power-play goal, the Avalanche executed a high-low-high play in which Hawks defensemen Connor Murphy and Jarred Tinordi both focused on Mikko Rantanen at the goal line, leaving Artturi Lehkonen open in the slot to bury the goal. Richardson singled that out as a teaching moment.

“We have to seal those off,” Richardson said. “The goalie has no chance on that. [If] we give up the low wrap to the goalie, we have a chance on that. That’s on us to kill those and make sure we give the lowest percentage play.”

On Thursday, the Hawks’ penalty kill looked more comfortable with the new scheme, squashing all three Knights power plays and surrendering no high-danger chances during the final two. Richardson attributed that to being more organized with the up-ice pressure and having better-placed sticks in the defensive zone.

Defensemen Jack Johnson and Seth Jones and forwards MacKenzie Entwistle and Sam Lafferty have received the most shorthanded ice time so far.

Lacking offensive firepower

The most glaring statistic of all through the Hawks’ first two games is their even-strength goal total: Zero.

The offense has generally looked just as harmless as that goose egg implies, recording only 35 even-strength shots on goal. The Penguins, for comparison’s sake, have recorded 37 — and they’ve only played one game. The power play certainly hasn’t been dominant either, but at least it has found the net, thanks to Jonathan Toews and Max Domi’s man-advantage goals Wednesday.

All of the Hawks’ per-60-minute rates at even strength (46.8 shot attempts, 21.5 shots on goal, 21.5 scoring chances and 1.99 expected goals) would’ve ranked last in the league last season.

Although some upward regression is inevitable, those numbers are alarming, not least because they match up with any simple eye-test evaluation of the Hawks’ roster: Outside of Kane, they just don’t have any proven high-end scorers.

Domi has historically been a pass-first playmaker and Andreas Athanasiou has historically struggled to finish most of the plentiful chances his speed creates, and neither has done anything to indicate they’ll be different on the Hawks. Toews centering Taylor Raddysh and Tyler Johnson has clearly been the Hawks’ best line so far, but they’re never going to be an explosive trio, either.

The Hawks will add one more forward to the mix, albeit a defensive-minded one, this weekend when Jason Dickinson — having finally cleared Canadian immigration — joins the team. Buddy Robinson was sent down Friday in a corresponding move.

Defensive shuffling

The Hawks’ defensive health woes may finally be turning a corner, with Connor Murphy surviving two pucks-to-the-face to play in both games and Caleb Jones returning from his shoulder injury Thursday.

“When you’re playing, you don’t really feel it much — you have the adrenaline going — but it’s definitely a little sore after the game,” Jones said. “[I felt] a little bit of rust. I’ve got a little bit of work to do to clean some things up. But there’s some positive stuff there I can build off.”

With Jake McCabe also possibly returning during the opening homestand, the Hawks will soon be able to reassign one or two defensemen to Rockford, with Alex Vlasic — who hasn’t even played yet anyway due to a minor leg injury — the most likely candidate.

Alec Regula and Filip Roos, the other two “bubble” guys who made the initial roster, have both been bright spots. They’re the only two Hawks defensemen with positive even-strength scoring-chance ratios (although Regula’s sample size is only one game). Roos holding his own in his first two North American games has been particularly impressive.

“He’s not afraid to shoot it,” Richardson said of Roos. “He moves the puck crisply. That’s a little bit of that European skill you see a lot of from Swedish players that come over.”

With so little inexperience and consistency in the defensive lineup, Seth Jones has been counted on to handle massive workloads. He played 25:05 on Wednesday and 27:05 on Thursday.

Solid goaltending

Of all the Hawks’ obvious weaknesses entering the season, the goaltending duo of Petr Mrazek and Alex Stalock seemed perhaps the biggest. But so far, they’ve been the best position group.

Stalock was arguably heroic Thursday. His heart-stopping, ultra-aggressive style — charging out of his net at will all night — made all 36 of his saves (on 37 shots against) exhilarating. As a result, he currently leads the league in goals saved above expected (GSAA) at plus-2.3, per Natural Stat Trick.

Mrazek’s .857 raw save percentage Wednesday doesn’t impress at first glance, but the Hawks’ PK struggles — and the Avalanche’s propensity for tipping pucks — can be primarily blamed for that. At even strength, Mrazek stopped 24 of 25 with a plus-0.9 GSAA.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — Through two games, the Blackhawks have been what the hockey world expected them to be: Losers.

They’ve been fairly competitive losers, they’ve been losers in very difficult matchups and it’s not exactly the players’ or coaches’ faults they’ve been losers, but there’s no way around the fact the Hawks have lost both games.

The two losses — 5-2 at the Avalanche on Wednesday and 1-0 at the Golden Knights on Thursday — did finally provide some meaningful data worth analyzing, though. So before the Hawks wrap up their opening road trip Saturday against the Sharks, here are four major takeaways from their first 120 minutes of hockey.

Penalty kill adjusting

One of new coach Luke Richardson’s most noticeable and discussed early changes was to the Hawks’ penalty-kill strategy. The new approach is far more aggressive, pressuring opposing power plays in the neutral zone and even at times forechecking into the offensive zone.

“A lot of teams fall back into a 1-3 and take their chances at the blue line,” Richardson said during training camp. “I don’t like those odds against the best players in the world. I’d rather disrupt things up ice. They’re not used to it, they don’t like it, and it bodes well for our team, especially adding a little more speed this year.”

The preseason results were encouraging: the Hawks’ penalty kill allowed thefourth-fewest shot attempts and second-fewest scoring chances in the NHL.

But the Avalanche’s loaded ‘PP’ units — Cale Makar in particular — were able to break through the Hawks’ pressure Wednesday, take advantage of the extra space they found after doing so and score four times on six opportunities.

On their second power-play goal, the Avalanche executed a high-low-high play in which Hawks defensemen Connor Murphy and Jarred Tinordi both focused on Mikko Rantanen at the goal line, leaving Artturi Lehkonen open in the slot to bury the goal. Richardson singled that out as a teaching moment.

“We have to seal those off,” Richardson said. “The goalie has no chance on that. [If] we give up the low wrap to the goalie, we have a chance on that. That’s on us to kill those and make sure we give the lowest percentage play.”

On Thursday, the Hawks’ penalty kill looked more comfortable with the new scheme, squashing all three Knights power plays and surrendering no high-danger chances during the final two. Richardson attributed that to being more organized with the up-ice pressure and having better-placed sticks in the defensive zone.

Defensemen Jack Johnson and Seth Jones and forwards MacKenzie Entwistle and Sam Lafferty have received the most shorthanded ice time so far.

Lacking offensive firepower

The most glaring statistic of all through the Hawks’ first two games is their even-strength goal total: Zero.

The offense has generally looked just as harmless as that goose egg implies, recording only 35 even-strength shots on goal. The Penguins, for comparison’s sake, have recorded 37 — and they’ve only played one game. The power play certainly hasn’t been dominant either, but at least it has found the net, thanks to Jonathan Toews and Max Domi’s man-advantage goals Wednesday.

All of the Hawks’ per-60-minute rates at even strength (46.8 shot attempts, 21.5 shots on goal, 21.5 scoring chances and 1.99 expected goals) would’ve ranked last in the league last season.

Although some upward regression is inevitable, those numbers are alarming, not least because they match up with any simple eye-test evaluation of the Hawks’ roster: Outside of Kane, they just don’t have any proven high-end scorers.

Domi has historically been a pass-first playmaker and Andreas Athanasiou has historically struggled to finish most of the plentiful chances his speed creates, and neither has done anything to indicate they’ll be different on the Hawks. Toews centering Taylor Raddysh and Tyler Johnson has clearly been the Hawks’ best line so far, but they’re never going to be an explosive trio, either.

The Hawks will add one more forward to the mix, albeit a defensive-minded one, this weekend when Jason Dickinson — having finally cleared Canadian immigration — joins the team. Buddy Robinson was sent down Friday in a corresponding move.

Defensive shuffling

The Hawks’ defensive health woes may finally be turning a corner, with Connor Murphy surviving two pucks-to-the-face to play in both games and Caleb Jones returning from his shoulder injury Thursday.

“When you’re playing, you don’t really feel it much — you have the adrenaline going — but it’s definitely a little sore after the game,” Jones said. “[I felt] a little bit of rust. I’ve got a little bit of work to do to clean some things up. But there’s some positive stuff there I can build off.”

With Jake McCabe also possibly returning during the opening homestand, the Hawks will soon be able to reassign one or two defensemen to Rockford, with Alex Vlasic — who hasn’t even played yet anyway due to a minor leg injury — the most likely candidate.

Alec Regula and Filip Roos, the other two “bubble” guys who made the initial roster, have both been bright spots. They’re the only two Hawks defensemen with positive even-strength scoring-chance ratios (although Regula’s sample size is only one game). Roos holding his own in his first two North American games has been particularly impressive.

“He’s not afraid to shoot it,” Richardson said of Roos. “He moves the puck crisply. That’s a little bit of that European skill you see a lot of from Swedish players that come over.”

With so little inexperience and consistency in the defensive lineup, Seth Jones has been counted on to handle massive workloads. He played 25:05 on Wednesday and 27:05 on Thursday.

Solid goaltending

Of all the Hawks’ obvious weaknesses entering the season, the goaltending duo of Petr Mrazek and Alex Stalock seemed perhaps the biggest. But so far, they’ve been the best position group.

Stalock was arguably heroic Thursday. His heart-stopping, ultra-aggressive style — charging out of his net at will all night — made all 36 of his saves (on 37 shots against) exhilarating. As a result, he currently leads the league in goals saved above expected (GSAA) at plus-2.3, per Natural Stat Trick.

Mrazek’s .857 raw save percentage Wednesday doesn’t impress at first glance, but the Hawks’ PK struggles — and the Avalanche’s propensity for tipping pucks — can be primarily blamed for that. At even strength, Mrazek stopped 24 of 25 with a plus-0.9 GSAA.

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Justin Fields, who is in his first entire season as a starter, and the new-look offense for the Chicago Bears under new coordinator Luke Getsy, put up yet another subpar effort. Fields completed 14 27 passes for 190 yards, one touchdown to Pettis, and one interception overall on Thursday. With 583 passing yards through the first five games of the season, Chicago had the worst passing offense in the NFL going into the matchup on Thursday.

Thursday night, Fields leading receivers were Dante Pettis and Darnell Mooney, the latter of whom was targeted on the failed final play of the game as the Commanders defeated the Bears 12-7 at Soldier Field. Last week, though, Ihmir Smith-Marsette made a crucial mistake by failing to get out of bounds, which allowed the Minnesota Vikings to strip the ball and seal a victory over the Bears.

Per Daniel Chavkin, On Thursday night, one of Fields’ former college coaches observed the receivers’ difficulties. During the game, Ohio State’s wide receivers coach, Brian Hartline, tweeted his objective view on the Bears’ receivers.

Following a successful NFL career, Hartline has spent the last five years at Ohio State, the final four of those as the wide receivers coach. When Fields played for the Buckeyes in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, he was a coaching staff member. 

Large receivers are in high demand right now, and Ohio State is home to two first-round prospects in the 2022 NFL draft. Hartline is there, fore aware of the presence or absence of significant receiver expertise.

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If the starting power forward spot has been decided for the Bulls as of Friday, coach Billy Donovan is pulling off one heck of an acting job.

Throughout this week of practices, Donovan continued to insist that the competition would go on through the weekend and into the two team practices next week, before the Bulls fly down to South Beach and prepare to tip off the season against the Heat.

“Certainly the rest of this week and going into next week, we’ll do that,” Donovan said, when asked about experimenting with different looks and combinations.

However, the only combination that is really being looked at remained is Patrick Williams better suited to develop with the starting unit or with the reserves?

While Derrick Jones Jr. did get one of the preseason starts, that scenario remained the longshot. It’s basically down to either Williams or Javonte Green, and don’t expect Donovan to reveal his decision until as late as Wednesday, before tip-off.

Green did start twice against the Heat last season, and was not much of a factor in both losses. Donovan went small in the third and final meeting of the season with Miami, starting Alex Caruso, alongside Zach LaVine, Ayo Dosunmu, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, but that was even less successful. Caruso went scoreless and the Bulls were blown out by 18.

What Donovan, however, has reiterated several times throughout the power forward competition is it will likely remain fluid. Whoever gets the nod in Miami might not necessarily be starting by the time the Bulls then travel to Washington.

Whether it will be performance based or matchup based remained unanswered.

‘Scary’ Terry

Dalen Terry has shown that he’s rarely short on confidence, but the rookie did admit that his 11-point outburst in just 18 minutes against New Orleans in the preseason opener was huge in justifying that he not only belonged at this level, but that his high-energy playstyle had a place.

“I got confidence after the first game, obviously,” Terry told reporters. “I’m a pretty confident person. I don’t really think there’s a lot of things I can’t do, so when it came to that first game and just how the energy picked up, I just tried to make sure that every time I came into the game [after that] I picked the energy up and just made the level of competitiveness jump every time.”

That showed, as Terry finished a combined plus-35 in plus/minus in the four preseason games.

Rough entry

There will be no easing into the season for this roster, and the schedule through the first 15 games can be thanked for that.

Not only do the Bulls open up in Miami – a team they have gone 1-7 against the last three seasons – but 12 of those first 15 games are against playoff or playoff-caliber teams.

The only chances to come up for air in that time? At Washington on Oct. 21, home against the Pacers on Oct. 26, and then down in San Antonio on Oct. 28.

After the game with the Spurs, the Bulls play Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Boston, Toronto twice, and New Orleans twice with a Denver game in between.

Addition

The Bulls announced they have signed Kostas Antetokounmpo to a two-way contract. Kostas is the younger brother of Milwaukee standout Giannis Antetokounmpo.

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Our second preview of the Central Division takes us to the young and promising Detroit Pistons

Part two of a look inside the Central Division. I looked inside the Indiana Pacers first, which you can read here. Today, a team creeping towards relevancy with an eye on a potential play-in? The Detroit Pistons.

Detroit Pistons 2021-22 Recap

Record: 23-59 (14th in Eastern Conference)

vs Bulls: 0-4

Memorable moment: Isaiah Stewart vs the Lakers.

Detroit Pistons 2022 Off-Season

Traded Jerami Grant to the Portland Trailblazers in exchange for a future first-round pick.

Drafted Guard Jaden Ivey 5th overall in the 2022 NBA Draft, traded up to draft Center-Forward Jalen Duren 13th overall.

Acquired Forward Bojan Bogdanovich from the Utah Jazz.

2022 Preview

The Detroit Pistons have made the playoffs twice in 13 years. They haven’t won a playoff GAME since 2008. Long gone are the glory days of the Bad Boy Pistons or the mid-2000s teams who went to the Eastern Conference Finals six years in a row.

However, after much gloom and doom, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel for a franchise that’s been stuck in the mud. They have a young back-court duo of Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey that the franchise can build around for the next ten years. By acquiring Bojan Bogdanovich in a trade in September, barring any major injury, all signs point to them pushing to be competitive and trying to make a play-in tournament spot.

Cade Cunningham Leap?

The first overall pick of the 2021 NBA draft, Cade Cunningham certainly didn’t disappoint Piston fans and NBA junkies. He averaged 17.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game last season, finishing third in rookie of the year voting. While not having jump-out-the-gym athleticism, his overall knack for the game and creativity scoring and playmaking showed how special of a player he can be for a franchise that was desperate for a franchise-type player. With more shooting and playmaking now surrounding him, I expect his 41.6 FG% to rise and the efficiency to follow.

Jaden Ivey

I’m so high on Jaden Ivey that he gets his own section. Comparisons to Ja Morant are deserved because of how quick and fast he is, as well as he attacks the rim, but right now they are different players. Ivey is a menace on defense, and he’s not going to bring the ball up every time being paired with Cunningham.

As the season progresses, I expect Ivey to work with the second unit more and more, where he and Cunningham can have their minutes staggered but be on the court together during end-of-game situations. The Pistons being able to get him fifth felt like the biggest steal of the draft and also addressed their biggest need, a perimeter presence on defense.

The Rest of the Roster

This roster is no slouch. While their key players are very young, players like Guard Cory Joseph, Forward Rodney McGruder, and Center Nerlens Noel all bring a sense of professionalism to this team and will help those young guys through the growing pains of an 82-game season. I’ve mentioned Bojan Bogdanovich, who’s going to be a key shooter off the bench and will most likely finish games for them, he will also bring veteran leadership to Detroit.

Prediction

The only thing going against Detroit possibly making the play-in tournament is that almost every single team in the Eastern Conference thinks they have a shot to get in this season. While I like this roster, they are still a couple of years away from playoff contention. Watching the growth of Cunningham and Ivey should be fun this season and that alone makes them a watchable league-pass team.

 

 

 

 

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Richard Sherman had criticized the Bears’ play-calling — and was about to do it again on the Amazon postgame show — when the former Seahawks cornerback sent out a Tweet on Thursday night.

“This is a dissertation in how to NOT fit your play-calling to your personnel,” he wrote. “The fact we just saw a designed run for Carson Wentz and not yet 1 for Justin Fields in asinine.”

It took eight minutes for Sean Payton, the best unemployed play-caller on the planet, to second him. He told Sherman he was “preaching to the choir” about offensive coordinator Luke Getsy’s play selection.

“Woof!” Payton wrote.

It helped Payton to have future Hall of Famer Drew Brees as his quarterback for 14 of the coach’s 15 years with the Saints. But Payton was also able to use a run-first quarterback, Taysom Hill, when needed.

The Bears need to figure out if Justin Fields is closer to Brees, a traditional pocket passer, or Hill, a dangerous runner. Through six weeks, he’s stuck in the middle, and the results are ugly. Statistically, he’s the league’s worst quarterback. As Sherman said in the postgame show: “It’s like Luke Getsy is like, ‘I want to challenge [Fields] to overcome my play-calling.'”

The Bears have an extra weekend to try to figure it out. As part of their breakdown of players, lineups and scheme, coaches will spend the next few days determining how to tweak their offense to best fit Fields. Position coaches will look at cutups and then meet up with Getsy and head coach Matt Eberflus on Monday. Players return to Halas Hall the next day.

“I think that’s the whole plan we’re looking at,” head coach Matt Eberflus said Friday. “When you say ‘evaluate scheme, evaluate players,’ that’s part of the whole process. Are we putting our players in the position to succeed?”

The process will take all season long. Regardless of the temptation to judge Fields every week, the Bears know that have 17 games this season in which to determine whether the second-year player in the team’s quarterback of the future.

Fine-tuning the scheme will give the Bears front-office the most honest look at Fields. But it might also be the only chance of getting the quarterback through the season upright.

Fields went from handing the ball off primarily over the first month of the season to running for his life on pass plays in the 12-7 loss to the Commanders on Thursday night. Fields was battered Thursday night, taking 12 quarterback hits, five sacks and running a whopping 12 times. On the season, he’s been sacked 16.7 percent of the time; only one other quarterback is even in double digits.

Fields, who rarely allows himself to admit he’s hurt, injured his left shoulder in the first half, though Eberflus said he was “a little bit sore” and will be fine.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Bears change their offensive line before the Oct. 24 game in New England. The Bears have played one extra game heading into the weekend, but their pass-blocking stats are nonetheless alarming: rookie Braxton Jones is second among tackles with 20 pressures allowed, per Pro Football Focus. Lucas Patrick is second among guards with 16 and Sam Mustipher is tied for the most pressures allowed by a center, with 10.

The Bears can try to fix that with scheme — by adding extra blockers, rolling Fields out or just letting him hand the ball off.

After Thursday night, anything would be an improvement.

“The rhythm and timing of the passing game is all predicated on the movement passes, the pocket when you are dropping back, and those are all things that we’re going to keep looking at,” Eberflus said. “In terms of helping guys inside or outside more. Doing more things that can help the offensive line, that can help the receivers, that can help every group.”

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From one 20-yard line to another, the Bears were dynamic Thursday.

Inside the red zone, though, they were a train wreck, coming away with no points despite being at the Commanders’ 5-yard line or closer on three different trips. The Bears became only the second team this season to post at least 390 yards and score less than 10 points, per ESPN Stats and Information.

“The good thing is we can move the ball whenever we want to,” receiver Darnell Mooney said after the Bears’ 12-7 loss to the Commanders.

The bad thing?For the second time in three games, the Bears failed to score a touchdown inside their opponent’s 20. It’s become an alarming trend for quarterback Justin Fields, given that accuracy and proper timing are essential to scoring touchdowns inside the red zone. He and the Bears found neither Thursday night. Here’s how it went down:

Overthrow

Of all the mistakes Fields made Thursday, one stood out.

“The one that’s making me mad is the one to [tight end Ryan Griffin] in the end zone,” Fields said. “He probably could have ran a little bit more, but he’s wide open.

“I got to hit that. I’m an NFL quarterback. I got to hit that.”

On second-and-goal from the 4 about three minutes into the second quarter, Fields faked a handoff to running back Khalil Herbert and then another one to receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, who ran an end around from right to left.

Griffin was lined up on the right between right tackle Larry Borom and third-string tight end Trevon Wesco. Wesco pulled left to sell the end-around fake. Griffin blocked, too, then released right and ran into the end zone with only defensive end James Smith-Williams chasing him two steps behind.

He was wide open.

Fields, though, sailed the pass beyond the outstretched Griffin. For a quarterback who has struggled with anticipatory throws this season, it was crushing.

The Bears were eventually stuffed on a fourth-and-inches handoff to Khalil Herbert.

“You don’t have to make it harder than it is,” Fields said. “Pitch and catch.”

The final four

Fields’ ridiculous 39-yard scramble with about a minute to play gave the Bears the ball at the Commanders’ 5, down by five with four chances to win the game.

The next four plays were all called passes — remarkable, considering that the Bears on the season have thrown on only about one-quarter of their red-zone plays.

Eberflus said Friday the Bears could have run, but with no timeouts left they would have been put in an “O-zone” situation, meaning they’d need to hurry to spike the ball or throw into the end zone on the next play.

On first down, Fields dropped back to pass, scrambled right and got out of bounds for a gain of one. On second down, Mooney lined up at running back to Fields’ right and ran into the right flat. He was open at the 5 — but the ball was tipped by Smith-Williams and fell incomplete. Mooney was animated afterward, clapping his hands and screaming.

“I was a little frustrated on that play,” Mooney said, “because I knew it was a touchdown.”

On third down, Fields threw to receiver Dante Pettis in the back right corner of the end zone. Pettis got both hands on the ball but safety Darrick Forest brought him down and the ball squirted away. The Bears wanted pass interference.

“The dude is on my arm,” Pettis said.

On fourth down came Fields’ throw to Mooney, who bobbled the ball and fell inches short of the goal line near the right pylon.

“I guess if he didn’t bobble it, it probably would’ve been a touchdown, for real,” Fields said. “That just goes back to: finish the catch, finish the throw, finish the run, finish the blocks.”

Fields had faked a pitch left to David Montgomery before throwing to Mooney. The running back slipped open in the left flat, but Fields said he was his fifth read on the play.

“There is a 5 percent chance you’re going to get back to him,” he said.

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On second-and-goal from the Commanders’ 5 late in the first quarter, the Bears lined up three receivers right and put tight end Cole Kmet wide left. Facing man coverage, Fields knew where he wanted to go –to Kmet on a slant.

Fields looked left, planted his right foot and threw –off the helmet of Commanders defensive lineman Efe Obada, who had stunted from the outside and pushed left guard Lucas Patrick into the backfield.

The sidearm pass bounced off the maroon helmet into the air and was intercepted by lineman Jonathan Allen. It was Fields’ first-ever career red-zone interception.

Eberfus said he had no problem with Fields throwing sidearm. While Fields needs the situational awareness to not throw the ball off an oncoming defender’s head, he didn’t have the option of lobbing the ball to Kmet. The play required a fastball.

“It’s the arm angle, and the lanes are always tough down there when the field shrinks in the red zone,” Eberflus said. “It’s his instincts– you’ve got to be able to have the instincts to do that. They made a nice play. … You’ve just gotta change it around and move your arm angle …

“That’s gotta be a tight ball.”

Jason Lieser contributed.

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Big Ten football shines on center stage with a massive Top 10 matchup that could rock the College Football world.

An undeniably entertaining college football afternoon awaits us with gigantic games across the country this Saturday. At the forefront of that is two Top 10 matchups, Alabama-Tennessee, and in our neck of the woods, Penn State at Michigan. An upset in either of these games could have huge implications on the remainder of the CFB season, and could cause some serious chaos down the road.

If you’re a Big Ten junkie like me, while there is only five games on this week’s slate, two of the meetings are worth watching and could actually prove very significant in the ‘wild west’ that is the Big Ten West division. Cancel your plans and get the gameday recipes rolling, because Saturday’s action could be a contender for best football weekend of the year! Best of luck and let’s get after it.

2022 Big Ten Betting Record: 10-6-1

Minnesota (-7) at Illinois: O/U 39.5 (11:00am CST)

For those of us that have suffered, dreaded and braved the last decade-plus of Illinois football, take a second to rejoice because this team is the best and most likable team that has come through Champaign since 2007.

Now, before we jump off the deep end and take Illinois to pull of the upset, please tread lightly because the starting quarterback status for Illinois is gargantuan in this game. If you watched last week’s win over Iowa, you saw Tommy DeVito leave that game with an ankle injury, setting the stage for Artur Sitkowski. Sitkowski played 5 games for the Illini last year, and while the team itself had some rough outings, Sitkowski was a rough watch for any Illinois fan, or any fan of competent quarterback play in general.

To put this simply, if Artur Sitkowski is the starting QB for Illinois on Saturday, I really am not giving them a puncher’s chance against Minnesota despite how strong the Illini defense has been. Even if we see DeVito suited up and even if by some miracle he is 100% healthy, this would be a tough task to upset the Golden Gophers, but I will at least give them a fighting chance if he can go.

If you haven’t watched Minnesota this year, or maybe you’ve only seen them in their most recent game in a loss to Purdue, I will tell you that when healthy, this team is potentially the best team in the Big Ten West, and zero doubt top five in the Big Ten, maybe even top three. Not only is this team coming off of a bye with extra time to prepare, but they’ve had a bad taste in their mouth for two weeks following their performance at home against Purdue.

I mentioned health for Minnesota, because their stud running back Mohamed Ibrahim unexpectedly missed that loss to Purdue, but is expected to return tomorrow in Champaign. Ibrahim through four games has racked up 567 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, and in my opinion is a dark-horse Heisman contender if he can keep himself healthy.

If DeVito is out, give me Minnesota at just about any number, if DeVito is in, I’ll happily pass and hope the Illini can pull off the upset.

RMags’ Pick: (IF Sitkowski starts) Minnesota -7, (IF DeVito starts) Pass

Penn State at Michigan (-7): O/U 50.5 (11:00am CST)

The game of the day in the Big Ten, and certainly top two on Saturday’s slate, heads to the Big House, for a Top 10 meeting between undefeated Penn State and Michigan. This is a tough one to crack for me, but at the end of the day, this Michigan team feels very similar to last year’s team, and while I’m not saying they are going to upset Ohio State again down the road, it does feel like Michigan has elevated to a tier of their own above the rest of the Big Ten pack, excluding Ohio State.

Of course Penn State rolls in undefeated, but really hasn’t been tested since their opening night win over Purdue, a game in which they caught some great breaks and lucky bounces. In my opinion they should have lost that game, Purdue’s passing offense did just about whatever it wanted to do, and the Nittany Lions really haven’t been tested since.

The lone impressive win stands as the 41-12 beatdown at Auburn, a game that shouldn’t be pushed over completely, but we’ve seen who Auburn is this season, and in contrast to Michigan, really had no passing offense, and this matchup should not be comparable in the slightest.

If Michigan can avoid mistakes, I expect their offense to have a really nice day, and while I lean towards the Wolverines covering the spread, I think the team total is the place to go. Sean Clifford has shown that he is mistake prone in come-from-behind situations, I think this could allow for a short field or two for Michigan.

It would not shock me though if Penn State has a backdoor cover opportunity at the end of this game, and to keep us out of that situation, we’ll go with Michigan’s offense to roll. Give me a 35 spot for the Wolverines.

RMags’ Pick: Michigan Team Total Over 29.5

Maryland (-11.5) at Indiana: O/U 62 (2:30pm CST)

The Maryland hype train has taken a couple of hits over the last few weeks, with gut-wrenching losses to Michigan and Purdue. While wins over either would have brought a great deal of respect to Maryland in Big Ten spaces, this team is still very solid and could very well finish with eight wins, a number they have yet to reach since joining the conference less than a decade ago.

I’m ultimately going to pass on this game because I think the numbers are spot on for this game, but I do expect Maryland to win this game fairly handily. The concern that I do have is that Indiana’s offense can do enough to hang around. Indiana ranks second in the country in pass attempts thrown per game, and while it’s not necessarily an efficient unit, against this Maryland defense, they may be able to find a few spots given a high volume of attempts. I’ll give Maryland the definite win here, but I’ll save my money.

RMags’ Pick: Pass

Wisconsin (-7) at Michigan State: O/U 49.5 (3:00pm CST)

You may be disinterested in this game given the recent showings from each of these teams, but this game and its’ odds are at least interesting to consider and breakdown. On one hand you have a team with an interim coach that despite the 42-7 massacre over Northwestern, probably isn’t getting a ton of national respect, up against a team who’s public perception is almost unanimously through the floor.

To put it simply, this Michigan State defense is brutal. Across their four game losing streak, they’ve allowed a range between 27 and 49 points, and on the season rank 112th in yards per pass attempt allowed. I really don’t think this number is an overreaction to Wisconsin’s win over Northwestern, I think it has everything to do with Michigan State’s struggles. This would lead me to a potential play on Wisconsin, and I think that is the right side, but if you’ve followed Graham Mertz and this Wisconsin team, you may be hesitant to back the Badgers and I can’t blame you.

The success of Wisconsin in my opinion will completely rely on the accuracy of Mertz. If he’s on and playing well, Wisconsin will put up 30-plus, if not, it’s anybody’s ball game. I’ll pass and grab the popcorn.

RMags’ Pick: Pass

Nebraska at Purdue (-14): O/U 56.5 (6:30pm CST)

If you’ve followed along with me during the Big Ten season, you probably know how highly I view this Purdue team. After winning last week, the path is in front of them to win out and represent the Big Ten West in the Big Ten Championship. Following this game their schedule plays out with Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern and finally Indiana. Barring any health issues they should be favored in all five of those games, and really don’t play any dangerous offensive competition after Nebraska.

I do expect them to win this game, but, somehow someway, Nebraska at 2-1 in conference play is not dead yet, and while I’m not saying they will or can do it, I do fear that Purdue could be looking past this game a bit, and that fear is ultimately keeping me away from a play on this game. Having said that, unless Nebraska’s offense reverts back to the early success they had in 2022, and the defense plays it’s best game, Purdue’s offense, on paper, should have zero issues moving the ball up and down the field.

If you have no concerns about a potential trap spot, look ahead spot, whatever you want to call it, then by all means, take Purdue over 35.5 points, but despite how bad they’ve been you have to remember Nebraska’s ability to keep games close. Aside from the Oklahoma beatdown a few weeks ago, they have again managed to lose their games by less than one score.

I’ll keep my belief in Purdue and say that they roll, but I’m keeping my money far away from this one.

RMags’ Pick: Pass

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