Chicago Sports

The big three (Mount Carmel, Loyola and Lincoln-Way East) continue to dominate. The Caravan and Ramblers obliterated ranked teams on the road in Week 3.

At this point in the season, all the activity is happening at the bottom of the rankings. It’s exceedingly difficult to work out which teams to add every week.

Today I went with Wheaton North, Lyons and York. Glenbard North, Nazareth and Wheaton-Warrenville South dropped out.

Wheaton North, last season’s Class 7A state champion, was an easy call. The Falcons knocked off Batavia and haven’t missed a beat this season despite losing almost everything from last season’s squad.

Lyons gets in after a nice win against Hinsdale Central. It is possible undefeated York should have been in the Super 25 long ago. The Dukes were 8-2 last year and returned a solid core. But they haven’t been tested yet this season.

It’s always tough to decide what to do with schools smaller than Class 5A. Joliet Catholic is an obvious call. But what about IC Prep and St. Francis and Wilmington?

Last week on Twitter a reader suggested another set of rankings, maybe a top five, for the smaller classes. That’s something we used to do for basketball rankings. Back in the two-class system I always had a top five for area Class A teams.

That might be a good idea. I don’t see the small schools play very often though, so that’s my biggest hesitation.

Week 4’s Super 25With record and last week’s ranking

1. Mount Carmel (3-0) 1Friday vs. No. 9 Marist

2. Loyola (3-0) 2Saturday vs. Brother Rice

3. Lincoln-Way East (3-0) 3Friday vs. Andrew

4. Warren (3-0) 4Friday at Stevenson

5. Glenbard West (3-0) 5Friday at Proviso West

6. Naperville North (3-0) 6Friday at Neuqua Valley

7. Simeon (3-0) 8Friday at Brooks

8. Maine South (2-1) 9Thursday vs. No. 12 Prospect

9. Marist (2-1) 11Friday at No. 1 Mount Carmel

10. Prairie Ridge (3-0) 10Friday at No. 17 Jacobs

11. Wheaton North (3-0) NRFriday at St. Charles North

12. Prospect (3-0) 12Thursday at No. 8 Maine South

13. Lockport (3-0) 14Friday vs. Homewood-Flossmoor

14. Lemont (3-0) 15Friday at Bremen

15. Joliet Catholic (3-0) 16Friday at Providence

16. Bolingbrook (2-1) 17Friday vs. Sandburg

17. Jacobs (3-0) 22Friday vs. No. 10 Prairie Ridge

18. Palatine (3-0) 23Friday at Glenbrook South

19. Lyons (3-0) NRFriday at Oak Park

20. St. Rita (1-2) 13Friday at Benet

21. Batavia (1-2) 7Friday vs. Lake Park

22. Kankakee (2-1) 21Friday vs. Manual

23. Hersey (3-0) 25Friday at Highland Park

24. York (3-0) NRFriday vs. Downers Grove North

25. Notre Dame (2-1) 20Friday at Nazareth

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Please send corrections and additions to [email protected].

Thursday, September 15

RED NORTH-CENTRAL

Senn vs. Amundsen at Winnemac, 4:15

RED SOUTH-CENTRAL

Chicago Richards vs. UP-Bronzeville at Eckersall, 4:15

RED WEST

Kennedy vs. Raby at Lane, 7:15

BLUE CENTRAL

Golder vs. Noble Academy at Lane, 4:15

BLUE SOUTHEAST

Bowen vs. Chicago Military at Stagg, 4:15

DuSable vs. Fenger at Gately, 4:15

Washington vs. Harlan at Gately, 7:15

WEST SUBURBAN GOLD

Morton vs. Leyden at Triton, 6

NONCONFERENCE

Barrington at Evanston, 7

Buffalo Grove at Deerfield, 7

Conant at Vernon Hills, 7

Elk Grove at Niles West, 7

Fremd at New Trier, 7

Hoffman Estates at Maine East, 7

Joliet Central at Oswego East, 6

Joliet West at West Aurora, 7

Palatine at Glenbrook South, 7

Plainfield East at Yorkville, 7

Plainfield South at Plainfield North, 7

Prospect at Maine South, 7

Romeoville at Oswego, 7

Friday, September 16

RED CENTRAL

UIC Prep vs. Rowe-Clark at Lane, 4:15

RED NORTH

Lane at Taft, 7:30

Young vs. Clark at Lane, 7:15

RED NORTH-CENTRAL

Von Steuben at Steinmetz, 4:15

RED SOUTH

Kenwood vs. Hubbard at Gately, 7:15

Simeon at Brooks, 4:15

RED SOUTH-CENTRAL

Hyde Park at Perspectives, 7:30

King vs. Dunbar at Eckersall, 4:15

BLUE CENTRAL

Johnson vs. Butler at Gately, 4:15

Noble Street vs. Muchin at Winnemac, 4:15

BLUE SOUTHWEST

Englewood STEM at Back of the Yards, 4:15

Gage Park at Solorio, 7:15

CCL-ESCC BLUE

Marist at Mount Carmel, 7:30

CCL-ESCC GREEN

Notre Dame at Nazareth, 7

St. Rita at Benet, 7:30

CCL-ESCC ORANGE

Joliet Catholic at Providence, 7:30

Montini at St. Laurence, 7:30

CCL-ESCC PURPLE

Carmel vs. St. Viator at Forest View, 7

CCL-ESCC RED

Leo at DePaul Prep, 7

CCL-ESCC WHITE

Fenwick at De La Salle, 7:30

Marmion at St. Ignatius, 7:30

DUKANE

Geneva at Wheaton-Warrenville South, 7

Glenbard North at St. Charles East, 7

Lake Park at Batavia, 7

Wheaton North at St. Charles North, 7

DUPAGE VALLEY

Metea Valley at DeKalb, 7

Naperville North at Neuqua Valley, 7

Waubonsie Valley at Naperville Central, 7

FOX VALLEY

Crystal Lake Central at Hampshire, 7

Crystal Lake South at Dundee-Crown, 7

Huntley at Burlington Central, 7

Prairie Ridge at Jacobs, 7

ILLINOIS CENTRAL EIGHT

Herscher at Coal City, 7

Lisle at Streator, 7

Manteno at Reed-Custer, 7

Wilmington at Peotone, 7

KISHWAUKEE BLUE

Harvard at Rochelle, 7

Johnsburg at Marengo, 7

KISHWAUKEE WHITE

Ottawa at Sycamore, 7

Woodstock at Kaneland, 7

Woodstock North at Morris, 7

METRO SUBURBAN BLUE

Aurora Central at Elmwood Park, 6

IC Catholic at Ridgewood, 7:15

Wheaton Academy at Bishop McNamara, 6:30

METRO SUBURBAN RED

Aurora Christian at Riverside-Brookfield, 7:15

St. Francis at Chicago Christian, 7:15

NORTH SUBURBAN

Libertyville at Lake Forest, 7

Mundelein at Waukegan, 7

Warren at Stevenson, 7

Zion-Benton at Lake Zurich, 7

NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY

Antioch at North Chicago, 7

Grant at Wauconda, 7

Grayslake Central at Grayslake North, 7

Round Lake at Lakes, 7

SOUTH SUBURBAN BLUE

Lemont at Bremen, 6

TF North at Hillcrest, 6

TF South at Oak Forest, 6:15

SOUTH SUBURBAN RED

Eisenhower at Oak Lawn, 6:30

Evergreen Park at Richards, 6:30

Shepard at Reavis, 7

SOUTHLAND

Rich Township at Thornton, 6

Thornwood at Crete-Monee, 6

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN BLUE

Homewood-Flossmoor at Lockport, 6:30

Sandburg at Bolingbrook, 6

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN RED

Bradley-Bourbonnais at Lincoln-Way West, 7:30

Stagg at Lincoln-Way Central, 7:30

UPSTATE EIGHT

Bartlett at Elgin, 7:30

Fenton at West Chicago, 7

Glenbard East at East Aurora, 7

Glenbard South at Streamwood, 7

Larkin at South Elgin, 7

WEST SUBURBAN GOLD

Proviso East at Addison Trail, 6

Willowbrook at Downers Grove South, 7:30

WEST SUBURBAN SILVER

Downers Grove North at York, 7:30

Glenbard West at Proviso West, 7:30

Lyons at Oak Park-River Forest, 7:30

NONCONFERENCE

Andrew at Lincoln-Way East, 7

Annawan-Wethersfield at Ottawa Marquette, 7

Argo at Tinley Park, 7

Bismarck-Henning at Momence, 7

Christ the King at St. Edward, 7:30

Dwight at Oakwood, 7

Georgetown at Seneca, 7

Hersey at Highland Park, 7

Hinsdale South at Hinsdale Central, 7:30

LaSalle-Peru at Plano, 7:15

Marian Central at Appleton West, Wis., 7:30

Peoria Manual at Kankakee, 7

Plainfield Central at Minooka, 7

Rolling Meadows at Glenbrook North, 7

Salt Fork at Iroquois West, 7

Schaumburg at Niles North, 7

Walther Christian at Hope Academy, 7

Watseka at Hoopeston, 7

Wheeling at Maine West, 6:30

Saturday, September 17

RED CENTRAL

Catalyst-Maria vs. Woodlawn at Eckersall, 10 a.m.

Pritzker vs. Hansberry at Gately, 10 a.m.

Speer vs. Rauner at Winnemac, 10 a.m.

RED NORTH

Westinghouse vs. Phillips at Gately, 1

RED NORTH-CENTRAL

Mather vs. Sullivan at Winnemac, 4

Schurz vs. Lake View at Winnemac, 1

RED SOUTH

Morgan Park vs. Curie at Lane, 7:15

RED SOUTH-CENTRAL

Ag. Science vs. Bogan at Stagg, 1

RED SOUTHEAST

Corliss vs. Vocational at Eckersall, 1

Dyett vs. Julian at Gately, 4

Goode vs. Comer at Eckersall, 4

South Shore vs. Carver at Gately, 7

RED WEST

Bulls Prep vs. Crane at Orr, 1

Lincoln Park vs. Payton at Lane, 4

Little Village vs. North Lawndale at Westinghouse, 1

BLUE NORTH

Chicago Academy vs. Foreman at Lane, 10 a.m.

Marine vs. Prosser at Westinghouse, 10 a.m.

Roosevelt vs. Clemente at Lane, 1

BLUE SOUTHWEST

Lindblom vs. Tilden at Stagg, 4

BLUE WEST

Collins at Orr, 10 a.m.

Kelly vs. Phoenix at Orr, 4

CCL-ESCC BLUE

Brother Rice at Loyola, 1:30

CCL-ESCC PURPLE

Marian Catholic at St. Patrick, 1

FOX VALLEY

Cary-Grove at McHenry, 1

SOUTHLAND

Thornridge at Bloom, noon

NONCONFERENCE

Clifton Central at Westville, 1

Normal West at Richmond-Burton, 3

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The rain in Chicago came in at full force early Sunday morning, testing the new sod laid down earlier this week at Soldier Field.

Stacey Dales of the NFL Network reported on the depth of the water on the sideline at  Soldier Field shortly after the ground crews took the tarp off.

The rain is pounding Chicago. Watch… @nflnetwork @NFLGameDay 🌧️ pic.twitter.com/a0F4MnShMK

— StaceyDales (@StaceyDales) September 11, 2022

As Dales reported 1 to 3 inches of rain has already fallen in parts of Chicago and another two inches is expected today.  A sloppy rainy field could bode well for the 49ers as it would take the ball out of Justin Fields’ hands.  That being said the Bears could be able to hang around given their running game is arguably the strongest part of their offense.

Hopefully, the new hybrid Bermuda grass will hold up at Soldier Field.  One thing is certain, Mother Nature in Chicago doesn’t care what your plan is, she’s going to put everything to the test.

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The rain in Chicago came in at full force early Sunday morning, testing the new sod laid down earlier this week at Soldier Field.

Stacey Dales of the NFL Network reported on the depth of the water on the sideline at  Soldier Field shortly after the ground crews took the tarp off.

The rain is pounding Chicago. Watch… @nflnetwork @NFLGameDay 🌧️ pic.twitter.com/a0F4MnShMK

— StaceyDales (@StaceyDales) September 11, 2022

As Dales reported 1 to 3 inches of rain has already fallen in parts of Chicago and another two inches is expected today.  A sloppy rainy field could bode well for the 49ers as it would take the ball out of Justin Fields’ hands.  That being said the Bears could be able to hang around given their running game is arguably the strongest part of their offense.

Hopefully, the new hybrid Bermuda grass will hold up at Soldier Field.  One thing is certain, Mother Nature in Chicago doesn’t care what your plan is, she’s going to put everything to the test.

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The 49ers present the Bears with plenty of concerns when they meet in the season opener today, but they will not have All-Pro tight end George Kittle.

Kittle, who also missed the game when the 49ers visited the Bears last season, was out of practice all week with a groin injury.

On the Bears’ side, it was unlikely that rookie wide receiver and returner Velus Jones would be cleared after missing practice Wednesday through Friday because of a hamstring injury, and he has been ruled out.

Here are the Bears’ inactives for Week 1:

WR Velus JonesOL Alex LeatherwoodOL Ja’Tyre CarterTE Trevon Wesco

DL Kingsley JonathanS Elijah Hicks

In addition, here’s a look at the field conditions as Soldier Field has been hammered by rain since the early morning:

The facility has always grass problems, and Bermuda sod was installed Monday in advance of this game.

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Matt Eberflus is going to be better than Matt Nagy, who was going to be better than John Fox, who sure as hell wasn’t going to be as bad as Marc Trestman, who was going to be better than Lovie Smith, who was going to be better than Dick Jauron and was, just not better enough.

Jauron was going to be better than Dave Wannstedt, who was going to attempt to fill Mike Ditka’s roller skates but couldn’t.

Feel better now about the Bears’ coaching situation? I didn’t think so. But look at it this way: My first sentence could have been: “Justin Fields is going to be better than Andy Dalton, who was going to be better than Nick Foles, who was brought in to push Mitch Trubisky, who . . . .” That’s a lot of pain I saved you right there.

A new Bears season is upon us, this one full of new faces, the most prominent being Eberflus and his locked jaw. The new coach has vowed to bring toughness to his team, which is good because football tends to lean toward violence, bloodshed and general mayhem. But there’s also a new general manager, Ryan Poles, who is going to be better than Ryan Pace, who sure as hell wasn’t going to be as bad as Phil Emery, who . . . OK, I’ll stop.

But I think you Bears fans get the picture. The franchise, the one you’ve given your heart to, hasn’t gotten it right with coaches and personnel men since Ditka and the late Jim Finks, whose name still elicits mass genuflection across Chicago. If the idea is a Super Bowl title, then it has been forever (1985) since the Bears have found the kind of leaders capable of delivering a championship.

It’s not fair to mention Eberflus-Poles in the same breath as Ditka-Finks, but it’s difficult to find a stratum in which to place them. We know so little about the two men, which makes sense: This is their first rodeo as coach and general manager. Is there gold in there? Or are they just a couple of rocks that will serve as door stops until team chairman George McCaskey realizes two or three years too late that he has made another mistake?

The Bears were trying to win last season and finished 6-11. This is going to be a rebuilding year, which means that your pain will come with cushioning. I’m not sure you’ll understand the distinction when the Bills are beating the Bears’ heads in on Dec. 24.

So, how to judge the new coach and the new general manager? For Eberflus and his staff, the obvious goal this season will be progress from Fields, whose obvious goal is to stay healthy behind a very shaky offensive line in his second year in the league. For Poles, the obvious goal will be very few victories and high picks in next year’s draft, though you won’t hear him say that. The really, really obvious goal will be linemen who can actually block for Fields in the coming years, receivers who can actually catch passes from Fields and a definitive answer on whether Fields is as remotely good as the massive hype says he is.

If he is, Bears fans can start thinking about a Super Bowl rather than fantasizing about one and a Mega Millions victory.

If he isn’t, Poles can start looking for the next quarterback who is sure to be better than the previous one, an ongoing Bears exercise that is the longest tease in recorded human history.

So, yes, progress. Progress from Fields this season, but not too much progress from everyone else so as to win too many games. It’s hard to get a slogan out of that. Get Better, But Not So Much That You Can Tell in the Standings?

A victory for Eberflus this season will be widespread respect, which sounds overly broad and definitely unmeasurable, so perhaps there’s a better way to put it: If the Bears don’t look like a clown show in 2022, it’ll be a win for the coach. That’s a reflection on Nagy, who went from being embraced for his offensive “genius” and daring early in his career in Chicago to being excoriated for failing remedial offensive play-calling. To be loved, all Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy have to do in 2022 is do the logical thing. Forget about “Be You,” Nagy’s exhortation to his players. Just “Be Smart.”

It’s not much to ask. Low expectations are all the rage. Maybe that’s why this season feels strange before it even begins. Eberflus won’t have much to work with, and Poles will be in a holding pattern before he can do anything of real substance. They’re more likely to get an incomplete than a letter grade when the schedule runs out. If you’re looking for more uncertainty, there’s the Bears’ stadium situation. The team might move to Arlington Heights in the coming years. It might play in an improved Soldier Field, which could include a dome.

The Bears are an agnostic’s dream. Will Eberflus succeed? I don’t know. What does Poles’ personnel acumen look like? I don’t know. Are Fields and quarterbacking a match? I don’t know.

The best the 2022 season will be able to offer are partial answers. There’s too much work to be done, and much of that work will be done next year and the year after that.

Weird? Well, weird is what you’re getting. A big bowl of it. We’re used to immediacy with the NFL. This week’s game means everything, until next week’s game means more. But a rebuild, so popular in Major League Baseball and the NBA, is relatively new in the NFL. How are Bears fans supposed to react to what is, in effect, purposeful losing? With skepticism and cynicism. With some humor thrown in to account for the inevitable slapstick that comes with having below-average players. With one eye on the future and one eye on the past.

Will Eberflus be a good coach? He has to be better than Abe Gibron, who was supposed to be better than Jim Dooley, who . . .

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The world spins faster for quarterbacks, and the ones who have the almost superhuman ability to slow it down are the ones who conquer and endure.

That’s the challenge Justin Fields faces this season with the Bears: bending time in his favor.

Quarterbacks usually have less than three seconds after the snap to decipher the many moving parts on the field and about three seasons to prove their franchises should bet their future on them. The best ones read defenses so quickly that time becomes irrelevant, and they often unleash so much firepower so early in their careers that it renders moot any conversation about their place in the long-term plan.

For Fields, however, the clock is ticking quicker.

In a literal sense, he absolutely can’t count on getting three seconds to throw. In his rookie season, the Bears gave him an average of 2.4 seconds and allowed him to be pressured more often than all but four quarterbacks.

And in the big picture? The people who brought him in got fired. So if general manager Ryan Poles isn’t convinced by the end of this season, he probably will have a high draft pick with which to choose his own quarterback.

Fields wants to operate above the pressure. He knows his rookie season wasn’t good — ”For sure,” he said — and a variety of factors made evaluating him cloudy, to use Poles’ word. But he’ll go at his own pace, regardless of the Bears’ urgency to make a decision abouthim.

”I’m not worried about their timetable,” he said, gesturing toward the front office upstairs as he sat in a conference room at Halas Hall. ”I’m worried about my timetable.

”Just continually get better. The more you work yourself, the more you’re gonna be good at it and you’re gonna be better. I’m not worried about their timetable. Whatever happens, happens. I know I’ve got God with me, so I’m good with whatever.”

That’s a healthy state of mind, but it doesn’t change the Bears’ reality. They need to know by the end of this season whether Fields can carry them and fulfill Poles’ vow to ”take the [NFC] North and never give it back.”

That trek is long and treacherous, and it inevitably goes through the Packers. And it begins in the Bears’ season opener Sunday against the 49ers.

Chaos and clouds

The worst thing that could happen for the Bears this season would be to get to the end of it and still not have a verdict on Fields. He must stay healthy, the supporting cast must prove viable and the offense must be productive.

None of that happened last season amid the mismatched puzzle pieces of then-GM Ryan Pace’s personnel, then-coach Matt Nagy’s offense and Fields’ skills.

Adding to the dysfunction, the choices Pace and Nagy made to try to save their jobs weren’t always aligned with what was best for Fields and a future they wouldn’t be part of. That’s why the Bears desperately promised Andy Dalton the starting job so he would sign with them, then hatched a plan to keep Fields on the bench all season when they drafted him a month later.

”I wasn’t really fazed by that,” Fields told the Sun-Times. ”I knew that wasn’t gonna [last] the whole year. I just knew if I worked hard, then I would put myself in a good position to be on the field.”

He took over when Dalton hurt his knee in Week 2 and was made the permanent starter two weeks later. His experience was still limited, however. Between injuries and catching the coronavirus, he started 10 games and took only 57% of the snaps.

Fields won’t bash anyone — ”I love coach Nagy,” he said — but hitting the reset button under coach Matt Eberflus, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko was exactly what he needed. The vibe at Halas Hall feels infinitely better, though Fields declined to get into specifics about what Eberflus fixed after Nagy’s exit.

”It’s just the way that coach Eberflus and the new staff go about everything — energetic, confident,” Fields said. ”When you have a confident head coach, the culture is gonna push you hard.

”Coach Nagy is a great guy and stuff like that, but this staff we have here now has been great so far — their attitude toward things, they have a plan, they know what they want to do. [We have] a confident head coach and a confident staff overall and a staff that wants you to be you.”

Nagy’s motto, of course, is, ”Be you,” but that often felt empty. He seemed more intent on turning Fields — and Mitch Trubisky, for that matter — into Alex Smith than letting him be him.

Fields said he felt ”a little bit robotic” trying to fit into a quarterback room with veterans Dalton and Nick Foles. And while he defended Nagy by saying, ”I don’t feel like his offense held me back,” it obviously did.

Nagy basically admitted that when he surrendered play-calling within days of Fields’ disastrous starting debut against the Browns. Defensive end Myles Garrett said shutting down Nagy’s scheme ”came easily,” and Nagy made no meaningful adjustments as Fields got sacked nine times while completing only 6 of 20 passes. The Bears staggered to 47 yards of net offense, their worst total in 40 years.

That day is a snapshot of why it’s difficult to assess Fields’ rookie season. He took ownership of a campaign that ended with him completing 58.9% of his passes (32nd among the 33 quarterbacks who threw at least 200 times), throwing only seven touchdown passes (32nd) and flinging 10 interceptions (second-worst by percentage) on his way to a 73.2 passer rating (30th). He also had the fourth-most fumbles in the NFL with 12 in 12 games.

Fields, not Nagy, threw every one of those passes and said he spent extensive time examining his errors. But his statistics paint an incomplete picture.

It’s necessary to weigh the effects of Nagy sticking him on second string all offseason, playing behind an offensive line that widely was deemed one of the NFL’s flimsiest and working in an offense that scored the seventh-fewest points in the two seasons before the Bears drafted him.

”It does cloud all of that,” Poles told the Sun-Times shortly after taking the job.

”I want to see what ceiling [Fields] has. . . . It’d be really cool if he ends up being a real dude. We can win some championships that way. We look for flashes of him putting it together. . . . There’s something there. If we can get him to repeat that over and over and put him in a position where he’s comfortable, we might have something.”

The first step was sweeping out everything that was malfunctioning around him. The next is outfitting him with everything he needs. And while Poles thinks he has done that with the coaching staff and revamped personnel, it takes some faith to believe it.

The final one is for Fields to take all that and do something with it. And, again, time is a concern. So even if the circumstances still aren’t perfect, he has to rise above the roster flaws.

Chasing Rodgers

The prelude to this season makes a lot more sense for Fields than it did a year ago. The awkwardness of waiting behind Dalton and being thrown into games sporadically is gone, and it has been replaced by a plan tailored to his abilities.

Last season, Fields had to adapt to an offense that Nagy stubbornly promised was finally ready to click in Year 4. This time, it’s a collaboration.

”Luke tries to [institute] some rules, but at the end of the day you have to feel it out; you can’t overthink on the field,” Fields said. ”That’s my biggest mindset change from last year to this year: Just get the job done, no matter how you do it. They really only care about results.

”It’s just a different mindset. [I’m] not worrying about, ‘If I make a mistake, will I get taken out?’ It feels way better, for sure.”

Fields is also far more comfortable and empowered now that he’s the starter and fully established as a team leader. The dynamic created by Pace and Nagy’s commitment to Dalton impeded that.

”They dealt with it the best they could, but when you put yourself in that tough spot — I don’t know,” Fields said. ”You promise a guy something, then something happens. But I guess that’s the business.

”Now I’m the guy, so of course we’re gonna build the offense around me, around our players, around [running back David Montgomery], around the stuff that we do well.”

There’s an element of this process that might make Bears fans queasy, by the way, but they begrudgingly will concede it’s prudent. Getsy and Fields have been stealing as much as they can from Packers star Aaron Rodgers. If you want to ”take the North,” start by taking as much as you can from the king of it.

”I watched a bunch of Green Bay film this offseason,” Fields said.

As of now, Fields is merely another name on the list of 16 starting quarterbacks the Bears have used since Rodgers took over the Packers in 2008. He’s trying to go from footnote to foe.

He is not the same player Rodgers is and doesn’t aim to be, but there are elements he aspires to adopt. Rodgers knows opposing defenses better than the defenders themselves — ”You can definitely tell when he knows what you’re in,” Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson said — and plays with unparalleled efficiency by happily taking the easiest play he sees. And he almost never turns the ball over.

”He’s the best quarterback in the NFL,” Fields said. ”I like how he plays. That’s just me being real.”

That’s the standard Fields is eyeing. He sees Rodgers as someone to chase rather than hate.

”I want to beat the Packers this year, but [people] want me to dislike him? For what?” said Fields, who noted that Rodgers gave him meaningful advice after their game in December at Lambeau Field. ”There’s no reason for me. He’s a great quarterback. He plays the game very efficiently, for sure.”

He added: ”That’s all A-Rod does: [He dumps] it off to the back in the flat. Boom, they break tackles and get 10 yards off of a two-yard throw. That helps you out.”

That thinking is essential to Getsy’s offense. He wants to take the yards that are begging to be taken. He has installed an outside zone running scheme, has no reservations about maximizing Fields’ mobility by getting him out of the pocket and has shifted Fields’ perspective from forcing big plays to taking the freebies.

”My mindset last year was [that] even if plays aren’t there, I still have to try to make a play,” Fields said. ”This year it’s more, ‘Let’s set ourselves up.’ If it’s second-and-eight, we don’t have to get the first down. We just have to get five yards to make it third-and-three and make it manageable.

”I have that mindset of just keeping the ball safe and giving ourselves a chance — holding on to the ball, that’s the biggest thing — and just getting little gains. Boom, completion. Boom, completion. Moving on.”

Sounds a lot like Rodgers. And as long as we’re not talking about drinking psychedelics or shaky medical advice, that’s a good thing.

Finding balance

There are no days off for Fields, only nights off.

If there’s no practice for the Bears the next day, he’ll allow himself a relaxing evening of playing video games. But he’s using the supposed day off to prepare for what’s next. He’ll get a massage in the morning, have physical therapy right after lunch and spend much of his day studying film.

When he doesn’t have a night off, Fields gets home from Halas Hall around 7 p.m., watches film from practice and scouting clips of the upcoming defense and studies plays for two-minute drills and other specific situations. That leaves him about 45 minutes to read — recent selections include ”The Four Agreements” and ”The Alchemist” — before falling asleep and getting up at 6 a.m. to do it all over again.

Even the Bears think that’s a little over the top, Fields said, and they’ve been working to help him establish a little more balance going into this season.

”Sometimes when you overwork yourself — you’re so consumed by football, football, football — you can have so much stuff in your mind that you can’t think clearly,” he said. ”If I study a crazy amount, then I’m thinking about every little detail when I’m in the game instead of going out there . . . and playing free and just reacting to everything.

”Once you find that healthy balance . . . your headspace is better. And when your headspace is better, of course, your mental health is way better and . . . really, you can go out there and just play how you play.”

That’s what everyone is waiting for. They want to see Fields doing the things that made him dominant at Ohio State and vaulted him to No. 11 in the draft. Whether he says it publicly or not, there were a lot of obstacles to that last season. He couldn’t truly play how he plays.

Enough of those hindrances have been removed, however, for Fields to show what he can do. The Bears are in a major rebuild and unlikely to pile up victories. But regardless of how the season goes overall, Fields needs to give them irrefutable proof he’s their answer.

Because even though this is only his second season, he’s already short on time.

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