When the Chicago Bears took the field in Week 3 vs. the Houston Texans, all eyes were on second-year quarterback Justin Fields.
How would the passing game look? Would Fields have his breakout game? Would the Bears call a healthy amount of passing plays to get their quarterback in rhythm?
Instead of Fields having a breakout game and lighting up the Texans through the air, Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy chose to stick to the ground game just like he should have done a week prior against the Green Bay Packers.
Even despite losing starting running back David Montgomery early in this game, Getsy stuck with the rushing attack and tallied up 281 yards on the ground using a mixture of Khalil Herbert, Trestan Ebner, Equanimeous St. Brown and Fields.
It is clear, the strength of this Chicago Bears offense is not held within their passing attack.
Chalk that one up as the most obvious sports take you have likely ever read. But, Bears fans have to look at the facts.
Fields is taking longer to develop, and that’s incredibly frustrating. Once again, he threw less than 20 passes on Sunday and completed less than 50 percent of those passes. Fields went 8-for-17 with 106 yards, two interceptions and took five sacks.
Now, let’s be fair. The offensive line did not hold up throughout this game. The pass protection wasn’t excellent by any means, but there were plenty of snaps when Fields had some time to throw and he simply missed.
Fields still has yet to become more decisive in his play. He is not recognizing the open man, nor is he throwing the ball quickly enough — which is a very common theme in his game as a pro.
So, let’s look at what the Bears can do, going forward.
It would be silly to say the Bears should be “out” on Fields, after he still has yet to play the equivalent of a full 17-game slate in his career. They will continue to try and develop him with the hope that he pans out.
But, in the mean time, if the Bears are gong to try and win football games, it’s going to be done on the ground.
The Bears are actually a fairly competent run-blocking team. Herbert credited his line Sunday after the game with opening some big holes — and they did.
Even without Montgomery for at least the immediate future, the Bears are very confident in their running back group led by Herbert. The second-year pro ran for over 150 yards and two touchdowns against Houston, which was one of the biggest reasons — if not the biggest — the Bears came out victorious.
Through three games, the Bears have rushed for a total of 560 yards, equaling 187 yards per contest. If they continue at this pace, they will be a top-5 rushing team in the NFL when it’s all said and done.
It’s clear the Bears will not be as competitive as fans would have hoped, but if they want to win as many games as possible this season, they will stick to the run and hope Fields comes along at a nice pace.
