Wednesday was a heck of a day at Halas Hall as the Chicago Bears seemed to be in the middle of a very serious situation involving now-former defensive coordinator Alan Williams.
While that whole mess was playing out, starting quarterback Justin Fields kicked off the day by throwing his coaches under the bus over what has gone wrong for him and the 0-2 Bears so far this season.
After saying that he felt “robotic” and overthinking things while on the field, he seemed to imply that he wasn’t happy with what his coaches were telling him to do.
Justin Fields is fed up with Luke Getsy, just like the rest of us pic.twitter.com/A4NCN3fn98
— Justin Fields Fan Club (@JustinFieldsFC) September 20, 2023
“You know, could be coaching I think,” Fields said to reporters Wednesday morning. “At the end of their day, they are doing their job when they are giving me what to look at, but at the end of the day, I can’t be thinking about that when the game comes.
“I prepare myself throughout the week and then when the game comes, it’s time to play free at that point. Thinking less and playing more.”
Those comments set off a social media firestorm and it was apparently loud enough to get back to Field, and likely some other folks on the Bears’ staff or front office.
Fields reconvened with reporters on Wednesday afternoon to let them know that his comments had been taken out of context and that the buck stopped with him.
Justin Fields wanted to speak to the media again inside the locker room following his comments on #Bears coaching earlier. @GNSportsTV @WGNTV pic.twitter.com/vG2kU3QDGb
— Kaitlin Sharkey (@KRoseSharkey) September 20, 2023
“I’m not blaming anything on the coaches,” said Fields. “I’m never going to blame anything on coaches, never going to blame anything on my teammates. I will take every — whatever happens in a game — I will take all the blame. I don’t care if it’s a dropped pass and it should have been a pass. Put it on me.”
Of course, the cat was already out of the bag, so Fields was asked if he was getting too many coaching voices in his head telling him what to do on the field. This time, the Bears signal-caller toed the line.
“I don’t think it’s too many. It’s just that when you’re fed a lot of information at a point and time and when you’re trying to think about that info when you’re playing, it doesn’t let you play like yourself,” Fields said. “You’re trying to process so much information to where it’s like, you know, if I just simplify my mind. … I think the biggest thing for me is playing the game like I know how to play. Like I’ve been playing it my whole life.”
Whatever the issue is, it’s understandable that Fields is frustrated so far this season. He currently has an average pass length of 4.5 yards, the shortest in the NFL, despite having an average of 3.2 seconds to throw. That’s also the shortest average pass length through the first two weeks of an NFL season since 2006. Of the 12 passes he’s thrown 10+ yards in the air, two have been touchdowns and two have been interceptions. He also has yet to throw a pass 25 yards or longer in the air.
This Justin Fields situation is another reason we give bland quotes. He said his coaches are overwhelming him with information and it’s making him think too much instead of reacting. “Fields blames coaches” is what gets run and now he has to backtrack. Goodbye, honest quotes.
— Mitchell Schwartz (@MitchSchwartz71) September 20, 2023
The bad news is that Chicago is traveling to Kansas City this weekend to take on a Chiefs squad that has only surrendered 30 points total in two games so far.
It was a pretty weird Wednesday for the Bears. If they continue to lose and Fields struggles on the field, there might be weirder ones ahead.
[JustinFieldsFC, Kaitlin Sharkey, Image: CHGO_Bears]
