Justin Fields’ dual-threat abilities lead Bears to win over Patriots

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Matt Eberflus promised he would re-evaluate everything during the Bears’ 11-day layoff. No. 1 on the list appeared to be moving his quarterback outside of the pocket.

Quarterback Justin Fields was on the move early and often during Monday night’s win over the Patriots, 33-14, at Gillette Stadium in New England. Fields finished the game with 82 rushing yards on 14 attempts, including a 3-yard touchdown run.

The Bears picked up their first win over Bill Belichick and New England since 2000.

Per NFL Next Gen Stats, Fields ran on what appeared to be designed runs nine times in the first half alone. It wasn’t just Fields’ running, though, it was the Bears moving the pocket, too. Fields took advantage of play action and boot roll outs to find space to work with.

He threw for 179 yards on 13-for-21 passing with one touchdown and one interception.

It was a historic first half for Fields, who became just the second player in the last 30 seasons to throw for 100 yards with a touchdown, while also rushing for 70 yards and a touchdown in the first half, according to NFL Research. The only other QB to achieve that was Russell Wilson, who did it twice.

“[It] just makes our offense more complex, just getting us out of the pocket, designed quarterback runs,” Fields said. “It opens it up a little bit more, doing a lot of different things on offense.”

All of that said, Fields’ most impressive throw of the night came late in the second quarter when he stood in the pocket and tossed a touchdown pass with pressure in his face. The Patriots were playing Cover 0 with no safeties back deep. Fields identified the incoming pressure, but liked the advantage that created.

He had virtually no time after the snap to release the football, but he somehow changed his arm angle and found running back Khalil Herbert, who ran in a 25-yard touchdown. Fields took a hard hit from two Patriots on the play. The score gave the Bears a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.

The Bears had run the same play earlier in the game, but Fields’ pass was batted down by the defensive end.

“We work on that in practice, maneuvering the screens around the D-end,” Fields said. “So it was a great catch and run by Khalil and a great play call, great execution by everyone.”

The Bears picked up 24 first downs in the game and out-gained the Patriots, 390 yards to 260. The Bears defense finished with three interceptions.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick made the extraordinary decision to bench last year’s first-round draft pick, quarterback Mac Jones. The Patriots had won two consecutive games with rookie backup Bailey Zappe playing quarterback while Jones was out with an ankle injury. With Jones back to full health this week, he returned to the starting role.

He didn’t last long, though.

Jones threw an interception early in the second quarter after lofting a ball up for grabs. Bears rookie safety Jaquan Brisker snatched the ball out of the air with one hand. When the Patriots offense next came out onto the field, Zappe was in at quarterback for Jones. The home fans, some of whom had been chanting for Zappe, cheered the move.

Eberflus said he had a feeling they might see both Patriots QBs on Monday.

“I just thought we had a sense for that,” Eberflus said. “The other guy’s been playing really good the last two weeks. We thought that we might see both of them in a planned role, a planned rotation, but we certainly had a plan for that.”

The switch worked, briefly. Zappe led the Patriots to two touchdown-scoring drives to take a brief lead, 14-10. But Fields threw his touchdown pass on the following drive and the Patriots couldn’t find a way to slow the Bears offense after that.

The game came just hours after Bears general manager Ryan Poles reasserted his belief that Fields was trending in the right direction and showing “flashes” of brilliance.

The GM’s comments proved prescient. The quarterback kept flashing brilliance all night long.