The Bears are going forward with a hopeful attitude toward Justin Fields’ health. Even after Ryan Poles expressed optimism about Fields’ return Thursday against the Carolina Panthers, however, coach Matt Eberflus was unwilling to go so far after Sunday’s 24-17 loss to New Orleans. “He’s day to day,” Eberflus said. “We will find out more tomorrow. We’ll see where it is.
“He started throwing (Friday), which is a positive. We’ll see where it is in terms of his functionality.” A couple aspects of Fields’ game might have made a difference Sunday if they had him available. His experience in tight games is one, although he’s never been successful at this. And the other was his ability to run the zone read and get outside or even break them inside, although Tyson Bagent did a good job with this Sunday with 60 rushing yards. The Bears could get both of those back to face Carolina.
“The experience factor, him playing all those games — certainly, the experience factor,” Eberflus said. “He’s operated in this offense. He’s had some good weeks prior to this in the Washington game. He’s had some good weeks this year. “We’re excited to get him back when he comes back. The QB runs are viable there too, the perimeter’s getting under attack more. That’s what he brings.”
If Fields can return, he faces playing in an offense without fullback Khari Blasingame because of a concussion suffered Sunday. The defense could be without cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, who went out with a lower leg injury. The short work week for a Thursday game will make it tougher to get any injured players back, including Fields
Blasingame’s absence seemed to make a difference in Sunday’s loss. The Bears controlled the line of scrimmage on runs in the early part of the game. The Saints did eventually shut it down and it made a difference because the pressure then shifted to the Bears rookie QB to produce and he couldn’t. “They shift their front a little bit here and there,” Eberflus said. “It’s an overload on that one side we were running to the whole time. My hat’s off to them. They made the adjustment, and it (running to that side) wasn’t as effective as it was. Again, I thought we did a really good job over the course of the day running the football.”
They might have been able to compensate, except they didn’t have the true outside rushing threat provided by Fields or the extra blocking provided by Blasingame after his concussion. The extra pressure on the Bears offensive line after the running game began to fail didn’t help the Bears. They started committing even more penalties and finished with eight for 71 yards.
“You go back and look at those, obviously, the false starts are thefalse starts,” Eberflus said. “We have to clean those up, but the holdings you have to look at them. Sometimes ithappens when you extend plays on the perimeter. When you’re extending plays as a quarterback, it happens sometimes. I’ll look and evaluate all those penalties and see what we think.” One penalty irking Eberflus perhaps more than others was a 15-yard facemasking penalty on Velus Jones Jr as he tried to get downfield to cover a punt in the fourth quarter. The penalty moved the Saints to the verge of field goal range in a one-touchdown game. “It was a facemask,” Eberflus said. “He grabbed it.”
Eberflus failed to note that Jones was clearly being held by two Saints on the play when he grabbed the facemask, which was not called. “You just cannot do that,” Eberflus said. “We’re pro football players and coaches. We know we can’t grab the facemask.”
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