3 major surprises from the Chicago Bears’ Week 1 victory

1. The Chicago Bears made serious halftime adjustments

Over the course of the first 27 minutes in this game, the Bears’ offense looked a lot like that under Matt Nagy. It sounds absurd to say it that way, but it’s the truth. Luke Getsy, the first-year Bears offensive coordinator, ran a lot of vanilla play-calls.

The Bears ran it up the middle on many occasions, and most of the time for no gain or maybe a couple of yards. Fields was put into 3rd-and-long situations over and over again, and most of the time deep in his own territory.

The offense was confusing to watch, to say the least. Fields was never moved outside the pocket, nor did the Bears run play action. This was not the offense Bears fans had heard about, working towards Fields’ strengths.

However, when the Bears took over with a couple of minutes remaining in the first half, you could start to see Fields get rolling a little bit as he was able to move out of the pocket.

Then, in the second half, the Bears were a completely different team. The change from Teven Jenkins to Lucas Patrick at right guard may have helped a bit, but mostly, it was the scheme change that helped the most. Getsy began calling more play action and getting his quarterback outside the pocket.

Fields was able to escape the rush on several occasions, extending plays with his legs and picking up first downs on the run and by finding the open man downfield. The offense opened up, finally, and it was refreshing.

Many times under the previous regime, these Bears did not make adjustments at the half. It was evident that Eberflus and Getsy made conscious efforts to change what they were doing going into the second half, and it felt surprising, because that’s not something the Bears have done in recent years.

This is a well-coached team that will not rest on their laurels if things are going poorly.