Chicago Bears: Who is to blame for Justin Fields struggling?

This is a pivotal season for Chicago Bears starting quarterback Justin Fields.

He established himself as a dynamic playmaker with his running ability. Fields needed to prove this season that he could develop into a competent passer to complement what he can do with his legs.

Justin left a lot of doubt about what will happen this year with his Week 1 performance against the Green Bay Packers.

He completed 24 of 37 pass attempts for 216 yards with a touchdown, an interception, and a lost fumble. Fields was also sacked four times. His counterpart, Jordan Love, outplayed him when it was expected the results would be the opposite.

Fields’ box score shows a quarterback that did not have a bad game. The tape says otherwise.

D.J. Moore was officially targeted just two times. The Packer’s defense did not do a whole lot to remove the team’s No. 1 wide receiver. There were plenty of times Moore was open and either Fields did not see him or chose to go with another option.

If he did, that option was typically a short gain checkdown.

Fields admitted he played too conservative on Sunday.

Hitting his layup passes was one of the boxes Fields needed to check this year. He crossed that one off the list with his performances that against the Packers along with the Bills and Eagles last season. He still needs to improve in throwing his wide receivers open and understanding what NFL open is.

At Ohio State, he was instructed to throw to his receivers when downfield could see them literally wide open. You can do that in the college game. Not so much in the NFL.

He needs to throw to a spot and let the receiver make a play on it. Maybe he understands that now after watching the tape.

At the same time, we are talking about a quarterback who has started 26 games in the NFL. He got outplayed by a quarterback making his second career start. To be fair, the Packers’ defense is much better than the Chicago Bears.

Fields did make some nice plays. His touchdown pass to Darnell Mooney was impressive. The two times he found Moore was some fine work going through his progressions. He is still very tentative when it comes to letting the ball rip. That is why he is still in the potential stages of being a good passer.

Even Fields cannot answer why he is still only showing flashes as a passer.

The true believers feel it is either the offensive line or the coaching staff that we should blame for Fields still having issues in the passing game.

They would be right to a degree.

He has been sacked 95 times in his career. Fields spent the majority of last season running for his life because of poor protection. Justin also held onto the ball too long. He has been sacked 70 times when given more than two seconds in the pocket.

The offensive line has been banged up since the moment Fields took over as the starting quarterback. He has taken enough shots where you cannot blame him for being a bit jittery once the pocket starts to collapse.

At the same point, holding onto the ball too darn long is one of the reasons he has taken a pounding. His hesitancy to throw the ball with anticipation is a major reason he is taking a beating.

Then again, the offensive line has helped contribute to him playing in a lot of second/third and long.

After first and 10, the most pass attempts Fields has had is in second/third and 10-plus.

A case can be made that head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy have coached him to be more conservative. Under Matt Nagy, Fields was willing to throw into tight windows. Under this regime, he is just not pulling the trigger like he did in his rookie year.

The play-calling on Sunday was bad. Getsy would call a couple of plays that would string together some nice gains and then self-destruct drives with odd calls and formations.

Eberflus’ HITS principle places a focus on not turning the ball over. It makes you think that the coaching staff has done an overcorrection by hammering home that Fields should hit his layup passes, instead of trying to drive it down the field.

Also, Getsy called just one designed run for Fields. This is a guy who tore up the league after last year’s bye week when Getsy was having him scramble. This season is indeed about Fields throwing from the pocket more to limit injury exposure. Justin did get hurt last year on a couple of dialed-up runs.

At the same time, moving the pocket more is where Fields feels most comfortable throwing the ball.

One of his best throws came off a play design where the pocket moved. Also, it can help the offensive line.

Then again, the idea is if Fields needs to move in the pocket, he needs to keep his eyes upfield and still look to throw.

He did not do a lot of that against the Packers. It led to some missed opportunities.

Maybe we should place some blame on general manager Ryan Poles.

The offensive line being talent deficient can be placed at Poles’ feet. Teven Jenkins went down in training camp with an injury, and it caused chaos in that group.

In addition, Poles talks all the time about wanting competition in training camp all the while not bringing in competition for second-year left tackle Braxton Jones. Jones is a fifth-round pick out of Southern Utah and has never really been pushed for the starting job.

He has struggled with a simple bull rush coming off the edge.

Then again, when you watch the tape, the offensive line did give Fields some time to throw the ball. He just did not get the ball out.

Also, Poles did sign Nate Davis and drafted Darnell Wright. He at least attempted to upgrade the talent on the offensive line. Davis did not have a great day at the office, but he missed a lot of camp with an injury (or it could be he just did not want to practice). If he can get back into game shape, he is a good right guard.

Wright had some rookie moments, but he also had some good blocks. The interior of the line was rough and a part of that was center Lucas Patrick who Poles signed last offseason. He has been bad or injured ever since he put on a Chicago Bears uniform.

Poles is supposed to be a strong offensive line talent evaluator considering he played it in college. The line has been awful since he took over as general manager.

Last year he assembled quite possibly the worst wide receiver group ever assembled. He did upgrade the talent when he acquired D.J. Moore and drafted Tyler Scott. It is not like Poles is avoiding trying to solve the problem.

Plus, the offensive line and the wide receivers were bad in Fields’ rookie season with Nagy and former general manager Ryan Pace in charge.

It is time to blame Justin Fields for his struggles.

He has won just five games in the NFL. You can point to the talent around him, but he has completed 57.6% of his passes for 1125 yards with seven touchdowns and 11 interceptions in the fourth quarter.

Fields has six interceptions to three touchdown passes when trailing with four minutes left to go in the game. He has completed 56% of his passes during that period. Justin has two touchdowns, a 60.3% completion percentage, and four interceptions when trailing with two minutes left to go.

His poor passing numbers are no wonder why some people are already out on Fields. Missing a lot of open receivers only supports that Justin is not seeing the field correctly.

Maybe blame does not need to be dished out this time. His rookie year was disjointed with Nagy’s failed plan to develop him. He had to learn another offense last year. It could just be him working his way through the learning curve in the NFL.

Playing well at Tampa is one way to start turning things around and start silencing the doubters.