Bear Necessities: Matt Eberflus says offense needs to avoid sacks

After strong starts, the Bears have fallen behind after some costly sacks.

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The Chicago Bears are among the most-sacked teams in the NFL this season, having allowed 57 sacks through 16 games.

That’s been in part to a couple of factors, including an offensive line that struggles in pass protection and quarterback Justin Fields holding on to the ball for too long.

For Bears coach Matt Eberflus, he pointed to those sacks as having stalled momentum and halted drives, especially over the last couple of weeks where Chicago has opened the game with a touchdown drive only to fall behind.

“I just think that there’s some series in there that you see that when you get behind, No. 1, let’s not take sacks,” Eberflus said. “Let’s do a good job of getting rid of that. And that’s all 11. I’m not saying that’s just Justin because it’s not. It’s the protection, it’s getting the ball out on time. And then you’re staying on track. You don’t want it to be second-and-17. You’re getting behind the sticks there.”

While the offensive line deserves a big chunk of the blame for those sacks — as Fields is among the most-sacked QBs in the league — Fields can also help eliminate some of those sacks.

There was one play in particular in last Sunday’s game against the Lions, where Fields held on to the ball too long and was stripped from behind by Lions linebacker James Houston.

“We did think that we had a chance to throw it down the field there, but he went to tuck it there,” Eberflus said. “When he still has the ball in the pocket, he has to be careful to have two hands on the ball as he’s going through there. He only had one hand on the ball at that time and he got it stripped. We’ve got to do better there.”

Those are the growing pains that come with a young quarterback, especially with limited resources around him. But Fields can certainly helped limit the number of sacks he’s taking by getting rid of the ball.

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