Tag: justin fields touchdown run

Justin Fields continues to confound defenses with amazing touchdown runs

The Detroit Lions did everything they could do to stop Justin Fields on the ground. It did not go as the Lions wanted it to.

“Obviously, you saw last week it was very difficult. But I will say this, you have to emphasize that as much as possible, and sometimes it comes with a loud voice and a demanding demeanor behind you to make sure guys understand that because I get it. Once you get a chance to try beat someone on the edge, man, you’re going continue to go, but I’ve talked to our guys about this this morning. We have to play the type of game we need to play to win, and that changes. So, in saying that, we have to make sure that we condense the pocket, make sure we push the pocket, and that we equate to getting sacks for the most part. I think Green Bay did a pretty good job of doing that. Even though they weren’t speeding rushing around the edge, they really condense the pocket, and they kept him in this cage, and they were able to make plays and get sacks.”

That’s what Detroit Lions defensive coordiantor Aaron Glenn said this week when asked about rushing too deep against mobile quarterbacks like Chicago’s Justin Fields, who set the regular season single-game rushing record for a quarterback last Sunday against the Miami Dolphins with 178 yards on the ground.

“That’s why your eyes are important in that situation, that once you feel yourself about to get ahead of the quarterback, you have to retrace and make sure you keep him that cage and understand that quarterbacks drop too. That’s some things we talk about quite a bit, and our guys understand that. So, within getting into the rush, those are things you just have to understand, and I think our guys will do a good job of that.”

That’s what Glenn said about reading run pre-snap.

So, Glenn and his defense seemed to understand the rushing threat that Fields presents. Of course, just because you’ve repped it all on the practice field and in the meeting rooms doesn’t mean Fields won’t still scald you when it’s game time. The Lions experienced this on Fields’ one-yard touchdown run with 12 seconds left in the first half.

As much as the Lions delayed the inevitable… it was still inevitable.

Detroit actually did a good job to take away Fields’ initial read, and they got penetration up the middle to limit his options there. Problem was, Fields could still get to the end zone, trucking two Detroit defenders on his way to the touchdown that made the game a 10-10 tie.

Fields ran the ball eight times for 69 yards in the first half, so it’s the same problem for the Lions that it’s been for everybody else this season. Chicago has at least 225 rushing yards in each of their last four games, and that’s tied with the 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers for the most consecutive games with at least that many yards in the Super Bowl era.

Chicago had 128 rushing yards at the half.

Justin Fields has been the QB we all wanted to see since the Bears’ mini-bye

Justin Fields has been an entirely different (and much better) quarterback since the Chicago Bears’ October mini-bye.

Since the Chicago Bears selected Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields with the 11th overall pick of the 2021 draft, we’ve all been waiting for the young quarterback to turn the proverbial corner. That was never going to happen in Fields’ rookie year, because head coach and alleged offensive mastermind Matt Nagy was in charge of things, which left an Adam Gase-ish cast on the whole season.

New blood came in the 2022 season with head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, and early on, things weren’t much different. In Weeks 106, Fields completed 63 of 115 passes (54.8%) for 869 yards (7.6 YPA), four touchdowns, five interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 72.7.

The last game in that sequence was Chicago’s 17-7 loss to the Washington Commanders on Thursday, October 13. That gave Fields and Chicago’s offensive staff a nice mini-bye to figure things out, and it appears that they all did just that.

In Fields’ next two games, a win over the Patriots and a loss to the Cowboys, Fields completed 30 of 44 passes (68.2%) for 330 yards (7.5 YPA), three touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 103.4.

Fields brought the hot hand into Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins, making several big plays with his arm and his legs. There was this 18-yard second quarter touchdown pass to tight end Cole Kmet, in which Fields used play- and boot-action in the same play to befuddle Miami’s defense.

Then, there was this 16-yard touchdown pass to Darnell Mooney later in the second quarter, and this is about as well as you can throw a ball with defenders converging.

Did we mention that Fields is making things happen with his legs? You don’t need to tell the Dolphins after this 61-yard third quarter touchdown run. Here, Fields had Miami’s defense on a string with the threat of a pass, saw that the run presented a better opportunity, and went for it. This wasn’t a yong quarterback bailing on his reads; this was a young quarterback understanding how to use all the attributes at his disposal. Miami dropped seven into coverage on third-and-6, and you don’t do that against a quarterback you don’t respect as a passer.

That said, Fields has also improved as a runner since that mini-bye — he had 21 carries for 281 yards and a touchdown in the first six games of the season, and 17 carries for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the next two.

That Fields has been able to improve against two top defense in the Cowboys and Patriots, and eat heartily against a Dolphins defense that has been a relative disappointment, seems to indicate that the light has gone on.

Sometimes, all it takes is an extra few days of rest.