Justin Fields is trying to take a calm, clinical approach to dealing with the “trash” game he played against the Texans. He’s choosing a steadier path than last week, when he rearranged his schedule to kick start himself.
It was challenging to maintain that steadiness Sunday night while scrutinizing the film of arguably the worst performance of his career. Fields completed just 8 of 17 passes for 106 yards with two interceptions for a 27.7 passer rating. As exasperating as it was for everyone else watch, it was even worse for Fields to see clip after clip of himself torpedoing the offense.
“It was frustrating, for sure,” he said of his evening. “But gotta learn from the mistakes.”
His reaction to the tape?
“Just got to play better,” he said.
He added, “All I really know — My response to that is get back to work and keep working.”
In a shift from the past week or so, including Sunday when he caught himself before using profanity to describe his play, Fields was brief and flat Wednesday as he tried to move on from his latest debacle and look toward an opportunity to straighten himself out Sunday at the Giants.
No visible anger. No setting his alarm for 4 a.m. to do extra work.
And that’s probably for the best.
After three shaky games to start the season, what Fields seems to need most is a reset. He needs to simplify the game. He needs to trust his talent.
The Bears are indisputably limited at wide receiver and unreliable in pass protection, which certainly makes his job harder, but there have been instances where he has looked indecisive. Opportunities were there — and those are precious in this offense — and Fields was late to identify them or off target.
