Justin Fields on his performance vs. Texans: "I played like trash" |
Despite winning the game 23-20, the Chicago Bears' game against the Houston Texans had a lot of downsides to it, particularly with the play from quarterback Justin Fields.
"Straight up, I just played -- I don't want to say the A-word, but I played like trash," Fields said during his postgame press conference. "Really just got to be better. "I have higher expectations than everyone else. "I'm going to go see the film tonight. I played terrible. "See what I could have done better and get better." Fields wants to play better for his teammates. "Confidence is normal, I think. I think everybody is — I didn't play as well as I wanted to. Like I always say, I have high expectations and just got to play better for my teammates," Fields said. "Proud of the defense, the way we played, and proud of everybody. Of course, I want to play better, but everybody in the locker room is fighting for each other." The message was the same throughout Fields' press interview, reiterating his horrible performance. He threw two interceptions, his first game with multiple interceptions since December last season when the Bears played Green Bay. His quarterback rating was 27.7, tied for his lowest in his NFL career (he had the same rating against Cincinnati in Week 2 of last season). Fields was also sacked five times, the most he has been sacked in one game since Week 3 of last season against the Cleveland Browns. In addition, he was only sacked five times through the first two games. Although it wouldn't sound like it from all of these statistics, the Bears offense did have some positive plays in their most recent game. The run game was key to their success, totaling 281 yards. This is the most they had had in a single game since 1984 when Hall-of-Famer Walter Payton was the Bears' running back. The Bears had five players, including Fields, contribute to the running game. Fields totaled 47 yards on eight attempts. While running back David Montgomery went down early in the first quarter; backup Khalil Herbert had 20 attempts for 157 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught both of his targets for another 12 yards. When talking about the productivity of the running game, Fields stated that the offensive line "did a great job" but continued to reiterate the message that his performance needs to improve. The second-year quarterback also addressed the lingering question of why the Bears' top offensive playmakers from last season, Darnell Mooney and Cole Kmet, have yet to see a lot of action. While he stated that there is "no pressure" to get them more involved, he did target Mooney six times in Sunday's game, while he had only been targeted five times in the first two games. Kmet also received more targets, with a total of three, and caught two of them for a total of 40 yards. He came into the game with two targets and no receptions. The Bears will face a challenge in going against the New York Giants next Sunday (noon/FOX), who are coming off their Monday night loss to the Dallas Cowboys. The Giants have the 25th-ranked running defense in the NFL right now, which should help the Bears greatly. This may be a problem for them if they cannot get the running game going. Besides the Bears' passing attack being off to a horrible start, the Giants also have the tenth-ranked passing defense. The running game will be key again for the Chicago Bears as they seek their third win of the season and remain first in the NFC North division. They are currently tied for first with the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings.
