The Bears have spent a lot of time working on their short passes and screen games this season, and they saw instant results in their first preseason game against the Titans on Saturday. Justin Fields and the first-team offense scored two touchdowns in just seven plays, and both scores came on 50+ yard screens.
“Yeah I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a first preseason game before,” head coach Matt Eberflus said.
The first score came on DJ Moore’s first catch as a Chicago Bear. Moore caught the ball a bit behind the line of scrimmage, got two initial blocks from Darnell Mooney and Braxton Jones, then as he moved upfield got two more blocks from Teven Jenkins and Ja’Tyre Carter. From there it was nothing but green grass.
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After the game, Moore called the play “glorious,” and gave all the kudos to his downfield blockers.
“I just hit the gas down the sideline,” Moore said.
“I told (Moore) that might be legendary right there,” said Fields.
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The second screen had a bit more going on. The play was designed for Khalil Herbert, but a linebacker came screaming downfield on a blitz, so Herbert had to pause, bluff a quick block on the backer, then leak out to catch the pass. That threw off the timing of the screen a bit, but Fields was able to escape momentary pressure to make sure the play still worked, and it did.
The way Herbert navigated the blitzers and Fields scrambled to make the play was impressive, but Herbert's physicality at the end of the run was even more impressive. Herbert slowed as he approached the goal line, but fought his way through three different defenders to score.
Obviously a player wants to score every time they touch the ball, but Herbert admitted he had a little extra motivation to break those three tackles and make it into the endzone.
“We’ve got a fine,” Herbert said. “If you break a run and get tackled in the five, you’ve gotta pay a fine. That was definitely on my mind. I didn’t want to pay that fine.”
Those two plays are exciting in their own right, but they’re important for the growth of the offense as a whole. Last season the team was not very effective in the screen game, and Fields was inaccurate with short passes overall. That’s why it was such an emphasis over the summer.
If the Bears continue to improve in the screen game and bring that success into the regular season, Fields believes it will help the offense as a whole, too.
“That makes my job easier, that makes the o-line’s job easier. After a period of time where you keep dinking and dunking those short passes, the defensive coordinator gets impatient, starts blitzing more, starts pressuring more, playing more man coverage, and then that’s when those deep shots just naturally happen. I think it’s going to be a good thing for us this year.”
The Bears insisted they can still clean up some of the screens, especially the timing of the plays. However they’re happy to celebrate the success they enjoyed on Saturday.
“Can’t really draw it up much better than that,” Fields said.