He made some poor decisions with the ball in the Northwestern and the Indiana games and had some ints that shouldn't have been thrown. He was under pressure and just tossed up the ball. I heard him say in one of his interviews that he knows he made poor decisions there. He is smart enough to clean that up I think. For the season he had only 6 ints and 22 passing TDs, and over 70% completion rate. So he should be fine.
The only other thing that I noticed was that he probably needs to protect himself and slide when he runs. Sometimes he did that. Other times he didn't. Hopefully he will be smart when he runs the ball in the NFL and not take any unnecessary risks that could get him injured.
Other than that he looked pretty awesome in those games. It does help to be able to watch every single pass and run for an entire season. It's better than just watching highlight stuff without the bad stuff.
Couple thoughts for what they're worth, reactions while I'm watching the first video w/ all his plays from this past year. Full disclosure, I f'ing hate blowhio state, so most of what I know of this kid is from HS in Georgia, and his freshman year at UGA. This will be interesting, to me at least.
- That Olave kid is fast as hell. Someone posted in one of the other threads our receiver's 40 times- hopefully we can take the top off a couple times a game like Fields did w/ Olave.
- Fields ad-libbed a couple times, made some crazy plays with athleticism . Dare I say, Mahomes-esque? May get him in trouble if he holds on too long, which he does at times, he also doesn't want to slide early
- Real strong, several times got passes off- accurately- while enduring contact. Also just took a massive blind side sack and jumped up. Hope we don't see too many of those hits. Against Indiana, the hoosiers d-line was kicking OSU o-line ass (+blitzing), you could tell it made Fields uncomfortable. Couple picks early, getting hit a lot, no room to step up into the pocket, knocking down passes. Similar struggles against NW'ern, getting beat up front, so not comfortable, short arming throws, inaccurate, some questionable decisions (couple picks, one in EZ). Pressure bursts pipes. Hopefully Bears OL can keep him clean for the most part .
- Locks on a receiver, you see that quite a bit. Happens to all of them
- Nice touch on the corner fade
- 2x now I have seen him totally embarrass an unblocked rusher. Damn, that is cold. 33:00 mark, again at 34:40, and 44:47
- Beautiful deep ball
Overall, very impressive body of work, still things to improve on. I am stoked to get this kid in Chicago and see how fast Nagy wrecks his head. Hopefully they can click, it works, and all is sunshine and roses.
- Fields ad-libbed a couple times, made some crazy plays with athleticism . Dare I say, Mahomes-esque? May get him in trouble if he holds on too long, which he does at times, he also doesn't want to slide early
- Real strong, several times got passes off- accurately- while enduring contact. Also just took a massive blind side sack and jumped up. Hope we don't see too many of those hits. Against Indiana, the hoosiers d-line was kicking OSU o-line ass (+blitzing), you could tell it made Fields uncomfortable. Couple picks early, getting hit a lot, no room to step up into the pocket, knocking down passes. Similar struggles against NW'ern, getting beat up front, so not comfortable, short arming throws, inaccurate, some questionable decisions (couple picks, one in EZ). Pressure bursts pipes. Hopefully Bears OL can keep him clean for the most part .
+1
I totally agree. Those two things stand out clearly. He reminds me quite a bit of Mahomes in a number of ways. Big arm. Accurate. Elusive. Smart.
But just as Mahomes' game came unraveled in the Super Bowl when the Tampa defense overwhelmed the KC blocking - and put bigtime pressure on him... well, that's EXACTLY what I saw in those Justin Fields videos. Fields made some dumb mistakes when he was under heavy-duty AND SUSTAINED pressure in those two games (Indiana and Northwestern).
If the Bears can give Fields decent pass protection he will be very much like Patrick Mahomes. Deadly. Lots of points scored.
If the Bears can not protect Fields, then he will not perform well... much like Mahomes game fell apart when the pass pro fell apart in the Super Bowl. Now, obviously, no QB at the NFL level gets perfect pass protection. There will be hits, sacks and pressure. But there is a difference between getting some time to pass on most plays versus getting almost no time to operate at the passing game. Mahomes in that Super Bowl game was pressured all game long. It wasn't an occasional sack or hit or hurry. It was relentless pressure as his OL totally blew chunks all game long.
I do think the Bears OL should be improved this year and adequate (if now downright good). But we will see.