‘You can’t draw it up much better’: Justin Fields propels Bears to victory with two basic but energizing touchdown passes

CHICAGO — Maybe this was exactly what Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields needed at this stage of the preseason. Just a couple of offensive possessions to break a sweat and reacclimate with NFL game speed. A trio of passes with a low degree of difficulty. Two end zone celebrations to feed an entire stadium’s adrenaline rush.

Maybe, for Fields and the Bears’ first-unit offense, Saturday’s 23-17 win over the Tennessee Titans at Soldier Field was absolutely perfect. It was in terms of the quarterback’s passer rating, a sparkling 158.3 thanks to three completions that covered 129 yards and produced two scores. And it should be as far as the lessons that can be reinforced as the Bears march toward the regular season.

— This isn’t a one-man show any longer.

— Feed the playmakers, then watch the results add up.

— Sometimes the ideal brand of quarterback brilliance is the simplest.

Was it any wonder Fields’ first pass of the preseason went to his new best friend, a catch-and-throw screen to the left to DJ Moore midway through the first quarter? It wasn’t even a great throw, as Moore having to reach down and to his right to snag it. Moore even seemed to stumble backward a bit as the ball arrived. But from there, the express lanes opened with receiver Darnell Mooney, left tackle Braxton Jones and guard Teven Jenkins all delivering blocks that set Moore free.

Off he went, 62 yards down the left sideline. Untouched and unobstructed. Touchdown.

“As soon as I made that little stutter move, I saw the opening,” Moore said. “Then it was on me to go finish it. … I just hit the gas.”

Jones said he had joked with Moore during pregame that he was going to score a long TD in his first game as a Bear. “He did,” Moore confirmed. “A lot of people were saying stuff to me. Like, ‘Get us off the field as fast as possible.’ I tried to do that.”

When Moore was in the open field, his teammates were left marveling at his deceptive speed.

“All I could think was ‘Damn, I’m slow,’ ” Jenkins said. “There was no way I was catching up to him.”

And after Moore crossed the goal line with a touchdown on his first touch?

“I told him, ‘That might be legendary right there,’ ” Fields said. “I know he was excited. He went to the bench and he was like, ‘I’m done for the rest of the game.’ ”

Fields, though, still had more work to do. Just a little more.

On the Bears’ second possession, he ran four plays, the last a screen pass to Khalil Herbert on third-and-8. It wasn’t even smooth execution, with Titans cornerback Elijah Molden blitzing through the A gap and disrupting the timing of the operation.

But Fields — by his own admission late with his throw because of the pressure that came through — did enough to evade the rush and feed Herbert 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Then off Herbert went too, 56 yards and into Soldier Field’s north end zone.

With the home crowd going nuts, Fields was certain the discombobulated timing had resulted in an ineligible man downfield penalty against both center Cody Whitehair and right guard Ja’Tyre Carter.

“After I threw it,” Fields said, “I was looking around for the flag.”

But there was no penalty. Just six more points and a PAT.

That was the end of Fields’ afternoon. His final stat line: 3 for 3, 129 yards, two touchdowns.

Fields’ postgame grin seemed to come with blushing cheeks.

“I don’t think I had to do too much work today,” he said.

But that’s OK. More than OK, actually. One of the bigger developmental leaps Fields can take in 2023 will be trusting the guys around him to help carry the load. Consistently stacking easy completions will become his shortcut to high-level productivity. So what if Fields didn’t attempt a pass beyond the line of scrimmage Saturday? Besides his two touchdown passes, his only other attempt was an 11-yard completion on a checkdown to fullback Khari Blasingame that was caught in the backfield.

Said Herbert: “Justin did a great job today putting the ball in our hands and letting us go make plays. Kudos also to the coaches and the players we have here. We have a bunch of playmakers. So that should make it easy for Justin to put the ball in our hands and let us go do what we do.”

Added Moore: “A quarterback always wants that in his back pocket. Throw it to your playmakers and let them go score or make a big play out of it. To get that, it probably calms the nerves. For every quarterback.”

To be clear, the Bears will keep Saturday’s early offensive outburst in perspective, even with a wave of social media excitement building and Bears fans embracing those two long touchdowns as additional permission to dream the biggest of dreams for the season ahead. Fields, though, knows this was just a two-possession August snapshot that can be both embraced and learned from. Plus, grabbing an experience where the offense was highly productive without the starting quarterback having to expend much energy has value.

“Any time you have those playmakers where you can throw the ball 5 yards or run a slant and he can take it 60 yards, that makes my job easier,” Fields said. “It makes the O-line’s job easier. And after a period of time where you keep dinking and dunking those short passes, the (opposing) defensive coordinator gets impatient and starts blitzing more, pressuring more, playing more man coverage. And that’s when those deep shots naturally happen.”

Perhaps that was a teaser for what might come next weekend in Indianapolis or two Saturdays from now against the Buffalo Bills at Soldier Field or, ideally, when the regular season begins next month.

Perhaps these are all necessary stair steps toward a significant breakthrough, learning lessons to build upon.

Whatever the case, Fields seemed to recognize the good fortune, at this stage of a demanding training camp, of the offense producing two explosive touchdown plays on their first two series of the preseason.

“You can’t really draw it up much better than that,” he said.