5 reasons Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields best passing game was Sunday

4. Justin Fields was also beating the Green Bay Packers’ blitz

The blitz is different from pressure. You can get pressure without blitzing, and blitzing does not always lead to pressure. Either way, whether the Packers got pressure, or they blitzed, Justin Fields was doing work.

The Packers blitzed on seven dropbacks, 25% of the time. Justin Fields was 5-6 on these passes. His 83% completion rate in this game is a bit higher than 61% which was his season average. What is even better than that is Fields had a 16% big-time throw rate against the blitz, with no turnover-worthy plays. For the season he is at 3.2% in big-time throws against the blitz, and his turnover rate is worse at 5.2%.

Justin Fields takes a sack 30% of the time when blitzed, and that was obviously down to zero. This is easier to do when his time to throw is down from 3.24 to 2.91 against the blitz. It is not often Fields gets the ball out under three seconds, so to see him doing it on plays where he has to call out the blitz pre-snap, then recognize and react post-snap speaks to how much he is progressing. Again, we also saw that he sped his clock up by 0.33. This is the type of progress you want to see. If you bring extra rushers against Fields, it just means he will find the soft spot and attack you.

Quarterbacks are the best when teams know that they cannot blitz because of the fear of what the consequence will be. When the blitz goes from an attack on Fields to something Fields is attacking, you know the light is coming on.