The Chicago Bears' loss to the Detroit Lions certainly brings more questions to the team than it does answers. The Bears looked as good as they ever did and then looked worse than ever in the same game. They turned a game that could have changed the season into another awful defeat. What are the biggest questions from this game?
Is Justin Fields getting better at reducing unnecessary sacks for the Chicago Bears?
When Justin Fields left the lineup, and we saw Tyson Bagent, there was a lot of talk about sacks. Justin Fields has taken more sacks than any quarterback since he has entered the NFL, so it was notable that Bagent came in and was not taking nearly as many sacks.
It is clear that Fields holds the ball too long and is big play hunting when he should be checking it down. Perhaps Fields saw something from Bagent because while he did take two sacks, his 8% sack rate was the lowest of his season.
Better than that was a 14.3% pressure-to-sack rate. He was at a 22% pressure-to-sack rate for his season, so it is pretty notable to see the drop. This was also the third lowest pressure-to-sack rate of his career.
What makes this even better is seeing that Fields still was pushing the ball down the field. He doubled the deep pass attempt rate of Bagent and had as many attempts down the field in one game as Bagent did in three weeks of starting. Reducing sacks while keeping his playmaking is what the team needed to see in the final stretch of games.
So, the question now is whether or not this is sticky. Did Fields really learn something from the sidelines, or was this a one-game thing, and now that the Bears lost, he will go back to playing hero ball?