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The Bears played horizontal football on Monday night as a way to combat the Vikings’ pressure. That meant historic statistics from Justin Fields for throws behind the line of scrimmage and air yards.
Sometimes it worked, when DJ Moore was able to accelerate after the catch down the sideline. Other times, it resulted in a loss or a short gain, infuriating Bears fans who wanted different calls from offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.
One thing seemingly missing from the game plan was attacking the short middle of the field with quick slants. Matt Eberflus explained how Minnesota challenges that throw.
“They pack the paint, so to speak,” he said Tuesday. “Some of their coverages are three deep and they’ve got two guys in the middle. So really, the open spots on a lot of those are the perimeter. And you certainly can hit some high side pockets on those, which we did with DJ a couple times. Certainly, they give those things away. You’ve just got to do a real good job of spitting the ball out there and blocking well on the perimeter, which we did at times.”
They took what the defense gave them, but Eberflus did see more opportunities for bigger plays down the field.
“When you’re playing a team that pressures that way and they’re vulnerable in the coverage, I believe that we should have more and we’re always looking to get that,” he said. “Certainly we had some opportunities to hit some more of those and we want to take advantage of those.”
Whether or not that means he wanted Getsy to dial up more downfield throws, or there were ones that Fields missed, is left to us to speculate.
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