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    How Ryan Poles' Free Agent Signings Fared

    Bears and Dolphins In-Game Blog

    In-game analysis and reporting from Soldier Field by BearDigest's Gene Chamberlain as the Bears host the Dolphins.

    Fourth Quarter 

    • Fields' 178 yards is the most ever by a quarterback in the NFL in the regular season. The most before that was 173 by Michael Vick in 2002.
    • Fields 15 runs 178 yards is 16th most rushing yards in a game for Bears history.
    • Fields a running throw to St. Brown near the sticks that goes off his hands. Dolphins win it 35-32.
    • On third-and-10 at their own 42, jump ball to Claypool and it's incomplete. Fans want interference. It looked no less interference than the play with Eddie Jackson.
    • Herbert picks up 2 up the middle on first down and the clock is running. Fields on RPO that gets stacked up and he scrambles to the right but takes a 2-yard sack.
    • If Fields gets 6 more rushing yards he's top 10 in single-game rushing for Bears history.
    • Fields at 178 yards rushing with 15 carries. He's 17 of 26 for 123 yards passing and three TDs.
    • Fields scrambles and gains 12 up the middle, gets decked from behind. Bears at their own 43. TWO-MINUTE WARNING!!!!
    • Mooney trips over his own blocker on short pass and gets 2.
    • Miami's first punt of the day and Bears get it at their 28 with 2:38 left, needing a field goal and with one timeout.
    • Johnson gets beat on play-action deep ball to Waddle but races back and puts his hands up and gets lucky as the ball hits his hand. Incomplete.
    • Wide run by Mostert and this makes no sense because they haven't been able to run wide all day. They get nothing and Bears use second timeout. When you can pass like Miami, they should just be passing out of bootlegs and killing the clock that way.
    • In case anyone cares, the Bears are going into the wind so if they get a chance at a tying field goal it will need to be much closer than normal.
    • Morrow and Gordon stand up Mostert at the line for a half-yard loss and Bears use first timeout.
    • Poor low 37-yard punt into the wind by Gill and Dolphins get it at the 25. 
    • Harry and Fields can't hook up at sideline and Bears will punt with 3:11 left. 
    • Short timing pass to Mooney only nets 2 yards and Bears are in desperation mode. 
    • Melvin Ingram fights through Braxton Jones and sacks Fields for a 5-yard loss.
    • Fields with a miraculous scramble out of two tackles and gains to the 42. A 15-yard gain. He has 166 yards rushing.
    • An incompletion and 3-yard Montgomery run up the middle leaves the Bears in third-and-7.
    • They spy Fields and appear to have him boxed in but he still scrambles for the 3 yards and a first down. Got hit on that one, though.
    • Herbert gains a few and then gets a posse pushing him for a few more and gains 5. 
    • Fields on a 3-yard scramble and slides.
    • The play-action fake and Bears do not bite. Tua had to move to his right and Durham Smythe was wide open but Tua missed the mark and Bears have the ball with a chance to take the lead with 7:50 remaining.
    • Gordon knifes in and causes Mostert to change his path, and he slips and gains only 1. Fourth down and Miami is going for it. Tua has to take a timeout as clock is running down.
    • Jackson with a TD- and first down-saving tackle on Mostert in the open field. Third-and-2 for Miami at the 15. Not sure there's much Miami can do here that the Bears would be able to stop if they chose to pass.
    • On second down a 9-yard pass off boot fake. Dolphins then go to the run for some reason and Mostert is stacked up for 2.
    • Deep ball and pass interference called on Eddie Jackson for interferring with Waddle and it's not popular. Not sure that was interference at all. Jackson did move back into Waddle but contact appeared to be after the ball had arrived. At Bears 35.
    • Intentional grounding waved off as Justin Jones was closing in on Tua, but the ref missed the holding call as Jones' shirt was grabbed from behind and ripped. 
    • Bears force Mostert to return one and he only gets back to the 18. First time they've had the Dolphins backed up a bit.
    • With 147 yards rushing, Fields broke Bobby Douglass' 127-yard QB rushing record for the Bears set in 1972.
    • Again Fields scrambles to the 4. Then he hits Kmet wide open in the right corner for the TD with 11:38 remaining. Ten plays 65 yards. Dolphins 35, Bears 32.
    • One of Fields' nifty side-armed throws around the rush nets 10 to Kmet, who breaks a tackle and gets to the 20.
    • A bootleg run by Fields is walled off perfectly by Bears line and tight ends. He gains 14 yards. 
    • Mooney shakes off a tackle on a short pass and it's third-and-1 at Miami 45.
    • Fields overthrows Kmet deep middle with rush in his face but Kmet wasn't really clear of the secondary anyway.
    • Fields with another sneak for the first down.
    • Fields 8 runs, 114 yards, 12 of 18 for 96 yards and 2 TDs, 116.9 rating.
    • Tagovailoa is 20 of 26 for 293 yards with three TDs, a 151.6 passer rating. Darn near perfect passer rating.

    Third Quarter

    • Quarter ends as Bears line up at their 44 to try for the first down..
    • Another wide Montgomery run that doesn't work. Fourth-and-inches.
    • Miami blitzed a run up the middle by Montgomery but he picked the right hole and still got 3. Third-and-3.
    • Claypool ran the end around Velus Jones Jr. used to get. Only got 4 yards on it.
    • Flags flying everywhere as Fields is picked off. One in the secondary and the other in Bears backfield. Offsetting penalties, holding on both teams. 
    • The Bears stopped a drive! The Bears stopped a drive. Incomplete short throw toward the sidelines and Chicago has it at the 35.
    • Fourth-and-6. The Dolphins likely will just go for it from the Bears 35.
    • The Bears stop a third down when the shotgun snap is dropped by Tua. 
    • Wilson fakes out Kyler Gordon badly on a short throw and picks up 6 on second down.
    • Boot pass to Hill again freezes the Bears defense and he gets 16. 
    • Chances the Bears can force a Miami punt?
    • Bad Gill punt bounces but an even worse return effort by Cedric Wilson to the 45. He got 8 and should have had 10 more on it.
    • Fields under siege from pass rush just throws it away and Bears punt, or try to.
    • Low throw on slant to Claypool and he should have had it anyway but dropped it.
    • Fields first-down scramble negated by  Sam Mustipher holding penalty.
    • Luke Getsy tries to restore some sanity  with a dive by Montgomery for 2 yards. 
    • The next thing the Bears need to do now that defenses know Fields can scramble all the way for a TD is to start sending receivers as deep as possible when he scrambles. Then he can pull up and hurl a long TD pass. The DBs will freeze when they see he's starting to run and receivers will get open behind them.
    • Jeff Wilson Jr. beats Nick Morrow to the pylon for the TD on a short pass from Tua with 6:02 left in the quarter. Dolphins 35, Bears 25
    • Gipson gets interior heat on second down and Tua eludes him but throws it away with no one open. Dolphins have third-and-7 and the 15.
    • Jack Sanborn matched up one on one with Tyreek Hill. The result is a first down at the Bears 13. Pretty predictable.   
    • Vildor ankle injury and he is doubtful now to return after being announced as questionable earlier. What's the point of even announcing this? Who cares. Just say he's not coming back or he is.
    • Hill wide open against the zone and no rush on Tua for 20 yards and a first down in the middle of the field to the Bears 34.
    • Wilson stacked up on a toss for no gain. That is one thing the defense  has shown it can stop. They stacked up two toss plays earlier. 
    • Play-action fake froze everyone and Waddle catches a 12-yard pass at the sideline. 
    • Nice Tua throw bobbled away on first down but he dumps one out to Sherfield for 8 on seocnd down.
    • I wonder if all the Fields skeptics who were questioning whether the Bears are really committed to him are still thinking this. He looks like Deshaun Watson did as a first- and second-year QB right now.
    • Khari Blasingame got hurt running down on the kick coverage when there was no return. They help him get up and leave the field. That hurts on their running attack if he's out of the game.
    • Longest run by Fields in his career and he now has more rushing yards than in any game in his career with 114 on eight carries. His previous best was 103 against San Fran last Halloween at Soldier Field
    • Fields to Trevon Wesco for the two-pointer. TD by Fields ended a three-play 66-yard drive in 1:27. Dolphins 28, Bears 25
    • There's what happens when you have a 4.4-second quarterback in the 40. A 61-yard QB scramble for a TD. No one left to stop Fields. Bears going for 2.
    • Fields finds Mooney for 2 in the flat and Herbert goes for 3 off left tackle to set up third-and-5.
    • Herbert with nice open-field running on the kick return sets the Bears up at their 34
    • This defense looks like Mel Tucker's Bears defenses in 2013 and 2014.
    • Boot pass for an 18-yard TD to Waddle. It looked like Bears forgot Tua is left-handed. That's the side you don't want him throwing on the run from and no one was home. Four-play, 75-yard drive. Only 2:13. Dolphins 28, Bears 17
    • Wilson gains 7 off left tackle cutting back and breaks a poor tackle attempt.
    • Wilson cuts back a run 28 yards as Brisker abandoned his lane and was the only one on that side. 
    • Hill catches a 22-yarder at the sidelines as Dolphins beat the blitz.
    • Dolphins at their 25 to start second half.

    Halftime

    • Dolphins will get it to start the second half. 
    • Miami with 27 yards rushing in the first half. I don't think they really care.
    • Mascots game at halftime. It's flag football. They must have got in trouble for too much physical mascot play because they used to have kids playing against them and it wasn't flag football.
    • Tua  11 of 13 for 162 and a TD. 
    • Fields is 11 of 15 for 94 yards and two TDs, a 128.9 passer rating. He leads them in rushing with 53 yards on seven carries.
    • The difference in the game is a blocked punt return right now. Who would have thought this? Trenton Gill does have a rather deliberate deliver on punts but the problem was the whole interior blocking scheme caved in on the play.

    Second Quarter

    • Sanders kicks a 29-yard field goal  but misses it wide left with seven seconds remaining.
    • Rush nearly gets to Tua and he throws short of the sticks to the 11. Miami uses its final timeout on fourth-and-3 at the 11 with 12 seconds remaining.
    • Drop in the flat of perfect pass to Mostert but it would not have gained much and he might have even been tackled in bounds, forcing their last timeout to be used.
    • Still 25 seconds left.
    • 10-second runoff after a sweep left fails to gain and Miami takes a timeout to save on the runoff. Second down from the 23.
    • Hill beats Johnson for a first down catch to the Bears 18 for 39 yards on third down. 
    • Tua scrambles for 4. Doesn't exactly have the jets like Fields.
    • Its basically their dime package.
    • Bears defense has Johnson back at right cornerback and now Jones at left cornerback for this drive with DHC playing a linebacker. And they started by running and gashed the Bears for 14.
    • A 12-play, 75-yard drive covered 6:32 and left Miami too much time to score. Considering Tua hasn't thrown an incompletion in nine attempts, that 1:53 left is an eternity to defend the pass for the Bears defense.
    • Mooney beats single coverage at back left corner of the end zone for a 16-yard TD pass with 1:53 left in the half. His first TD catch this year. Replay looks at it and confirms TD. Dolphins 21, Bears 17
    • After Montgomery is stopped for no gain, an end-around toss to Mooney nets only 2 and is pretty scary because he caught the toss in a crowd in the backfield. TWO-MINUTE WARNING!!!
    • This was exactly the kind of drive the Bears defense needed to regroup. Long drive, lots of time-consuming runs.
    • Montgomery breaks a tackle in the open field to get 8 with a short toss to the flat. Then he goes into trample mode and starts running over tacklers for a first down on an 8-yard run to the 18.
    • Fields sneaks it for the first down, 2 yards to Miami's 34.
    • No huddle by Bears doesn't help much, just 3 for Montgomery off right guard and Fields comes back to N'Keal Harry just short of the sticks. Third-and-inches now.
    • RPO run by Fields behind Braxton Jones block for a first down on a 7-yard run.
    • Montgomery short toss off left tackle and Teven Jenkins finishes the play with a late pancake block as Montgomery is already coming to the turf. Too bad he couldn't have kept his feet going.
    • Fields on the QB counter to the left and it comes wide open for 17 down the sidelines.
    • Boot pass to Kmet to the left side and went for only 2. Well diagnosed.
    • Bears at the 25. Fields is going to need to go into running mode to get them back in this right away.
    • In a game when Miami is going to score on the Bears defense at will, the last thing the Bears needed was a special teams TD allowed. Miami had some of the worst special teams in the league, too. They can't return punts so they might as well return blocked punts!
    • Andrew Van Ginkel with a 25-yard blocked punt return for a TD. Jaelan Phillips blocked the punt coming up the middle. Dolphins 21, Bears 10
    • Play wasn't working from the start. Fields had plenty of time but St. Brown was covered man to man and the ball was well over both of them.
    • Two Herbert runs up the middle push it to the 40 and Bears face third-and-5.
    • Fields on QB sweep left cuts it in for 10. He slid and when he did came right back up like on a baseball slide. He was a baseball player.
    • Bears start at their 25.
    • Hill wide open 2 yards into the end zone as Jaylon Johnson gets beat totally on the play. He went inside while Hill went toward the sideline. Seven plays, 75 yards, 4:13. Dolphins 14, Bears 10.
    • First-and-goal at the 3.
    • Beautiful open-field tackle wiped out for roughing-the-passer penalty against Dominique Robinson. Dolphins have it at the Bears 3. They get the yardage after Wilson's 4-yard reception counts, as well.
    • When Jeff Wilson gets 4 off right guard it seems like they've totally stopped the Dolphins considering all the other big gains they've given up.
    • Tua on a running throw to RB Cedric Wilson, and it goes for an easy 14 yards to Bears 14.
    • Slant to Jaylen Waddle and no one near him on 26-yard gain to the Bears 28.
    • Good pressure finally on Tua by Trevis Tipson and he has to throw it to the side for a 1-yard gain.
    • Too easy to Tyreek Hill against zone for 25 between Johnson and Jaquan Brisker.
    • Ineligible downfield on Terron Armstead.
    • Jaylon Johnson moved to the left side and Justin Jones is playing the right side where Johnson normally plays.
    • Miami at the 25 after touchback.
    • Fields with the bootleg pass for the 18-yard TD to Cole Kmet at the right side of the end zone. Fields finally got rid of that pass in time. Usually he holds that way too long and the defense adjusts. 15 plays 75 yards 7:41 drive. Bears 10, Dolphins 7
    • Jaylon Jones would likely be Vildor's replacement. Jones had a stint earlier this year starting when Jaylon Johnson was hurt.

    First Quarter

    • Sprint-out pass to the right to Mooney for the first down as the quarter ends.
    • Vildor injury is an ankle and he is questionable to return.
    • They tried a counter run left and again Montgomery didn't see the opening. Those are plays for Herbert.
    • Tried an option toss to Montgomery and it didn't work even though the open space was there. That's a play to try with Herbert because of his speed.
    • Montgomery hesitates, then sees a hole and takes it forward to the 28 for a first down.
    • Short, quick toss and Herbert cuts it inside for 4 more so they face third-and-2.
    • Khalil Herbert in and the toss play left gets 4. They had better blocking form on that play than on some other runs.
    • No one open, Fields wheels and deals for the 12-yard scramble and a first down.
    • Mooney on the opposite side of the field for 2 on a similar play. Couldn't break the tackle. Then they try the WR screen inside more to Claypool again and Fields air-mails it incomplete.
    • Claypool catches a toss at the line of scrimmage and breaks a tackle for a 12-yard gain and first down.
    • Near pick as Fields tries throwing another WR screen. They overuse that play. Falls incomplete.
    • Bears finding inside of Dolphins defense far tougher to run on than against Dallas.
    • Kmet gets another carry. Takes it forward for a yard out of the wildcat for a first down.
    • Cole Kmet on a rare tight end-around play picks up 8 and Bears face third-and-1.
    • Montgomery nets just 1 off right guard. Kindle Vildor appears to have been injured on the play in the end zone.
    • Bears starting at the 25. 
    • Hall-of-Famer Jimbo Covert here today and on the field in a Walter Payton jersey addresses the fans.
    • First-and-goal for Miami at the 1 and Mostert goes straight up the middle for the TD with 7:33 left in the quarter. Dolphins 7, Bears 3
    • Kindle Vildor called for interference in end zone on deep ball to Tyreek Hill.
    • Trent Sherfield over the middle from Tua for 18 and a first down.  Everyone focused on the two key targets.
    • Big hit by Joe Thomas on Mostert on second-and-7 and Miami gets 2. Dolphins face third-and-5.
    • Out of shotgun, Tua Tagovailoa finds Jaylen Waddle over the middle for 17.
    • Miami starts pretty basic, with a fullback on the field and gets 2 from Raheem Mostert on a toss.
    • Miami at 25 after kick flies out of end zone.
    • On third down Fields scrambles but comes up short by 3 yards and Cairo Santos kicks a 32-yard field goal. Ends a 61-yard drive. Bears 3, Dolphins 0
    • Nice blitz pickup from Bears line but Mooney is covered well on the play by Xavien Howard for incompletion.
    • Dolphins stack up the first-down run at the 20.
    • Montgomery fakes and cuts back for 7 and Bears face third-and-2 and throw deep to Claypool. He has a step and is interfered with. Bear first down at the Dolphins 20.
    • Claypool's first catch is 1 yard on a WR screen. They put him in motion and he was hammered as he caught it.
    • Chase Claypool doesn't start but Fields hits two straight passes to start the game to Darnell Mooney and Equanimeous St. Brown to the Bears 44.
    • Miami wins the toss and defers.

    Pregame/inactives

    • 62 degrees, SW wind 15 mph.
    • Jack Sanborn lined up with starters in pregame at middle linebacker with Nick Morrow at the Will. During the week, defensive coordinator Alan Williams was leaning that way but Matt Eberflus had left it open to the possibility Joe Thomas would play middle.
    • Bringing in Chase Claypool seemed like a reason not to have an unproductive wide receiver active, but I didn't think it would be Velus Jones Jr. Thought it might be N'Keal Harry. What's this say for Ryan Poles' drafting? Every GM has some positions they're good at drafting and not so good. Could receiver be Poles' problem spot? 
    • Pretty funny that the Bears have made Jones inactive for the game after special teams coordinator Richard Hightower was defending him for the decisions he made letting kicks bounce and go through the end zone against Dallas. Some of those kicks seemed low enough to return but Hightower insisted they shouldn't be. So now Jones can't return kicks or punts, and he's not going to be able to run those end around plays that seemed like his forte.
    • Even though Larry Borom got over the concussion to practice Friday, it will be Riley Reiff at right tackle again according to Bears sideline reporter Mark Grote of WSCR. It doesn't make sense to throw someone out there who has been out of practice for a couple of weeks except for one Friday practice. Then again, Reiff played pretty good, according to coach Matt Eberflus.
    • The reports of 30-50 mph winds were greatly exaggerated. As usual in Chicago, the weather forecasts are off. The bad wind of 50-70 came on Saturday and it's still windy at the lakefront but nothing like it was. It's 15-20 possibly for gametime if that. And pretty steady, not gusting a lot.
    • INACTVIVES
    • Bears
    • WR Velus Jones Jr.
    • G Ja'Tyre Carter
    • TE Jake Tonges
    • DB Lamar Jackson
    • OL Alex Leatherwood
    • Dolphins
    • RB Myles Gaskin
    • WR Erik Ezukanma
    • QB Skylar Thompson
    • OL Austin Jackson
    • WR River Cracraft

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