Bears Turn to Inexperienced Backup

Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson recently stayed after practices to work with receivers and quarterbacks Tyson Bagent and Nathan Peterman.

Johnson didn't need that extra work to realize Bagent's capabilities, but it didn't hurt his ability to notice by being closer to the situation.

"I feel like he just carries himself, I feel like, different than a normal rookie quarterback, undrafted," Johnson said.

Bagent continues to surprise the Bears with how advanced he is for an undrafted, Division II rookie and now it would appear he'll get to impress them as an undrafted rookie starter because of Justin Fields' thumb injury.

"He's a backup quarterback, a young guy," coach Matt Eberflus said. "I think he came in there and had poise. He was dealing with a team that pressured a ton during that game and I thought he really settled in and had poise.

"He showed that during that touchdown drive. There were a lot of good things that come out from Tyson in that game."

Bagent authored a 77-yard TD mapoortch to get the Bears within 19-13 and went over on a QB sneak to end the march.

There's no telling at this point how long Fields will be out, although he has been labeled "doubtful" by Eberflus for this week. So it sounds like it will be at least one game if not more.

"We're always prepared for that, for sure," Eberflus said of Bagent starting. "It's one play away. You're one play away from being in there, and Tyson's earned that spot with his opportunity that he's created himself. And we're certainly gonna do that going forward for sure."

Bagent did find DJ Moore Sunday four more times did QB Justin Fields in the game. He couldn't stand up to the Vikings rush as well as Fields, who could scramble away from it. His arm and ability to quickly read and get the ball out are assets.

"Just what he showed during training camp, what he has shown to this point—his work habits, his functional intelligence on the football field, his acumen in the classroom being able to operate is very high," Eberflus said. "He's able to chunk a bunch of information together and simplify in his mind to understand concepts.

"I think his release is really quick. I like that. I like how he sees the field. He's very patient, very poised in there and it's a good opportunity for Tyson."

Bagent made a couple big mistakes when thrust into the middle of the game, including the game-sealing interception in the end zone when he was hit just after releasing the ball and couldn't follow through properly. The other big error was his fumble on a strip-sack leading to linebacker Jordan Hicks' TD return. After the game, Bagent took blame but also said there was a miscommunication involved.

"So on that one there we have to do a better job of talking," Eberflus said. "To the same thing, really, the protection needed to be solid inside and it wasn't. He did a good job of evading the first guy. I thought he did a really nice job there. Then they had a secondary player coming off the edge and once he felt that guy right there, he should've just kept two hands on the ball and then taken the sack. He tried to get it out to Mooney, and when he did that, that's when the fumble occurred."

Eberflus did actually get to the root of some of the pass protection issues the Bears had with five sacks allowed, four of Fields. The non-sack on the interception was bigger than many of the sacks.

"We knew that they were going to give us a bunch of different looks and we needed to make the right calls at the line of scrimmage," Eberflus said. "We got to do a better job in the protection on those two particular plays (fumble, interception)."

That could point to some blame going on Cody Whitehair or later Lucas Patrick.

Whitehair was removed and Patrick put in as center in his place with the explanation that he had worked more often before with Bagent. He did, in training camp and preseason, anyway.

But if Whitehair was struggling with line calls for blocking assignment changes against the blitzing front, a center change would have made sense. With four of the sacks coming in the first 2 1/2 quarters and against Fields, the switch would have made all the more sense.

However, Eberflus is refusing to say that any of those were specific reasons for the change other than familiarity between Bagent and Patrick.

Nor did Eberflus feel like throwing any blame Fields' way for a poor outing. Fields

Fields went 6 of 10 for 58 yards and a passer rating of 36.7. Bagent completed 10 of 14 for 83 yards and a rating of 56.5.

"Yeah, when you're looking at a performance of anybody it always comes down to 11 guys," Eberflus said. "So it's not just Justin. I thought that our offense needed to perform better as a whole up to that point, and we need to do a better job in protection, a better job in our execution phase of it.

"So it really doesn't come down to just one guy. So I really just feel that when you're talking about the whole group, we all need to execute better."

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven