It's Substance Over Style for Justin Fields

Considering the Bears have won just five of Justin Fields' 25 starts to date, he's not going to be picky about how they get it done Sunday when they open his third season by hosting the rival Green Bay Packers.

Teams have seen his all-purpose act now for two seasons and especially last year with the running, and he realizes some defenses will come out aiming to prevent him from carrying the ball before it starts.

"Whatever the defense presents, whichever way they're gonna allow us to beat them, that's what we're gonna do," Fields said. "Whatever I have to do for this team to win, that's what I'm gonna do. I'll just go about it like that."

The Bears found last year, as the 1,143 yards rushing by Fields began to pile up, that defenses started deploying defensive ends in a softer mode. They didn't commit as fast and waited to read on RPO plays or to see if Fields was merely going to take off around end.

Now it only makes sense for Fields to beat teams from the pocket if defenses have adjusted to his running. He thought he did a pretty good job of doing that against the Packers last year in the 28-19 loss at Soldier Field, a game the Bears led 19-10 in the second half.

"I think the O-line did a good job protecting that game, we had a lot of explosive plays that game," Fields said. "I think we did pretty good on third down, too.

"Really, just all you need to be successful in a game: Explosive plays, great protection from the O-line and situational execution. Third down, gold zone, that's what we're going to have to do to win this game and if you do that every game, then you're pretty much going to have a good game."

Fields went 20-for-25 for 254 yards but two interceptions proved critical, and the Packers running game tore up the Bears defense.

If he does try it from the pocket, he'll need to be able to beat both types of coverage.

Coming out of the preseason, Fields said he expects to see a lot more zone defense than man-to-man coverage considering the Packers' past. What he'll see in coverage depends more on the defensive tendencies than on his passing.

"I think it was really team dependent what their main thing was," Fields said. "Some teams went more man and some teams went more zone. Regardless, just have to look at the defense and react to what they do."

Last year the Bears went into the season needing to discover their offensive identity. They found one, but didn't have DJ Moore on that team then.

Things could change now.

"We do have new players on the team, going to have to find this new team's identity but we already kind of do have an identity set in place from last year," Fields said. "Definitely going to roll with that, too."

Whatever works.

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