The Guessing Game at Halas Hall

It's funny how Bears press conferences create more questions than answers.

It should have been obvious this would happen from the outset of Monday's Vikings postmortem, but then again it's usually the case. You almost need a translater to interpret what's going on.

"So, as I said yesterday, Justin Fields dislocated his thumb," coach Matt Eberflus said.

If Eberflus said that to someone, it must have been to someone with the team or in a private conversation with Jay Glazer of Fox Sports because that was not what he said after the game, but then Glazer reported this without naming a source. All Eberflus said after the game was Fields had a right hand injury.

So when Eberflus said Monday they didn't know the extent of the injury, it's easy to be skeptical.

"We just want to give it time," Eberflus said. "There's natural swelling that occurs in that. We want to just give it time. Give it time to see where it will go, give us the best the opportunity to see where it is and then we’ll make that decision."

It sounds like a play for competitive advantage, not letting the Raiders know who's starting.

As in turns out, there isn't even a competitive advantage for the Bears in maintaining uncertainty at starting quarterback for the week because the Raiders this week have not two different QBs who could play but three of them.

There are truths and criticisms located within some of Eberflus' answers. Sometimes the answers are just found within answers to other questions.

Justin Fields' Play Level

Eberflus didn't want to criticze Fields' play directly, choosing to go the all-11 guys route. It's the fault of all the offense, not just the quarterback.

However, he did have criticism of his QB's ability to get rid of the ball quickly and read situations.

Eberflus was describing the first play of the game, an unmitigated disaster resulting in a sack, and the blame was pretty obvious there.

“They were six-man up, they were all across, we were in empty formation and we did the right thing in terms of sending the line one way," he said. "So we sent it to the right, let the outside guy go free and the ball's supposed to be delivered right there; it's an outside-in read, so it’s K.B. (Khari Blasingame) to DJ (Moore). So we've just gotta float away from the pressure, deliver the pass."

Also, talking about Fields' injury, Eberflus went there again after he didn't want to say which play his quarterback had been hurt. It seeme like the sack before he left but he had also been hit hard scrambling near the sidelines a few plays earlier, in both cases by Danielle Hunter.

"I just know him being able to get rid of the ball a little bit faster, we would certainly like that so he wouldn’t take the hit," Eberflus said. "That's what I'll say about the end of the play, for sure. He just kinda fell on it funny and that’s what happened."

The Center Swap

On one hand he was asked about why they used center Lucas Patrick for 21 plays instead of Cody Whitehair, and whether the poor snaps from center caused it. Of course not, he said.

Apparently they like balls being snapped left of the QB, right of the QB, over his head and on the ground? Then again, Patrick doesn't block as well as Whitehair.

If you believe Pro Football Focus grades, and in this case it's fairly obvious neither are getting the job done, then Patrick is 36th out of 39th centers graded in the league and Whitehair is 73rd of 79 guards. Whitehair has never had a PFF season blocking grade below average in his life. His worst has been 64.9, but this year he's at 43.3. Whitehair had a 31.8 pass blocking grade against the Vikings

So it's Doug Kramer time?

Anyway, Eberflus did give a different reason to suspect Bears center play needs to improve greatly while addressing another issue.

"We know 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.

The center makes the line calls.

So Eberflus wouldn't cite the poor snaps as an issue but apparently the problem rested in ability to recognize what the Vikings were doing up front and make the switches that was the problem.

Instead of just telling everyone the obvious truths, Eberflus cited Tyson Bagent's inexperience at quarterback and the need to have Lucas Patrick at center instead of Whitehair to settle down the rookie.

"During the game, we said Lucas came in because we wanted to settle Tyson down and it was good to do that," he said. "I think it really did settle him down a little bit. Again, he's got more experience. That's where it was and that’s when we decided to do it."

More experience? Patrick has 1,258 career snaps at center and 1,170 at right guard by PFF calculation. It's not a complicated formula where mistakes can be made, just watching game film and keeping track of where players line up on snaps. Whitehair has 3,927 snaps at center and 3,043 at left guard.

Keep watching for Kramer's activation. That's the best guess on this situation since no one wants to level with anyone.

They also have Dan Feeney, guard who has the ability to play center and hasn't been tried there yet despite Nate Davis' absences for injuries and personal reasons.

The Unclear Line

Another unusual line situation exists at left tackle where there is no clarity.

Larry Borom tries hard there but isn't the pass blocker Braxton Jones was. Jones is eligible to come off of injured reserve this week. When they designated Kyler Gordon, Doug Kramer and Teven Jenkins for open windows so they could be considered for return from IR, it was on a Monday. They didn't do this with Jones on a Monday.

"Yeah, we don't have any update on Braxton," Eberflus said. "Right now, I know his window could start. Right now we just don't have an update. We're not there yet."

So apparently his injury was worst than originally thought or he's not coming back this week?

Safety Switch ... Or Not

The other vague situation is Eddie Jackson's removal from Sunday's game after he had 14 plays.

"Could have came back," Eberflus said. "Injured his foot a little during the game. Didn't feel a hundred percent but he could have came back if we needed him through injury."

Then why didn't he? It was, after all, a league game.

Apparently he wasn't 100% either beforehand or definitely afterward, and a better option was Elijah Hicks, who has a 133.3 passer rating against this year when targeted, according to Sportradar, or using Jaquan Brisker deep in single-high situations with his 116.9 passer rating against when targeted.

Something's not transparent with this situation, as well, just as in the other situations.

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