Bears Next Gen Nuggets from week 7

Our friends over at Zebra Technologies, the people behind the Next Gen Stats, sent us a couple of interesting nuggets from the Chicago Bears game against the New England Patriots. The first was about that nice double-clutch touchdown pass from Justin Fields to Khalil Herbert.

Justin Fields found Khalil Herbert on a screen vs Cover 0 just before halftime on MNF, Fields’ 1st TD against Cover 0 of his career. Herbert had a 59.8% chance of scoring when he caught the ball, the most probable TD on a pass thrown behind the LOS outside the 25-yard line since 2021. Fields earned a career-high 85 NGS passing score, completing 7 of 10 passes outside the tackle box for 120 yards. He also gained 63 yards on 12 designed runs (+27 RYOE).

The play featured some perfectly set-up blocks, and Herbet had the burst to slip through for the score.

During his career, Roquan Smith has 16.5 sacks, which is a lot for an off-ball linebacker, but that speaks to how quick he is and his feel and timing for working through the line. He’s having another fantastic season for the Bears, and flashing in prime time is a sure way to remind the league just how good he is.

Roquan Smith sacked Bailey Zappe in just 3.08 seconds after looping around two slanting defensive linemen in the 3rd quarter of MNF. Since 2018, Smith has a 6.4% sack rate (1st in NFL, min. 150 pass rushes).