This isn’t the time for the Bears and quarterback Justin Fields to take a victory lap for scoring 28 points and him having a career game passing-wise against the Broncos.
First of all, there has to be victory for there to be a victory lap, and the Bears lost 31-28 as the game crumbled in Fields’ hands at the end. And secondly, every quarterback has pelted the Broncos and their NFL-worst defense. They have yet to hold anyone to a double-digit passer rating.
We’re long past turning aberrations into celebrations with Bears quarterbacks. Everyone should’ve learned their lesson from Mitch Trubisky. Now in his third season, Fields has to show he can sustain this, and while the Commanders aren’t great, their defense is a level above the Broncos.
When Fields lines up against the Commanders on Thursday, he’ll be staring straight into not one, but two elite defensive tackles in Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen. That’s just the beginning.
“Guys are just gonna have to be great on double teams, sustain blocks for a long time and really protect,” Fields said of navigating that problem. “Everything kind of starts with the o-line. They know they’re going up against a talented group, but they’re excited because it’s an opportunity for them to go out there and ball out.”
Fields was balling out against the Broncos for three quarters before the Bears’ 28-7 lead slipped from his grasp. As the collapse unfolded, he lost a fumble on a sack that turned into a scoop-and-score touchdown, threw an interception on the final play and rolled out a fourth-quarter line of 5-for-11 passing, 50 yards and a 21.0 passer rating.
The Bears’ defense faded — absolutely. And that’s part of the problem for Fields. Just like last season, he knows he’ll likely need to pile at least 30 points to have a chance.
But he faded, too, and that wasn’t the first time. He has been a prolific turnover machine since the Bears drafted him in 2021 with 26 interceptions and an NFL-high 32 fumbles attributed to him (that figure includes botched snaps, so some might not have been his fault). He has thrown picks on 3.7% of his passes, and everyone else has been under 3% during that span.
Those issues have undercut anything good he did. Picking apart the bedraggled Broncos for 335 yards and a 132.7 passer rating doesn’t mean much if that’s how it ends.
When asked whether the positives from Fields’ performance against the Broncos — they’ve given up more yards, more points and a higher passer rating than any team in the league — can be expected to transfer against better opponents, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy objected to discounting it.
“Everybody in this league is really, really good,” he said.
By contrast, as the Bears mined for bright spots in a loss, Broncos coach Sean Payton barely celebrated the win.
“I don’t want to sugarcoat anything: We’re going to play a lot better teams on our schedule,” he said.
Fields and the Bears will, too. Thursday.
The Broncos are last in the NFL in pressuring opposing quarterbacks, whereas the Commanders are 19th (22.2% of dropbacks). They’re also 22nd in opponent passer rating (95.5), 21st in opponent completion percentage (64.1) and 12th in takeaways (five).
None of those numbers are gaudy, but they’re decisively ahead of the Broncos.
That makes this the ideal next test for Fields. He has to prove he can pass as proficiently against a middling defense as he did against an abysmal one. That’s a tiny step toward tangling with the best in the league, but it’s a good place to start.
