This should have been an easy one for Justin Fields and the Bears on Sunday, playing at home against one of the NFL’s worst teams, but it was a grueling trudge as usual.
Merry Christmas. The Bears got you an unsightly, uninspiring 27-16 win over the Cardinals — a team that can’t do hardly anything right and has won three games all season.
At least it’s better than socks. Maybe.
Fields missed a huge opportunity to pile up numbers against an awful defense despite looking like he was headed that way early as the Bears took a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
At least he knows.
“Definitely got to work on sustaining that firepower,” Fields said. “We came out, 21 points, boom. We’ve got to keep doing that. I felt like we could’ve put up at least 35, 40 points. We’ve got to stay on top of [it] and not get complacent, because you never know what’s gonna happen, as we have found out.”
Sure enough, the Cardinals made it a one-score game with 6:37 left and got the ball back with a chance to tie it two minutes later.
Fields ran for 97 yards and a touchdown on nine carries, showcasing his greatest attribute, but this season has been all about proving himself as a passer. He completed 15 of 27 passes for 170 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the end zone for a 71.5 passer rating.
The conditions were imperfect after tight end Cole Kmet left at halftime with a knee injury and top wide receiver DJ Moore hurt his ankle on the second play of the game. But life in the NFL is almost always going to be imperfect. Fields didn’t use that as an excuse, saying instead, “You just play the play. You can’t let who’s out there affect you.”
Fields led three consecutive touchdown drives, capped by his three-yard scramble for a score, an 11-yard run by running back Khalil Herbert and a one-yard pass to tight end Marcedes Lewis in the back of the end zone. But he got little else going the rest of the way.
Over the remaining seven possessions, the Bears went three-and-out three times, Fields threw an interception, and they managed two field goals — one of which came after the Cardinals turned the ball over on downs at their own 27-yard line in the final minutes. During that lull, Fields completed 7 of 16 passes for 51 yards.
“I see it as progress,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “When you’re the winning quarterback on the winning team, that’s always good, right? He’s been part of that. I certainly do see progress.”
Yes, Eberflus is correct that it’s better to win than lose, but the Bears aren’t doing any serious winning right now. The more important issue for them is whether they are headed toward actual contention so they can spend January in the playoffs instead of waiting to see who gets fired or traded.
Fields took a similar view as Eberflus, saying he’s “not really a numbers guy” and is more concerned with victories.
“I’m cool with whatever as long as we win a game,” Fields said. “If I have 100 passing yards and zero touchdowns, I’m cool with it. I know people love stats and say, ‘Oh, he only throws for, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.’ Like, I don’t care. We won the game.”
But he said last season that he didn’t intend to keep rushing for 1,000 yards. And he said last week that his goal is for the offense to score at least 28 points. He made those statements because he knows they’re part of the formula to win regularly. Sure, he could throw for 100 yards and get an occasional win, but not consistently.
Fields was right to be unsatisfied with the offense overall. He didn’t object to offensive coordinator Luke Getsy’s play-calling but pointed to penalties and other mistakes as the cause of the Bears’ struggles.
Offensive linemen Braxton Jones, Nate Davis and Lucas Patrick each got flagged for holding, and the call on Patrick negated a 32-yard run by Fields in the third quarter. The Cardinals declined the holding call on Davis, but he also committed a false start.
The Bears also didn’t complete a pass longer than 14 yards in the second half.
“We’ve got to attack defenses, take shots down the field,” Moore said. “We’ve got a bunch of fast guys, a bunch of guys that can make defenses back off, and then we get the underneath game. Taking shots and then letting Justin do what he do.”
The interception was rough, too, and to Fields’ credit, he always has looked at those soberly and without disclaimers. Not only was he critical of his throw, but also of his lack of awareness to take a shot like that when the Bears already were in the red zone and a field goal would have put them up 27-10 with 10 minutes left.
He was looking for Herbert streaking toward the left corner but didn’t anticipate Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson cutting off the route and underthrew the pass.
That shortfall, and others offensively, would have buried the Bears against a decent opponent. This easily could have been another late-game embarrassment. And as general manager Ryan Poles scrutinizes which parts of a 6-9 is worth keeping intact as the Bears aim for something bigger, Fields, Getsy and the offense at large were unconvincing.
