Ten years ago last week — in Week 15 of the 2013 season — the Bears quarterback took a snap at the Browns’ 45 and launched a fourth-quarter pass into the west end zone in Cleveland.
Alshon Jeffrey caught Jay Cutler’s go-ball with 11 minutes to play to tie a game the Bears wound up winning by seven. Eighteen days later, Bears general manager Phil Emery signed Cutler to a seven-year, $126 million contract. The reason, Emery said, was the Browns game.
“Being able to, from a physical aspect, throw a ball 45 yards in the air, being hit in two different directions, being on his back foot …. the ball was in a place where he could come up with a catch,” Emery said in announcing the deal. “So from a physical standpoint, a toughness standpoint, emotional calmness, [Cutler’s] ability to win a tight game and to bounce back from adversity — to me, that game summed it up.”
Sunday — in Week 15 of the 2023 season — the Bears’ quarterback took a snap at the Browns’ 45 and launched a fourth-quarter pass into the west end zone in Cleveland. It fell to the ground, the clock expired and the Bears lost 20-17.
GM Ryan Poles won’t be using the Browns game as a reason to give Justin Fields a contract extension. It seems unlikely he gives Fields an extension at all. The Bears offense — with plays called by offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, quarterbacked by Fields and overseen by coach Matt Eberflus — isn’t working.
With three games left to go in the season, Fields has yet to prove that he’s the Bears’ unquestioned franchise quarterback — regardless of receivers Darnell Mooney and DJ Moore offering public endorsements following Sunday’s loss.
The 45-yard Hail Mary falling incomplete crushed the Bears — namely Mooney, who had the ball fall into his lap as he crashed to the ground in the end zone. A miracle, though, would have provided fodder for a false narrative about Fields’ future with the Bears.
The Bears are in line for the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft — ESPN simulations give the Panthers, who owe them the pick, an 85% of landing it. The Bears seem more likely to build around USC quarterback Caleb Williams than Fields, who captained an offense that went three-and-out on more than half their drives Sunday. The Bears had one touchdown drive against the Browns, and it took them eight snaps to go one yard. Getsy’s too-cute-by-half short-yardage calls were partly to blame, on that drive and in the fourth quarter.
Eberflus said the Bears needed to stay aggressive in the air, pointing to tight end Robert Tonyan’s dropped pass that would have been a 73-yard touchdown.
“It’s important we keep taking the shots down the field because when you do that, you back people off and it opens up the intermediate part of it,” he said. “You get people to play more shell [coverage] that way and we feel that can get people to open up the run game for us too.”
Without the run game, the Bears were put in third-and-6 or longer 10 times — and converted only once, on a Fields scramble.
“It’s hard to win in this league on third-and-longs,” tight end Cole Kmet said.
Fields’ numbers will undoubtedly get better the rest of the season — the Bears host the Cardinals, who allow the second-most points in the NFL, on Sunday. They allow a 103.8 passer rating, the second-highest in the league.
Beware the false positive.
A decade ago, the Bears wanted Cutler to give them a reason to believe — and convinced themselves that the Browns game was it. He went 12-23 the next three seasons before the Bears released him.
When the Hail Mary hung in the air Sunday afternoon, the Bears had a chance to win — and to squint and see what they wanted to see in Fields. Neither happened. For the latter, they might ultimately be grateful.
