Bears Finish Preseason with a Loss

Justin Fields left in favor of a reliever Saturday just when he was hitting a groove.

Bears coach Matt Eberflus wouldn't let Fields go over his predetermined number of downs and pulled him. It was still preseason, after all, but now that's all over. Thankfully.

The Buffalo Bills beat the Bears 24-21 to end preseason as Tyson Bagent and P.J. Walker finished the game at quarterback. Now it's on to the regular season.

"I feel like I'm ready," Fields said. "I think us as a whole team we're ready."

Fields played just three series and connected with DJ Moore on a 40-yard completion during his final series but got yanked with the ball on the Buffalo 9-yard line with the Bears down 7-0.

"Coach had a play count for me," Fields said. "That was just the end of my play count. I definitely wanted to stay in and finish the drive. But I can't, because of the head man out there. Got to listen to him."

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Fields completed 2 of 6 for 51 yards and ran for 16 yards on three attempts. The first two possessions netted 2 yards but on the third the Bears moved from their 16 to the Buffalo 9 before Fields came out after completing a third-and-10 screen pass for 11 to D'Onta Foreman.

Then the drama began as Bagent came in as the backup instead of Walker, who has been the backup. The Bears gave Bagent plenty of opportunities. He scrambled in for an 8-yard TD in the second quarter to get the Bears within 14-10, although he couldn't get them in the end zone when he entered the game and Cairo Santos kicked a 34-yard field goal to get the Bears within 7-3.

Bagent also led a drive to a 51-yard Cairo Santos field goal in the third quarter.

For his day, Bagent went 7 of 14 for 43 yards. He ran four times for 23 yards.

"You look at the reps with all of the quarterbacks, they all had some work with the 2s and Tyson hadn't had that yet," Eberflus said, explaining why Bagent was second QB into the game. "So we wanted to put him in there with that second group, and he operated well."

Actually, he didn't operate as well as Walker did in the fourth quarter with the third string. Walker went 6 of 11 for 71 yards, including a 5-yard TD pass to Robert Burns. The Bears ran out of time, however.

Still, Bagent came out feeling up-beat.

"I feel as if I proved I belong in the league," he said.

The Bears struggled defensively throughout the game to stop the run, much like last year's defense did. They allowed 173 yards rushing, including a 2-yard Damien Harris TD run on Buffalo's first drive.

The defense had middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds back playing on the first series only, and were still without safeties Jaquan Brisker and Eddie Jackson. They also continued to play without defensive end DeMarcus Walker.

Another negative for the defense was Trevis Gipson's strip-sack, one recovered by Noah Sewell.

It's a negative not because of the strip-sack but because of a report Gipson got permission from the Bears to seek a trade. Apparently he's not happy with being a possible cut victim or a player who is inactive on Sundays behind Rasheem Green, Yannick Ngakoue, Dominique Robinson, DeMarcus Walker and possibly Terrell Lewis.

"I’m not going to really comment on that because I don't know much about that," Eberflus said. "I know that just came out. But I can just say this: Trevis is an outstanding young man, and he works his tail off, and he's been great since hes been there. He had some good plays out there today, too."

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