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Big Return for Justin Fields Passing and Running
Justin Fields ran like he always had, passed better than he ever had this season despite a shoulder injury and in the end it still wasn't enough.
The Bears lost a 19-10 lead in the fourth quarter Sunday and Fields was picked off by Jaire Alexander at the Packers 28-yard line to thwart a bid for the win in a 28-19 Green Bay victory.
Fields and the Bears extended their streak of failure when it comes to finishing games as they failed to pull one out for the sixth time this year with a chance to tie or win on their final drive.
"You have to find ways to get that done," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. "You have to find ways to close games out. We're excited about these next four games to get ourselves in position to do that."
Eberflus didn't put the blame for the final interception of Fields. Rather, he put it on receiver Equanimeous St. Brown for not coming back to the ball, and Fields couldn't disagree.
"It was just a dig throw," Fields said. "Boom, he jumped it. You like to see the receiver come back to the ball. We always just try to tell the receivers the DBs, they want that pick each and every time. They're going to attack that ball.
"That's just a timing throw, anticipating the throw, and I think (Alexander) just made a good play."
The shoulder separation suffered two weeks ago in Atlanta didn't affect Fields' running or throwing.
"I feel all right," Fields said. "The shoulder held up pretty good."
He had 71 yards on six carries, including a 55-yard touchdown for a 10-0 lead when he faked out slot cornerback Keisean Nixon on the right edge and then tore upfield untouched.
"The D-end just crashed like crazy," Fields said. "They brought tons of pressure on that. I mean, it was just me and the nickel (cornerback).
"The guys did a great job downfield blocking and we scored the touchdown."
He had a 56-yard completion to St. Brown to set up a David Montgomery TD run for a 16-3 lead and a 49-yard completion on a jump ball to N'Keal Harry, who was playing with Chase Claypool out due to an injury.
Fields finished 20 of 25 for a season-high 254 yards but the Alexander's interception, and one with the Bears down nine and 51 seconds remaining to Nixon ruined his passer rating.
"I think this was one of my best games passing-wise," Fields said. "Of course, the stats aren't going to show that but I felt pretty comfortable out there in the passing gme.
"And I've just got to keep improving and just keep getting better."
The Bears owned a 16-3 lead after Montgomery's 7-yard TD and led 19-10 in the third quarter after a 28-yard Santos Field goal.
Santos, though, missed an extra point early and had a 40-yard field goal blocked after the 49-yard completion to Claypool to leave the lead at 19-17.
"It didn't go my way today," said Santos, who has missed four extra points this year. "I've just got to do my job. Im done making excuses. There's no excuses out there. It's frustrating."
A makeshift Bears defense did a good job of harassing the Packers passing game all day but Rodgers eventually put a potent running game together with his passing to lead a comeback.
AJ Dillon pulled Green Bay within 19-17 on a 21-yard TD run around right end in an 18-point Packers fourth quarter. Mason Crosby's 32-yard go-ahead field goal followed the blocked field goal try by Santos.
Then the Packers clinched it with a 46-yard end-around from Christian Watson and two-point Rodgers conversion pass to Marcedes Lewis.
The Packers ran for 175 yards on 32 carries to offset what must be labeled a sub-par day from Rodgers (18 of 31, 182 yards) considering he was facing a Bears secondary that didn't have injured starters Eddie Jackson, Kindle Vildor, Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon.
"Defensively, there were a lot of good things, too," Eberflus said. "Obviously we had four of our five starters out in our secondary. So I thought our asistants did a good job getting those guys (who played) ready."
What no one did, though, was get a team ready to win at the end of a game.
"A tough one. Tough one," tight end Cole Kmet said. "I thought we did some nice things offensively. At the end of the day we've got to finish that one out."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
