Bears Defense Has No Answers in Loss

Justin Fields apologized for failing to touch down Micah Parsons after a fumble recovery and prevent a 36-yard touchdown return Sunday by the Dallas Cowboys.

Fields had a great deal of company when it came to failing to take down Dallas ball carriers, and it all played for the Bears defense.

The Cowboys routed the Bears 49-29 with a blend of running and passing, leaving everyone to wonder if losing Robert Quinn's influence on Chicago's defense might have actually been greater than anyone thought.

"That's unacceptable," coach Matt Eberflus said after the Bears allowed more points than in any game since November of 2014. "So we're going to have to look at ourselves with a critical eye and making sure we're doing the right things down-in and down-out."

Rather than blame the loss of Quinn, it seemed the defense simply got hit with an explosive offense and great game plan in a short work week, and reacted poorly.

"Hats off to those guys but we've got to get better," Bears linebacker Roquan Smith said. "It's embarrassing for the defensive side."

The Cowboys (6-2) drove to TDs on their first four possessions on a day when Dak Prescott completed 21 of 27 for 250 yards and two TDs.

"We're going to be playing teams that have better rosters," Eberflus said. "That's part of football. If you want to be good you've got to play and compete against those guys. We've just got to execute better."

Then, when the offense got the Bears (3-5) back into the game, Dallas drove for two more TDs ending the third quarter and starting the fourth.

Prescott and Co. had touchdowns on six of their 10 possessions. They had TD drives of 80, 69, 75, 54, 75 and 79 yards, converted 9 of 11 on third downs and had nine plays of 17 yards or more.

Yet Fields had the Bears within striking distance and Khalil Herbert's 12-yard TD run in the third quarter made it 28-23, when they once had trailed 28-7. Fields had thrown a 17-yard TD pass to N'Keal Harry and kicker Cairo Santos added a 36-yard field goal to initiate the rally.

"I think we're growing, getting better each and every week as an offense," Fields said. "I'm just proud of the guys and the way they fought, you know, we were down early and they didn't waver. They had the same mentality and just chipped away. I thought we played well."

Just not better than Dallas (6-2).

The Cowboys scored in seven plays on a 75-yard drive, Pollard going in from 7 yards out on the drive after Herbert made it a game.

The game started getting totally out of hand when Parsons picked up a fumbled reception by David Montgomery on the next Bears possession, got up off the ground after Fields leaped over him, and ran 36 yards for the defensive TD and a 42-23 lead.

"It was my fault for just hopping over him," Fields said. "I should have just tagged him. I can't tell you the last time I made a tackle, so you've just got to be aware in that situation and just tag him, make sure he's down."

The guys who actually are supposed to do the tackling didn't fare much better. It was one big play after another for Dallas, which won easily despite losing the time-of-possession battle 36:04 to 23:56.

The Cowboys didn't need time of possession when Pollard was breaking TD runs of 18, 7 and 54 yards while gaining 131 yards on 14 carries.

Prescott threw TD passes of 21 yards to CeeDee Lamb, 1 yard to Jake Ferguson and scored himself on a 1-yard run.

Dallas piled up 442 yards of offense, the most the Bears allowed since Week 8 last year against San Francisco.

Yet, Eberflus came out of it as positive as Fields did.

"It's a positive thing for the guys," Eberflus said. "I think the guys are really starting to really gel. You can see some things that are really enhancing the skill levels of our players. It's a positive for sure."

Now they simply need to have more positives on the defensive side of the ball.

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