Justin Fields Comes Up Empty Again

The Bears ask a lot of Justin Fields.

Sunday they asked him to carry an offense without much of a running game in support, without their best offensive lineman and against a dominant Cleveland defensive front bent on destruction.

Fields wasn't up to it in the 20-17 loss, and it's here where plenty of Bears fans are going to have a right to complain. A 38-year-old man who hadn't been in the NFL until December and wasn't on the active roster until 15 days earlier went out and scored his 20th fourth-quarter comeback and 26th game-winning drive and it would be easy to complain about a couple of fourth-quarter scoring drives allowed, but in the end the reason the Bears lost was their own quarterback and offense didn't produce the way Joe Flacco did.

"I'm not sure if they could have played any better for us as a team," Fields stated the obvious about his own defense. "First off, I've got to play better as the quarterback of this team and I think we all have got to be better on offense."

The old man drew for almost as many net yards passing in the first half as Fields did for the full game. The Bears running game wasn't there to pick up those missing yards, producing only 87 and had just 30 of those, his lowest total since the blown game against Denver.

In this blown game, Fields was 19 of 40 for 166 yards.

Sure, Fields had the most dreaded being since Thanos pursuing him in Myles Garrett, but the old man had to wear Montez Sweat for 2 1/2 sacks on his back and three quarterback hits. He faced a secondary that picked off three of his passes.

Yet, in the fourth quarter alone, Flacco had completions of 57, 51, 34 and 31 yards. Those were all longer than the longest Bears completion in the game.

It's easy to complain about Bears defensive coverage at the end of the game and well deserved, especially the play Eberflus decided to drop a 300-pound defensive lineman into coverage on third-and-15. It only resulted in the yardage needed for the winning points.

However, where was the corresponding pressure on the Browns defense from the Bears' offense, from Fields.

"At the end of the day it's going to hurt any time you lose, especially when you have a defense that goes out there and creates that many turnovers, that holds that offense to that may points," Fields said. "We played good enough to win but, like I said there were certain drives, certain situations that we didn't execute in."

One he cited was the throw he made to wide-open Darnell Mooney just before halftime, which he sailed high for an incompletion when it would have meant a routine Cairo Santos Field goal.

"That would have set ups up for a field goal going into the half," Fields said. "Yeah, I mean, long story short, I've got to be better. We've got to be better as a whole."

The other was a run, a fourth-and-1 gamble by Eberflus starting the fourth quarter at the Browns 33. A touchdown or field goal there and the Browns are down either 24-7 or 20-7 and a comeback looks much less likely.

Fields got tripped up from behind as he started to accelerate in the open field toward the stick and fell forward short of the first down. They can't have that type of play from the great running quarterback at this point. Yet he failed.

It's become a regular thing. The Bears did get that win over the Vikings when Fields came through with a big pass to DJ Moore for a first down and they kicked their fourth field goal, and the next game he didn't really need to do anything at game's end after they took a two-touchdown lead early in the fourth quarter.

However, this was a real test, a road game against a playoff team with a strong defense. And Fields did not pass it. The offense as a whole failed to pass it but Fields as their leader failed.

"I thought we did a decent job of handling those pressure players on the edge for the most part," Eberflus said of Garrett and Za'Darius Smith. "You know, I thought we had a good plan, chip-in bringing guys back to him. And he's a special player. And I thought we did a decent job of that.

"So just looking at it right now I just think we needed to run the ball to set ourselves up a little bit better in terms of third downs and manageables. That, to me, would be my reaction of that, what I saw out there today. And again, they did a good job. They loaded the box and did a good job of stopping the run."

All true, but the Browns couldn't run the ball either. The Bears held them to 29 yards.

What it came down to was fourth-quarter passing, just like it does so often in the NFL, and as has occurred so often, Fields did not get it done. An 8-26 record as their starter is something else he must own.

Sure the Bears defense had its trouble finishing after a spectacular game, but what's wrong with a little help at the end? Mooney told reporters the offense was probably feeling too comfortable in the third quarter after getting its 10-point lead. Or to be more accurate, after it was gifted the 10-point lead by its own defense.

In the end, it's all something they'll have to mull over in the early offseason as they look at Caleb Williams' college output and combine workout.

Either that, or maybe they should just go out and pick up some old man off the street and throw him on the field to beat opponents first-round draft picks who fail at game's end week after week.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven