Justin Fields Plays QB and Counselor

On a tough day, the Bears QB had to play when many coaches might have pulled him from a blowout, then had to calm down an emotional teammate.

It's safe to say Justin Fields did more Sunday than even he could have expected, considering the embarrassing 41-10 final score in a loss to Detroit.

From taking Cole Kmet's pitchout and running 31 yards to set up the only Bears touchdown, to getting sacked seven times, to pulling within 64 yards of breaking the all-time QB rushing record to being an emotional counselor, Fields had a long day of work.

Some might say too long.

After all, he was still out there playing with the game well out of hand late on a day when he was beaten up good, had to be checked out for a concussion and had his hip massaged on the sidelines after an early hit.

"Any time I get to play to play this game I don't take it for granted," Fields told reporters after the game. "Any time I get to play I want to be out there."

The question was more for coach Matt Eberflus because Fields is going to do what the coaching staff says.

"Late into the game we kept Justin in there because we want to get the game experience," Eberflus said. "You can't really get that anywhere else. You know? So that's why we dedided as a staff and we decided working with Justin he said, man, 'I want to be in there.' "

Eberflus described this as a constant process throughout a lopsided second half as they fell from 24-10 down at halftime to 38-10.

"Every single series we were discussing it," Eberflus said. "And we said 'let's get him out there, let's get him out there and do our two-minute drive and let's get the experience."

It seems rather pointless to be getting the experience down 38-10 and finally 41-10, especially when he lost two right guards early in the game and the Lions were teeing off with the pass rush. Guard Teven Jenkins (neck) and backup Michael Schofield (knee) left with injuries.

Left tackle Braxton Jones and right tackle Riley Reiff experienced problems handling James Houston and Aidan Hutchinson. Houston had three sacks and was usually over Jones, beating him with a bull rush.

"I mean, you could certainly look at it that way, but like we said, Justin is going to be back there and operate and, again, there's going to be different people out at certain times (blocking) and he's got to be able to operate, get rid of the ball when it's not there and do a good job of having poise in the pocket."

Bottom line, Eberflus insisted, "In-game experience, there's nothing like it. We're not going to get that anyplace else."

When the game still counted, Fields ran a gadget play where Kmet went in motion, came under center, then took the snap and tossed it back. Fields caught it and ran around left end for a 31-yard gain to set up the first Bears touchdown.

"I knew that play was going to be a good play," Fields said.

The Bears set that up on third-and-1 off of a play a couple games ago when Kmet went in motion, stopped, went under center and ran a quarterback sneak for a first down. Except this time, it was the big play to Fields instead of a sneak.

"So we've been practicing that play for about two or three weeks right now," Fields said. "So it was good play-calling and good execution."

What wasn't so much fun to ponder was the fit Chase Claypool threw on the sidelines with about two minutes left. He had only played four snaps in the first half and his time was limited in the second half, as well. Fields made him a legitimate target once. Another time he threw in Claypool's general direction while just throwing away the football.

Again, Claypool had no impact on a game with no catches and apparently wasn't happy about the role or the game's verdict or both.

Fields said he talked to his receiver on the sidelines.

"He was just showing his emotions, which is good to have emotion in a game, but you just have to know how to control it,” Fields said. "You can't let it come out like that because at the end of the day, that's not helping anybody. That's not helping the team. Everybody's frustrated.

"We're getting blown out. Like, just call it what it is. We got punched in the mouth. Everybody feels that way, but I talked to him like, 'That's not going to do anything. That's not helping anybody. That's just spreading everybody apart.' We need to be here for each other, stick with each other and fight because not many teams in this league are going to fight the way we did."

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