Bears HC: Justin Fields took step forward despite another rough game

Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears offense had another brutal showing in their 12-7 loss to the Washington Commanders on Thursday night. 

Despite the continued lack of production and results, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus thought Fields took a step forward in the loss. Why? The toughness he showed in taking a beating behind a porous offensive line. 

“Because of the toughness, the ability — for me, the ability to take the ball and drive it down at the very end to give us a chance to win it,” said Eberflus after the game. 

“That to me is what the improvement was. Okay? Were there other moments that we need to clean up and offense needs to clean up? Sure. But we have the drives down there, and if we punch those in the game is a different game. That’s 21 points. Right? So for me, that was really inspiring to watch him doing that at the very end. To take us down to win it at the very end and came up short. Got to do better job next time.”

On one hand, yes. Fields did show toughness and put the Bears in positions to win the game in the fourth quarter, but there were mistakes — a lot of mistakes — that held them back from winning what should have been considered a very winnable game. 

It also has to be concerning that this is the level of expectation the Bears have for their top-pick quarterback and offense at this point. 

Fields finished the game 14-for-27 passing for 190 yards, one touchdown and an interception. 

For the season he is averaging just 144 passing yards per game and ranks 27th and 31st in QBR and passer rating, respectively. He has also been sacked a league-worst 23 times. The offense as a whole is averaging just 15.5 points per game, 29th in the NFL (ahead of only Indianapolis, Denver and Pittsburgh). 

Not all of this is on Fields, of course. The Bears line is one of the worst in the NFL, and their wide receivers are not great. The offensive futility is a collective effort, but the lack of progress under center still has to be a concern, especially if Thursday's performance was seen as a step forward.