On a dreary December day in Cleveland, the Bears lost in heartbreaking fashion to the beat-down Browns. Down to only one healthy first-string offensive lineman, and onto their fourth quarterback of the 2023 season, Cleveland was able to send the Bears home with a loss, putting their growing playoff hopes to an abrupt end. Even after the lead was surrendered in the fourth quarter, the Bears still had a chance. Darnell Mooney’s bobbling of Justin Fields’ Hail Mary pass as time expired was a perfect encapsulation of this Bears season. There have been several games that have been right in the team’s lap (just like the ball in Mooney’s), but something always goes haywire. In a game where Chicago was up 10 points in the fourth quarter and, in all reality, dominated the turnover battle again, the Bears managed to blow another one. While Justin Fields didn’t look like Joe Montana out there, I put this loss on the coaching staff.
This Defense is No Joke
The Bears defense is playing at an elite level, and has been for a while now. The group played more than well enough to win. It created three turnovers, all of which were interceptions. Tremaine Edmunds took one to the house at the start of the second half. TJ Edwards crunched Browns WR Cedric Tillman and knocked the ball right into Edmunds’ hands. Eddie Jackson nearly took his interception to the endzone as well, getting taken down on the one-yard line. The third pick was on a sudden change right after Trent Taylor’s muffed punt. Rookie Tyrique Stevenson made a phenomenal play in which he baited the experienced Joe Flacco into taking seam shot to TE David Njoku. Stevenson sprawled out and made a diving interception, handing the ball right back to the offense. The defense put the offense in fantastic situations and did almost all it could to help it out.
I can’t mention the defense without including Montez Sweat. There isn’t much more to say other than, ‘he’s a beast’. The difference in the pass rush since the moment he arrived in Chicago is monumental. With him on the line, other rushers have begun to excel. DeMarcus Walker made a few nice plays this Sunday, and Gervon Dexter Sr. got home as well. Tez led the team with 2.5 sacks, and was creating constant pressure. He is an integral piece of the defense.
Justin Fields Did What He Could
Facing off against a very tough Cleveland defense in rainy, cold conditions, I didn’t expect Justin Fields to look amazing. He certainly didn’t, but I don’t pin it all on him. In fact, I think that there was a lot that he did well.
The touchdown to Cole Kmet is something that only one or two other quarterbacks can do. The ability to escape Myles Garrett’s grasp, flip his hips, and deliver a perfect strike is infinitely impressive.
He also had some fantastic moments on the Bears’ third drive. He started off this drive with an anticipatory out-route completion to DJ Moore. On second down, he escaped the rush and found Robert Tonyan wide open, deep down the field. He threw a perfect ball, laying it right into the tight end’s hands in stride. Obviously, Tonyan dropped the pass, and prevented a 50+ yard touchdown. Unfazed, Fields immediately made one of the best throws I’ve ever seen out of him on the next play. With Moore streaking down the sideline, Fields realized that the cornerback’s head was turned. He let it rip, and delivered a perfectly place back-shoulder ball to Moore. Passes like those remind you of how talented Justin Fields is. Unfortunately, he capped off this drive on a negative note. On third down, he simply held onto the ball for far too long, ultimately taking the sack and even fumbling the football. Chicago luckily retained possession, but that drive demonstrated the highs and lows of Justin Fields.
I also thought that Fields did a great job of hitting his check-downs. Cleveland has very good cornerbacks, so there were many cases in which nobody was open down the field. Justin didn’t force anything and was content with getting 2-4 yards on these plays instead of throwing an incompletion or interception
Fields’ strength is his dynamic rushing ability. While the read-option game is sometimes utilized, he usually gets most of his long runs on scrambles. However, I only logged one or two scrambles against the Browns. I have to assume that Cleveland was playing defense in a way that defended this well.
Losses Like this Come Down to Coaching
It’s easy to blame the players for blown leads, and they certainly deserve blame. However, when team has lost several games with double-digit fourth quarter leads, it comes down to coaching. Neither head coach Matt Eberflus nor offensive coordinator Luke Getsy know how to close out a game.
Before getting to the end of the game, I want to look at what Getsy’s plan was today. Against the third-best secondary in the NFL (in terms of net yards per pass attempt), Justin Fields attempted 40 passes- a season high. Before the game, I was calling for deep balls. Both of Cleveland’s starting safeties are hurt, so throwing over the top could’ve worked. However, these 40 passes weren’t deep balls. The Bears were either attacking Cleveland’s cornerbacks- which are arguably the best in the NFL- or settling for check-downs. Getsy didn’t test the young Cleveland safeties. Even though the run game wasn’t efficient right away, Getsy needed to stick with it; Cleveland’s secondary is too good.
One way that the Bears could’ve ran the ball is with Justin Fields. I only charted four QB keepers and one read-option play for Fields. This simply isn’t enough. The threat of Fields breaking off big runs is extremely helpful to both the run and pass games. Moving off of these plays makes no sense.
Both Getsy and Eberflus demonstrated incompetence at the end of Sunday’s matchup. With around seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Bears had the possession of the ball, up by seven points. After a three-yard gain a first down rush, Getsy found his offense at second-and-seven. At this stage of the game, the clock is your friend. Especially after a solid first-down gain, the second-down call has to be another run. Giving the star-studded Browns pass rush a chance to make a play is not advisable. Getsy called a passing play, and star linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah flew in for the sack, a game-changing play. Now at third-and-17, the drive was dead and the ball was to be punted back to Cleveland. Joe Flacco found Amari Cooper for a 50-yard touchdown with that next possession, tying up the game.
Eberflus made his big mistake with less than two minutes left. The game was tied, and the Browns were facing a daunting third-and-15, outside of field goal range. All the Bears defense needed to do was to get off of the field. Eberflus drew up a blitz, similar to one that resulted in a sack earlier in the game. The Bears showed seven on the line pre-snap, but dropped two (including big DT Justin Jones) into coverage. Though I normally would support an aggressive play call like this, that was not the right situation. The experienced Joe Flacco recognized the simulated pressure, and dropped it over the rush to TE David Njoku who ran for the first down, setting up the game-winning field goal. This was not the time for Eberflus to bring pressure; the Browns were not in field goal range. This unnecessary aggressiveness cost the Bears the game.
Onto the Cardinals
With playoff hopes in shambles, next week’s matchup feels very different. Fields has to play well against the struggling Arizona defense, and the coaches can’t allow any doubt to creep in. While both Getsy and Eberflus are probably dead men walking, they may be able to salvage their jobs with a dominating final three games.