Week 4 versus the Broncos was supposed to be a win-win situation for the Bears. A win would’ve literally been a win, and a loss would’ve put the franchise in prime position to select Caleb Williams in the upcoming draft. Surely, if the Bears managed to lose to the Broncos, Justin Fields must’ve had a poor game. He clearly isn’t the guy if he couldn’t win that game, right? Wrong. The Bears are now in no-man’s land. They lost, but Justin Fields quite literally played the best game of his career. But, now Caleb Williams is potentially sitting in Ryan Poles’ lap. Fields is good and has potential, but Williams is better, and has much more potential. If presented the choice between the two, Poles will have an extremely difficult decision to make. Luckily, there is still 13 weeks left for things to work themselves out.
Career Day for Justin Fields
Justin Fields was amazing on Sunday in Chicago. He eclipsed 300 passing yards for the first time in his career, and threw a career high 4 touchdown passes. He was basically on a heater for the first three quarters of the game. Fields finished the first halt 16/17, the only incompletion coming on a last-second hail mary heave. He didn’t throw a real incompletion until a 3rd and 5 pass attempt to Cole Kmet at the beginning of the 4th quarter. Fields looked so confident out there. He was being quick, decisive, and accurate.
The third year quarterback was making Mahomes-esque plays that I’ve never seen him make before. The second Kmet touchdown comes to mind. Nothing was open, so Fields rolled out to the right, barely towing the line of scrimmage. This forced the linebackers to get stuck in the middle, as Fields still had the option of either running or passing. Once the defenders made the decision to converge towards the line of scrimmage, Fields made a beautiful jump pass to a wide open Kmet. If you squinted your eyes, you may have seen Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
After their opening drive stalled out, the Bears scored three straight touchdowns before their last drive of the second half was cut short time running out. On their first possession of the second half, they marched down the field for a 66-yard touchdown drive, chewing up over nine minutes of clock. The offense was humming nearly every single time it had the ball. Justin Fields proved today what he can do when he is confident and given a good gameplan.
4th and 1 Blunder
I honestly thought that there was a chance Matt Eberflus’ job didn’t survive the night. The decision to go for it on 4th and 1 instead of taking the lead with a chip shot field goal is unacceptable. Even in an age of analytics, there are certain principles that must be followed. If the game is tied, and you have the chance to take the lead, you do it.
On top of that, the lead-up to the play was horrendous. Before snapping the ball, Eberflus sent the offense out to try to draw Denver offsides. The Bears wasted a timeout, then put the offense back on the field. This makes no sense! A coach always has to be considering the worst-case scenario. Wasting a timeout in that spot could’ve been devastating.
Lastly, the play call itself was also highly questionable. The Bears love to run their short yardage plays out of the gun. Instead of having to get 1-2 yards on these plays, this makes it so that the rusher needs around 4-5 yards. It’s just not smart philosophy. One Eagles-QB sneak call and the Bears would’ve walked out of Soldier Field with a win.
In all, the Bears found a new way to disappoint in Week 4. I can’t wait to see how they top it next week!