Chicago Bears: Justin Fields shines in controversial loss

The Chicago Bears are not a very good football team. Their head coach and general manager have caused this disaster and it may be a while before it completely turns around. They are not a terrible team and they are not a good team either. There is a lot of things that need to go right in order for them to win which is a problem. They have a long way to go before they are truly dominant.

One way they can get back to winning football is by making sure that Justin Fields continues to develop properly. It isn’t clear that it will happen with Matt Nagy calling the shots but he is probably going to be gone after this year.

However, Fields showed exactly why he is special in Monday night’s controversial loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. They almost made a big comeback in this game because of the quarterback’s ability to lead. He looked better in this game than he has at any point in the NFL so far which helped his team show some fight.

Fields completed 17 passes out of 29 attempts. He accumulated 291 yards and had one touchdown with one interception. He also rushed for 45 yards on 8 carries. It is these types of skills that make him so great. Having a mobile quarterback that can make great throws is not something that the Chicago Bears have ever had but now they do.

ESPN Stats and Info had some great nuggets regarding the game on Twitter last night. They reported that Fields averaged 15.6 air yards per attempt which was the second-most by any quarterback this season. He also completed 7 balls that were 15 or more yards downfield which are tied for the most by any Bears quarterback in the last 15 years.

Justin Fields was sensational for the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.

This is a great stat that proves a few things. For one, it proves that the Bears have something in Justin Fields that they have never had before. Nobody has been able to do what he can do through the air and with his legs at the same time. It also shows that he can be as exciting of a quarterback as there is in the league right now. The fact that he did this on this stage is very impressive.

As mentioned before, the 29-27 loss was very controversial. The story of the game should be how great Pittsburgh has been lately and how awesome Justin Fields is. Instead, we are going to hear a lot about the officials. Chicago was handed 12 penalties for 115 yards while the Steelers had 5 penalties for 30 yards.

It was one of the most lopsided games in terms of penalties that anyone should be able to recall. It is absurd that the game is impacted by bad officiating this much. There is a good chance that the Bears would have won the game if there was better officiating.

One (somewhat) positive to take away besides Fields is the fact that they almost won the game despite these controversies. Cairo Santos missed a 65-yard field goal that would have given the Bears the 30-29 win as the game clock expired. He came incredibly close and it was an impressive miss but a loss is a loss. Despite that, for better or worse, the effort was there at the end.

Regardless of the nonsense, the Bears are now 3-6. It isn’t a good record but that should surprise nobody. They mostly don’t play well, they have a lot of injuries on defense, and the one time they play okay the officiating really hurts them. Seeing Fields dominate is all we need at this point to move forward so they can start winning lots of games again.