Chicago Bears: This offensive stat should make you feel better

The Chicago Bears lost to the Washington Commanders on Thursday night. It was a big-time loss as they had the win in their hands but multiple different things prevented them from pulling it off. It was a frustrating ending to a game that had its pros and cons.

One of the biggest pros is that Justin Fields is starting to take some steps. He still needs to work on some accuracy trouble, his reads, and getting rid of the ball quicker. He doesn’t have enough help around him, however, to make any of those progressions easier.

This game from Fields though did provide one stat that should make people feel a little bit better. It is the total offensive yards that the team had in this game. Despite it only leading to seven points, they had 428 total yards on offense.

190 of those came from Justin Fields as a passer and the rest came on the ground. Fields also had 88 yards using his legs so it was a very productive game for him on the ground.

With the nice mix of David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert on the ground as well, it was a well-balanced rushing attack.

The Chicago Bears had a lot of yards on Thursday but didn’t score enough.

All of those yards certainly need to lead to more points. They turned the ball over in the red zone way too many times. They were aggressive on fourth down when they needed to be but it never worked out for them in point-scoring moments.

They had some near misses in the endzone as well but that doesn’t help you win games. That is an aspect that they need to work on during practice as seven points aren’t going to win you games almost ever.

The fact that they did gain all of those yards is a positive though. That is a good step toward building a good offense. Adding better weapons on that side of the ball will make turning those yards into touchdowns easier. We can only hope that the management team sees this.

It is exciting because Justin Fields had a lot to do with a fair amount of these yards. Between rushing and passing, he had 278 total yards of offense. It’s not star-level stuff yet but it is a big step in the right direction.

Now, this offense will have a bigger test ahead of them. The New England Patriots stand at 2-3 going into the weekend but we all know what a Bill Belichick-coached team can do to a young quarterback. That will be a Monday Night Football matchup on October 24th.

The Bears would love to see Fields take this game against Washington and learn from it enough to keep it going throughout the season. His development is key and getting this offense to become a juggernaut is the goal. The 428 yards is a great stat to build on but they need more points.