Maybe someday.
Maybe someday quickly these tables will flip.
Maybe someday the Chicago Bears will once more be the dominant staff of their storied rivalry with the Green Bay Packers.
Maybe the Bears will grow to be the group making game-winning performs on the common quite than stumbling into so many game-losing errors.
Maybe Justin Fields will quickly grow to be on this league what Aaron Rodgers has lengthy been.
Maybe an prolonged run of success is riiiight there on the horizon.
Maybe. Perhaps.
For now, although, we’re left to course of and interpret all that occurred Sunday at Soldier Field because the Bears misplaced for the sixth consecutive week and for the eighth straight time to the Packers.
We’re left with the Packers’ 18-0 fourth-quarter surge of their 28-19 victory.
We’re left with a nasty Bears staff squandering a 13-point lead and dropping to a struggling division foe that’s barely any higher than they’re.
We’re left with one other day of dazzling, adrenalizing performs from Fields and a season-high output of 409 yards from the Bears offense. That all felt encouraging and invigorating.
But we’re additionally left to dissect two extra Fields interceptions in crunch time, elevating his season whole to 5 fourth-quarter picks.
We’re left with a spirited effort from a short-handed Bears protection but in addition with no takeaways or sacks or quarterback hits on Rodgers.
We’re left with Cairo Santos’ missed additional level within the first half and his blocked 40-yard field-goal strive within the second.
We’re left with the picture of Packers rookie Christian Watson turning a primary jet sweep right into a back-breaking 46-yard landing run within the remaining two minutes and the Packers tacking on a Rodgers-to-Marcedes Lewis 2-point conversion cross because the dagger.
And in the end we’re left with the 3-10 Bears — and a worn-out however optimistic fan base — hoping that is all resulting in one thing rather more gratifying and significant, to a excessive draft choose in April and a 2023 roster overhaul and an infusion of expertise and depth that can propel Fields to stardom and take the Bears on an prolonged run of championship competition.
That’s all nonetheless possible within the not-too-distant future, proper?
Maybe? Perhaps?
Right now, although, as desires of the longer term act as Chicago’s emotional help crutch, the Bears stay a nasty staff beneath the umbrella of a long-faltering group. Which leaves Fields because the chosen superhero, a 23-year-old quarterback mainly tasked with rescuing a complete franchise and enlivening the spirits of all those that like it.
Not that Fields isn’t up for that problem. He is, in any case, blessed with a powerful mixture of expertise, drive, toughness and fervour, all of which give him an actual shot to grow to be the standout franchise quarterback Chicago has lengthy wished.
That was apparent once more Sunday as Fields, two weeks faraway from separating his left shoulder in a loss to the Atlanta Falcons, returned to impress Soldier Field along with his big-play explosion.
A sampling from Fields’ newest fireworks present:
- In the primary quarter, on his fourth run of the afternoon, Fields turned a zone-read keeper right into a 56-yard landing run with a nasty lower that corkscrewed cornerback Keisean Nixon into the backfield grass, then put Fields within the specific lane to Soldier Field’s south finish zone.
It’s a wide ranging factor to look at a quarterback plant his proper cleat within the floor greater than 5 yards wanting midfield and already know he’s gone. But that is the reward of Fields and the blessing of acceleration so elite that he now expresses disappointment when his peak velocity doesn’t prime 21 mph.
“I felt like I was moving kind of slow, to be honest with you,” Fields stated.
Next Gen Stats tracked his prime velocity on that run at 20.15 mph.
“I like to hit 21, 21.5 or something like that,” Fields stated. “I’ll have to do some extra sprints or something.”
- Two drives after that, Fields hit Equanimeous St. Brown for his longest completion, an imposing in-stride 56-yard bomb that arrange David Montgomery’s 7-yard landing run. That two-play sequence put the Bears forward 16-3.
- In the fourth quarter, on a scramble drill, Fields launched a 50-50 ball to N’Keal Harry up the left sideline and picked up one other 49 passing yards. Boom.
Fields’ 254 yards by way of the air had been a season excessive and the third-highest whole of his profession. He continues to point out enhancing pocket poise and persistence, and coach Matt Eberflus singled out a 24-yard completion to Cole Kmet to transform on third-and-10 within the third quarter as “the most impressive play” of the day. That was one other encouraging show of pocket presence and imaginative and prescient.
Fields’ recap of that cross: “We had a good amount of time; thankful to the O-line. I stepped up, (was) going through my reads and saw him late on the sideline just chilling over there by himself.”
That was the longest acquire on a 12-play field-goal drive.
Still, it’s inconceivable and impractical to disregard these two fourth-quarter interceptions, if solely as a result of they contributed to a rising pattern of Fields and the Bears offense being unable to fulfill the second in game-deciding conditions.
After failing to place collectively both a tying or go-ahead drive within the fourth quarter of shut losses to the Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions and Falcons, the Bears obtained their golden sombrero with one other whiff towards the Packers within the late levels.
With 2 minutes, 57 seconds remaining, the Bears had been down by a degree and about 10 to 12 yards outdoors of field-goal vary when Fields threw his first interception on a dig path to St. Brown.
“That’s a trust throw,” Eberflus defined.
Fields hit the highest of his drop and let it rip. But Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander used his instincts and quickness to interrupt in entrance of the throw and snatch it.
While crediting Alexander for his playmaking prowess, each Eberflus and Fields additionally criticized St. Brown for not doing a greater job coming again to the ball or a minimum of making a extra concerted effort to disrupt Alexander’s catch.
“You’d just like to see the receiver come back to the ball,” Fields stated. “We always try to tell the receivers that those DBs want that pick each and every time. So they’re going to attack that ball.”
Fields’ second choose got here on the Bears’ remaining drive. This time, he pressured a throw into heavy visitors alongside the best sideline, and Nixon simply slid over for the takeaway. It was a poor throw and a fair worse resolution.
Kmet, who had six catches for 72 yards, felt like a skipping document within the locker room after the sport, lamenting one more missed alternative for the offense to grab a win.
“We have to find a way to finish,” he stated. “It’s really as simple as (execution). And I know we’ve been saying that for the past four or five weeks. But that’s really all this is.”
Maybe someday quickly Fields and the Bears will discover their successful formulation.
“I’m confident we’ll be able to break through with one of these at some point,” Kmet stated. “And when we do, I think we’ll be able to do some special things with it.”
Added Fields: “We haven’t had that feeling in a minute. Just winning a game would be awesome.”
At some level, with a excessive degree of dedication and resolve, with anticipated participant enhancements and a significant improve in expertise throughout the roster, Fields and the Bears ought to be capable of rediscover that feeling and have themselves able to win extra video games like Sunday’s.
All of that must be inside attain quickly, proper?
Maybe someday these tables will flip. Perhaps.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com