Not having much bite in Sunday’s 26-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns is one thing, but running to hide is another.
The Browns had more sacks (9) than starting rookie quarterback Justin Fields had completions (6). Myles Garret had 4.5 of those sacks, going from the bottom of the league to tops in the category in under three hours.
Many in the media are calling for the head of head coach Matt Nagy, after not having his offensive game plan tailored to Fields’ skillset. Chicago’s largest-gaining play of the afternoon was a 48-yard phantom defensive pass interference penalty against Cleveland late in the third quarter. Cleveland racked up 418 yards of total offense to Chicago’s mere 47. In fact, the yardage lost by the nine sacks left Fields with one net passing yard in his NFL debut.
One.
Here’s a thought no one has brought up yet on any radio show or newspaper I have seen since Sunday…
The Chicago Bears are not very good, and no amount of restructuring was going to help them against a Browns’ defense looking to pin their ears back and make Fields’ debut a living hell.
Perhaps it was not Nagy who failed to adjust his offense, but likely Chicago management who reached way too high to grab Fields 11th overall in April’s draft. We all know how former Ohio State quarterbacks have fared at the next level since 2010. Currently, Dwayne Haskins is the only one likely to see the field, as he is the backup to Ben Roethlisburger in Pittsburgh.
We all know Ben is due for one big injury before the end of the season, as he has not played a full 16 games since 2018.
Now comes the story within the past few days that the Bears’ organization had a bid approved to purchase more than 350 acres of land at the Arlington Heights racetrack, in effort to build a new state-of-the-art stadium. Arlington Heights is approximately 25 miles northwest of Chicago and was a target of former owner George Halas dating back as far as 1975.
The Bears’ plan is to build the new stadium while keeping the racetrack, similar to what the NHL’s New York Islanders did building their new UBS Arena next door to Belmont Racetrack. UBS Arena opens the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Soldier Field was renovated for $660 million back in 1994, but this is still renovating a massive stadium that opened in 1924. When you are packing 66,000 fans into a 97-year-old stadium, there is only so much plaster and duct tape to go around. Even the Yankees had to eventually build a new home.
Chicago has never been a marquee franchise for quarterbacks. Everyone relates the Bears to Jim McMahon back in the 1980’s. Even though he helped get the Bears to the Super Bowl XX (1986) championship, “The Punky QB” only made one Pro Bowl, which he didn’t even play in. Every Bears quarterback drafted since has been a bust by league standards.
It would be ridiculous--even for me--to call Fields a bust after one game against a defense with one of the arguably two best pass rushers in the game. However, I see less upside for him than any of the other four taken among his class. With Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay only having a few more years left, the Bears could eventually have missed a golden opportunity to put a stranglehold on the NFC North for years to come.
Perhaps it benefits Fields long-term that Ohio State turns out better running backs, linebackers and defensive backs than they do quarterbacks. A position shift in another couple of years may prolong his career, as his current situation is setting up to make it a very short one.
-JC24