(670 The Score) Remember Sunday no matter what. Remember it if the time comes that Justin Fields and Matt Eberflus are standing in a cloud of chaos and confetti. Remember it if it's the best Bears quarterbacking performance you've ever seen. Remember it when what's left of Aaron Rodgers finally slinks away.
Forget the outcome of the Bears' 35-32 loss to the Dolphins at Soldier Field. Forget the defense. Forget the special teams. Forget so many of the names of countless other Bears who soon will be supplanted by more talented upgrades.
Fields is now a major NFL story, building off two of his best professional games to give us what's objectively an all-timer. He became the first player in the history of the league to throw three touchdown passes while running for at least 140 yards. His 178 rushing yards were the most ever by a quarterback in a regular-season game and the second-most ever, just behind Colin Kaepernick's 181 yards in a playoff game in January 2013.
No matter what you once thought it was supposed to look like when you knew you had the guy, now you know. It looks like a 106.7 passer efficiency, rapidly improving decision-making, Fields protecting himself with well-timed slides and the use of rare and special speed.
Related
They just can't catch him, even when they dedicate a defender to track him and even when they know he's taking off. His sleight of hand is freezing defenders, now that offensive coordinator Luke Getsy is adding new counters to an established running game. Fields' in-the-moment athletic creativity bought him enough space to blow past the Dolphins defense on the 61-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that caused all of us to sit up and realize something important was happening.
Poles may have had an inkling when he traded for receiver Chase Claypool on Tuesday, acknowledging that the quarterback he inherited from the previous regime has earned immediate investment to accelerate his development. Part of that may be growing confidence in Getsy, who got Claypool targeted on a varied selection of routes and also seems to be deploying rugged tight end Cole Kmet more actively.
It would've been nice if pass interference were called equally and fairly or if receiver Equanimeous St. Brown could catch a ball placed right there in his hands, but who cares? Seriously, anybody talking at all about the Bears defense right now has just lost the thread.
We knew this was a lost year for the Bears, one that only mattered as much as Fields would make it matter. They traded away a couple still-useful defensive parts to get closer to building something bigger and better, a process that's already underway and will gear up significantly this offseason. A full half of the roster -- perhaps more than that -- is just disposable players of replacement value or less, and the quality available in free agency is more on defense than anywhere else.
This league is made up of teams that have a real quarterback and those that don't, and it's usually easy to forgive jaded Bears fans for not understanding what that means or how it finally reveals itself.
Not this time. Understand it and allow yourself some real excitement. If Fields is setting records surrounded by this, picture it when he's not all the Bears have.
Dan Bernstein is the co-host of the Bernstein & Holmes Show on middays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.
Listen live to 670 The Score via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker