(670 The Score) With 1:46 left Monday night at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Justin Fields officially arrived as the Bears franchise quarterback.
This marked a movement more than a moment, something more lasting than fleeting. This felt like what everyone around Chicago had been waiting for, from Hegewisch to Halas Hall.
Fields had just thrown a perfectly placed 16-yard touchdown pass to Darnell Mooney, capping a seven-play, 75-yard scoring drive that gave the Bears the unlikeliest of 27-26 leads over the Steelers.
It was the type of fourth-quarter comeback that Bears fans have become used to seeing opposing quarterbacks author, but not their own.
It was the kind of potential Fields had flashed -- and now fulfilled.
It was exactly what the Bears needed Fields to do, and he delivered.
It was what coach Matt Nagy sensed would happen when he looked over at Fields before the drive began and saw him smiling, relishing a moment like this.
“It was like, it was his time," Nagy said.
Justin Time. Fields Day. All the trite but true headlines ready to be written in bold type.
Then the defense ruined the plot and edited the happy ending Fields had earned.
Then Big Ben came up huge for the Steelers, again.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger responded by efficiently driving his team through the Bears defense and putting kicker Chris Boswell in position to kick the game-winning 40-yard field goal with 26 seconds remaining. That still left enough time to give Fields one last chance, and he moved the Bears quickly down the field but, alas, Cairo Santos’ 65-yard field-goal attempt as time expired fell short to allow the Steelers to escape with a 29-27 win.
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The numbers say Fields completed 17 of 29 passes for 291 yards with one touchdown and one interception for an 89.9 passer rating, but his performance went beyond that. It included traits that were harder to measure. The decisiveness Fields has shown in recent games resurfaced. The dynamic playmaking that drives defenders crazy returned. The leadership qualities reappeared.
The best player on the field wore No. 1, showing toughness against a fierce, physical Steelers defense and putting the Bears in a position to win.
They didn’t win, of course, but that had nothing to do with Fields.
The Bears lost because the defense gave up 29 points and couldn’t stop Roethlisberger with the game on the line. They lost because kick returner Jakeem Grant, who has done more harm than good for the Bears since general manager Ryan Pace gave the Dolphins a sixth-round draft pick for him, fumbled with his team down 10 and needing the possession. The Bears lost because they got sloppy again and committed a season-high 12 penalties for 115 yards, including a costly taunting penalty by newly promoted veteran linebacker Cassius Marsh.
They didn’t lose because the officials consistently showed lousy judgment – but that sure didn’t help the Bears’ cause.
The most egregiously awful call came with the Bears facing second-and-goal from the 1-yard line with 9:19 left in the third quarter and the Steelers leading 14-3. Fields hit Jimmy Graham for a touchdown pass, but the score was nullified by a penalty on guard James Daniels for an illegal cut block “in the box” – except Daniels whiffed on his attempt at blocking T.J. Watt. So how can a player commit a penalty if he misses an illegal block? Since when do referees flag intent?
“No comment," Nagy said postgame. “I don’t have a comment on that play."
The officials raised doubt a second time that series after Alex Highsmith hit Fields late on third down, after taking two steps, yet somehow avoided a roughing-the-passer penalty. Pro Bowl quarterbacks get that call every time; rookies such as Fields apparently don’t yet – especially on the road in a hostile environment.
“I said (to the official), 'Big Ben just got that call, so I don't know why you can't give me that call,’" Fields told reporters postgame. ”I just needed him to call it both ways ... It's a common theory. The vets, they get those calls."
The momentum swing on that drive resulted in the Bears settling for a field goal that made it 14-6 instead of 14-10. The Steelers regained possession and drove down 75 yards down the field to score a touchdown to make it 20-6. If you’re looking for a turning point, that was it.
“BS, at the end of the day," Bears linebacker Roquan Smith said of the officiating.
But the penalty that will generate the most discussion this week around town occurred when Marsh celebrated a sack on third-and-8 at the Bears’ 47-yard line with 3:40 left and the Steelers clinging to a 23-20 lead. Marsh did a karate kick and then peered at the Steelers sideline before inadvertently running into referee Tony Corrente -- “hip-checked by the ref," as Marsh said – before Corrente threw his flag into the air and called taunting. Corrente told a pool reporter postgame the contact with Marsh had nothing to do with calling the penalty.
“I think that one was bad timing," Marsh said. “It was pretty clear to everybody who saw it I wasn’t taunting. I’ve been doing that celebration my whole career.’’
Nonetheless, instead of facing fourth-and-15, the Steelers moved the chains and kicked a field goal four snaps later to take a 26-20 lead.
“It’s an emotional game," Nagy said, acknowledging the league was cracking down on taunting penalties in 2021. “Knowing that it’s a major emphasis, we as coaches and players know we can’t even put it in the gray area."
Nobody necessarily likes the newly enforced taunting rule; football requires emotion and intensity and the NFL needs to understand better what that entails. But everybody must live by the same rigid code, which as Nagy pointed out shouldn’t surprise anybody. So, while it was a questionable flag that Corrente perhaps never should have thrown, if I’m Marsh – a veteran just elevated from the practice squad Monday – I’m looking toward my own sideline after a big play and leaving the field immediately without putting myself in that position.
Instead, Marsh walked a few steps toward the Steelers sideline and left his expressiveness open to the official’s interpretation.
The Bears aren’t respected enough to get the benefit of the doubt from referees nor are they good enough to overcome the calls that go against them. Truth is, Nagy’s team commits too many dumb and undisciplined penalties to complain too loudly about losing a close game due to bad officiating.
The heavy attention paid the poor officiating against the Steelers merely will obscure the view from 30,000 feet – the vantage point Nagy referred to last week. From way up there, it’s easy to clearly see this: For the third straight season, the Bears have lost four straight games. In the fourth year of any NFL head coach’s tenure, that’s unacceptable.
There was good against the Steelers – not a great team themselves – but it hardly outweighed the bad. Tight end Cole Kmet led the Bears with six catches for 87 yards. David Montgomery returned from injured reserve to run hard for 63 yards on 13 carries. Mooney caught the go-ahead touchdown pass and also scored on a nifty 15-yard run in the fourth quarter. On special teams, DeAndre Houston-Carson recovered a fumble caused by Joel Iyiegbuniwe and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.
Then there was the progress shown by Fields, the most important development on a disappointing night.
But ultimately, too many other familiar signs of a poorly coached team surfaced to feel satisfied about any moral victories.
This was another winnable game the Bears (3-6) found a way to lose, something that has happened far too often under Nagy. The circumstances aren’t always extenuating, the causes typically bad football more than bad luck.
“We’ve got to finish," Nagy said. “Guys are pissed off, they’re angry. They want to win."
Problem is, the Bears don’t seem to know how – but they do appear to have found the quarterback to show them.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.