(670 The Score) After all the hype and hope, the first NFL start for rookie Justin Fields on Sunday in Cleveland went the way so many other games have gone for less-ballyhooed Bears quarterbacks, an occasion more embarrassing than enduring and memorable for all the wrong reasons.
The Bears lost to the Browns, 26-6, but the score became a mere footnote in a football city left to sort through the rubble of one of the most disappointing offensive performances in years. Fields ended his interminably long day at FirstEnergy Stadium with fewer completions than the Browns had sacks – six to nine – and spent most of the game running for his life behind an offensive line that failed miserably protecting him.
By the ninth sack, they could've lined the Bears sideline with yellow tape to label it the disaster area it was.
“These guys look like they’ve been hit by a truck," Fox sideline reporter Pam Oliver announced in the fourth quarter a few feet from the wreckage.
Figuratively and literally, this one hurt: Bears coach Matt Nagy revealed postgame Fields injured his throwing hand late in the game badly enough not to know who will start at quarterback next Sunday. Fields later said X-rays were negative and he felt fine. The only bad news was there's no other good news. This was historically bad and aesthetically worse. This was destined to be an abomination whether the quarterback was Fields or any of the overpaid, overdrafted quarterbacks of the Ryan Pace era who preceded him.
The Browns outgained the Bears 418-47, which marked Chicago's second-lowest yardage total in 51 years. The Bears’ 47 yards came on 42 plays. That’s 40 inches per play. Nagy always talks about the why. Well, that’s not why he was hired. Come to think of it, it would be nice if Nagy could remind us why he was hired before this season gets away from him next Sunday against the Lions. What happened against the Browns was alarming enough to already wonder about things like that.
And before anybody in town sparks this conversation, forget drawing any hard and fast conclusions about Fields after this one. Resist reading too much into the ugly numbers and unusual lack of composure that must have looked odd to Ohioans who saw Fields become a star a couple hours south in Columbus at The Ohio State University. The player who wore his familiar No. 1 like he had so many times before in the Buckeye state barely resembled That Guy everybody remembers in college, partly due to his own inexperience but mostly because of his offensive line’s ineptness. Not to mention a head coach who needed to rise to the occasion for his young quarterback but instead fell flat on his face.
“These are the hard ones," Nagy said. “It starts with me. I didn’t do a good enough job of getting these guys ready. We gotta get it fixed.’’
He can start by buying a mirror.
All I know for sure after watching that Bears’ debacle is this: Fields will stop looking like a rookie quarterback sooner if Nagy stops treating him like one.
The Bears had all week to prepare Fields for his first start, and he appeared more ready for the moment than the offensive coaching staff. Unveiling a game plan all too familiar and frustrating, Nagy called plays early and often that clung to the principles of his beloved scheme. That’s unacceptable to some and infuriating to many. BREAKING: Andy Dalton is hurt, Mitch Trubisky is a Bill and Nagy’s scheme is no longer the star of the Bears offense. Somebody please inform Nagy, who seems oblivious to those developments. Somebody please show him some clips of Fields at Ohio State, where he thrived in a system built around him. What a concept.
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Instead, in his first NFL start with Nagy calling plays, Fields spent enough time in the pocket to be reduced to lint. There were no moving pockets, no rollouts or bootlegs or anything to take advantage of Fields’ mobility. There were too many deep drops requiring his quarterback to aim the ball into tight windows.
What made it all harder to watch was seeing one of the Bears’ weakest offensive lines in memory struggle mightily to protect this quarterback, the franchise’s most valuable asset. Nothing called for Nagy to put Fields on the move more than the sight of Browns pass rushers turning rush paths into express lanes. Bears left tackle Jason Peters had one of those days when he probably wondered why he answered the phone on the fishing boat. You know what? So did we.
Peters looked slow and every bit of 39 years old trying to block 25-year-old Myles Garrett, who dominated the game the way Khalil Mack once did with a career day. Garrett got credit for 4.5 of the Browns' nine sacks. On the other side, Bears right tackle Germain Ifedi alternated looking overmatched and overwhelmed. He was both. The Browns timed blitzes well too, perhaps confusing Fields, but more times than not they simply exploited the offensive line issues that have limited the Bears for years. Maybe the offensive line limited how creative Nagy could be. Or maybe Nagy never will adapt or adjust his scheme to take full advantage of Fields’ skills. Whatever the root cause, the result showed how far the Bears have to go before restoring faith in Nagy to get the best out of Fields.
Way back when, in 2018, in the name of scoring points, the Bears hired an offensive coach to scheme ways to protect a bad offensive line that Pace neglected for too long in drafts and free agency. Then last April, the Bears supposedly drafted a quarterback with enough athleticism and instinct to offset the weakness of that offensive line. Neither Nagy’s scheme nor Fields’ skill set was obvious enough against the Browns, who drove home the difference between NFL playoff contender and wannabe.
Meanwhile, an aggressive, attacking Bears defense still somehow kept the game competitive for three quarters with a relentless pass rush that made Baker Mayfield earn everything the Browns got. And the inspired effort came against one of the NFL’s strongest offensive lines and with a compromised Mack, who left the game briefly with a foot injury but returned. Looking for a silver lining to a dark day? Robert Quinn continued a resurgent season with consistent pressure off the edge. Mario Edwards Jr. made his impact felt immediately with a sack. Inside, Akiem Hicks and Angelo Blackson kept coming the way they have consistently through three games. At times in the first three quarters, it was hard to believe the Bears essentially played the Browns with an injured Mack and without three other projected starters for 2021 – safety Tashaun Gipson, defensive tackle Eddie Goldman and linebacker Danny Trevathan – yet looked like a unit that made every pass play an adventure.
Then the fourth quarter started and fatigue played a factor. Then the bottom fell out and a defense overworked and overtired from carrying the offense buckled. Kareem Hunt, one of the league’s most versatile backs, dashed through Eddie Jackson and the secondary on short passing plays and through the defensive front for a 29-yard touchdown run full of missed tackles that underscored how tired the Bears defense was. Nick Chubb gashed that defense too, reminding everyone what makes Chubb and Hunt perhaps the NFL’s most potent 1-2 backfield combination.
Remember, the Browns also played without clutch receiver Jarvis Landry but welcomed back Odell Beckham Jr. after an 11-month absence due to a torn ACL. Beckham contributed immediately, catching five passes for 77 yards, running a reverse for 10 more and drawing two penalties. Mayfield managed the game well enough to make Bears fans envious of an offensive head coach in Kevin Stefanski successfully figuring out ways to tailor his offensive approach around the abilities on the roster. The Browns represent the finished product the Bears hope to be one day.
It almost seems hard to believe this game once was close enough to debate strategy, but it was.
On fourth-and-2 at the Browns' 29 with 8:45 left in the first quarter, Nagy decided to kick a field goal rather than go for it. The chance to give a rookie quarterback an early lead on the road to finish his first drive with a positive result justified the conservative approach. The momentum didn’t lead anywhere. The offense didn’t do anything, except disappoint, but that early decision made sense. It probably was the highlight of Nagy’s day.
Heck, the most successful offensive play of the game came courtesy of a bad pass interference call, a third-quarter flag on Browns safety John Johnson III for pushing off on Allen Robinson that resulted in a 48-yard gain for the Bears. The play reinforced what good can happen by taking a shot downfield as well as help the Bears tease us briefly into thinking they could rally. Then Nagy rankled analytic devotees by kicking the field goal on fourth-and-2 from the Browns’ 4-yard line late in the third quarter. But, despite what you might have read on Twitter, the beleaguered coach made the correct call under the circumstances.
What makes anybody believe the Bears, with that offensive line, would've gotten the tough yards when necessary after not being able to do so all game long? Instead, Nagy chose wisely to take the gimme field goal and make a game the Bears really had no business winning a one-score deficit entering the fourth quarter.
Eventually, the disparity between the two teams became obvious again. Slowly, the reality began to sink in.
And it is this for the Bears franchise: More than anything, Fields’ first NFL start exposed the need to start over when it comes to Nagy’s approach to play-calling and offensive philosophy. No other conclusion from Sunday matters.
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.