The Chicago Bears may have not been expecting too much entering their Week 1 game against the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers’ defense posed a tough test for Justin Fields, but it was one that he managed to pass thanks to his skillset.
A flooded Soldier Field set the scene for a lower-scoring game, and Fields was able to use that to his advantage.
Fields used his speed and creativity to work past an awful first half and throw for two touchdowns in the third quarter, including a 51-yard pass to Dante Pettis.
David Haugh and Dan Wieder discussed Fields’ Week 1 performance and his defining moment against the 49ers on Audacy’s “Take The North” podcast.
“I don’t think there’s any question that it’s the 51-yard touchdown pass to Dante Pettis,” Wiederer said of Fields’ defining moment (2:22 in player above). “You go through Justin’s statline here: 8 for 17, 121 yards, sacked twice, one interception, a rating of 85.7. These are not numbers of a winning quarterback most weeks in the NFL.
“The conditions obviously played a role in that, but when you also have that long – it’s a 51 and it’s bolded because it was a touchdown, and it’s the play that on a broken play changed the momentum of the entire game because you were able to make a play outside the pocket and outside the script, and then find a receiver wide open and make that throw across the field. That was the play that changed everything Sunday,” Wiederer continued. “Justin acknowledged that Sunday. Pettis acknowledged it Sunday. Equanimeous St. Brown acknowledged it Sunday. So away they go with a moment like that.”
The 51-yard touchdown wasn’t quite the longest of his career – he connected with Damiere Byrd for a 54-yard score in Green Bay last year – but it was unquestionably the biggest moment of Sunday’s 19-10 win over the 49ers.
“It’s a gimme. And I do want to elaborate on that one little thing, at the risk of getting carried away on the most over-reactive day of the NFL season, the Monday after Week 1, I’ll join in the chorus,” Haugh said. “Look, we had a caller to the ‘Mully & Haugh Show,’ somebody compared what the Bears did to the Ravens in that Justin Fields wasn’t great in the way that Lamar Jackson early in his career wasn’t great but had that one special play that he made happen due to his athleticism, due to his ability to improvise and escape. And I think that 51-yard play, the defining moment if you will, was created by his ability to improvise and escape. No other way around it.
“And I don’t want to call him the future MVP, but I do think that you saw a glimpse on a day where everything else probably didn’t go well,” he continued. “In the first half it was awful. Justin Fields turned around everybody’s day and mood and fortunes with that one play with five and a half minutes left to go in the third quarter, and suddenly it was a different day. Suddenly it was a different game.”
Now, comparing a quarterback that just started his 11th career game to someone like Lamar Jackson may not be fair, but the tools are there.
It wasn’t all positives for Fields in Week 1, as shown by his numbers – especially in the first half – but there were glimpses and moments that he can build on. Fields was able to take advantage after a few 49ers mistakes, including a dropped interception by former Bears defensive back Tashaun Gipson.
“A quarterback with a killer’s mentality finds a way to make that play in that moment, and he did,” Wiederer said. “Obviously, the throw itself was easy – you or I could’ve completed that pass across the field, 30 yards downfield to a guy as open as that – but you still got to get yourself the room and Justin got out of the pocket, used his speed – which is a weapon – to buy some time and some peace of mind, really, that speed gets you peace of mind when you get on the run like that, and now you’ve cleared some extra space for yourself and you can make a good throw that’s on target and that doesn’t sail or it doesn’t bounce and all of a sudden you’ve got a guy on the run.”
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