CLEVELAND — If the Bears’ offense is going to do anything this season, quarterback Justin Fields must rise above his imperfect circumstances.
For the first time this preseason, he showed he’s good enough to do that.
The Bears were looking for some signal from Fields that he’s ready for the season, which opens in two weeks, and he sent it with three touchdown drives in the Bears’ 21-20 win over the Browns in the preseason finale Saturday.
It got off to a rocky start, and concerns about the offensive line persisted throughout the first half, but Fields delivered nonetheless and exited shortly before halftime after completing 14 of 16 passes for 156 yards with three touchdowns and no turnovers for a 146.9 passer rating. The Bears were up 21-3.
It was by far his most extensive and impressive work of the preseason, though it is worth noting that the Browns held out six defensive starters.
Pretty much everything that everyone frets about for the Bears flared up on Fields’ second possession, but he pushed through it to lead an 80-yard drive that he stamped with a touchdown on a sharp 22-yard throw to tight end Ryan Griffin.
The pressure was constant, Griffin negated a 24-yard run by David Montgomery with a holding penalty and Fields took a hard shot from defensive end Alex Wright while sliding at the end of a nine-yard scramble. But Fields made all the right plays to keep the offense moving.
Big gains are nice, and he had several, but it was equally important that Fields was sharp on the more modest, basic plays that are essential to a legitimate offense.
On a first-and-20 near midfield, he hit Dante Pettis on a quick pass for 14 yards that got the drive back on track. Two plays later, with pressure coming from his left against tackle Braxton Jones and guard Cody Whitehair, Fields held his footing in the pocket and hit Griffin in the end zone as two defenders arrived late.
He followed with a five-play, 52-yard series ending on a 12-yard touchdown pass to Dante Pettis near the left sideline of the end zone. All three of Fields’ scoring drives began in Bears territory and took no longer than 4:01.
Even amid the offensive line’s struggles, the overall scheme looked functional. That’s a step forward from where the Bears left off last season under Matt Nagy, who put Fields in a terrible spot when he made his starting debut in Cleveland last season.
Receivers and running backs often had plenty of space to maneuver on short passes, and tight end Cole Kmet was so open on Fields’ third touchdown pass that he almost came to a complete stop as he watched the ball sailing to him in the end zone.
A big part of that play working so well was Fields drawing the defense in by rolling to his right, then sending the ball over their heads to Kmet. That’s an advantage offensive coordinator Luke Getsy intends to make frequent use of this season.
Still, the offensive line could undercut what Fields seems to have going for him. All the work he put in to fix his footwork and Getsy’s effort to maximize his skills in a tailored offense won’t matter if he never has time. And considering the protection was that shaky on a night when the Browns rested fearsome pass rushers Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney, that could be a real pitfall.
Fields can’t insist that everything be perfect for him to thrive. Any quarterback could succeed in that scenario. He’s supposed to be a game changer. But there’s a point at which anyone would acknowledge it’s asking too much for him to overcome a faltering offensive line.
On the Bears’ opening possession, Montgomery got stopped for a loss running behind right tackle Larry Borom then barely made it back to the line of scrimmage behind recently transplanted right guard Teven Jenkins. Wright ripped through both of them to knock Fields down as he threw incomplete on third-and-11.
The offense could look like that, too.
General manager Ryan Poles, who has expertise in line play, maintained throughout the offseason that he had adequately overhauled the unit despite no splashy free-agent acquisitions or high draft picks. And while the line is playing without starting center Lucas Patrick as he recovers from a broken thumb, his anticipated return for the opener won’t magically change everything.
It takes a lot of faith at this point to believe that Poles has properly fortified the offensive line, and as a first-time general manager, he doesn’t have enough of a track record to justify that belief.
The same questions linger with the Bears’ passing targets, too, though Fields seems to be comfortable with Darnell Mooney and Kmet as his top two options.
There’s nothing more pivotal for the Bears this season than deciding with certainty whether Fields is their quarterback of the future. And it’s going to be on him to prove he can navigate the various dangers headed his way.
