Bears waste Justin Fields’ flicker of progress as Vikings strip them for 29-22 victory

Justin Fields had the Bears moving into scoring range in the final minutes, but Vikings cornerback Cam Dantzler stripped wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette to seal the win for Minnesota.

SHARE Bears waste Justin Fields’ flicker of progress as Vikings strip them for 29-22 victory
A photo of Bears quarterback Justin Fields running with the ball against the Vikings.

After little production in the first half, Fields and the Bears rallied in the second.

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MINNEAPOLIS — Justin Fields offered a glimpse of what he has the potential to become as he led the Bears back from a huge deficit Sunday against the Vikings. It was the first flicker of the precious progress they’ve been desperate to see.

He was finally good. It was overdue, certainly, but there was a legitimate spark of hope. Until the Bears snuffed it out, as they seemingly always do.

This time, their undoing came at the hands — literally — of little-known receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette. He made his first catch of the season as the Bears drove in the final minutes, but cornerback Cam Dantzler ripped the ball from him to seal a 29-22 victory for the Vikings.

Fields shook off a rough first half to complete 12 of 13 passes for 135 yards and a touchdown in the second. He finished 15-for-21 for 208 yards overall, giving him a career-best 118.8 passer rating, and he looked more comfortable and confident than he had all season.

‘‘I would say so,’’ Fields said. ‘‘Just, like, trying to stay calm. When I first got here, you see big guys flying around, D-linemen going fast. You think you have to speed everything up, but I’m just starting to figure out you’ve gotta play within your own rhythm.’’

He was the catalyst for the Bears’ comeback, part of the solution rather than the problem.

With Fields at his best, it would have been compelling to see whether he could lift the Bears to victory after they fell behind 21-3 early. Their final drive would have been exactly the scenario in which the Bears need to see what he can do.

‘‘We had plenty of time, so it was going good,’’ Fields said. ‘‘We were moving efficiently, so who knows what would’ve happened?’’

Maybe he makes an unforgettable play to win it. Maybe the Bears reach into their infinite repertoire of debacles and invent some novel way to lose. That’s all left to the imagination.

Fields pushed the Bears into Vikings territory on a short pass to Smith-Marsette near the left sideline. But rather than duck out of bounds, Smith-Marsette tried to keep dodging and advancing. He stiff-armed Dantzler at the Vikings’ 45-yard line but had zero awareness that Dantzler had popped back up and was chasing him down.

Had he stepped out after shaking Dantzler’s initial attempt, the Bears would’ve been at the 42-yard line with 1:07 left and a timeout.

‘‘I lost track of him,’’ Smith-Marsette said. ‘‘In those situations, you’ve just gotta be smarter. . . . I should’ve just went out of bounds. Knowing you have a chance to potentially tie the game or even win it if we go for two, it’s tough when you’re the one that let the team down.’’

It’s the price the Bears are paying for general manager Ryan Poles inadequately supplying Fields with players who can facilitate his development. Fields has struggled, and when he finally got rolling, this is where the offense got shipwrecked.

The unproven crew of receivers and the shaky offensive line have been concerns since March, and there’s a straight line from those choices to Fields throwing with the game on the line to a receiver they claimed off waivers from the Vikings.

Dantzler’s strip of Smith-Marsette will be the lasting snapshot, but the Bears had other shortfalls.

They committed a delay-of-game penalty on their first snap, breaking the huddle with 10 players as fullback Khari Blasingame ran onto the field late. And no one could explain it.

‘‘That’s just not cool,’’ receiver Darnell Mooney said. ““I have no idea. . . . Maybe somebody was hurt? I don’t know what happened. I really don’t know.’’

Anybody?

‘‘I’m not sure,’’ Fields said. ‘‘That should never happen. We go over the first 10 plays at the walkthrough. . . . I don’t know if [Blasingame] forgot or it was a coach’s [mistake]. I just broke the huddle, looked out there and he wasn’t out there. So, yeah, that’s definitely frustrating.’’

How about coach Matt Eberflus? If anyone should know, it’s him.

‘‘Yeah, that’s not good ball,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got to be on point there. That’s just not good.’’

That’s how it always is with the Bears: Everything’s wrong, but no one can say why. Somehow, everyone is supposed to just trust them to get it straightened out.

The Bears self-sabotaged to begin the second quarter, too, when center Sam Mustipher snapped the ball before Fields was ready and it hit him in the gut. Fields lunged on it, and that was effectively the end of the possession. The Bears lost a few more yards and punted.

They also lost points early in the fourth quarter, trailing 21-19, when Fields had a 52-yard touchdown run negated by a flag on Smith-Marsette for an illegal block on Dantzler.

‘‘He flopped,’’ Smith-Marsette said.

Dantzler flailed his arms theatrically, but it was a valid block-in-the-back call.

‘‘Just gotta move on,’’ Fields said.

He did, nudging the Bears into field-goal range for Cairo Santos to convert from 51 yards and put them up 22-21.

That was as far as Fields got. He delivered what Eberflus called ‘‘one of the best days of his career,’’ but that performance sank amid the various deficiencies around him. And that was the one thing the Bears couldn’t allow to happen this season.

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