DETROIT — The NFL’s worst passing defense spent all season making lesser quarterbacks look like stars. The Lions gave up 337 passing yards to the Commanders’ Carson Wentz, 341 to the Giants’ Daniel Jones and 317 to the Jets’ Zach Wilson — Zach Wilson! — this year.
On Sunday, with three receivers activated and playing together for the first time in almost a month, Bears quarterback Justin Fields threw for 75.
To get there, he completed 7 of 21 passes, throwing one interception and fumbling once. Fields had another dynamic rushing performance but finished with a 40.8 passer rating.
Of all the disturbing elements of the Bears’ 41-10 loss to the Lions, none stand out as much as the team’s passing attack, which with mercifully one week left in the season, isn’t NFL-caliber. It might not even be NCAA-caliber, given the CFP semifinal performances the night before the Bears ran onto the turf at Ford Field.
The Bears’ franchise-record ninth consecutive loss kept the Bears alive to draft first overall, but only if the Texans win their finale against the host Colts and the Bears lose to the Vikings at Soldier Field. They can finish with no worse than the fourth overall pick.
But make no mistake: the game was a low point in a season of them — even for a franchise that has spent most of its 103 years only casually interested in exploiting the forward pass. Sunday marked the eighth time since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger that a Bears starting quarterback tried 21 passes or more and completed seven or fewer. Of those, only three finished with fewer passing yards than Fields’ 75.
That’s bad enough without counting the seven times Fields was sacked. The quarterback went into the injury tent in the second quarter to massage a sore hip and limped intermittently throughout the game.
Fields admitted his own inability to throw the ball away in some cases while, at the same time, acknowledging the dominance of the Lions’ defensive line.
It was about more than Fields, though. The Bears’ line struggled to block after losing starting right guard Teven Jenkins and replacement Michael Schofield in the first quarter. Receivers struggled to get open, even when the Lions played a base defense against the Bears’ one tight end, one running back personnel.
“Protection. . . .” tight end Cole Kmet said. ‘‘And then when we did have protection, not getting open or not finding those zones.”
The Bears lost 45 yards on sacks, leaving them with 30 net passing yards. Take away Fields’ scrambles, and the Bears averaged a little more than one yard every time they called a pass play.
“The passing game needs to be better,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting chunk plays and giving him time to get chunk plays. And the protection’s got to be there, too.”
Even the best rushing teams need to throw to keep their opponent honest. In the last 10 games, the Bears have thrown for more than 200 yards once.
The Bears need balance next year.
“That’s a big deal for us going forward, something that we gotta find,” said Kmet, who caught the Bears’ only touchdown. “And something that, this last game and going into the offseason, start to hone in on and make sure that becomes a strength of ours.”
They have a long way to go, even with a high draft pick and salary-cap space.
“It’s critical,” center Sam Mustipher said. “You look at the past Super Bowl teams, past playoff teams, they’re able to do both [run and pass].”
The Bears’ pass protection was so poor Sunday, Eberflus and his coaching staff discussed whether or not to keep Fields in the game during the fourth quarter. Eberflus decided giving Fields game experience was worth it, with the quarterback saying he had a “full desire” to play.
“I know that my guys are fighting for me, and they know that I’m fighting for them,” Fields said. “That’s all the motivation I need, so to be honest to you, I don’t care what the scoreboard is. If I have the chance to go out there and play, I’d do it every time, and I’m going to play my hardest.”
He’ll play in the finale, too, with little more at stake than pride and a shot at the NFL’s rushing record for a quarterback. He needs only 64 rushing yards to pass Lamar Jackson’s 1,206 in 2019.
Fields had 105 rushing yards in the first quarter alone, the most of any quarterback in any quarter the last 45 years. It took a trick play — Kmet went under center on third-and-one and pitched to Fields, who ran 31 yards as a halfback — followed by a 60-yard scramble. Fields’ has three 60-yard-plus runs this season, as many as every other NFL quarterback combined the last five years.
He finished with 10 carries for 132 yards.
That’s amazing — but also nothing new.
The Bears figuring out their passing attack would qualify as both.
“I’ve been through tough times before, so my only response is just to keep working, keep getting better, keep learning, keep growing . . .” Fields said. “We’re going to learn and grow from this game and just keep getting better.”
