Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bears’ QB hoping progress continues
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Justin Fields was breathing a little easier this week.
The Chicago quarterback finally showed signs of progress by delivering his best performance this season, and the Bears staged a big comeback, only to come up short in the closing minutes.
They hope those promising steps continue when they host the struggling Washington Commanders in tonight’s matchup.
Fields set career highs in completion rate (71.4%) and passer rating (118.8) in a 29-22 loss at Minnesota on Sunday.
The former Ohio State star was 15 of 21 for a season-best 208 yards and a touchdown.
Fields credited the team’s yoga instructor for helping him incorporate breathing exercises the past week or two that he said aided him in staying calm during the game.
“I think just doing that automatically keeps me more calm in the pocket and really just during the game,” he said. “I don’t even like doing pregame speeches because I feel like I’m so much calmer than everybody else. When the defensive guys are all juiced up ready to go, I just try to stay chill the whole time.”
It was an encouraging step for Fields, who ranks at or near the bottom among starting quarterbacks in just about every important passing category. He helped the Bears (23) rally from 18 down against Minnesota to grab a 22-21 lead and had them driving after a late touchdown run by Kirk Cousins that put the Vikings back on top.
That last-gasp effort ended when Ihmir Smith-Marsette failed to get out of bounds and was stripped by cornerback Cameron Dantzler Sr. at the Minnesota 39 after a 15-yard reception.
The Commanders ( 1- 4) come in with four consecutive losses since holding on to beat Jacksonville in their season opener. Tennessee beat them 21-17 last week.
“I feel good about what we have,” Coach Ron Rivera said. “It’s just now a matter of putting it together.”
Even though he threw an interception with 6 seconds left just outside the end zone to seal the Commanders’ 2117 loss to Tennessee, Carson Wentz is still unquestionably their starter.
Rivera, who got into some hot water for saying “quarterback” was the reason his team was behind the NFC East rivals in rebuilding, has shown zero indication he’d even consider benching Wentz, who has thrown 10 touchdowns and six picks this season.
“I think our quarterback has done some good things,” Rivera said. “We chose him because we believe in him. We chose him because we looked at what we felt were things that pointed toward him.”
Wentz showed up on the injury report this week with a shoulder issue that he and Rivera downplayed.