Column: ‘Tunnel vision.’ With a clutch completion, Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields finished a sloppy night with a signature win.

On his final pass of a challenging night, Justin Fields knew he had one responsibility, one obligation to his team, one chance to author the ending of Monday’s tense and sloppy game with the Minnesota Vikings.

Make a damn play.

Just make one more play. Of any kind.

That was all Fields needed to do, even with all the pressure that was intensifying — from the Vikings defense, from his own miscues earlier in the fourth quarter, from the weight of so many previous games the Chicago Bears had a chance to win but couldn’t.

Just make a play.

After doing so many things wrong, after again stumbling to the edge of the cliff in a winnable game, the Bears had their final chance to steal a win at U.S. Bank Stadium. The ball was in Fields’ hands near midfield with his team down a point and the clock ticking inside a minute.

On third-and-10, Fields kept his nerves calm and his eyes up. A seven-man protection stonewalled a four-man Minnesota rush. And with the Vikings bailing backward in zone coverage, Fields saw exactly what he wanted — top receiver DJ Moore breaking crisply toward the middle of the field and left alone on his route.

There it was. The play was right there.

“I’m just locked in,” Fields said. “There’s no feeling. It’s just straight tunnel vision locked into that moment.”

From his 43-yard line, Fields ripped a fastball into a huge window. Moore, his eyes as big as dinner plates, couldn’t believe that moment of truth had unfolded so perfectly as Vikings cornerback Camryn Bynum stuck with Tyler Scott on a corner route.

“They left me wide open,” Moore said. “I don’t think that was a smart choice.”

Fields’ pass hit Moore’s hands, numbers high, at the Vikings 26 with no defenders within 4 yards of him. He barreled ahead for 13 more yards to finish the 36-yard completion, positioning the Bears to seal their 12-10 victory.

Three clock-killing kneel-downs followed, and with 10 seconds remaining, Bears kicker Cairo Santos nailed a 30-yard field goal — his fourth of the night — to finish the triumph.

Fields noted that final completion came on a play the Bears offense has felt confident running since the summer.

“We’ve hit that in practice multiple times on our defense and in the two-minute situation,” Fields said. “So it’s just going back to those banked reps and everybody succeeding when we needed to.”

Moore said he was about 10 yards into his route when he got a sense he was about to spring open.

“I was like, ‘Something ain’t right about this,’” he said. “I looked up and was like, ‘Shoot. There’s nobody in the middle. Well, this deep-in is going to be in the middle.’ We connected on it and the rest is history.”

This stands as one of Fields’ most significant moments in the seven games he has won as the Bears starting quarterback.

Technically he entered Monday with two career game-winning drives. But the most recent — in Week 3 last season — was a four-play, 0-yard go-ahead field-goal drive set up by a Roquan Smith interception in a 23-20 win over the Houston Texans.

Two weeks before that, he finished a go-ahead 84-yard touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter of a 19-10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. But heroics in the final minutes? Fields had been late-game tragic far more often than he had produced late-game magic.

Monday’s game seemed headed for a similar and familiar result, too, after Fields lost two fumbles in crucial moments.

The first, on a strip-sack by Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter, prevented the Bears from increasing their lead to two scores with less than 10 minutes remaining. That turnover came four snaps after rookie running back Roschon Johnson had the football punched from his hands. Fortunately for the Bears, center Lucas Patrick recovered that one.

Said Fields: “I said to (Johnson), ‘Ball security is the most important thing right now.’ Then (a few) plays later I fumble.”

The Vikings turned that turnover into the night’s only touchdown with a 77-yard drive punctuated by a 17-yard T.J. Hockenson reception from Joshua Dobbs. That gave the Vikings their first lead.

On the Bears’ next possession, Fields fumbled again, this time at the end of a 6-yard scramble when he was popped by safety Josh Metellus. Anthony Barr dived on it.

Vikings ball. Again. That felt crushing.

“I was sick to my stomach,” Fields said. “I’m not going to lie to you.”

No matter what was going on in Fields’ stomach, he knew his brain had to be cleared. Especially with the Bears defense doing its part, forcing a quick three-and-out and getting the ball back in 59 seconds.

Suddenly the Bears’ seven penalties were irrelevant. The missed opportunities, turning four takeaways by the defense into only three points, didn’t matter. The offense’s sputtering rhythm for much of the night didn’t have to be fatal.

Fields wanted another shot with his concentration dialed in.

“I really just wanted to prove to my teammates that I had their back,” he said. “When you do get that opportunity at the end of the game, everything (that happened) before that is out the window.”

On the first pass of the final drive, Fields extended the play, got outside the pocket and found Moore for 16 yards. He added two runs for 13 yards, then had two helter-skelter incompletions before his longest and most meaningful pass of the night: the one to Moore for 36.

Fields made a play, which helped the Bears produce their most meaningful win of the season.

“(Fields) had a great bounce-back,” said Moore, who finished with 11 catches for 114 yards. “He had the fumbles, but he came back like a true leader does, like somebody on the rise as a young quarterback. He just blocked that out and made that throw.”

Added tight end Cole Kmet: “That’s what this league is. Despite whatever else happens, you have to stay in it. Stay in it, stay in it, stay in it. Then you have to find a way to win at the end.”

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who had one of the Bears’ four interceptions, watched that last drive and the final Fields completion to Moore and loved everything he saw.

“Honestly, this feels a little better considering what (Fields) did after those two turnovers,” Johnson said. “Because that’s disheartening, especially for him wanting to be at the level he knows he can play at.

“But then coming back and making that big throw? I think (it) was bigger than just a game-winning drive. This was about his resilience, being able to stick to it and deliver that ball when and where he needed to.”

Without a terrific defensive effort, of course, the Bears would have been doomed. Yet with the game on the line and few opportunities left, Fields and Moore met the moment. They made a play to win the game.

“We got the finish part down,” Moore said. “Now we can see it. We can touch on it and grasp it. We want to see that more moving forward.”

()

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Previous post Red Sox Extra Innings: Jim Leyland still haunted by David Ortiz’s iconic grand slam
Next post Column: ‘Tunnel vision.’ With a clutch completion, Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields finished a sloppy night with a signature win.