LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 10: Head coach Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears celebrates a win against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on October 10, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Getty Images)
In a team meeting Monday, Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus talked to players about what worked in their three wins over the past six weeks.
The Bears didn’t turn the ball over and took it away five times. They sacked the quarterback and protected their own. Eberflus praised the run defense and rushing offense in this six-game stretch, along with the team’s success on third downs on offense and defense.
What happens next? The last seven games of the 2023 season. To win as many games as possible, Eberflus and the coaching staff will focus on what the club has done well while improving what it hasn’t.
Meanwhile, upstairs, chairman George McCaskey, president/CEO Kevin Warren, and general manager Ryan Poles may have the luxury of viewing the season’s finish through the lens of 2024. Change is on the way. It may be as significant as a new quarterback and head coach. It might be kept to a minimum by conventional free-agent and draft acquisitions, as well as coaching turnover. But something has to change for a squad that is looking at another last-place finish in the division.
Poles might already have an answer to this. Justin Fields has made 21 starts. He’s witnessed tremendous performances — the first half against the Denver Broncos and the victory against the Washington Commanders — as well as many more games in which Fields battled.
The inconsistency, the impending decision on a fifth-year option, and the potential of selecting a quarterback with the Carolina Pathers’ draft pick may make this a done deal. Perhaps there is nothing Fields can do in the next seven games to alter his trajectory in Chicago.
But the thing about Fields, which has made the last two and a half seasons so frustrating at times, is his potential. The talent is there. It just hasn’t been released on a weekly or even quarterly basis. Eberflus described Fields’ Week 5 victory as his best performance.
“You can absolutely look back on that game, and oh, that was a great game to see,” Eberflus remarked. “He did an excellent job of managing that game, delivering on our skill and allowing those guys to run throughout the game.”
Could Fields do it for seven weeks in a row? Is that what it would take to persuade Poles to spend his first two selections on players who can complement, rather than replace Fields? Regardless, Fields’ tale in Chicago is far from over. He has at least seven games to shift the narrative. The trouble is that there hasn’t been much data to suggest that we should expect such a series of successes.
