These 4 Bears deserve game balls despite embarrassing loss to Broncos

The Chicago Bears were 15 minutes away from their first win of the 2023 season in Week 4, and what a fun, dominant win it would have been.

Unfortunately, this poorly coached team allowed the Denver Broncos to score 24 unanswered points and steal a 31-28 victory at Soldier Field.

It’s difficult to process what happened in that fateful fourth quarter, but the loss can boil down to one horrendous decision. On 4th-and-one, at Denver’s 18-yard line, with less than three minutes remaining in a tie game, the Chicago Bears tried to get the Broncos to jump offsides. It didn’t work, so coach Matt Eberflus burned a timeout and ultimately decided to go for it. It was a run play to Khalil Herbert, who was stuffed short. The Bears turned the ball over on downs instead of taking the lead with Cairo Santos’ leg.

Before I get to the game balls, I must emphasize that the Eberflus and Luke Getsy experiment is over. They have utterly failed this team and its fans. Eberflus is 3-18 as the head coach, currently overseeing the franchise’s longest losing streak, and has now given up the franchise’s biggest single-game collapse.

Eberflus is supposed to be a defensive guru, yet his team is surrendering 28.6 points per game in his 21 games as the Bears’ head coach. The last time they held an opponent to less than 20 points was their last win on October 24th of last year.

Fire Eberflus. Fire Getsy. I don’t care that the Bears have never fired a coach midseason before, nor do I care who replaces them. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that new team president Kevin Warren has to send a message, and the message is that you won’t tolerate these historically bad results.

Rant over. Let’s get to some game balls.

Justin Fields (sort of)

Given the pathetic state of the Broncos’ defense, this game would always have an asterisk next to it. It’s great that Fields finally had a 300-yard, four-touchdown passing performance. It was easily the best game of his career. And bravo to him for setting a franchise record of 16 consecutive completions. But this is one good game this season, and it came against a team that gave up 70 points a week ago.

Furthermore, we have to talk about the fourth-quarter turnover bug that Fields has. The fumble that led to the game-tying touchdown was a backbreaker. Fields should have adjusted the protections during his pre-snap reads, another concern about his game, but he also should have tucked the ball and taken the sack.

The No. 1 rule for a quarterback is never to make a bad play worse, and turning a sack into a defensive touchdown is the textbook definition of that.

The interception was not as bad, but in his post-game press conference, Fields admitted that Cole Kmet ran the route as he was supposed to. Fields threw the ball, expecting Kmet to do something different. He described it as “just play football.”

I’m tired of these back-breaking fourth-quarter turnovers from Fields, but he played a phenomenal game before the final five minutes, so I’m reluctantly giving him a game ball.

Cole Kmet

Another day, another multiple-touchdown game for Kmet.

Like the rest of the offense, Kmet started the season slowly, but on Sunday, he reminded everyone why he’s the first player general manager Ryan Poles gave a handsome contract extension to stay in Chicago.

He finished with seven receptions for 85 yards and two touchdowns. That’s now ten career touchdowns for the kid from Arlington Hills.

DJ Moore

Moore had his best game so far as a Bear, registering eight catches for 131 yards and a touchdown, his second as a Bear. Seven of his catches were for a first down, plus the touchdown, meaning every time he caught the ball, he made an impact play. That’s big, and I don’t want that to get lost in all the other narratives around this team. Moore is an impact player, and I hope he stays in Chicago for many years to come.

Khalil Herbert

A banner day for the first-year starter at running back, Herbert carried the rock 18 times for 103 yards, and he added 19 yards on four catches plus a receiving touchdown.

I’ll admit that I was calling for Roschon Johnson to be the starter after just a couple of games into the season, but Herbert is doing a commendable job fending off the rookie.

Terrell Smith

With so many injuries in the Chicago Bears’ secondary, the fifth-round rookie cornerback from Minnesota made his first start in Week 4. He finished with five tackles, including a tackle for a loss and a pass breakup.

Playing on a defensive unit that has thus far been a complete and utter embarrassment, I wanted to make sure the young rookie got some props for playing well in a bad situation.

Honorable Mentions: Zacch Pickens got his first sack as a pro today, splitting a sack with Domonique Robinson.

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