Getty Justin Fields of the Chicago Bears walks off the field after a loss against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field on December 20, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois.
Anyone who has watched the Chicago Bears play over the last several seasons knows the team has been lacking in the discipline department.
Chicago has lost eight of its last nine games, most recently falling to the Minnesota Vikings, 17-9, Week 15. The Bears had nine penalties for 91 yards in the loss, many of which were drive-killers for the offense. When he was asked about the team’s mistakes during the game, which included some bad sacks and an ugly fumble from him, rookie quarterback Justin Fields had some sobering things to say.
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Fields Takes Accountability for Own Errors
In the first quarter in Chicago’s loss to Minnesota, Fields took off running with the ball, and Vikings CB Cameron Dantzler knocked it out of the rookie’s hand easily. It was the first of many miscues, and one of three Bears fumbles on the night.
Cam Dantzler with the forced fumble on Justin Fields 💪
When asked why the Bears didn’t do well in the red zone or the game in general, Fields didn’t hold back. “Shooting ourselves in the foot,” the rookie said on December 20. “I think we did that, starting with me, with the fumble in the first quarter. I think we just have to correct those things, correct the self-made mistakes and get rid of them, and I think we win the ballgame tonight.”
The Bears had the eight-fewest penalties head coach Matt Nagy’s first season in 2018 (97), but they’ve gotten progressively worse ever since, netting 103 penalties in 2019, which was 11th fewest in the league, and 88 in 2020, which was down in number but ranked 15th-most in the NFL. This season, Chicago already has had 91 yellow flags thrown in its direction, which is currently 11th-most in the league.
Fields admitted he is one of the players who needs to work on ball security and eliminating mistakes.
“That’s been the story,” he added. “That’s been the story of the year for sure. It’s just shooting ourselves in the foot. Once we eliminate those penalties, sacks on my part where I should just throw the ball away, throw the ball down to the ground, once we eliminate those, then we start seeing more points come up on the board and more success from the whole team.”
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Fields’ Comments About Lack of Discipline Speak Volumes
Fields was also asked if the frequent penalties still happening so far into the team’s season frustrated him, and the 22-year-old QB’s answer suggests an eye-opening lack of discipline at Halas Hall under Nagy’s watch:
“Yeah, it’s frustrating at this point, especially with the false starts and just everything,” Fields said. “We’re going to have to come up with something, a punishment during practice, run a lap or something. That’s what we did at Ohio State. If you jumped offsides you ran the whole lap, I don’t care who you are. They even had me running laps if I would do something wrong. We’re going to have to do something to fix that, and I know whatever that is, I know everybody is going to be on board with it and we’re going to get it fixed.”
Oof. It sounds like there has been a complete lack of accountability for players — and it’s not a good look for the sure-to-be-departing Nagy to have his rookie quarterback casually mention he played on a more disciplined team in college under Ohio State coach Ryan Day.
For his part, Nagy at least seems to know he’s a huge reason for the team’s lack of discipline.
“It starts with me, and it ends with me,” Nagy said on Dec. 20. “I accept complete responsibility for that, and I think that’s important to understand. You learn a lot through this process.”
Fields calling for more accountability is encouraging for the team, because that’s something all good leaders do — but it’s certainly a damning indictment of Nagy.
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