At this point in my life, all I want is to be entertained. You want a pitchers’ duel, a defensive battle, a chess match? Have at it. Me? I’ll take scoring, the more the better. And I wouldn’t say no to clowns driving tiny cars, either.
I have found the perfect team. The Bears are not great, but they are gritty enough or game enough or dumb enough not to know when they’re being completely outclassed. On Sunday, the Cowboys scored touchdowns on their first four drives, which, as ominous sentences go, is right up there with, “It was a dark and stormy night.”
But the Bears, trailing 28-7 almost before they had rubbed the sleep out of their eyes, bounced back with 10 straight points in the last minute of the first half. That shouldn’t be forgotten. I’ve written more than once that the only thing that matters this season is how much Justin Fields progresses as a quarterback. But there’s something to be said for a team that keeps fighting. The Bears are stubborn, for better or worse. Better or worse can be entertaining, too.
Better was that mini-comeback against one of the better teams in the league. Worse was a 49-29 loss.
Better was the Bears running for more than 235 yards for the third game in a row. Worse was offensive coordinator Luke Getsy still calling run plays when his team was down double digits in the fourth quarter.
Better was Fields running eight times for 60 yards and a touchdown. Worse was the Cowboys sacking him four times.
Best was 29 points against a team that had given up the second-fewest points in the NFL heading into the game. Worst, by far, was the Bears’ defense giving up 442 yards of total offense and allowing Dallas to go 9-of-11 on third downs.
But who am I to complain? If I crave points, I can’t be picky about who supplies them. As I mentioned earlier, the Bears are more determined than talented, so to expect them to go toe to toe with the gifted Cowboys is unreasonable. To be impressed by how the Bears kept battling back is more realistic. You might consider that a low bar, but in August, I thought the season had a chance to be a complete mess. It hasn’t been, as evidenced by the Bears’ 3-5 record.
So, entertainment value: A Fields interception gets wiped out by a roughing-the-passer call late in the first half, leading to a 17-yard touchdown reception by N’Keal Harry. As if that wasn’t enough, Bears safety Eddie Jackson picks off a Dak Prescott pass, leading to a 36-yard field goal by Cairo Santos to end the first half.
“We told the guys at halftime, ‘This is a game,’ ” coach Matt Eberflus said.
And it was, for a while. The Bears cut the Cowboys’ lead to 28-23 on Khalil Herbert’s 12-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. He had fumbled earlier on that drive, but replay overruled it. Thrills and spills are good.
Leaps and bounds: not so good. Later in the quarter, Fields had a chance to save a David Montgomery fumble from being a total disaster. All he had to do was touch the man who had recovered the ball, Micah Parsons. Instead, he jumped over him. It was an incredibly athletic play by the quarterback, and if touchless leapfrog ever becomes an Olympic sport, Fields might have a gold medal around his neck someday. Parsons ran the ball back 36 yards for a score and a 42-23 Dallas lead.
“Just touch him down,” Eberflus said. “… When you see that, you’ve got to touch him down. We know that. That’s part of pro football.”
Touch him? What’s that?
“I can’t tell you the last time I tackled somebody,” Fields said.
Last week, the Bears surprised the Patriots and lots of experts. I can’t tell you why that 19-point victory had more meaning than Sunday’s 20-point loss. With each game, Eberflus and his team reveal a little more about themselves. In the New England game, we saw the Bears show fearlessness and a certain callousness. Those normally are the hallmarks of Bill Belichick-coached teams. In the Cowboys game, we saw the Bears stick to a running game that isn’t supposed to work anymore in the NFL.
The downside was the Bears’ refusal to get pass-happy when they were down big to the Cowboys. It gets back to the importance of Fields’ improving as a passer this season. He’s not going to get better by running the ball or handing it off. His backers will point to his 120.0 passer rating Sunday as proof of excellence. The realists will see that he threw for only 151 yards.
And, yet, all in all, not bad.
I know what an embarrassing double-digit loss looks like. This wasn’t one of them. This was entertainment. I’ll take it.
