Records Both Old and Modest

Somehow, the Bears beat an average team Thursday night, topping the Commanders by a score of 40-20. I am here to throw water on anyone excited by a 1-4 start or quarterback Justin Fields’ performance. Oh, Fields had a nice game, throwing for 282 yards and four touchdowns. Now, remember that Bears’ game I mentioned from 1970? Jack Concannon also threw four touchdowns that cold, sunny afternoon in Wrigley Field while racking up 338 yards in the process. Plus Concannon ran for a touchdown. My point? One game does not a quarterback make. But I hope this indicates what Fields can do and will be doing over the remainder of the season. He’s serious and takes responsibility, almost to a fault. Fields also threw for four touchdowns against the Broncos on Sunday, so it could be more than a fluke. Then again, Concannon threw for three touchdown in his next game, and we don’t exactly talk about him in the same breath as his teammates Dick Butkus and Gayle Sayers, now do we? If the past is prologue in sports, then the Bears will fumble things with Fields the way they did Mitch Trubisky and virtually every quarterback who’s had the misfortune of lining up behind center for the Munsters. It’s what the Bears do, that alternating runs up the middle with bubble screens. Fields found D.J. Moore for eight catches Thursday totaling 230 yards (and three touchdowns), the second-most by a Bears’ receiver in team history. Alshon Jeffery tops the list with 249 yards against the Vikings back in 2013. Consider that those 249 yards by Jeffrey rank 32nd all-time in the NFL. Also consider that Jeffrey heads a top-five list that includes Harlon Hill (1954) and Johnny Morris (1961). That’s sixty-nine and sixty-two years ago, respectively. In the NFL, you can’t win without passing, and the Bears have been loath to pass the ball from their 1920s’ start. Either Justin Fields in these last two games has dragged the Team That Halas Built into the 21st century, or he had himself a Jack Concannon run of luck. It’s asking a lot of Fields to undo so much of what the Bears have always done. I want him to succeed but can’t help but feel that the deadweight of Bears’ history will defeat him.