Packers top Bears 24-14, despite Justin Fields being in the opinion of at least one commentator "potentially" better than Brady or Rodgers

 

The Packers were not exactly “dominant” against the Bears in their 24-14 win, but there is truth in Aaron Rodgers’ boast that he “owns” the Bears, having won 22 of 27 games against them, including his only NFC Championship win. This is better than Brett Favre’s record, who although he won 20 of his first 24 starts against the Bears, was just 2-6 against them his last four seasons with the Packers.

As for the game itself, all five touchdown drives were 75+ yards, meaning the rest of the action was ho-hum. The Bears did nothing to improve their league-worst offense, again finishing with more rushing yards than passing yards. Unlike their previous two victories, they were not facing a bad team (the Lions) or a team in turmoil (the Raiders). Rodgers didn’t have to do much, given the opposition. Randall Cobb was not targeted once in this game, which is just as well, since fantasy statisticians have pretty much given up on any Packer skill player outside of Davante Adams and Aaron Jones, given Rodgers’ predilections.

Having been raised in Wisconsin, I remain a rooter of its sports teams, and that includes the Badger football team. I am thus no fan of Ohio State, although I have to admit that as a Big Ten guy, I wasn’t at all impressed by OSU’s adding losses in the Big-10 bowl game  column the last couple of years, with Justin Fields as their quarterback. Nevertheless, Fields was a good college quarterback, and to be honest, I would have preferred him on our team than Graham Mertz, possibly the most overrated high school quarterback ever, and hardly the “catch” the Badgers thought they were getting.

Watching the game against the Packers, Fields sure looks smaller than his listed height of 6-3. He certainly looked smaller than Russell Wilson, in more ways than height. Thus is it somewhat bizarre to learn that when asked who has the better “upside,” Fields or Trevor Lawrence, ESPN’s Ryan Clark was emphatic that he thinks that Fields is not just better than Lawrence, but he is the “best he’s ever seen”—even potentially better, he says, than Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. Why Clark has this man-crush for Fields is mystifying; in his first start against the Browns, he was 6 of 20 for 68 yards in a 26-6 defeat. Next was a win over the now 0-6 Lions; although 11-17 for 209 yards looks OK, 145 of those yards came on four pass plays, and he still had not thrown a TD pass. Fields wouldn’t throw his first career touchdown until his third start against a Raiders team that was as mentioned in the midst of turmoil, with the revelation of now ex-coach Jon Gruden’s career-killing commentary; the Bears’ offense didn’t need to improve its league-low yardage output, which it didn’t, with Fields throwing for just 111 yards.

The excuses given for Fields unimpressive output by those like Clark is the offensive line—an absurd claim since the Bears have been able to run the ball to make up for Fields’ passing deficiencies—and that the coaching hasn’t used his “special skills,” whatever they are. They were not evident on his first quarter interception, when he just launched a ball toward the end zone with no Bears jersey in sight. Fields did make a few good runs on scrambles late in the game, but he also showed that the defense doesn’t need to play “prevent defense” with him, and an extra man in the rush will leave him looking like a guy who doesn’t know what position he plays. As Rick Telander wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times last week, Fields can't play the way he did in college and expect to stay uninjured, which of course takes away from what Clark considers "special" about him.  It has also been observed that Fields makes poor decisions and has no apparent confidence in making tight throws. Sorry Bears, Fields is not an upgrade over Trubisky, and that is good.

Next week the Packers play the still nameless Washington team at home, one of those teams that wins against bad teams (Giants, Falcons) and loses against everyone else. Their quarterback, Taylor Heinicke, was a backup for three years and now is seeing action as a starter, mainly because Ryan Fitzpatrick is on injured reserve; his performance these past two weeks against the Saints and Chiefs should not scare the Packers.