Chicago Bears defense didn’t give QB Justin Fields ‘enough help’

CHICAGO – Jaylon Johnson’s man had him beat by two steps. On an afternoon when the Miami Dolphins totaled 302 net passing yards, there was a lot of that happening Sunday at Soldier Field.

This time, though, late in the fourth quarter, Johnson put his hands up at the perfect time to deflect a pass from Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa intended for receiver Jaylen Waddle.

“[It was] really just keeping my composure,” Johnson said. “Seeing that the ball was short through his body language, then putting my hands up where I thought the ball was coming.”

The pass break up gave the Bears’ defense its third stop in a row, and a crucial one. It allowed Justin Fields and the offense to have one more crack at the Dolphins’ defense. Ultimately, the Dolphins stopped Fields and held on for a win, 35-32.

But the fact that the Bears stopped the Dolphins at all was notable, especially since they couldn’t stop anything throughout the first three quarters of the game.

The Bears were playing their first game since trading star linebacker Roquan Smith to the Baltimore Ravens, and their second game since trading Pro Bowl pass rusher Robert Quinn to the Philadelphia Eagles. Both absences leave big holes. The Bears defense had no sacks and only two QB hits Sunday.

On their first five offensive possessions of the game, the Dolphins scored four touchdowns. They also scored on a blocked punt on special teams. Tagovailoa finished his day with 302 yards and three touchdowns on 21-of-30 passing. Receiver Tyreek Hill ripped apart the defense with 143 yards and a touchdown on seven catches. The Bears couldn’t find an answer for Hill, who has already passed 1,000 yards on the season in only nine games.

Meanwhile, the Bears’ offense was moving the ball effectively. Fields’ 178 rushing yards marked a regular season NFL record for a quarterback.

“Just give him some help,” Johnson said. “I felt like we didn’t give him enough help in the first half.”

Miami held leads of 11 points twice and led by 10, 35-25, late in the game, but the Bears defense somehow found three consecutive stops, and two crucial ones in the fourth quarter.

With 11:42 to play, Fields hit tight end Cole Kmet for his second touchdown of the game, pulling within three points. On the Dolphins’ following possession, Bears safety Eddie Jackson was called for pass interference on a questionable penalty, which wound up flipping the field position 47 yards for Miami.

“[The ref] said he didn’t see me playing the ball,” Jackson said. “I mean, I didn’t look at the receiver one time, so I don’t know what he was seeing, but I was playing the ball the whole time.”

The Bears regrouped and stopped the Dolphins on a fourth-and-1 play a short while later, but flipping the field position at that point in the game made it much more difficult on the Bears offense.

“It’s like everything, you can agree to disagree,” Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said. “From my vantage point, it looked like a clean play. I wasn’t all the way over there on the other side. … They thought it was [a penalty] and that was their opinion.”

When the Bears couldn’t move the chains, they punted back to Miami with just over three minutes remaining. It was a calculated risk for Eberflus, who had all three timeouts plus the two-minute warning remaining. That’s when Johnson came up with his big pass break up on third down.

“Like I told the guys in the locker room, keep working, keep having determination, get tighter as a group,” Eberflus said. “We’re building the football team and they understand that. I know everybody was disappointed, but we were right in it at the end. Those experiences are invaluable for our football team.”

Unfortunately for this young Bears’ team, it was another learning moment, but not in a win.