Bear Down, Nerd Up: Justin Fields runs wild, does something no Bears QB has done in nearly 5 decades

It has been nearly five decades since a Bears quarterback moved like Justin Fields moved Sunday.

The rookie totaled 103 rushing yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, becoming the first Bears quarterback to run for 100 yards since 1973. Since at least 1960, Fields is only the second quarterback to surpass 100 rushing yards for the Bears.

Bobby Douglass did it three times in the ‘70s. Douglass ran for 117 yards on Oct. 15, 1972, against Cleveland. He ran for 127 yards a few months later on Dec. 17, 1972, against Oakland. About a year later, he ran for exactly 100 yards on Nov. 4, 1973, against Green Bay.

Since then, no Bears QB has done it. Until Fields.

Fields became the first Bears quarterback with 175 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in a game since at least 1950, according to NFL.com.

It wasn’t the outcome the Bears wanted, but there was a lot to parse through following Sunday’s 33-22 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. These are the numbers that stood out.

On the run: Fields was running all over the place. He ran for big gains to his right and big gains to his left. His 22-yard rushing touchdown stood out as the play of the game, but really he was doing it all game long.

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, 89 of his 103 rushing yards came on scrambles, as opposed to designed runs. Additionally, he threw the ball well on designed rollouts, going 4-for-4 for 40 yards, including his touchdown pass to tight end Jesse James.

On a 15-yard scramble early in the third quarter, Fields reached a top speed of 20.03 miles per hour. It is his third consecutive game reaching a top speed of 20 miles per hour as a ball carrier. That play in particular was one of the top 20 fastest runs of the week from a ball carrier, per Next Gen Stats. Fields has more runs of 20 miles per hour or more than any other quarterback this season.

Going back to his fourth-quarter touchdown run, from the moment Fields broke the pocket to scramble, the probability of him scoring a touchdown was just 2.3%, according to Next Gen Stats.

“That’s a generational-type run,” Bears quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo said Monday. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”

The score was Fields’ second rushing touchdown of the season. He has a good chance to tie or set the Bears’ rookie quarterback rushing touchdown record, assuming he plays out the remainder of the season healthy. Only Virgil Carter and Joey Sternaman, with four each, had more rushing touchdowns as rookie quarterbacks for the Bears.

Game-changer: Deebo Samuel’s 83-yard scamper changed the complexion of Sunday’s game. Obviously, a lot of things went wrong for the Bears defense on that play.

Per Next Gen Stats’ models, Samuel would typically be expected to gain nine yards after the catch on a play like that. Instead, he gained 87. His 78 yards after the catch above expected was the highest total since Next Gen Stats began tracking such things in 2017. It surpassed Ja’Marr Chase’s 73 “YAC above expected” a week earlier when he took a slant route 82 yards to the house.

Bears safety DeAndre Houston-Carson tracked Samuel down from behind and pushed him out at the 1-yard line, saving a touchdown for the time being. That marked the longest a player ran for a tackle all season. Houston-Carson covered 96.2 yards on the play, per Next Gen Stats. It surpassed Dane Cruikshank’s 94.6-yard tackle for the Titans in Week 5.

First in a while: If Sunday felt like the Bears’ worst defensive game in years, well, statistically it was.

They surrendered 467 total yards in the loss. It was a complete implosion in the second half, when San Francisco marched down the field again and again for quick touchdown drives.

[ Bears defense falls apart in 2nd half against 49ers ]

The Bears had not surrendered 467 total yards in a game since 2018. They came painful close in a Dec. 6 loss to the Detroit Lions last year, surrendering 460 yards. But the last time they allowed 467 yards or more was Oct. 14, 2018, in a loss to the Miami Dolphins.

That day they allowed 541 total yards, but there’s a huge caveat. That game went to overtime. The Dolphins won, 31-28, on a Jason Sanders field goal. Looking back at that game, the Bears allowed 429 total yards in regulation. The rest came in the overtime, during which the Dolphins had two long drives. Miami should’ve won that game with a touchdown on the overtime’s first possession, but Akiem Hicks forced a fumble at the 1-yard line.

Prior to that 2018 overtime game, the Bears had not allowed 467 yards or more since allowing 478 yards in a Week 16 loss to Washington on Dec. 24, 2016. The Bears lost, 41-21, that day with quarterback Matt Barkley throwing five interceptions.

So from a yardage perspective, Sunday’s loss was the worst performance by the Bears’ defense in five years.

It was also just the second time since at least 1940 that a Bears opponent had no punts and no turnovers in a game. The Green Bay Packers did that against the Bears in Week 4 of 2014.