Justin Fields creates some magic on fourth-quarter touchdown run

CHICAGO – It was a “you have to see this” moment.

Justin Fields’ fourth-quarter touchdown run will be on all the highlight reels Sunday night and Monday morning. It was easily the most surprising and most impressive play of his rookie season up to this point.

The only thing disappointing about it was that the Bears lost Sunday’s game to the San Francisco 49ers, wasting such a beautiful effort. The Bears were trailing by a touchdown in the fourth quarter after leading for the entire game up to that point. They needed an answer from their offense.

Faced with a fourth-and-inches at the 49ers 22-yard line, acting head coach Chris Tabor didn’t hesitate to keep the offense on the field. Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor’s play call, however, blew up almost immediately.

The Bears wanted to look for running back Khalil Herbert in the flat to the right, but a 49ers blitz put pressure in Fields’ face almost immediately.

Then the magic happened.

Fields danced past three or four defenders, broke to his left and followed a beautiful block from left tackle Jason Peters all the way to the end zone.

“I’m not gonna lie, that was awesome,” Fields said. “I was excited, as y’all could see.”

Receiver Darnell Mooney, who also helped with a block down the left sideline, didn’t know what was happening behind him. He turned and saw Fields coming his way, which obviously was not the plan.

“I told him like, man, you went nuts on that play, it was crazy,” Mooney said. “He was going back to pee wee days on that one.”

Fields finished his day with 103 rushing yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, easily a career-high day running the ball. He also threw for 175 yards on 19-of-27 passing with a touchdown and interception.

“He gave us a chance and, obviously, he’s a special player,” said acting head coach Chris Tabor, who was filling in for Matt Nagy. “He made nothing into something and got us going there.”

Unfortunately, the offense just didn’t punch the ball into the end zone enough Sunday. They settled for three field goals. The Bears totaled 324 yards on offense and were 8-for-15 on third downs, both of which were positives, but it wasn’t enough.