Justin Fields And Matt Eberflus May Have Just Flipped The Script

The talk going into Sunday was loud. Justin Fields and Matt Eberflus looked like two men trudging towards their inevitable dooms. Both struggled from inconsistency, 4th quarter collapses, and an inability to win. Many felt the rematch with the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field would make or break them. Incredibly, both men answered the bell at the perfect time. Fields threw for 223 yards, ran for 58, and delivered two touchdowns, including the beautiful go-ahead strike to D.J. Moore in the second half. Eberflus did his part by revving up a Chicago Bears defense that smothered Jared Goff all afternoon, sacking him four times and picking him off twice.

Chicago steamrolled Detroit in the second half, allowing zero points and scoring 18 unanswered. It exorcised a lot of demons from that painful collapse a few weeks ago at Ford Field. Even more encouraging was the play of so many Ryan Poles draft picks. Gervon Dexter notched his first sack after weeks of close calls. Jaquan Brisker was everywhere, racking up an absurd 17 tackles. Tyrique Stevenson had a pass defense. Roschon Johnson was great in pass protection again. This roster is coming together.

Now, the two men at the top are starting to show their mettle.

Justin Fields and Matt Eberflus silenced a lot of critics.

A month ago, the running joke with them was an inability to execute in the 4th quarter. Fields would suffer from turnovers. Eberflus’ defense couldn’t hold leads. They also couldn’t beat divisional opponents. Now in the space of three weeks, they’ve done all three. Fields overcame two ugly fumbles in Minnesota to engineer a winning field goal drive. That was set up by a big stop by the defense. Then against Detroit, Fields delivered two big TD drives in the second half and didn’t turn it over. Eberflus kept his foot on the gas defensively, hounding Goff until the final whistle.

They’ve now beaten division rivals in two straight games. The Bears are 5-8 and are two painful 4th quarter collapses from being 7-6. This team might be better than people realized. Excitement is building for the first time in what feels like years. Four games remain. Next is a trip to Cleveland against a tough Browns team headlined by their top five defense. Pulling out a win there would set up back-to-back home games against the weak Cardinals and Falcons. There is a serious chance for Justin Fields and Matt Eberflus to pull this team even at 8-8 going into Lambeau Field for the season finale.