Improving Bears QB Justin Fields still chasing Packers’ Jordan Love
Jordan Love (right) threw for 245 yards and had a 123.2 passer rating (three touchdowns, no interceptions), while Justin Fields (left) threw for 216 yards and had a 78.2 passer rating (one touchdown, one interception) in the Packers 38-20 victory over the Bears in the 2023 season opener at Soldier Field.
Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Hours after Justin Fields exhilarated Bears fans with an efficient, error-free performance against the Falcons that was so convincing, it elicited an emphatic “We want Fields” chant, Packers quarterback Jordan Love was even better, in a bigger game, on a bigger stage and in a more difficult environment Sunday night.
With the Packers’ playoff hopes on the line against the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday Night Football, Love took his game to an Aaron Rodgers-like level — throwing for 256 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions for a 125.3 passer rating, and adding a two-yard touchdown run to spark a 33-10 wire-to-wire rout.
And in doing so, Love reached a couple of statistical levels that were footnotes in Green Bay but surely reverberated in Chicago. The three touchdown passes gave him 30 for the season — more than any Bears quarterback has thrown in a season in the 104-year history of the franchise (one more than Erik Kramer’s 29 in 1995). And the 256 passing yards gave him 3,843 for the season — also more than any Bears quarterback has thrown for in the 104-years history of the franchise (five more than Kramer’s 3,838 in 1995).
It’s an all-too-typical scenario for Bears fans. Just as an improving Fields seems to be showing signs of being the franchise quarterback the Bears have been searching decades for, Love and Packers coach Matt LaFleur provided a reminder that the bar for winning quarterback play needs to be a little bit higher than it is in Chicago.
The Bears will take a win any way they can get it against the Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field. But winning because they had the better quarterback would be a nice boost for Bears fans heading into what figures to be a promising offseason of not just hope, but expectation for the Bears.
For now, Fields vs. Love is an ongoing, developing facet to the Bears-Packers rivalry. The Packers were playing from strength when they acquired Love — drafting him in the first round (26th overall) in 2020, with Rodgers still playing a high level. The Bears were typically chasing when they acquired Fields — with former general manager Ryan Pace moving up nine spots in the 2021 draft to desperately take Fields at No. 11 after Mitch Trubisky failed as the No. 2 overall pick in 2017.
Fields is physically superior and with his running ability, escapability and strong arm and arguably has the higher ceiling. But Love has had the advantage of being with the right organization at the right time.
Fields was supposed to sit behind veteran Andy Dalton as a rookie, then ended up starting 10 games in Matt Nagy’s failed offense in 2021. When Nagy was fired, Fields started all over again in 2022 under offensive coordinator Luke Getsy — a former Packers quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator.
It’s been a slog, but at least with some progress in six games since Fields returned from a thumb injury. Still, it’s progress by Bears standards. In the last six games that seem to have convinced Bears fans that Fields is the guy, Fields is averaging a modest 202.2 yards per game with a modest five touchdown passes with three interceptions for a modest 80.9 passer rating.
Love has had his own up-and-down season, but seems to be benefiting from a proven apprenticeship plan — three years behind Rodgers — and being in a proven system with an established coach.
After torching the Bears for three touchdown passes in a 38-20 victory in the opener and throwing three more touchdowns against the Falcons in Week 2, Love hit a seven-game skid — a 72.5 passer rating with eight touchdowns and 10 interceptions — as the Packers went 2-5.
Since then, Love has been exceptional in the Packers’ last seven games — 262 yards per game, 16 touchdowns, just one interception and a 109.9 passer rating, as the Packers went 5-2.
Love is either the better quarterback or in the better system with the better coaching. Maybe all three. It’s up to Fields and Getsy to change that narrative Sunday night.