More evidence of Justin Fields’ struggles in crunch time come up the further into the numbers you dig. As it was the Chicago Bears’ offense was last in the NFL in points scored in the fourth quarter and we have a big indicator as to why.
The Chicago Bears lost seven games by a touchdown or less during their worst season in franchise history while losing 10 straight games to close out the season. Second-year QB Justin Fields was arguably the main reason why the Bears lost so many close games as he finished with the worst fourth-quarter QB rating in the NFL.
As Brad Biggs pointed out in this early December column fourth quarter comebacks are at an all-time high in the NFL. Yet Justin Fields struggled the most in crunch time a season ago.
“His passer rating in fourth quarters is 53.8, and his interception rate is an unsightly 9.2% as the offense has struggled when forced into obvious passing situations.”
Those fourth-quarter numbers are absolutely abysmal and are yet another indication that if Fields doesn’t improve in a massive way in 2023, it could be his last season in Chicago before the Bears decide to draft Caleb Williams from USC or Drake Maye from North Carolina.
Fields finished out the season according to Football Database with a league-worse 61.3 fourth-quarter passer rating.
On the other side of the ball, the Bears’ defense was 16th in points allowed in the fourth quarter. So as the game wore on, the defense despite its lack of talent got better, whereas the offense got worse. Clearly had the Bears been a better fourth quarter team on offense they would have won more of the seven games that they lost by a TD or less.
Regardless of Justin Fields’ freakish abilities as a runner, and with Fields putting together the greatest rushing season by a QB in the history of the NFL, the Bears still finished with the worst record in the NFL.
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