For several reasons, the Chicago Bears' 12-7 loss to Washington on Thursday night was a frustrating game for Justin Fields. Along with leading his offense to just one score, Fields sustained numerous hits throughout the loss, which resulted in the Bears quarterback aggravating a previous injury to his left shoulder.
"I'm hurting," Fields said after the game. "I'm hurting pretty good, but I got a long weekend, so I'll have some extra time to heal up."
It doesn't appear the injury will impact Fields' availability going forward. Chicago has a full 10 days before its next game -- a road matchup with New England. Fields says his shoulder issue was preexisting, and that he "hurt it a while back."
Fields surely woke up sore on Friday morning after enduring five sacks and countless other hits on Thursday night. It's also fair to assume that the second-year quarterback is still frustrated after the Bears came up short for a third straight game, dropping their record to 2-4.
"Finish. That's it. That's the gist of the whole game," Fields said when asked what he and his teammates can do to get back on track. "We didn't finish. I missed a wide open touchdown pass. ... The last play, couldn't finish it. There's multiple plays in the game that we could have made to, you know, change the whole game, but the summary of it all is that we didn't finish. It doesn't matter if you drive all the way down to the five 1-yard-line and don't score. ... The biggest thing is just finishing."
As he alluded to, Fields was unable to execute on several plays Thursday night, most notably his overthrow to teammate Ryan Griffin in the end zone at the start of the second quarter. The Bears came away with no points on the drive after Khalil Herbert was stuffed on a fourth-and-goal play two plays later.
"He probably could have ran a little bit more, but he's wide open," Fields said. "I gotta hit that. I'm an NFL quarterback. I gotta hit that."
Despite squandering several scoring opportunities, the Bears still had a chance to win the game after Fields took off on a 39-yard run that gave Chicago a first-and-goal from the 5-yard-line with 52 seconds left. But similarly to their previous two trips to the red zone, the Bears again came up empty when Fields' fourth-down pass to Darnell Mooney was completed just short of the goal line.
Fields doesn't regret his decision to throw to Mooney despite David Montgomery being open on the play.
"Montgomery's the fifth read on that play," Fields said. "In reality, if I'm being real with you, there's a five percent chance you're going to get that to him. ... Mooney was open. Like I said before, just gotta finish."
There were times where Fields and his offensive teammates did have success, including Fields' impressive 40-yard touchdown pass to Dante Pettis that gave the Bears the lead going into the fourth quarter. As far as final stats are concerned, the Bears had more first downs and outgained the Commanders 392-214 in total yards. Chicago churned out 238 rushing yards on 37 carries, with Fields leading the way with 88 yards.
While there were some positives to take away from the game, the Bears ultimately came up on the losing end, which didn't sit well with Fields and his teammates in the moments following Chicago's most recent defeat.
"Everybody's feeling this way," Fields said. "Everybody's mad. I mean, nobody's happy about this loss. You know, we always get told that we're almost there. We're almost there. Like, me personally, I'm tired of being almost there. I'm tired of just (being) this close. Feel like I've been hearing it for so long now. But at the end of the day, all you can do is get back to work. That's the only reaction you have. Live and you learn. Get back next week and keep going. Keep getting better."