Another important moment for Justin Fields again comes without an important Chicago Bears win: ‘When you talk about the growth for him, that’s a moment’

After kicker Chris Boswell made a 52-yard field goal to put the Pittsburgh Steelers up by six points late in the fourth quarter Monday night at Heinz Field, Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy looked down the sideline at Justin Fields.

The Bears rookie quarterback was smiling.

“My mindset was like, ‘It’s time. We’re here,'” Fields said. “You can be the guy who always gets put in that position and doesn’t show up. Or you can be that guy who shows up in big moments. That’s what my mindset was. I was just calm and focused on showing up.”

Over the next 1 minute, 6 seconds on the play clock, Fields showed up.

He led the Bears on a seven-play, 75-yard drive, capped by a 16-yard touchdown pass to Darnell Mooney to take the first Bears lead of the game.

When wide receiver Allen Robinson beat Steelers cornerback Arthur Maulet down the right sideline, Fields launched a deep ball for a 39-yard pass to get the Bears to the 16. On the next play, when Mooney separated from Maulet in the end zone, Fields hit him with the touchdown pass.

Like Fields’ 22-yard touchdown run a week earlier against the San Francisco 49ers, it was an important moment for a rookie who is just beginning his collection of them. And like a week earlier, its impact on the game was fleeting.

The Bears defense again collapsed in the end, allowing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to march the Steelers into field-goal range, where Boswell made a 40-yarder that gave the Steelers a 29-27 victory.

With 26 seconds to play, Fields had one more chance to show up. And with a pair of passes to Cole Kmet, he got the Bears into Steelers territory, close enough for Cairo Santos — who had made a franchise-record 40 straight field goals — to attempt a 65-yarder.

Santos’ kick fell short, and Fields was left with a significant performance — including 291 passing yards — but without the significant victory.

“For him to follow through with that and make those plays he made, it was a really, really good feeling on the sideline,” Nagy said. “When you talk about the growth for him and the offense and our team in general, that’s a moment.

“But in the end, we lost. When you’re in the locker room right there, this is a team game, and that’s what our guys care about. That’s what we care about, and we’ve got to figure it out.”

Nagy was hoarse as he stepped to the podium in the small media interview room after the game, the emotional swings of the thwarted comeback seemingly leaving him drained.

Yes, the Bears offense made progress in the second half, finishing with season highs of 414 yards and 27 points.

But a lot more has to be done for this team to climb out of its four-game losing streak when it returns from the bye week to host the Baltimore Ravens in two weeks.

Fields completed just five passes in the first half — including only one pass to a wide receiver, a 3-yarder to Robinson on the first drive. The Bears committed 12 penalties for 115 yards. And a defense playing without starters Khalil Mack, Eddie Jackson and Alec Ogletree followed up games in which it gave up 38 points to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and 33 points to the 49ers with the 29-point Steelers outing.

“(Fields) stepped up and made a lot of plays, A-Rob as well, Mooney, all those guys, and honestly and truly, we let those guys down,” inside linebacker Roquan Smith said.

Fields said he will spend the bye week getting away to rest mentally and physically.

But he also will be able to reflect on the positives he has started to put together after seven games as starter. On Monday, one of those positives was connecting on more deep passes.

That included a 50-yarder to Marquise Goodwin on a third-quarter drive that ended in a Santos field goal, a 28-yarder to Jimmy Graham on the Bears’ first touchdown drive and that 39-yarder to Robinson.

“Once I saw man (coverage), there’s not many guys that can guard A-Rob in the league,” Fields said. “So I knew the ball was going to him the whole time. He routed him up and made my job easier. I just put it out there for him, and he made a great play.”

It’s plays like that, Fields said, “that gives not only me but the offense confidence.”

“After the game, Cole came up to me and said, ‘We’re almost there. We just have to keep working,'” Fields said. “So seeing that, seeing the explosive plays, seeing our drives get put together, it just gives our offense more confidence and pushes us to work harder because we know we’re on the brink of being a great offense. So we’re just going to keep working.”

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