Justin Fields is a beat-up guy right now. He endured another pounding against the Atlanta Falcons, ending the afternoon of another close loss with what appeared to be a left shoulder injury. Now it’s inevitable that the Chicago Bears quarterback will take hits with how often he runs. However, several of the hits he’s endured this year have come with a dirty edge to them. Several times he’s given himself up on a slide and seen a defender crack him late. Every single time the referees refused to throw a flag. It happened again on the final drive against the Atlanta Falcons. Jaquan Brisker is tired of it.
The rookie safety is afraid to speak his mind when the situations call for it. At the risk of getting fined, he spoke out against the refs and their refusal to protect Fields. What makes it worse if they haven’t called it fair. While the Bears QB gets killed, other quarterbacks get roughing calls for highly questionable contact. It happened with Jared Goff last week and again with Marcus Mariota on Sunday. Brisker isn’t alone. Other teammates feel the same way. Even Fields himself admitted he thought Atlanta got away with some late shots.
“Especially, the league, if that was different quarterback, they would be throwing hella flags. A lot of flags. I feel like the league has to look at that. It’s crazy how many times he gets hit in the head every single game, but he still gets up. Gets hit out of bounds, late, or near the white.
“If that was Tom Brady, Jared Goff, or anybody like that, they throwing flags immediately. Just as you seen today. They threw a flag to Mariota, and he tripped over himself. I feel like they got to respect Justin some more and look at him as a quarterback because, obviously, there you should be more flags. He’s getting targeted every single game and none of them are being thrown.”
Jaquan Brisker knows how vital Fields is to the future.
The quarterback is the only reason Chicago has been in any of their games most of the year. The defense has allowed 27 or more points in four consecutive games. Yet the Bears only lost three of those games by three points or fewer because Fields put up points. The last thing Chicago needs is for him to get hurt. He must be protected. The NFL has typically been good about using the rules to guard quarterbacks against excessive contact. That hasn’t been the case with Fields. Too many times, some obvious penalties have gone uncalled.
Jaquan Brisker is right. Somebody needed to say something publicly about the refs. They must be held accountable. The NFL may not like that. He doesn’t care. Rookie or not, he’s trying to protect his teammate and the best possibility he’ll have of winning a championship in the future. It will be interesting to see how the Bears handle Fields next week. He may push to play regardless of his health being less than 100%, but it might be in the team’s best interests to give him a week off.
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