Justin Fields has heard it all from the critics for weeks now. The Chicago Bears rookie found himself playing one of the best games of his young career against San Francisco. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as the 49ers pulled ahead 23-16 in the 4th quarter. With his team floundering, the kid needed to make something happen. He did just that, engineering a great drive capped by arguably the greatest run by a Bears quarterback you’ll ever see.

It was magical stuff. The kid must’ve made seven different 49ers defenders miss on that play, weaving his way all over the field to get the touchdown. Sadly, Cairo Santos picked the worst time to miss his first kick in a year, failing to convert the extra point to keep. Then the defense allowed San Francisco to march right back down the field to score again. Should the Bears fall in this game, and it looks like they will, it won’t be because of their young quarterback.

Justin Fields is looking more and more like the real deal.

His game in Tampa Bay was bad, but this one along with the performances against Detroit, Las Vegas, and Green Bay showed the rookie gaining a little more confidence each week. This is the important takeaway from everything. The Bears just aren’t contenders this year. That much is obvious. However, they may finally have the key piece to becoming one in the near future.

The goal moving forward is obvious. Use the majority of your resources to build around the kid. Find him better protection and more weapons. It may come at the cost of the defense, but given it appears to be wholly in decline now? The timing seems favorable. They can look to retool it around guys like Roquan Smith and Jaylon Johnson after Fields’ needs have been taken care of.