Chicago Bears wide receiver DJ Moore ran 8 yards up the left sideline and then abruptly turned around to look at quarterback Justin Fields on Thursday night at FedEx Field.
As the football sailed toward Moore, Washington Commanders cornerback Kendall Fuller tried to jump in front and make a play, but Moore leaped up behind him and grabbed the pass out of the air. As Moore turned and sprinted another 48 yards to the end zone, the same emotion was running through the minds of Fields and tight end Cole Kmet — and certainly many, many others throughout Bears nation.
“Sigh of relief,” Fields said.
“Relief,” Kmet said. “Relief. It’s been a long time coming.”
Moore’s 56-yard touchdown with 4 minutes, 18 seconds to play sealed a 40-20 victory over the Commanders to snap a 14-game losing streak. It had been 346 days, to be exact, since the Bears had won a game.
The last one the Bears had played, just four days earlier against the Denver Broncos, involved a 21-point Bears lead and then a crushing collapse, bringing up questions again about the Bears’ — and Fields’ — ability to finish. So anyone might have been forgiven for growing nervous as the Commanders chipped away at a 27-3 Bears halftime lead.
Instead, Moore’s eighth catch of the day — and third touchdown — helped the Bears into a winning locker room for the first time this season.
A night that started with a moment of silence to mourn the death of legendary Bears linebacker Dick Butkus ended with music thumping through the visitors locker room in a celebration he surely would have enjoyed. Bears coach Matt Eberflus, whose job security had been the subject of speculation all week, complimented his players on “sticking together during our adversity.” And Fields, who has thrown for 617 yards and eight touchdowns in the last two weeks, started rattling off people he loved.
“It just felt good, just seeing all the hard work pay off,” Fields said. “Getting a win after everything that’s happened this year — everything in the media, everything on the outside. … I’m proud of everybody in the building. I love everybody on my team — players, coaches, shoot, everybody upstairs. I might not even know them, but I love you all. That feeling was a feeling you never wanted to end.”
For more than a few moments, it was unclear if the Bears were going to be able to capture that feeling.
The Commanders cut the Bears’ lead to 10 points on quarterback Sam Howell’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Curtis Samuel with 10:55 to play. The Bears, who lost running backs Khalil Herbert, Roschon Johnson and Travis Homer to injuries in the game, went three-and-out on their next drive, giving the Commanders a chance to pull within a touchdown.
But the defense, missing multiple defensive backs because of injuries, came up with a stop on the following drive, which included defensive end Yannick Ngakoue getting one of five Bears sacks in the game. Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson defended a deep pass to Terry McLaurin that originally was flagged for pass interference before officials determined there was no penalty. And Commanders kicker Joey Slye then missed a 46-yard field goal wide right.
Eberflus said his message all week was about finishing.
“You finish with detail. You finish with the cycle of the snap. You finish playing one play,” Eberflus said. “You can’t look at the scoreboard. … If you keep it that way, execution is going to be good.”
Three plays later, on third-and-2, Moore made the sealing play, bringing him to 230 receiving yards for the game, second-most in a single game in Bears history behind Alshon Jeffery’s 249 in 2013.
The Fields-Moore connection was one of the big reasons the Bears were able to build such a big lead, along with some solid offensive line play and a pair of takeaways from the Bears defense — a Greg Stroman interception and a Terell Smith forced fumble and recovery.
Moore said he was “out of this world nervous” Thursday morning because it was a prime-time game and he didn’t want to “mess up” on national TV.
“I guess that was my body telling me we were about to go off,” Moore said. “I look forward to having some more nervous days before games.”
And the Bears hope this performance will carry over into more than one win.
“Huge,” Kmet said. “(Fields) doesn’t have to put it all on his back either. We’ve got guys. We’ve got DJ, myself, (Darnell Mooney), Khalil. We’ve got dudes that can seal the deal. I think he’s just gaining confidence in everybody and then obviously the scheme in place as well.”
