Broncos score 24 unanswered points to beat Bears, spoil Justin Fields’ four-touchdown breakout

Justin Fields made Bears history by opening Sunday with 16 consecutive completions. But the quarterback’s record-breaking resurgence couldn’t prevent another Windy City collapse. Up 28-7 on the winless Broncos in the second half, Chicago surrendered 24 unanswered points, with Fields coughing up the ball twice in the fourth quarter, to fall to 0-4 on the 2023 season.

Fields had four touchdown passes to help guide the Bears to their big second-half advantage, but after a 10-play touchdown drive by Denver to pull within one score, Chicago’s third-year QB lost the ball on a first-down sack, and Jonathon Cooper scooped it up and scored with a 35-yard return. Later, with the game tied at 28, the Bears drove the ball to the Broncos’ 18-yard line with 2:52 left, and rather than kick a go-ahead field goal on fourth-and-1, they unsuccessfully ran an option handoff to Khalil Herbert.

That turnover on downs allowed Denver to subsequently drive 48 yards for Wil Lutz’s 51-yard go-ahead field goal.

When given a final chance to retake the lead, the Bears once again pushed close to enemy territory, only for Fields to be intercepted over the middle by Kareem Jackson. Their defeat hands the Broncos their first win of the season, one week after Denver surrendered 70 points to the Dolphins.