The unit he created allowed the Browns to sack rookie Justin Fields nine times Sunday.
Ryan Pace should have called a press conference immediately after the Bears’ 26-6 loss to the Browns. The Bears general manager should have apologized for putting together an offensive line that couldn’t have blocked an offensive tweeter Sunday, let alone a Browns pass rusher. He should have apologized to rookie quarterback Justin Fields, who was lucky to get out of Cleveland with his life after his first NFL start. He should have apologized to coach Matt Nagy, who was taking a public bashing for his play calling against the Browns, never mind that Vince Lombardi couldn’t have succeeded with this O-line. Pace should have resigned on the spot, but of all the things that weren’t going to happen Sunday – a Bears victory, a good Fields game, a Pace press conference – that was the unlikeliest thing of all. You don’t quit a cushy Bears job. You wait until ownership fires you two or three years too late. The Browns sacked Fields nine times, tied for the second-most sacks allowed in Bears’ history. Myles Garrett sacked him 4.5 times, which means that Garrett can tell you what deodorant Fields wears and at least the first five numbers of Fields’ Social Security number. It wasn’t all bad. Fellow Bears quarterbacks Andy Dalton and Nick Foles did have some wise words for Fields. “They were just telling me there’s going to be days like this and of course games like this,’’ Fields said. Days and games, plural. With this drafty, threadbare offensive line, it was a perfect, if unintended, observation.
