Bills’ Andre Smith fined for hit on Justin Fields
Bills linebacker Andre Smith was fined $5,806 for a hit to Justin Field’s head during the fourth quarter of last weekend’s 41-15 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Fields fumbled the ball on the hit and lost his helmet. The turnover was negated by a roughing the passer penalty. Fields had a minor cut on his eye after the tackle.
Smith apologized to the Bears faithful via Twitter.
Bears head coach Matt Nagy used the incident as a teaching moment, saying Fields should have realized that the Bills outnumbered the Bears’ blockers.
“He’s got to get rid of the ball there,” Nagy said, per the Chicago Sun-Times. “They have one extra [blocker] than us and between the offensive line and the quarterback and the wide receivers and the coaching staff — next time we see this, we’ve got to do this or do that.
“I’m glad he’s okay. Always scares you when the helmet pops up like that, but Justin is tough,” Nagy added. “He’s a tough dude.”
Fans chanted for Fields over Andy Dalton last weekend
The Bears take on the Titans on Saturday night in their final preseason game. Fields is expected to start, while Andy Dalton will be the regular season starter until Fields forces the Bears’ hand.
During last Saturday’s preseason matchup, fans chanted Fields’ name while Dalton was playing. During a postgame interview, Fields acknowledged he could hear the chants from Bears fans and was upset at their reaction to Dalton.
“I noticed it, of course. The fans are awesome, but they also have to realize Andy is a human being, too,” Fields said, following the game. “Andy is out there on the field right now, so I really think it’s kind of disrespectful to Andy, them cheering my name like that.
“They have to trust in coach to make sure he’s making the right decisions, and cheer Andy on. That’s not helping Andy play better, them cheering my name. That’s not doing that.
Dalton pointed out that the negative atmosphere changed after his touchdown pass.
“It’s part of it. They want to see a good product out there,” Dalton said of the fans. “I didn’t hear any boos after the touchdown pass that I threw. Hopefully they’ll be cheering a lot.”
While Dalton may be the starter, Fields is the unquestioned future of the Bears. Evidently, fans want the future to get here already. While Dalton knows what he signed up for, he also knows that there’s only one way to keep Justin Fields behind him on the depth chart – winning.
On3’s Stephen Samra contributed to this article.