Lincicome: Possible 'just not quite good enough' is the best we can expect from these Bears

The claim by Justin Fields himself that he is "an NFL quarterback" would be reassuring if someone else had made it, or if the usual markers of such things, like the scoreboard, ended any discussion of what exactly Fields is.

Fields is certainly a terrific athlete, tough, determined and, after being beaten like a pinata in his bright Halloween orange costume by the worst team in football, still sentient and grudgingly coherent.

Not to insult the Washington Whatevers for being a worse team than the Bears, although they are, but they did manage to leave Soldier Field smiling Thursday night while the Bears groaned about what might have been, while treating another loss like, to use ingenue coach Matt Eberflus' assessment, "a step forward."

There was Coach Flus imagining the 21 points the Bears didn't get as if they actually got them. We are in the year of magical thinking.

"We fought, we battled," Eberflus said. "We're right there. We'll get over that hump."

If a journey of a thousand miles (actually 1,761 miles to the next Super Bowl) begins with a single step, the Bears are measuring the journey with very small feet, toddler steps, uncertain and shaky.

Optimism is a handy crutch and many an overmatched coach has used it to get from one Thursday to another Sunday, eventually calling old friends for a new job and admitting making a silk purse out of a Bears' ear was harder than he thought it would be.

This is who the Bears are and these are the coaches who are supposed to make them better than they are. Possibly "just not quite good enough" is as promising as it will get with this bunch.

The Bears are not well coached, that much is clear. Though fumbling punts and juggling touchdown passes into game enders, bouncing interceptions off a lineman's helmet, and overthrowing wide open receivers in the end zone has to be laid on the fumblers, jugglers, bouncers and throwers.

"It doesn't matter if you drive all the way down to the five, the 1-yard line and don't score," said Fields showing an encouraging mastery of the obvious.

Fields took a beating that would have addled a Russian mystic, the worst I've seen since the '85 Bears turned Archie Manning (the original Manning) into a rag doll. And yet, Fields kept getting up, shaking if off, doing what he could, a depiction not uncommon to Bears quarterbacks.

No one has ever doubted Field's courage, nor his running skills, even his occasional accuracy, nor, in fact, his determination to be all that he is supposed to be - the face of the franchise for the next 15 years.

He may yet be just that, but if there is such a line on the Bears official casino betting partner, take the under.

The Bears do not need a "warrior" or a "gladiator" at quarterback, they need a thrower and a thinker and a non-panicker - if there is such a word. In better words, in Fields' own words, an NFL quarterback.

What they have now is an amazing conversation piece, someone who does the astonishing without making a difference.

Fields is too quick to run, too late to throw and too easy to get caught in between.

Even on the rare wait in the pocket by Fields, his feet are jumping around convincing him that standing there throwing the football is not something he does well, that dancing past defenders is his real skill.

Are the Bears coaches going to find a way to make this uncommon gem into something useful, something that wins instead of regrets? Maybe not until dependable receivers come in a group instead of the odd lot, when the offensive line gives Fields the assurance that the world will not suddenly cave in on top of him, whether he has thrown the ball or not, when praise is genuine and not forced.

"(Fields) taking us down for a chance to win it, that's encouraging," said Eberflus. "That's a step forward.

As I said, toddler steps. Come on, you can do it, yes you can ... aw, get up, try again.