Bears-Falcons Referees Miss Another Extremely Obvious Late Hit on Justin Fields

There have been many complaints over the last few years in the NFL concerning how quickly the officials will throw a flag for hitting a quarterback late. There's been an emphasis on protecting the most important player on the field, leading to a lot of extremely questionable penalties. For whatever reason these protections do not extend to Justin Fields, who regularly gets clobbered while he slides in the open field and rarely gets a call. You do not need to be a Chicago Bears fan to acknowledge that the refs are just less likely to throw a flag for a late hit on Fields than other scrambling QBs.

And on Sunday, it happened again. During a dominant first half against the Atlanta Falcons on a snowy day at Soldier Field, the Ohio State product ducked out of the pocket to make a run for it. He slid and got smacked in the head by not one, but two Falcons defenders. They really wound up to hit him, too.

As you've probably guessed, there was not a flag in sight.

There's just no excuse at this point. It happens constantly. At times an argument can be made that Fields is sliding right as the defenders are beginning to make a tackle so the refs let it go, but they very rarely do that for anybody else and it certainly is not Fields' responsibility to slide earlier so that the call is easier to make.

Frustrating stuff for Fields and the Bears.