Sunday’s Detroit Lions game was not one for the faint of heart. Down 26-14 to the Chicago Bears with less than five minutes to play, the Lions rallied for a rousing divisional win at Ford Field.
The 31-26 triumph overcame a win probability of over 98 percent for the visiting Bears. It’s the kind of game that good teams find a way to win, further validating the Lions are one of the NFL’s best at 8-2. But it’s also a performance that shows there is a very thin line between success and failure, and the Lions came too close to that line for comfort.
Here’s what I took away from watching the Lions beat the Bears in real-time.
Sleepwalking start
Even though the Lions led 14-10 at the half, they were not the better team for most of the first 30 minutes. Both the offense and defense were flat out of the gate.
Jared Goff started slowly. He was 4-for-9 for 34 yards on Detroit’s first three drives. Two of those ended in interceptions, and the third should have, too; Jaylon Johnson dropped an easy pick-6 near the Bears’ goal line when Goff threw it right to him. Jahmyr Gibbs scored on the next play.
The defense was also dull early on. Chicago opened the game with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in which the Bears racked up seven first downs. Justin Fields also nicely engineered a 15-play scoring drive where the tackling and gap discipline were both terrible.
It felt very much like the Lions weren’t ready for the 1 p.m. kickoff after playing their last two games in later windows.
Goff was clutch at the end of the halves
Jared Goff did not have a good game overall. No doubt about that. But the Lions QB was very good when his team needed him in the clutch — namely the end of each half of the game.
Goff started the game completing four of his first nine passes for just 34 yards. He also threw two passes to the Bears defense, an uncharacteristic lapse in ball security. One of the INTs came on a play where TE Sam LaPorta got physically (and seemingly inadvertently) removed from his route by a Bears defender.
But on the final drive of the half, Goff was money. He completed 7 of his 9 passes for 73 yards and the TD strike to Amon-Ra St. Brown on a throw with a high degree of difficulty.
The second half was more of the same. Goff had a substandard performance until the final two drives. Then, as Dan Campbell said after the game, Goff’s resilience shone. Goff went 9-for-11 for 109 yards on the final two TD drives in the final four minutes. One of the incompletions was a throwaway, too. Under pressure — both from the Bears and the game situation — Goff delivered when the Lions needed him the most.
Shaking off a bad game and still engineering the win is a great validation for Goff, and for Campbell’s faith in his quarterback. For Lions fans, it was reminiscent of the man Goff was traded for, Matthew Stafford, during his top comeback days in Detroit.
Bears were the more physical team
The Lions are built to try and control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The offensive line is generally great at it, and the defensive line with Aidan Hutchinson and considerable Day 2 draft picks has shown they can do it on the other side, too.
Not on Sunday. Not on either side of the ball.
Chicago’s offensive line played very well. They also didn’t face a lot of resistance from the Lions’ defensive line, which was too passive and too easy to block too often. Other than a monster effort from LB Alex Anzalone and the occasional flash from Alim McNeill, the Lions defensive front had a rotten game until the final five minutes.
The vaunted Detroit O-line also didn’t play its best. An aggressive Bears front gave the pass protection some serious issues. Chicago sacked Jared Goff twice, but they were credited with nine QB hits in the official gamebook. One of Goff’s three interceptions came on a ball tipped at the line, and another came under heavy pressure, too.
Detroit persevered in this game, fortunately. They’ll need to bring the hard hats and 60 minutes of grit if they want to beat better teams than the Bears.
Top 3 stars of the game
This was not as easy as I hoped it would be…
3rd star: WR Amon-Ra St. Brown – 8 catches on 11 targets for 76 yards and a touchdown
2nd star: LB Alex Anzalone – 15 total tackles (career-high) and a fumble recovery
1st star: RB David Montgomery – 12 carries for 76 and thee game-winning TD against his old team
Quick hits
–After a terrible start, I thought DC Aaron Glenn made a couple of smart adjustments to handling Justin Fields. In general, I felt like Glenn called a better defensive game than his players executed, though that’s certainly subject to film review. Using Brian Branch in more of a “Fields spy” role when Chicago didn’t deploy a slot receiver seemed to work very well.
–Branch was guilty (technically) of a couple of penalties, but he was pretty clearly the Lions’ best player in the secondary all afternoon. The rookie is a definite keeper.
–Without knowing, I would guess that LB Jack Campbell winds up with the worst PFF grade of the week for Detroit. The rookie had a rough day overall, though he did make a big stop late. His first quarter was as bad of LB play as we’ve seen from any Lions player in a long time.
–On the Bears long TD pass to D.J. Moore, CB Jerry Jacobs played proper technique to his inside help, but safety Kerby Joseph didn’t react nearly in time. That TD is on Joseph, even though it was Jacobs in primary coverage. Joseph did not have a good game at all, and it was one Jacobs probably won’t like in the film room either.
–Aidan Hutchinson’s strip-sack safety to seal the win was a much-needed highlight for the second-year DE. Hutchinson has had so many close-but-no-cigar moments in the last few games, and it was sweet to see him finish a play.
–Colby Sorsdal started for the injured Jonah Jackson at left guard and looked like a Day 3 rookie playing in an unfamiliar position. Sorsdal battled hard and the times he got beat appeared more due to inexperience than lack of ability.
–Chicago not even trying on the first two offensive plays after the Lions cut the lead to 26-21, and then missing a deep shot on the third, was a huge factor in helping Detroit’s comeback. Bears fans should be livid at their offensive play-calling; it cost them a win.
–Craig Reynolds gained 32 yards on his kick return before fumbling. That made the longest Lions return all season. Kick return blocking and execution have been terrible.
–The Lions were 8-of-11 on third downs, a saving grace even when the team was down. Chicago finished 5-of-13.
–On Jahmyr Gibbs TD run, Bears LB Dylan Cole made a brilliant read on the play and Gibbs was still too fast for Cole to stop it. Cole is one of the NFL’s fastest LBs, too; he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.51 seconds at his pro day back in 2017.
–The Lions have now won seven NFC North games in a row. They’ve taken four of the last six from the Bears.
