CHICAGO – The nonchalant decision-making by the Detroit Lions from the front office to the players is proving to be costly as they fell to the Chicago Bears while getting shut out in the second half to a team in last place in the NFC North.
The Lions finished the first half strong on the road at Soldier Field on Sunday (Dec. 10) as they stormed back from a 10-point deficit to go into halftime with a 13-10 lead.
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But the lackluster start in the third quarter, which has haunted the Lions this season, showed its ugly head again as costly penalties, poor play, and play-calling gave Detroit a 28-13 loss, which is now their second defeat in their last three games.
Jared Goff
Jared Goff completed 12-16 passes for 93 yards, one touchdown, and one interception in the first half.
Goff led Detroit on an 11-play 53-yard drive in 4:49 to end the second quarter, but they began the second half with three straight punts, a fumble, back-to-back turnovers on downs, and an interception to end the game.
He finished the dismal game, completing 20-35 passes for 161 yards, two interceptions, and one touchdown.
Jameson Williamson
Lions fans have seen enough of this stagnant offense over the past couple of weeks. Goff has eyes for Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta. If Goff’s not tossing the ball to the halfbacks, he’s getting sacked or throwing an incompletion.
Highly drafted and multitalented speedster Jameson Williams received one target and one carry for four yards while playing the majority of snaps. Week after week, we’re watching the former first-round pick do close to nothing. He’s running routes and, most of the time, taking the top off the defense, but he’s doing nothing on the field.
Coaching
There’s a lot of buzz about offensive coordinator Ben Johnson being a hot commodity, but his quarterback needs to get the ball to his most explosive receiver multiple times a week.
Everything is dink-and-dunk down the field or a handoff to David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs.
If the Lions want to make the playoffs or at least hold on to their lead in the division, they’ll need to open up the playbook and get Williams more involved.
Dan Campbell looks like a genius when he decides to go for it on fourth down on his side of the 50, but lately, he’s been costing his team.
With the Lions down 25-13, Campbell decided to be ultra-aggressive with 12 minutes remaining inside his 34-yard line on 4th and 1 and got stuffed at the line.
Johnson called an outside run with Gibbs on 4th and 1 that fooled no one but themselves, losing four yards on the play.
“I need to push it a little bit more,” said Campbell. “I just need to be a little more irritable, which I can do that.”
What about Aaron Glenn and the defense, who’ve been getting shredded week after week?
Justin Fields finished the day going 19-33 for 223 yards and one embarrassing deep ball touchdown on the Lions defense on 4th and 13 inside of his own 50 to DJ Moore for 38 yards.
Brad Holmes
The Lions were a team with high hopes, but now fans are praying that the offense can outscore the opposing team each week as they can’t guard a stop sign.
The lack of another pass rusher looks to be why Fields looked like Whoodini on Sunday. If you go back to week 11, when Detroit, trailed by 12 in the fourth quarter, scored 17 unanswered points with less than four minutes remaining, they should be 0-2 against Chicago.
Fields, like he did inside Ford Field three weeks ago, eluded the Lions pressure all day by escaping for big runs while the Bears’ offensive line allowed just three sacks.
Brad Holmes sat still during the trade deadline and let pass rushers like Chase Young and Montez Sweat, who accumulated five total tackles on Sunday afternoon with three solos and one sack on Goff, took over the game.
The Lions, now one game back from the No. 1 seed in the NFC, will look to get back on track Saturday night as they’ll host the new-look Denver Broncos at 8:15 p.m. on NBC.
They may look to activate Bruce Irvin this week to help Aidan Hutchinson get after Russell Wilson because they’ll need all the help they can get.
