Bear Digest

Bears Provide Little Opposition for Lions in 34-17 Defeat

Detroit and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson rolled up a big lead and there was little Caleb Williams and the Bears could do to counter in a ninth straight Chicago loss.

Gene Chamberlain

The Bears held the Lions to two sacks of Caleb Williams and he had time to throw but Detroit still romped 34-17.
The Bears held the Lions to two sacks of Caleb Williams and he had time to throw but Detroit still romped 34-17. / Audrey Richardson / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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If Bears brass needed convincing about Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson being a candidate as their new head coach, they probably didn't get it in Sunday's 34-17 loss to the Detroit Lions.

They didn't see their own team put up enough of a fight for Johnson and the Lions to prove or show anything heretofore unseen.

The Bears hit the wall of frustration long ago and Sunday they seemed to smash through it and fall a little farther in the first half, as they fell behind 20-0 and never recovered. Along the way they fell for trick plays, jumped offsides on long snap counts and did the usual walk of NFL fools.

Normally positive in all things, QB Caleb Williams could come away pointing a bit toward 26-of-40 passing for 334 yards and two touchdowns but two early turnovers by the offense led to the big hole and the Bears never got closer than the 13-point deficit at 13-0, 20-7 and 27-14.

"Obviously there's been growth but today I would say that it wasn't us

improving in that sense," Williams said. "We did a lot of things good. We also did a lot of things bad to put our defense in bad situations."

The bad started with a poor exchange on an end-around handoff between Williams and Rome Odunze. The Bears lost the fumble and the Lions, already up 3-0 because of a Jake Bates 30-yard field goal, drove 36 yards to score on Jahmyr Gibbs' 1-yard TD run.

The rout was on—or at least a good thumping was, en route to a ninth straight loss by the Bears (4-11).

Johnson's offense rolled to 475 yards, 109 in rushing yards by Gibbs and 336 on the passing of Jared Goff. He didn't seem bothered by the 29-degree temperature and went 23-of-32 with three TDs.

"Trying to find the positives, it's just not good enough," tight end Cole Kmet said. "We've got to find ways to be better.

"Definitely, shooting ourselves in the foot early on and obviously some turnovers here and there but just overall it's not good enough."

Williams went on to throw for 334 yards on 26 of 40, including a 1-yarder to Kmet to cut the deficit to 20-7. Just before halftime, he found Keenan Allen rambling open on the sidelines and it broke for a 45-yard TD pass to make it 27-14 at halftime.

Then nothing more positive happened until Sam LaPorta got behind Jonathan Owens and caught a 21-yard TD pass to push the deficit to 34-14 with 12:18 left in the third quarter.

Allen had his Bears highs of nine catches and 141 yards, DJ Moore seven catches for 68 yards and Odunze had four catches for 77 yards, but also lost another fumble.

"You have moral wins, moral victories," Allen said. "It's good to score. Obviously just being able to be productive on offense, getting better, Caleb being able to get more reps, seeing different things (from the) defense and ultimately just being able to get better throughout the season and try to score points.

"We scored today in the first half. It's been a minute since we did that. So, productive. Yeah, we'll see. Trying to get better."

They hadn't scored in three straight first halves so it was different. Interpreting it as progress was a stretch, especially with tackle Braxton Jones suffering what looked like a bad ankle injury, the team committing 10 penalties, and the defense giving up an 82-yard TD pass to Jameson Williams.

"Obviously when turn the ball over twice within the game, you don't give yourself much of a shot," interim coach Thomas Brown said. "I think we had 10 total penalties (70 yards). So obviously that kind of puts you behind the 8-ball.

"But I do appreciate the way the guys keep battling and continuing to fight, but it’s not good enough. Coach it better. Demand a better result and back to work tomorrow."

There are only two more weeks worth of tomorrows left in this season to seek those better results, then the Bears can start to focus on the bigger issue and see whether Ben Johnson wants to come and fix this mess.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.