Preview: Lions To Experience Heavy Dose of Justin Fields

The Detroit Lions will have their hands full stopping the Chicago Bears' run game in Week 17.

Gene Chamberlain covers the Chicago Bears for BearDigest. He answered five questions heading into the Bears-Lions matchup at Ford Field Sunday.

1.) How would you assess the Chicago Bears' play the last month of the 2022 NFL season?

Gene Chamberlain: They play hard, they're coached correctly and they lose. They're just good enough to lose. Their defensive line lacks an adequate pass rusher for their 4-3 scheme beyond Justin Jones, who might fit as a backup tackle in a rotation next year. Whatever Justin Fields and the offense can put on the board is insufficient, because ultimately, the defense can't stop anyone when it counts. They have spurts of a decent pass defense, but it's a guess whether the next run will gain 10 yards, 20 yards or go all the way. 

Fields has played as well as any quarterback could, considering the lack of receivers he has to work with after Darnell Mooney's season-ending ankle injury, plus a knee injury to Chase Claypool. Fields has also had to deal with a starting offensive line that has changed 10 times due to injuries. In summation, there isn't enough talent available beyond Fields to beat a decent college team, but they hang tough because they're well-coached and believe in what they're doing.

2.) Where has quarterback Justin Fields improved this season, and what does he still need to work on?

Chamberlain: Fields has discovered the heights and depths of his talent, and needs to work inward. He is a tremendous runner, as the Lions have seen. He can get the ball downfield for big gains, but his middle-range passing needs to improve and he has just begun to get serious about throwing short accurately and managing games. Fields reads defenses and obviously understands his offense better than early in the season, but still takes too long to get from his first read to the next spot in his progression. And, as a result, he must run too often as the pocket collapses.

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Matt Marton, USA TODAY Sports

3.) Is there an underrated player on the Bears' roster that Lions fans should know about?

Chamberlain: Besides Fields, the whole roster is underrated and should be. Actually, cornerback Kyler Gordon, backup slot cornerback Josh Blackwell and undrafted cornerback Jaylon Jones have made recent strides. All three are rookies. Gordon has three takeaways the last two games (two on interceptions). Both starting cornerbacks -- Jaylon Johnson (broken finger) and Kindle Vildor (high ankle sprain) -- have been lost for the year. Jones and Blackwell have stepped up in their absence, and performed adequately against Buffalo and Philadelphia (Blackwell in the slot and Jones outside). Meanwhile, Gordon has moved from the slot to the outside. They held Stefon Diggs to two catches for 26 yards -- well, they did that and the wind chill did, too.

4.) What are one-two key matchups you are watching for this week?

Chamberlain: Blackwell covering Amon-Ra St. Brown. Blackwell is an undrafted, rookie special teams ace that has played so well that special teams coordinator Richard Hightower says he has other special teams coordinators asking where the Bears unearthed him from. But, can he come close to covering St. Brown on defense? Or will the Bears move Gordon to cover St. Brown? That didn't work so well last time.

Also, guard Teven Jenkins against Isaiah Buggs and Lions' defensive tackles. Jenkins is ranked by Pro Football Focus as one of the top guards in the league. Any success the Bears have in this game is going to require a running attack like they had in the first Lions game. Additionally, they lean heavily on the mobility of Jenkins and their other guard, Cody Whitehair, in the wide-zone scheme. Neither one played last week, and the Bears only had 80 rushing yards. Both will play this week.

5.) How do you see this game playing out?

Chamberlain: The Bears will score early. They have done this on 11 of their first 15 opening drives. Then, they'll get hit in the face, fall behind and come back enough to make the game interesting for a while. But, in the end, they won't have enough firepower to keep up in a high-scoring battle, like the one they had with Detroit in Chicago. It won't be as tight of a game as the earlier one. It will be just like every other recent Bears game. Even the Buffalo game was that way, except it got out of hand at the end when everyone was frozen stiff in -12 degrees wind chill. Chicago actually led 10-6 at halftime (same way with the 25-20 loss to the Eagles). I've already written the game story, and just need to fill in the blanks with the numbers. It's the same game story I used last week, as well as the week before that and the week before that.