The Chicago Bears trailed 21-14 headed into halftime after a catch from Lions WR Isaac TeSlaa landed inbounds and the clock expired…until it didn’t.
Detroit was afforded extra time on the clock and scored on the next play after a bizarre officiating error. The Bears then trailed 28-14 at the half and would never come within reach for the rest of the afternoon, losing 52-21 in Ben Johnson’s return to the Motor City.
Let’s dive right into our Best and Worst from a tough divisional loss to Detroit.
Bears Best From Detroit
Caleb Williams To Rome Odunze
One of the few bright spots from Sunday’s embarrassing divisional loss was the early and often connection between quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver Rome Odunze. The pair connected on a 28-yard touchdown strike on the Bears’ opening drive after a quick score from Detroit to tie things up 7-7.Â
The two would connect again on a 21-yard strike, a 15-yard gain, and a 6-yard touchdown reception on the Bears’ final drive of the first half. Another deep strike to Odunze of 37 yards would come early in the fourth quarter, but the game was vastly out of reach by that point.
Odunze reached a single-game career high of 128 receiving yards and 7 receptions, and matched his single-game career high in targets with 11.
Meanwhile, Caleb Williams played an efficient game outside of a head-scratching interception he should have just thrown away on 2nd and 32. Williams finished 19/30, 207, 2TDs, and 1 INT with a 63.3 CMP% on the day.
Unfortunately, that was all the positive I was really able to take from this matchup.
Here’s the bad news.
Bears’ Worst From Detroit
Defense Collapses Again
Last week against Minnesota, the Bears’ pass rush looked better than Bears fans had expected.Â
This week, the Bears’ pass rush looked exactly as Bears fans had expected.Â
The defensive line totaled zero sacks on the day, and Lions quarterback Jared Goff finished 23/28, 334, 5 TDs, and no picks. He finished with a 156.0 passer rating on the day, to boot.
Lions WR Amon Ra St. Brown also achieved the first three TD performance of his career, courtesy of the Bears secondary (albeit without Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon.) Jameson Williams also managed to gain 108 receiving yards on just 2 receptions.
The Lions’ run game also had a day with RBs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery totaling 151 rushing yards and 2 TDs on the ground.
Needless to say, this was a historically terrible showing for the Bears’ defense.
Injuries
To make matters worse, the Bears weren’t even lucky enough to make it of the day physically unscathed. Bears star CB Jaylon Johnson likely re-aggravated his groin injury that left him out for much of the summer and last week against the Vikings. He left the game early in the 2nd quarter.
Not only Johnson, but Bears LB TJ Edwards also returned from a hamstring injury after being sidelined in Week 1 and tweaked his hamstring in the Week 2 loss to Detroit.
Both players will at least be considered to miss substantial time moving forward.
Offensive Line
What was seemingly an improved unit that was finding its bearings in Week One turned out to be a unit that showed flashes of the previous in 2024 in Week Two.
Caleb Williams was sacked four times on Sunday and pressured throughout the entire matchup. With the amount of resources poured into this unit in the offseason, it needs to be better.
Penalties, missed assignments, and being bull rushed by depth pieces and rotational players are all things that cannot happen if the Bears’ offense wants to have sustained success this season and into the future.
Final Thoughts On Bears vs. Detroit
Upon seeing the Atlanta Falcons pick apart the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday Night Football, I feel worse about the Week One loss than I do about Sunday’s loss to Detroit.
I could handle being 1-1 on the year and in the division after losing to a team that was in the NFC Championship two years ago and is seemingly prepared to make another postseason run.
Instead, the Bears are banged up, undisciplined, have no identity in any phase of the game, and have fallen to 0-2 on the year.
The only thing that could make this worse would be a Week 3 loss at home to a Matt Eberflus-led Dallas defense to fall to 0-3.
Buckle up, Bears fans.
