Offense
- The Bears came out running with 3 straight runs for a three and out. They got zero push on a quarterback sneak on the third play. It wasn’t a great start and it was pretty representative of how the day was going to go.
- The Bears seemed to be rotating their running backs with David Montgomery, Tarik Cohen and Cordarrelle Patterson all getting playing time. All looked reasonably good.
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Mitch Trubisky was obviously looking for Allen Robinson first on most plays and is still relying on him too much, I think. He’s got to find consistent success with another receiver. His first attempt to Anthony Miller went wide on a obvious miscommunication though he did have some catches late and a touchdown. He found some success throwing to Darnell Mooney. He has to do more of that earlier in games.
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Despite all the talk about improving footwork in the off season, Trubisky was still throwing off balance with what was poor footwork even to my own inexperienced eye. His accuracy was off early on largely as a result. This is a bad sign.
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I thought we might see more outside zone runs from the Bears this year but it wasn’t evident to me today that was happening. The Lions did a good job defending whenever the Bears tried to run outside. That may have had something to do with it. They had more luck up the middle.>
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There was a lot of talk about no changes to the personnel offensive line after they under performed last year. To my eye, they were a lot better today under new coach Juan Castillo. The Bears running game was productive and Trubisky got good p protection most of the time.
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As advertised, David Montgomery looks quicker this year. Some of that contact balance showed up today as he did a good job of breaking some tackles as well. He still didn’t get a pass thrown in his direction.
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Despite a lot of offseason talk the Bears struggled to integrate the tight ends into the offense until late in the game. Jimmy Graham did catch a touchdown as he towered over Lions cornerback Tracy Walker in an obvious mismatch.
Defense
- The Bears badly missed Robert Quinn. It allowed the Lions to concentrate more on stopping Kahlil Mack on the other side. Unlike last year, Mack will had Akiem Hicks next to him on the line to help. Nevertheless, one team sack. The Bears need to get more pressure with Quinn out.
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If the Lions were picking on Jaylon Johnson, it wasn’t evident to me. When the Lions did throw outside, they did go to Johnson’s side, though. Johnson made some rookie mistakes. There was some poor tacking and a holding call. But so far so good.
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Adrian Peterson still runs hard and age certainly hasn’t reduced his vision.
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I thought Matthew Stafford looked good today. He’s moving well in the picket and creating time and his passes were reasonably accurate. Still got a cannon for an arm.
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I thought the Lions did a good job of pushing the ball downfield and moving against a very good Bears defense. But they stalled in the red zone as the Bears stiffened and did a great job.
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The Lions came out running with some success in the second half. It was a good move as the Bears were probably expecting more of the passes that burned them at the end of the half. They executed well.
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The Bears, on the other hand, looked flat after the half. Despite some words from Mack on the sideline, there just didn’t seem to be much there. The Lions had the ball for most of the third quarter.
Miscellaneous
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Dick Stockton, Jonathan Vilma, and Shannon Spake were you announcers. Stockton isn’t the best play-by-play man in the business but I’ve never had the problems with him that many others seem to have. He was definitely rusty today as he stepped in at the last minute for Kenny Albert. Vilma didn’t teach me very much. He was as kind as he could be when talking about Trubisky, who is under siege nationally. For the typical male Bears fan, Spake was the best thing about this game.
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Special teams – It was notable that Matt Nagy passed on what would have been about a 52 yard field goal earlier in the quarter to go for it on fourth and seven. The Lions seemed to me to have too many good kick off returns.
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Jamie Collins ducked his head and hit an official with his helmet in one of the dumbest penalties I’ve ever seen a player commit. Every play surely knows that you can’t touch a referee, let alone with his helmet.
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A interception by Kyle Fuller in Lions territory in the fourth quarter gave the Bears life with just over two minutes left in the game. Huge play in the game.
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Deandre Swift dropped the go ahead touchdown for the Lions with 10 seconds left. Those are the kinds of plays that kill games.
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The first half ended in a miserable, demoralizing way for the Bears defense. They held the Lions offense with just over 2 minutes left and the Bears for the ball back with a minute and twelve remaining. The Bears did nothing and handed the ball back to the Lions with about 50 seconds left almost at mid field. The Lions marched down and scored a touchdown.
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Final statistic: Bears third down conversion rate = 2/11. This must get better.
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Final statistic: 5.3 yards per rush, a good indication that maybe the Bears will be able to run the ball better this year.
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Final statistic: A miserable 5.8 yards per pass. Despite talking all offseason about pushing the ball down field, the passing game was still a mess for much of the day. This is bad news.
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Trubisky really disappointed me today. It was evident, especially early, that he has not taken the step forward in the offseason that the Bears hoped that competition from Nick Foles would bring. His footwork still stinks and he’s missing passes that this offense simply can’t afford to miss. We heard all offseason that they needed a running game to help him out. They had one today and it didn’t make any difference. They struggled to throw the ball down field most of the game and even Trubisky’s completions were off target.
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Having said that, kudos to Trubisky for his fourth quarter. He’s always had that kind of last minute magic in him. The problem is that the team usually fails to put it away. This time they did.
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In the mean time I heard all offseason from Lions fans that their team was better than their record last year. They lost a bunch of games in the fourth quarter, they caught bad breaks, etc… They should know as well as Bears fans that that’s what bad teams do.