This game was easy to figure out on the defensive side of the ball. The Lions offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage. Jared Goff had forever on to throw. They ran the ball far too easily.
I wouldn’t say that the Lions ignored Jaylon Johnson while he was out there, they certainly did throw more to Tyrique Stevenson’s side of the field far more often. With a lot of success. The Bears have a corner back problem. Even when Johnson is out there.
The Bears gave up far, far too many big plays today as the Lions racked up 500 yards of offense. Too many mistakes. Just too many.
Offense
Caleb Williams looked good today, I thought. At least until things got out of hand and the game fell apart. He was usually on time and more or less accurate. For some of us, you can stop there and figure it was a good day. For the rest…
It looked to me like it was tough going for the much touted inside of the Bears offensive line. There wasn’t a lot of room to run. Where they found it, it was off tackle and to the outside. Two Williams quarterback sneaks in the first half on the wrong side of the Bears forty yard line to turn the ball over on downs was good proof of that.
Speaking of that turnover on downs, how many times have we seen head coaches try to show how tough the Bears are only to see it thrown back into their face in situations like this? I know that Ben Johnson wants to go for it on fourth down more but you have to use a little common sense. If the Bears were going to be able to sneak it across the line on fourth down, they would have been successful on third down. For heavens sake it might be a good statistical play for a mathematical guys but some teams are still going to be good at it and some teams aren’t. Make them prove it in less critical situations before you do something like that.
The Bears had a false start in the first quarter and Williams waited until the last minute to throw the ball into the ground. He got hit. That was lazy and it shouldn’t happen.
I was surprised that Williams spent so much time in the shot gun. Perhaps it’s easier to run the silent count from there but I would hope to see him more under center in the future. You can do play action from the shot gun – and they did. But it’s not as effective.
Williams leaned a lot on Rome Odunze today, which is good. Honestly, he’s probably the Bears best receiver. But Olamide Zaccheaus is Williams’s safety valve, I think. When he needed a big third down, he seemed to be on the radar a lot. I think the Bears tried to force it just a bit to DJ Moore last game.
Miscellaneous
A kickoff out of bounds handed the Lions far too easy field position in the first half.
On a related note, the Lions appeared to winning the field position game. Special teams is a bit of an issue for this team early in the year, I think.
The penalty count was eight but t felt like a lot more than that. Just repeated shooting themselves in the foot over and over again. It was frustrating to watch, especially early on.
On a related note, does anyone still think all those false starts are WIlliams’ fault? Or maybe it’s his cadence on the silent count?
The Bears lost the turnover battle. The fumble at the end of the first quarter. Killer. So many mistakes…
Apparently it’s not enough for the Bears to give a game away themselves, the officials have to help out the Lions with an error at the end of the half. Nice.
This game was a challenge to my assertion that the year is about Williams. He was better than last week. But the team…. So, so many mistakes. ??The only person in the world more frustrated watching this than the fans at home might have been Johnson. So many things to correct. It’s going to be a long year.
