Bear Digest

Bears slough off to start finale and their report card reflects it

Chicago Bears Week 18 report card: From pass coverage to coaching, everything gets severely scrutinized after a 19-16 loss to the last-place Lions.
Gene Chamberlain|
Luther Burden maks a reception against the Lions. A week after he had eight catches for 138 yards he had only four targets.
Luther Burden maks a reception against the Lions. A week after he had eight catches for 138 yards he had only four targets. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The good thing about staging comebacks is they're exciting and it shows resilience.

Then again, to rally like the Bears did Sunday from a 16-0 deficit to tie the score against Detroit is an act of desperation and not a good look for a team heading to the playoffs.

The Bears are forever coming back in games, sometimes achieving the victory, but then there have been games lately like the last two, when things fizzled out against good opposition.

"If we want to make the most out of this new season, we need to go on a four-game winning streak, which we've done twice already this year," coach Ben Johnson said.

They don't play the Giants or the Bengals in the playoffs. The teams they face only get better and the Packers have outplayed them for six of the eight quarters they've played this season. Rallying against good teams becomes more and more difficult in a one-and-done atmosphere.

"We came out a little flat and I think we've got to work on having urgency from the jump and get that going,” quarterback Caleb Williams said.

If they come out flat for a playoff game against Green Bay at home, there are more serious problems at work here than anyone suspected and they definitely won't be rallying late for a glorious ending.

Here are the grades from an embarrassing finale that left the NFC North champions 2-4 for the year in games played within the division they "own."

The only ones with more explaining to do is Philadelphia, which gave up the home field if they face the Bears in the second round should Chicago manage to beat a Packers team that finished with four straight defeats.

Running game: D-

The 65 yards rushing was their worst effort of the season. Detroit didn't even have Alim McNeill available and he's probably their best run stuffer. Linebacker Alex Anzalone was out, as well. Sure, the Bears didn't have left tackle Ozzy Trapilo but Theo Benedet had been a starter earlier and ESPN's run-block win rate metric had him fourth best in the league as a run blocker. The Bears ran for 3.6 yards a carry and without Luther Burden's 10-yard run they had 54 yards from running backs. It's not easy to maintain ball control and explore your playbook if you're not running the football.

Passing game: C-

Caleb Williams made a few really poor choices, including his interception. The Lions played the Bears' bootleg game expertly, and the best option he had on many of those was to simply run the ball himself. Yet, he chose not to do it. Give Colston Loveland his props for getting open enough to make 10 catches and especially for his 1-yard TD reception that wasn't easy even though he was open, but throwing 16 passes to Loveland and Kmet, who averaged only 8.96 yards a catch, and not attacking more with the wide receivers downfield makes little sense. It sure looked like Williams was at fault for this, especially when he did decide throw downfield right into coverage for the critical interception.

Run defense: C-

The Bears had only three tackles for loss against a patchwork offensive line that had a starter missing. They got worse as the game went along, allowing 5.0 yards per carry (17 for 85 yards) in the second half. The defense looked too slow to tackle Jahmyr Gibbs and when the line seemed to get a push, often linebackers weren't in their gaps to fill in and supply the tackle.

Pass defense: D-

The interception by Kevin Byard off Jaquan Brisker's deflection saved this from a total failure. Brisker made the comment that they played too much man-to-man defense, but that's what teams do when they can't get to the quarterback, and this was actually one of the better Bears games for the pass rush with three sacks but it still wasn't good. It really didn't make much difference because the secondary didn't cover well whether they were in man or zone, as 331 yards passing and a 17 to 10 advantage in passing first downs suggested.

Special teams: B-

They battled to a standoff in many ways but at least Cairo Santos didn't miss a 53-yard field goal like Jake Bates did. Santos produced two excellent kickoffs that required two returns for 23 and 17 yards, and a coverage team will take that any day. Devin Duvernay had a 15-yard punt return but couldn't get loose on kick returns.

Coaching: C-

Brisker questioning the strategy of Dennis Allen doesn't say he was right, but the fact he is doing the questioning itself is a problem on different levels. If Allen can be criticized for anything, it's personnel usage and not strategy. How is Tyrique Stevenson active but watching the entire game from the bench when you've got the poor excuse for coverage they had from cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson, Nahshon Wright and C.J. Gardner-Johnson that they had? A week earlier, Stevenson had their second-best Pro Football Focus pass coverage grade.

Third down failure has become more of an issue for the defense as they allow too many yards on first and second down, and that's not on the coach. It's the fault of poor execution on run defense during first or second down. Johnson's play calling has been too heavily slanted to the pass over the run at times in the season's second half and was Sunday. They had three three-and-outs that contributed greatly to their deficit or resulted in the Lions getting the ball back for the win. And on those three drives they called one total running play.

Overall: D

When you've been outgained 237 yards to 69 in the first half and are down 13-0, then 16-0, the comeback to tie might be the worst thing about the game because it fosters the attitude they can come back against anyone. They can't.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

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.