Bear Digest

It was hard to tell the Bears' good from the bad and ugly in finale

Analysis: Sometimes what was good in the Bears' final regular season game was a bad thing, like too many passes called and executed to tight ends.
Gene Chamberlain|
A common sight for the Bears this season was Amon-Ra St. Brown running through the secondary without anyone close to him.
A common sight for the Bears this season was Amon-Ra St. Brown running through the secondary without anyone close to him. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

To hear Colston Loveland tell it, he never came into Sunday's 19-16 loss to Detroit expecting to be their main weapon.

"Yeah, it just happened," Loveland said.

They flipped the script in this one and threw far more passes to tight ends than to wide receivers, but the end result wasn't exactly desired. Still, Loveland did as required and caught 10 passes.

Loveland had 13 targets and the entire rest of the team had only 16. He hauled in a career-high total for 91 yards and a 1-yard TD catch to give the Bears a chance at the tie with Cole Kmet's two-point conversion catch, another pass to a tight end.

“I've got faith in our guys," quarterback Caleb Williams said. "Just speaking on (Loveland), he's done a great job since we've been together. si

"We've got to keep that going, got to keep growing, got to have this open communication that I always talk about to be able to have these moments where we can click and all the guys can click and come out victorious.”

The TD to Loveland came to the back of the end zone on first-and-goal after a first down for defensive holding.

"Just like, a little pop rout, free, free as could be," Loveland said.

The 10 catches let Loveland lead the Bears in receptions for the season with 58, and he tied for the team lead in touchdown catches with six, matching Rome Odunze and DJ Moore.

“He knows what to do,"Johnson said. "He's got outstanding hands. He works his tail off.

"He's usually the first one on the practice field. He's usually the last one to leave. There's been an immense trust level, and his route tree has grown accordingly.”

Loveland obviously was part of the good in the Bears' good, bad and ugly from Sunday's loss. It was good he contributed, but did he need to do it that much? He made as many receptions as the rest of the team put together.

The Good

Loveland's perfect 10

Not only was Loveland's catch total of 10 the highest for any Bears player this season for any game, it was also the most by a Bears rookie tight end ever.. He finished not only as the team leader in catches but also in receiving yards (713).

The rally

After being almost totally dormant, the Bears roared back from a 16-0 deficit to tie on consecutive possessions in the fourth quarter.

"We're never out of the fight," defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said.

Williams completed 14 of 23 for 167 yards in the second half during the rally, but just when they had the chance to win it, they had a three-and-out that gave the Lions a chance to drive for the win.

The standard

D'Andre Swift was limited to 40 yards rushing on only 10 carries as the Lions did exactly what San Francisco did to the Bears and possessed the ball.

Swift's 40 yards left him at 1,087 yards rushing on the year, a personal best. He had 48 all-purpose yards for a personal best 1,386 yards.

“He had a great year for us, and we're going to need more from him going forward," Johnson said. "I'm not surprised whatsoever. I think I've been championing that cause every step of the way.

"I felt from the outside a need to or a desire to bring more into the running back room, and I felt like our guys were pretty darn strong. Both him and (RB Kyle) Monangai have turned into a pretty formidable unit there. He's playing like he's capable of playing, and I think he can take it up even another notch, and we're going to challenge him to do so here going forward.”

Sack milestone

On a day when Cleveland's Myles Garrett set the NFL record for sacks with 23, the Bears got half a sack from Montez Sweat when he shared a sack with Grady Jarrett and it brought his season total to an even 10.

Their pass rush was sporadic at times, even though Detroit started a practice squad player at right tackle with Penei Sewell injured and his backup also out. They did manage seven quarterback hits on Jared Goff, four more than Detroit had, but made three sacks.

In the last eight weeks, the only time they had more was against Cleveland.

The Bad

The running game

While Swift's yardage for the years was a highlight and Kyle Monangai smashed his way into the end zone on a two-point conversion, the Bears didn't get what they normally have from the running game as the third-best rushing team.

It's two straight games this happened, and this was worse than last week. They had only 65 yards on 18 carries.

Even Williams was criticizing himself for not using his legs more and contributing only 1 yard rushing.

“Probably could have used them more, but that's ... you can go back and figure that out after the game," he said. "But in the moment, it felt good. Pocket felt good. Tried to deliver some runners ball to the guys.”

This lack of an effective running attack showed up best on first and second down and in their time of possession. With only 24:15 of average possession time the last two games, they're not going to beat many playoff teams. That type of possession time didn't work against San Francisco or the last-place Lions.

St. Brown coverage

Amon-Ra St. Brown had 11 catches for 139 yards. Maybe next time they should try something drastically different against him, like covering him. In two games against the Bears this season, he had 20 receptions for 254 yards.

Johnson had praised him last week as one of the most talented players he's ever been around, but the Bears treated him like he was Jerry Rice.

Big Bill jumping the gun

Twice Andrew Billings jumped the gun and got into the backfield too soon for offsides penalties, and looked foolish doing it.

The ugly

Interception description

Ben Johnson was asked about what happened on the interception Williams threw into the end zone to Avonte Maddox on a long pass intended for DJ Moore.

It didn't quite seem like an honest description of what went down.

“The guy (Maddox) made a heck of a play," Johnson said.

Williams threw the ball back across the field with Moore completely blanketed. Maddox was in better position to catch the ball from before the time it was thrown than Moore was.

The trick play

David Montgomery tried to throw a pass but was sacked by Billings. The Lions badly botched that trick play and their running back was officially sacked. You don't see that show up in the stats very often.

Locker room scene

After the game, the locker room was more sullen than it's been all year. No one had their shirt off and was dancing after this one, obviously. It seemed like the season had ended, for good.

Johnson was asked what he had told them.

"I let them know it's a new season. So we're starting fresh right now," he said.

They'd better because Sunday's performance was rank.

The game plan

Johnson remarked after the loss that it was one of the most simple game plans they've had this season. They deployed 12-personnel (double tight) much of the game.

Maybe try something a bit more complex and daring next time than 16 passes to tight ends and eight to wide receivers?

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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.