Detroit Lions vs. Chicago Bears: Full Report Card Grades for Chicago
Published by Matt Eurich on December 21, 2014
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Following back-to-back Thursday night games and a Monday night game, the Chicago Bears played their first Sunday game since November 23 when they took on the Detroit Lions on Sunday at Soldier Field. Despite going into halftime tied 7-7, the Bears lost 20-14.
The Bears have now lost four straight against the Lions dating back to last season, via Kevin Fishbain of ChicagoFootball.com:
The Bears have been swept by the Lions in back-to-back years for the first time sine 1972-73.
— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) December 21, 2014
Backup quarterback Jimmy Clausen started over Jay Cutler and finished with 181 yards passing with two touchdowns and one interception. He was also sacked twice. The team only mustered up 234 yards of total offense for the day.
“He was out there playing football, making some plays and having fun,” center Roberto Garza said about Clausen after the game, via ChicagoBears.com. “You could see him getting fired up and that was good to see.”
Clausen may have been fired up, but he did not provide the kind of spark that head coach Marc Trestman was looking for when he made the change at quarterback last week. Dan Bernstein, radio host for 670 The Score, compared Clausen‘s performance on Sunday versus Cutler’s against the Lions on Thanksgiving Day:
Clausen rating today: 77. Cutler v. DET on Thanksgiving: 77. 14 points today, 17 then. #Bears
— Dan Bernstein (@dan_bernstein) December 21, 2014
On the other side of the football, Chicago gave up 367 yards of total offense, including 74 yards rushing to running back Joique Bell. Even though the defense was able to pick off quarterback Matthew Stafford twice, the Bears were unable to slow down the Lions at the end of the game.
“Terrible. Terrible. There are no moral victories in football, we lost,” defensive end Jared Allen said after the game, via ChicagoBears.com. “Defensively, we gave up a drive to do it. It’s one of those games you can’t give that up. We missed some tackles and they ran the ball in.”
Detroit’s win against the Bears sets up its showdown against the Green Bay Packers next week for the NFC North crown. The Bears (5-10) will now head up to Minnesota in Week 17 to take on the Vikings (6-9) in their final game of the season.
Here are our grades for each Bears unit following the Week 16 loss to the Detroit Lions.
