The Bears defense lets it slip away in the 4th quarter of a blowout loss to the Lions.
The Bears defense looked good for more than three-quarters of the game against NFC North leader Detroit Lions. Then, in the fourth quarter, everything fell apart. In the final minutes of the game, the Bears lost to the Lions.
The Bears led 26-14 with 4:15 left in the 4t
The philosophy is to play your 2-minute defense. That’s your mix and coverages, and we’ll throw in some pressures there too. They were going down the field way too fast. It was like what, six plays? A minute-16? But it was too fast. We need to do better.
Eberflus also said the team has not played inspired football since he took over. With six games remaining in the regular season, the Bears are 6-22 overall and 0-0 in NFC North play.
“We’ll highlight the positives and we’ll look at what we could have been better at and what we could have done better, and that’s just me and them,” he said. “This isn’t just about them, this is about us.”
ms caught the pass for 32 yards.
The Bears then went three and out on their next possession. With 2:33 left in the game, they gave up the ball to the Lions again. With quarterback Jared Goff throwing three picks, the Lions marched down the field again. This time, it took just six plays. The Lions drove 73 yards for a game-winning touchdown. The two-point convert was the icing on the cake for the Lions.
One of the biggest disappointments of the defeat was the defense’s inability to close the game out after dominating the first three quarters of the game.
We didn’t finish this game as a team, we didn’t finish it as a coach, as a player, the right way, and there are a lot of plays that need to be made and good decisions that we could have made to get us that win,” said Eberflus after the loss.
The Bears turned the ball over four times, but when they needed it most, their big players didn’t make game-changing plays.
Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds ($18 million per year), Chicago’s highest-paid player, missed a crucial tackle on Detroit’s running back, Jahmyr Gibbs, on one of the Lions’ last two drives.
Edmunds had one of Chicago’s three interceptions off of Goff and was playing well, but the missed tackle hurt.
It was as muchs’ Eberflu and Getsy’s fault as anything else that the team collapsed late in the game. The Bears offense had been 2-2 on 4th downs through the first three quarters of the game, and they had two chances to go for it in the fourth quarter and blew them. First, Chicago had a 4th and 1 at the Detroit 23. Instead of giving Fields a chance to drive the ball downfield, the Bears called on Cairo Santos for a field goal. Second, with less than four minutes remaining in the game, Chicago faced a 4th and 5 at the Detroit 21-yard line. Again, they called on Santos, but this time they didn’t trust the offense to go for it.
The way the Bears defense allowed Goff to shred them in the final few minutes was shocking. When asked about the defense’s philosophy in the closing minutes, “I don’t know,” Eberflus said.
