DETROIT — In a perfect world, Ben Johnson’s return to Detroit for his early-season Revenge Game would’ve come off of a primetime win, at home, against Minnesota. Unfortunately, the Chicago Bears blew an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter to hometown kid J.J. McCarthy en route to starting 0-1.
Caleb Williams didn’t have a great game. The offense was disjointed. And special teams were a disaster. Not how the Bears wanted Johnson’s much anticipated debut to go.
Alas, Week 2. Both the Bears and Detroit Lions came off of Week 1 duds. With a feisty division shaping up, neither team could afford to fall to 0-2. The Lions were in a bit of an identity crisis coming in, losing Johnson and Aaron Glenn to head coaching jobs, and putting up a clunker in Green Bay last week. Desperation at its finest.
The winner of this game would save their season; the loser would undoubtedly face extremely tough questions this week. And the Bears saw a second straight week of poor discipline and disgusting defense in key situations lead to a blowout loss. Detroit fans, congratulations. You won Round 1. Bears fans are gonna have a long week listening to sports radio.
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I shared my in-game reactions, thoughts and observations from the game below. Follow me on X @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.
Thoughts and Observations
1. (PREGAME) — Look, I know the Bears invested heavily in the trenches this offseason and have more depth than ever before. That said, it’s pretty bad to see two of your 2025 second-round picks be healthy inactives in Week 2. And your third-round OT from last year also an inactive. Ryan Poles has been given a lot of grace for falling backwards into Caleb Williams (though the reported narrow-mindedness of this evaluation is on many folks’ minds) and somehow getting Ben Johnson to choose Chicago. Other than that, he’s had a very rough track record to this point, and it’s fair to start asking some tough questions about his capabilities. This is bad look.
2. About as bad of a start as you could imagine for the Bears. Cairo Santos kicked off out of bounds (would’ve been nice last week). And in five plays, the Lions went 60 yards for a touchdown. The big play was a 34-yard first play pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown where Tyrique Stevenson was totally cooked in coverage. Another play action pass and then three straight EASY Jahmyr Gibbs runs scored the touchdown. Bears’ front did nothing on the drive, and looked out of position.
If the Lions were discombobulated last week, they were totally in control to start today. Bears absolutely need to respond with some points.
ANDDDD points they get! A terrific response by the Bears going 74 yards for a touchdown, with Caleb Williams converting a couple of big third downs to Olamide Zacchaeus and Rome Odunze (for the TD). D’Andre Swift also had some nice runs to get things going earlier in the drive. The script worked well. Now we need to see them build.
(Also, Ford Field was DEAFENING.)
3. The Bears are still a mess at the moment. Tory Taylor outkicks his coverage and lets up a net punt of 32 yards when he needed to flip the field from the Bears’ 16. Lions started at midfield. For a punter with a good leg, he just does not have the hangtime needed to lead to effective punt coverage. It’s rough.
And then the secondary… rough drive for Tyrique Stevenson again. He continues to have good talent but can’t seem to get out of his own way. It’s 14-7 Lions with 2:33 left in the first quarter. I expected much better from the defense.
Bears are gonna need Caleb and the offense to do their part today.
4. It ain’t looking great five minutes into the second quarter. This Bears team continues to make killer mistakes (Swift fumble, crazy penalties setting the offense back, you name it). It’s dreadful. And Caleb had a horrific interception after a gift miss from the Lions’ kicker (admittedly on 2nd and 32). Ben Johnson’s team isn’t playing with the discipline we hoped for early in the season.
Granted, this was going to be a long cleanup job. But I have a lot of concerns that many of the players the Bears wanted to play key roles are just have dysfunction deeply rooted in their DNA at this point.
Also, the trenches just aren’t doing enough. The OL has a ton of penalties but otherwise has looked OK-ish. The DL has been getting blown up. For a unit (Lions’ OL) that looked bad last week against what is clearly an incredible Packers DL, this is not a good trend. They need more from a set of trenches that they’ve invested a lot of money and draft resources in.
The good news is, Rome Odunze is looking like the star we were promised. He had a terrific first half, going for 82 yards and two touchdowns.
5. We are going to need to have a conversation about this defense. Jaylon Johnson left the game again with a groin injury, but they have been cooked all game. Letting the Lions drive so easily down the field before halftime to take back a two-score lead was disgusting football.
And yes, the Bears got screwed by a horrendous call. And it really feels like the refs have just completely screwed the Bears today. But the defense basically let it happen. They don’t deserve a pass, but that is the kind of game-changing stuff that’s happened twice now in two weeks to Chicago. Unprofessional.
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6. A three and out to start the second half (after a first down false start) and then a 64-yard play from scrimmage for the Lions.
They’re playing different sports.
7. I’m gonna put this here. Not sure there’s much more to glean watching this game after the Lions made it 31-14.
8. Well, after Ben Johnson got his “Revenge Game” out of the way…for whatever that’s worth, Matt Eberflus gets his when he returns to Soldier Field next Sunday as the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator. This team just doesn’t look good enough to compete right now. It’s scary. And I’m afraid it’ll be over by SEPTEMBER this time.
Early prediction: Cowboys 26, Bears 20.
