By Darnell Mayberry, Colton Pouncy, Dan Wiederer and Kevin Fishbain
Jared Goff threw for 334 yards and matched a career high with five touchdown passes as the Detroit Lions dominated the Chicago Bears 52-21 on Sunday at Ford Field.
Goff completed 15 straight passes during one stretch in which the Lions scored 24 consecutive points. Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown hauled in nine catches for 115 yards and three touchdowns.
With their explosive offensive performance, the Lions (1-1) looked a lot like the high-octane team they were last season, rather than the unit that struggled in a season-opening loss to Green Bay. Meanwhile, the Bears are facing more questions after falling to 0-2.
Lions’ offense roars back to life
Now THAT looked like the Lions’ offense we know. After a rough opener vs. the Packers, kicking off the season with a lopsided 27-13 loss, Detroit’s offense returned to form vs. the Bears. Goff completed 23 of his 28 attempts for the 334 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions. Three of those scores went to St. Brown.
Detroit rushed for 177 yards on 30 attempts, getting things going on the ground. The cherry on top was the offense staying on the field on fourth-and-goal, up 45-21, and adding a touchdown to make it 52-21. That would serve as the final in this one. The Lions’ passing game was explosive, the run game finally opened up some holes and the team dropped 52 on first-year head coach Ben Johnson’s Bears before pulling starters in the fourth quarter. This was the perfect bounce-back game for a team that was always capable of an outing like this. Have to think OC John Morton is feeling good after this one.
Tip your cap to the Lions’ defense. Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard challenged his group to be better than what it showed in Week 1. He said the standard was higher, and this was the sort of effort that we saw in training camp. Four sacks, two takeaways, a unit that got off the field with regularity. A complete effort against a division rival, helping the Lions get into the win column. Let’s see if they can build on this momentum. They’ll head to Baltimore next week to face the Ravens on “Monday Night Football.” — Colton Pouncy, Lions staff writer
Total collapse defines Bears’ afternoon
Disaster. On every level. The Bears’ defense looked helpless Sunday afternoon at Ford Field, having few answers for anything Detroit threw at them. And boy, did the Lions throw a lot Sunday. Twenty-eight times, to be exact, with Goff completing 23 of them. Target practice. Fish in a barrel at times. (Goff turned things over to backup Kyle Allen for the final possession.)
Sacks by the Bears’ defense? One, a 9-yarder by Montez Sweat in the first half. But even that was negated by an illegal contact penalty downfield by cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. The Lions quickly capitalized with back-to-back Goff completions for 46 yards and a 1-yard David Montgomery touchdown run.
By the end of the afternoon, the Bears had allowed 511 total yards, an average of 8.8 per play, plus 25 first downs and seven touchdowns.
Lions receivers St. Brown and Jameson Williams each went for more than 100 yards, combining for four touchdowns. The 52 points allowed by the Bears were a franchise worst since a 55-14 road loss to the Packers 11 seasons ago. Making matters worse, cornerback Jaylon Johnson re-injured his groin on a pass breakup in the first half and linebacker T.J. Edwards aggravated a nagging hamstring injury while trying to chase down receiver Jameson Williams during a 64-yard catch in the third quarter. We reiterate: Disaster. On every level. The clean-up process will be daunting. — Dan Wiederer, Bears senior writer
Bears’ protection collapses despite upgrades
Ben Johnson couldn’t bring his offensive line from Detroit to Chicago. That was the easy punchline, and why GM Ryan Poles spent a lot of money on Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman and Jonah Jackson. While Goff had plenty of time to throw behind his offensive line, for a passer rating of 156.0 — the second-highest ever against the Bears — Caleb Williams’ offensive line didn’t do him a ton of favors, especially as the game began to unravel.
Right tackle Darnell Wright, Dalman and left tackle Braxton Jones all had penalties. The Bears sacked Goff zero times. The Lions sacked Williams four times. Granted, a few of those came when the Bears were in obvious passing situations, but the two operations couldn’t have been more different. Early in the game, the Bears did a nice job running the football. Williams made some big plays on two touchdown drives. But it wasn’t nearly enough against a motivated, well-oiled machine of a Lions team, in which the disparities between the two franchises were on full display. — Kevin Fishbain, Bears senior writer
(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
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