Chicago Bears Score and Recap (Week 11): Lions 31, Bears 26 – Bears Squander Two Score Lead in the Motor City
The Bears were in position to pull off a very surprising upset win over the Lions at Ford Field Sunday afternoon. Justin Fields was good in his return from injury but Chicago collapsed in the final five minutes and Detroit was able to salvage the victory.
Fields demonstrated how important he is to the Bears offense on the opening drive of the game. The quarterback used both his arm and his legs to move his team into the red zone setting up a short touchdown run from D’Onta Foreman to put the road team ahead 7-0.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff was off his game early throwing a pair of interceptions. Unfortunately for Chicago, a fumble by rookie wide receiver Tyler Scott set up a game-tying touchdown for RB Jahmyr Gibbs. Cairo Santos kicked a field goal to put Matt Eberflus’ team back ahead late in the 2nd quarter.
Detroit came to life during the two minute drill at the end of the half moving down the field for an Amon-Ra St. Brown touchdown to take the lead 14-10. The Bears kicked another field goal in the 3rd quarter and then the Lions fumbled the ensuing kickoff.
Fields made them pay for the mistake with a perfect deep pass to D.J. Moore for a 39-yard touchdown to make it 20-14. Two more Santos field goals put the road squad ahead 26-14 with just under five minutes to go.
It was at that point that the Bears defense completely imploded, beginning with a 32-yard pass from Goff to Jameson Williams. Detroit got the ball right back after a three-and-out and methodically drove down the field to set up a game-winning 1-yard touchdown run from former Bear David Montgomery. A desperate Chicago drive ended in a strip-sack and safety as they went down to a 31-26 defeat. (Box score)
Why the Bears Lost
The defense completely collapsed in the final five minutes of the game after playing very well for most of the day. The running game also ground to a halt on the final possession after looking impressive for most of Sunday to give the Lions another crack at it.
Key Moment
On a 3rd and 10 late in the 4th quarter with the Bears up 26-21 Justin Fields threw a deep pass to Tyler Scott that appeared to be on line. For some reason Scott slowed up at the last minute and the ball fell incomplete forcing a punt.
Stats That Matter
- A pretty good return game for Justin Fields who threw for 169 yards and a touchdown and ran for 104 more. He missed a couple of deep passes that might have made it a really special performance.
- D.J. Moore made a couple of very nice runs after the catch as well as his touchdown Sunday.
- Four turnovers were the most the Bears have generated in a game this season.
Bottom Line
Chicago’s coaching continues to be very bad and shows no sign of improving. Fields continues to show flashes of ability but he needs to be consistent these final seven weeks. If he can’t do that the pressure to take a new quarterback with their premium draft picks will be tremendous.
Next Up
The Bears are in prime time yet again November 27 in Minnesota against the Vikings on ESPN’s Monday Night Football starting at 7:25pm CT.
