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Lions Red Zone Recap: Week 13

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Lions - 2 scores on 2 chances (1 touchdown, 1 field goal)

The Lions only had two red zone opportunities against Chicago. The first came on the Lions' second drive of the game. They got good field position thanks to a 19-yard punt return by Stefan Logan and quickly got down inside the 20 thanks to a pass to Nate Burleson. A few plays later the Lions scored on a three-yard QB draw by Drew Stanton.

The other red zone opportunity came at the beginning of the second half. Turk McBride forced a fumble and recovered it at the Chicago nine-yard line. Unfortunately the offense couldn't capitalize on the outstanding field position, as they went three and out and had to settle for a field goal.

Bears - 3 scores on 3 chances (3 touchdowns)

Detroit's defense hasn't done a very good job of holding teams to field goals once they get inside the red zone, and that was again the case this past Sunday. The Bears had three trips to the red zone and all of them resulted in a touchdown. The first was a one-yard touchdown run by Chester Taylor, capping off a 13-play drive. On the very next drive, Chicago took eight plays to go 83 yards and scored on a 14-yard Matt Forte touchdown run. The final red zone trip was when Ndamukong Suh got his unnecessary roughing penalty. The Bears scored on a touchdown pass on the very next play for the go-ahead score.

Overall

Like the end of last season, the Lions need to start getting more red zone trips on offense and need to start holding teams to field goals on defense. Offensively, Detroit has been the best in the league at converting red zone trips into touchdowns, but that doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot if you're only getting one or two red zone opportunities a game. For the defense, they need to start playing like they did against the Jets. In that game, three of New York's four red zone opportunities resulted in field goals. Since then, though, there have been a lot of touchdowns scored on the Lions' defense when the opponent gets inside the 20.

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