Thursday open thread: Which Bears player will give the Lions the most trouble?

The last time the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears faced off, the game literally came down to the final seconds. After a back-and-forth game for four quarters, the Bears’ attempt to tie the game with seconds left went wide right after Connor Barth shanked a 46-yard field goal.

But the Bears did a lot of things successfully that day. They sacked Matthew Stafford three times. They rushed for over 222 yards, while holding the Lions to just 65 yards on 24 carries. In other words, they can more than compete with the Lions and have players that could threaten a Lions victory this week.

So today’s Question of the Day is:

Which Bears player is the biggest threat for the Lions this week?

My answer: It has to be running back Jordan Howard. Howard is averaging a modest 4.4 yards per carry this year, but he’s coming off a phenomenal performance against the Bengals—23 carries for 147 yards and two touchdowns.

Back in Week 11, Howard rushed for 125 yards and 8.3 yards per carry against the Lions. While it felt like that may have been an outlier for this Lions defense, we have since learned that Detroit is struggling to stop the run against just about every opponent out of the bye week. In the past five games, the Lions are allowing an average of 158.6 rushing yards per game and 4.99 yards per carry.

If Chicago is able to continue this trend, they’ll control the clock on Sunday and could very well come out with their first division win of the 2017 season. If the Lions are somehow able to find a solution to this problem that has plagued them over the past two months, they’ll likely keep their playoff hopes alive.

Your turn.