Lions vs Bears: What Just Happened?

Here’s a lesson for future writers: don’t ever pre-write your post-game article if you cover the Lions. I was pretty sure there was no way the Lions were going to win this game. What I never thought to factor in was Mitchell Trubisky. Somehow the Lions pulled out a 34-30 win to break a 1,086-day long streak of losses to Chicago.

As always, I have thoughts on this game, These are those thoughts.

Not gonna say bad stuff today

What’s the point? We know the defense is god awful and allowed the 31st-ranked Bears offense to beat them into submission. We also know that the Lions offense is a mess without D’Andre Swift and Kenny Golladay. Lastly, we know that this team is a horribly mismanaged wreck that is going to take years to get over what the now-fired regime has done to it. But I’m not going to say anything bad about this team today.

Good job, Darrell

Darrell Bevell said he was going to change some things and he did. The Lions offense went out there on Sunday and got creative and took chances. That’s something that fans have wanted to see all year long. It all worked. Yes, the Lions defense is really bad, and if you replayed this game again 100 times, the Lions would lose 99 of them, but who cares right now? Bevell got the job done.

So good job, Darrell Bevell. You helped make Sunday a little more fun for a fan base that has been sorely missing fun for a while.

Matthew Stafford is good when they let him be good

On Sunday the Lions let him do just that. Ignore the interception — Stafford has side armed the ball to the ground a ton of times in his career. On this occasion it backfired on him; it happens. Other than that, Stafford went off on the Bears defense for 402 yards and three touchdowns.

Makes you again wonder why any new GM would want to move on from him. He’s still a very good quarterback that’s desperately in need of a coaching staff that realizes he’s a very good quarterback. Frankly, I don’t think he’s going anywhere.

Defense showed up late and got the job done

Like I said, I’m not going to say any bad stuff today. I’m going to be positive. So I ask you to strike 98 percent of the defense’s play from the record. These guys got it done on Sunday and they’re the reason the Lions won this game.

What a moment. The Lions struggled to get pressure on Trubisky all day long, so it’s only fitting that when they did, it turns into a strip sack that set the Lions up for the go-ahead touchdown.

If that was not great enough, the Lions then stuffed the Bears on 4th-and-1 to win the game. Just beautiful.

How bad did the Bears just screw this up?

I said I wouldn’t say bad stuff about the Lions today, so instead I’ll say it about the Bears. I’m pretty sure Matt Nagy just got fired. Why?

Because the way the Bears handled the end of the game was just about as bad as it could get. First off, they were up 30-20 with 4:33 left in the game. They then let the Lions waltz down the field for a touchdown in just over two minutes to make it 30-27.

Then there was the aforementioned fumble that set the Lions up to take the 34-30 lead. Then the Bears refused to use their timeout, which I would get if they were looking to win with a field goal.

Lastly, Allen Robinson foolishly stepped out of bounds before getting the first down. That, of course, set up the Lions’ 4th-and-1 stand. Just delightful.

Stop crying about the win

I get it. The Lions ruined their draft standing and blah blah blah. The Lions have had high draft picks for years and it’s never mattered. It’s not like they’re going to draft the Lombardi Trophy or something.

Ok now that I got that out of the way, let me concede that draft picks are cool and they’re important. But they just don’t hit like wins do and they never will. We all needed this win over the Bears. You may not feel like you needed it, but you did because that supports my argument. Just go enjoy the win dammit.