The Chicago Bears did what they were supposed to do on Sunday. They bounced back from a disappointing game and defended their home field with a nice 24 to 13 win against the Detroit Lions. It wasn’t as clean an offensive performance that you’d want to see, but that’s to be expected when you make a change at play caller.
Yes, in case you missed it head coach Matt Nagy confirmed that Bill Lazor was calling the shots on Sunday.
In Lazor’s first attempt running the show this season, he helped Chicago’s offense get a season high in points (24) and total yards (373), they also had 20 first downs, and they averaged 6.5 yards per play on their 57 plays, but they were only 1 of 8 (12.5%) on third downs.
The Lions had 348 yards of offense, they had 24 first downs, and they were 4 for 11 (36.4%) on third down tries. They were also 1 of 3 on fourth downs while the Bears were 1 for 1.
Now let’s take a closer look at the playing time break downs for the Bears and also some of their individual stats.
OFFENSE
He was only asked to drop back to pass 19 times yesterday, and his overall numbers weren’t very eye popping, but Justin Fields gives the Chicago offense a big play potential it hasn’t had in a while. He has a big arm, he’s accurate, but his athleticism also allows him to extend plays as well.
Wide out Darnell Mooney was the biggest beneficiary of those big plays as he racked up 125 yards on 5 receptions. He also had a 10 yard rush.
Allen Robinson had a season high 63 yards on 3 catches. Cole Kmet had a catch for 6 yards while playing every snap but one.
David Montgomery was balling (23 rushes, 106 yards, 2 TDs) before he left the game with a knee injury, and once we know more about the severity of the injury we’ll update that here at WCG.
Damien Williams left with an injury of his own (quad), and he had 2 receptions for 15 yards, and 8 runs for 55 yards an a TD.
Overall the Bears rushed 39 times for 188 yards, and you can tell there was an extra emphasis on pounding the rock on Sunday. The four active tight ends all played, including a season high in snaps for Jimmy Graham, some fullback use from J.P. Holtz, and offensive lineman Alex Bars even come in as an extra blocker for a few snaps.
DEFENSE
Alec Ogletree led the Bears with 12 tackles, and he added a tackle for loss and a pass defensed, and Roquan Smith chipped in with 10 tackles, a sack and a TFL to give the Bears huge production from their inside linebacker spot on Sunday.
Safety Deon Bush had 8 tackles on defense and another tackle on special teams, and nickelback Duke Shelley had 5 tackles and a PD while playing 85% of the snaps on D. DeAndre Houston-Carson (1 tackle) played 18% on the snaps as an extra defensive back, so the Bears went away from base defense quite a bit.
Akiem Hicks hurt his goin on his first play of the day.
Robert Quinn had 5 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 2 QBH, and a forced fumble.
Trevis Gipson had 3 tackles, 1 sack, 2 TFL, 1 QBH, 1 PD, and 1 FF, and he added an assisted tackle on special teams.
Khalil Mack had a tackle, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 2 QBH, and a fumble recovery.
And I would suspect that once the #NFL reviews the stats that Trevis Gipson is credited with another sack for his strip of Jared Goff at 6:42 of the fourth quarter.
— Lester A. Wiltfong Jr. (@wiltfongjr) October 4, 2021
SPECIAL TEAMS*
*The above image has players that only played in the third phase.
Patrick O’Donnell punted 3 times for a 53.0 average (43.3 net).
Cairo Santos mad all 3 extra points and his only fields goal (33 yards), and he’s now made 32 straight fields goals.
Nsimba Webster returned 1 punt for 6 yards, and he had a special teams tackle.
Khalil Herbert had a kickoff return for 33 yards and a special teams tackle.
Caleb Johnson had 2 special teams tackles.
All statistics and snap counts are taken directly from the NFL’s Game Statistic and Information System, as are the accompanying pictures.
To check out the full Bears vs Lions box score I find that ESPN has an easy to navigate site.
As an FYI, when I was searching for a picture of Mooney to use as the lead image this week, this was what came up in my search.