2013 Game 4 - Chicago Bears @ Home

In the lead.

The Detroit Lions defeat the Chicago Bears 40-32 to take sole ownership of the division (by tie-breaker rule). Now it'll be a matter if they can hold on to that lead... something they were barely able to do in this game. Leading 37-16 at the start of the 4th quarter the Lions started giving back to the Bears, who scored 16 points to the Lions 3 in the 4th quarter. Granted the Lions lost both their starting cornerbacks by then and had to rely on rookie Darius Slay along with 2nd year players Bill Bentley and Jonte Green... plus the team never really tried to go into any kind of 4 minute offense (or whatever you want to call a clock killing long drive). Still, the lead was sufficient to make it very difficult for the Bears to win and Durham managed to ruin their on-side kick idea while taking a dirty shot in the back for it (and no flag)... something we likely won't hear much about considering the focus on Suh and Fairley by the league instead of true culprits in the game... but I digress.

Matthew Stafford was 23 of 35 for 242 yards 1 touchdown and 1 interception (plus had a QB sneak into the endzone where he lost the ball, recovered it in the air, and still scored a rushing TD all while moving roughly 3 feet forward). Not bad, but not exactly hall-of-fame numbers either. The receiver with the most yards? Durham (the same Durham mentioned above) with 58 yards. The most catches? Brandon Pettigrew with 7 catches on 7 targets for 54 yards. The touchdown belonged to Calvin Johnson who had 4 catches for 44 yards. Reggie Bush had 139 yards on the ground with 18 rushes and a TD. Obviously the offense didn't win the game (not with those numbers).

This game belonged to the defense and special teams. Quin had an interception, Delmas had two. Suh caused a fumble, Fairley ran it in for a TD. Akers was 4 for 4 on field goals, and any punts or kickoffs were well played by my new favorite punter in the league, the Lions 5th round pick, Martin. Tulloch had 10 tackles to lead the defense in that category, and the whole team helped out by making fewer then the normal number of penalties and other self-inflicted mistakes. Sure there were still mistakes, and at times I questioned Linehan's play calls, but in the end the 2-1 Lions took the lead from the division leading 3-0 Bears to tie it up 3-1 and now owning a tie-breaker. Hopefully Houston and Mathis heal up to face the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau field where the Lions haven't won in pretty much forever.

Yeah, that's right, the Lions face the Packers in packerland, and they get to face them the week following their bye week. There is absolutely no way the Lions can win this one, unless, unless they play a near perfect game. Should they win this one, they will have to be taken seriously as playoff contenders. If they lose, they will continue to have to battle for wins, for the lead, and for respect. Sorry Lions fans, I would love to think the Lions can put together a perfect game but I just can not, not at this point in time, so I will have to predict a loss for next week... 28-38.