Week 10, 2018 Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears

Disappointing.

The 3-6 Detroit Lions lose this game to the 6-3 Chicago Bears 22-34 in a game that wasn't really even that close. Despite the Bear's kicker missing two extra points AND two field goals, the Lions only scored 12 points in the 4th quarter when the Bears had a nice 34 to 10 lead. In fact, as much as the Lions needed this game (almost as much as the one they lost last week) they managed to come across as disappointing and in need of a lot of work.

Many times when a new head coach comes in it takes a couple years for the players to learn the new system and to acquire the talent needed to run it... but after the Lions beat the Packers, Patriots and Dolphins it appeared as though they were ahead of the curve and that perhaps this wasn't a full blown rebuilding year after all. Appearances can be deceiving, instead it now appears that those 3 wins were themselves' the fluke and that winning more games in 2018 will be very hard to come by. For starters, the Lions now play at home against the Panthers (6-3) then at home 4 days later on Thanksgiving to these same Chicago Bears (6-3) followed by a road trip to the LA Rams for the Ndamakong Suh reunion (with a dash of Donald for flavor). There is some potential after those games for a win or two but counting unhatched chickens now comes to mind, so let's just hold off on that for now.

As for today, Matthew Stafford was 25 of 42 (59.52%) for 274 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He was sacked 6 times and pressured relentlessly. Wagner looked like a very slow old ox when having to contend with the Bears DE, and the rest of the OL was either lost, confused, outplayed, or otherwise just not very good in both the run and pass blocking areas. The defense meanwhile allowed 2nd year QB Trubisky to go 23 of 30 (76.6667%) for 355 yards 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Trubisky was sacked one time. Trubisky enjoyed his game with very little pressure for much of it. The defense did hold the Bears to 54 yards, so that was not as disappointing as all other aspects of the game, but the Lions were held to only 76 yards themselves, so it kind of equaled out. Special teams didn't do too badly considering the assistant special teams coach is now the coordinator, though I still haven't heard why the previous coordinator was fired last week. Perhaps he was showing up the other coordinators.

Anyway, the Lions are now 4 games out of winning the division with 7 games to go and the next 3 will be nearly impossible to win as things appear to be right now. It is so highly unlikely that the Lions will make the playoffs that ... well... we Lions fans are used to draft talk before Black Friday so nothing terribly new there, just another disappointing season is all. Just wait until next year.