The Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 13-7, on Monday night, and claimed sole possession of first place in the NFC North with a 5-1 record. The loss drops the Lions to 2-4, and 0-2 in the division. The Bears' defense was dominant yet again, forcing four turnovers and holding the Lions off the scoreboard until a Matthew Stafford touchdown pass to rookie wide receiver Ryan Broyles with 30 seconds remaining in the game. There are lots of ways to show how well the Bears' defense played, but perhaps this stat is most telling: Detroit made it into Chicago's red zone four times, and only came away with points on one drive.
Lions vs. Bears, Week 7: Chicago fans happy to get another win
SB Nation’s Bears blog, Windy City Gridiron, has a lengthy and in-depth breakdown of the game. Here are some of the highlights:
On the Bears' playcalling and Jay Cutler's performance, post-Ndamukong Suh hit:
Matt Forte ran for a 4.4 YPC. Michael Bush picked up 6.0 YPC. So why did the Bears not run once during their three-pass-play goal-line sequence that saw three consecutive batted passes from a quarterback that didn't have the same zip on the ball as he had in the first half. Cutler didn't look like the same quarterback after Suh's ankle "went into" Cutler's rib cage, for the entire third quarter. He sent passes uncharacteristically short, normally crisp passes floated a hair longer giving defensive backs time to bat them (or in Justin Durant's case, charge, leap up and bat them down). He recovered a bit by the fourth quarter, but still.
On the Bears scoring in the first quarter, for a change:
The first quarter touchdown to Marshall marked both the second first-quarter touchdown of the year and the second first-half passing touchdown of the year. The Bears scored 10 points in a quarter they've scored 13 points in all season.
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