At the start of the season, you might have predicted that there would be a winless team in the Week 6 matchup between the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Most people would have pegged the visitors from the Windy City as the one with the doughnut in the win column. Instead, it's the home club that has yet to get off the schneid this season.
Bears vs. Lions 2015 live stream: Game time, TV schedule and how to watch online
The Lions are the league’s only winless team and off to their worst start since going 0-16 in 2008.
The Lions are are off to their worst start since becoming the league’s only 0-16 team in 2008, and with their next loss, they’ll surpass their entire total from last season (five). Although there is still plenty of football to played, this team is a hot mess and in disarray.
Nothing is working and the winless start for the Lions seems to be growing more depressing each week. Things might have hit rock bottom last Sunday in an embarrassing 25-point loss to the Arizona Cardinals -- a six-turnover debacle during which their starting quarterback was benched and the defense surrendered 35 straight points in the second and third quarters.
Matthew Stafford’s problems cannot be ignored -- he has the third-worst passer rating and has thrown a league-high eight interceptions -- but the bigger concern is an offensive line that can’t block for its rushers and is struggling mightily in pass protection. Entering Week 5, Pro Football Focus graded the Lions’ O-line as the worst unit in the NFL, and there is no reason to believe their dismal performance last Sunday did anything to improve that ranking.
Detroit is averaging a league-low 48.8 rushing yards per game and 2.8 yards per rush, numbers that seem impossible for a team that invested heavily in its run game this offseason. Remember, the Lions drafted an offensive lineman in the first round (Laken Tomlinson), a running back in the second round (Ameer Abdullah) and traded for veteran guard Manny Ramirez.
While the Lions are in a tailspin, the Bears are trending upward after rebounding from their 0-3 start with back-to-back wins. Believe it or not, Chicago has won two games in a row because of Jay Cutler’s gutsy performance, rather than in spite of him. Cutler is having his best season in years, playing with a newfound composure and confidence while leading the team to fourth-quarter comebacks the last two weeks.
Although his overall passing stats this season aren’t gaudy, the Bears have to be encouraged by his improved decision-making in the pocket. After leading the league last year with 24 turnovers in 16 games, he has just four in four games this year. Known for his failure to handle adversity and his penchant for committing crippling mistakes, Cutler is now thriving in crunch time and has emerged as the team’s MVP in the first month of the season.
If the Bears are going to extend their current win streak to three games, they’ll have to also snap a four-game losing streak to the Lions. It is their longest skid in the rivalry in more than four decades, since losing five in a row from 1971 to 1973. Chicago’s last win against Detroit came in Week 17 of the 2012 season.
How to Watch
When: 1 p.m. ET
Where: Ford Field, Detroit
TV: FOX
Announcers: Chris Myers, Ronde Barber, Jennifer Hale
Online: NFL Game Pass
* * *
SB Nation presents: There’s more to Bears fans than Ditka and sausage
See More:
