Lions just better team on all counts
The game was mucked up for a while Monday night, which probably was why the Bears stayed close for as long as they did.
Neither they nor the Lions had any rhythm during the first half. Whichever team found it first would prevail.
The scoreboard said Detroit did, 24-13, and the Lions remained one of only two NFL teams still unbeaten.
The Bears have a couple of major problems now: They're 2-3 and both the league's 5-0 teams are in the NFC North with them.
“Not a good game played by us,” Bears coach Lovie Smith understated.
The latest loss didn't come so much in an old black-and-blue division game as an infractions-and-violations division game.
The winner was going to be the team that could apply a tourniquet to its penalties and pratfalls.
That was Detroit.
The winner was going to be the team that had coaches who figured out, on the fly, ways to do better what it had been doing worse.
That was Detroit.
The winner was going to be the team with more playmakers and game-breakers both offensively and defensively.
That was Detroit, too.
It's difficult to be too hard on the Bears. At least on the players it is. Hurl insults at the general manager who ill-configured this team maybe and the coaches who poorly coached them maybe … but not so much at the players.
The Bears simply were overmatched on this night on both sides of the ball. They committed too many penalties, some forced and some unforced, which dashed any chance for an upset against a Detroit team that themselves didn't play all that well.
“We put ourselves in a lot of holes,” Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said. “Against a team like that, the way they're playing, it's going to be difficult.”
If the Lions don't have a better quarterback they have one with better weapons around him. If they don't have better line play … well, they do have better line play.
The Bears weren't good enough to survive an emerging Lions powerhouse and a Ford Field crowd celebrating its first “Monday Night Football” game in a decade.
“If you can't handle (the noise) you're going to lose,” Cutler said. “That's what happened to us.”
Maybe the Bears will be good enough by November to win a rematch against the Lions. Maybe they'll be good enough by December to win a rematch against the Packers, the NFL's other unbeaten team.
Probably not, but at this point the Bears have to grasp at hope that only remotely exists.
At least give defensive end Julius Peppers credit. He limped to the locker room on a bad knee but returned to help the Bears keep the game close.
Then there was Cutler. He endured pressure and punishment on nearly every pass play but kept getting up for more.
Matt Forte? He was Matt Forte. His runs and receptions helped the Bears' control the clock in the first half.
Overall, however, the Bears couldn't overcome sloppy play, questionable coaching and most of all the nasty, feisty, frisky Lions.
The Bears didn't lack want-to on this night. They lacked how-to beat Detroit with an error-prone offense and a defense that the young Lions made look ancient.
“We're a better football team than that,” Smith insisted. “We have to get this straightened out pretty quick.”
That's easier said than done for a team with players who don't look talented enough and coaches who don't look effective enough.
mimrem@dailyherald.com
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