Bears in a really tough spot in their division

DETROIT — With almost three months left in the season, it might be a bit much to call the Bears' Monday night loss to the undefeated Lions a season-ender, but the 24-13 defeat leaves them at 2-3 and in sad shape in the all-of-a-sudden ultracompetitive battle at the top of the NFC North.

The problem for the Bears is that the competition is between the 5-0 Packers and the 5-0 Lions.

Big plays have been a huge problem for a hugely disappointing Bears defense all season, and that was the case Monday night, as the Lions scored on a 73-yard pass play from Matthew Stafford to Calvin Johnson and an 88-yard run by Jahvid Best.

Linebacker Brian Urlacher pointed out that last year's NFC North champions were 4-3 heading into the bye week, and this year's team can get there by defeating Minnesota and Tampa Bay the next two weeks before the bye. But a lot has to change.

“That's still possible,” Urlacher said. “But we're not going to win any games if we don't play any better. Defensively we stink. We stop the run; we can't stop the pass. We stop the pass; we can't stop the run. We're just all over the place.”

As has been the case in four of five games, Matt Forte was clearly the most productive player in a Bears uniform.

The offense managed 359 yards, despite the noisiest Ford Field the Bears have ever experienced. But 74 yards came on a meaningless drive to end the game that fell 2 yards short of the end zone.

The 67,861 in attendance established a Ford Field record and made verbal communication for the Bears' offense impossible. Forte produced 151 of those yards (116 yards on 15 carries and 35 yards on 4 receptions), but he wasn't nearly enough in a sloppy, mistake-filled game by both teams.

They combined for 26 penalties, 14 by the Bears, including 8 false-start infractions.

The difference was the Lions' big plays and the Bears' absence of same.

Coach Lovie Smith was hopeful this season that his team had upgraded the problematic safety position, which has seen a total of 47 lineup changes since he became head coach in 2004.

They still haven't found the answer, and that was apparent early in the second quarter when the Lions' 6-foot-5, 236-pound Calvin Johnson was able to somehow get behind strong safety Chris Harris and free safety Brandon Meriweather to catch a 73-yard bomb from Matthew Stafford that opened the scoring.

It was Johnson's ninth touchdown reception, and he became the first receiver in NFL history to have that many scores in the first five games of a season. Johnson's longest reception before Monday night had been for 40 yards.

“Our defense can't give up big plays like that,” Smith said. “To have a base run go 88 yards untouched is hard to swallow.”

Devin Hester showed the inconsistency that has plagued his career as a wide receiver when he dropped a ball at the Lions' 10-yard line that hit him in the hands and would have resulted in a touchdown if he had held on.

But several minutes later Hester flashed the brilliance that always will tantalize coaches and fans.

He leapt high in traffic to take a jump ball away from cornerback Eric Wright for a 26-yard gain. Four plays later he smartly worked back toward a scrambling Jay Cutler to make a tough 11-yard catch on third-and-7 that set up Cutler's 9-yard TD pass to Kellen Davis on the next play.

That gave the Bears and 10-7 lead with 1:11 left in the first half. Cutler was sacked, face-masked and roughed but still completed 28 of 38 passes for 249 yards and a passer rating of 99.6.

He made several plays by eluding the rush and buying time in the pocket until his receivers could come open.

But again the Bears were hurt by drops, and often Cutler had to dump the ball off short to avoid more than the 3 sacks he suffered.

rlegere@dailyherald.com

Grill our sports writers

Join Mike Imrem, Barry Rozner, Bob LeGere and other Daily Herald writers for Bears talk at our first “Ask the Sports Writers” event for members of Subscriber Total Access. It's from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at John Barleycorn in Schaumburg. Free wings and a drink for STA members. For free tickets, email staevents@dailyherald.com, subject “Ask Sports Writers.”