The Chicago Bears didn’t have much fight Sunday

The Chicago Bears put up their worst showing of the season against the Detroit Lions. This was the type of game most fans and analysts thought most of this season would like as the Bears rebuild. The Bears started off with a quick 7-0 lead. They promptly folded after the first quarter to lose 41-10. Injuries didn’t help the Bears, but there was no excuse for how bad the results were on New Year’s Day.

There wasn’t much to take away positively for the Bears. The addition of Chase Claypool to the active roster didn’t move the needle for the offense at all. They lacked passion in Week 17, falling to 3-13 on the season. The only team that looked like it wanted to be on the field was the Lions, as they kept their playoff hopes alive Sunday with the win. Here are three studs and duds from the Bears’ loss to the Lions.

Chicago Bears Studs

Khalil Herbert

Herbert didn’t have a lot of carries for the Chicago Bears. That’s offensive coordinator Luke Getsy’s fault. But Herbert made the most of his carries. He finished with 31 yards on five carries, averaging 6.2 yards per rush.

Justin Fields rushing yards

The only stable part of the Chicago Bears offense is Fields legs. He continued to break records Sunday, as he passed Michael Vick’s single-season record. Fields finished with ten carries for 132 yards. He took a few nasty hits on the field at Ford Field. It was a dumb plan by the coaching staff to have Fields run Sunday, as the playing surface in Detroit is one of the worst in the league. Playing him as long as the Bears did in a blowout was pretty questionable.

Joe Thomas

Not every play, but somebody on the defense had to make tackles for the Bears at some point against the Lions. Thomas led the Bears in tackles with 13 total tackles and one for a loss. It was a terrible performance by the Bears’ defense overall. Thomas at least had something to show on the state sheet.

Chicago Bears Duds

Justin Fields’ passing game

Fields looked hungover, looking like he stayed up till the clock struck midnight watching the Ohio State Buckeyes blow their National Championship Semifinal game against the Georgia Bulldogs. He was absolutely awful as a passer against the Lions.

Fields didn’t get much help from his offensive coordinator or wide receivers, but he also made terrible decisions. His multiple turnovers were due to him forcing plays and not throwing the ball away. Fields needs to play smarter next week. Seventy-five yards and a 40.8 rating against the Lions in Week 17… Yikes.

Chicago Bears run defense

The Bears’ defense was pretty bad all around. But the run defense was terrible. The Bears surrendered 265 yards on the ground. They did so by giving up chunk plays of 58, 35, and 40 a pop. The Bears haven’t gotten better at defending the run than what they were doing in Week 2. The defensive line is probably the first thing general manager and the team will address this offseason.

Matt Eberflus

The performance by the Bears on New Year’s Day was the worst under first-year head coach Eberflus. His “H.I.T.S” philosophy was not on display in Detroit. The Bears’ body language did not look good for most of the game Sunday. For a coach that’s really trying to win, his team didn’t seem to care they were getting their butts handed to them by “that team“. The Bears players looked like they wanted to be anywhere but playing football for the Bears during the holiday. That’s on Eberflus for losing the locker room in Week 17.

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The Chicago Bears didn’t have much fight Sunday

The Chicago Bears put up their worst showing of the season against the Detroit Lions. This was the type of game most fans and analysts thought most of this season would like as the Bears rebuild. The Bears started off with a quick 7-0 lead. They promptly folded after the first quarter to lose 41-10. Injuries didn’t help the Bears, but there was no excuse for how bad the results were on New Year’s Day.

There wasn’t much to take away positively for the Bears. The addition of Chase Claypool to the active roster didn’t move the needle for the offense at all. They lacked passion in Week 17, falling to 3-13 on the season. The only team that looked like it wanted to be on the field was the Lions, as they kept their playoff hopes alive Sunday with the win. Here are three studs and duds from the Bears’ loss to the Lions.

Chicago Bears Studs

Khalil Herbert

Herbert didn’t have a lot of carries for the Chicago Bears. That’s offensive coordinator Luke Getsy’s fault. But Herbert made the most of his carries. He finished with 31 yards on five carries, averaging 6.2 yards per rush.

Justin Fields rushing yards

The only stable part of the Chicago Bears offense is Fields legs. He continued to break records Sunday, as he passed Michael Vick’s single-season record. Fields finished with ten carries for 132 yards. He took a few nasty hits on the field at Ford Field. It was a dumb plan by the coaching staff to have Fields run Sunday, as the playing surface in Detroit is one of the worst in the league. Playing him as long as the Bears did in a blowout was pretty questionable.

Joe Thomas

Not every play, but somebody on the defense had to make tackles for the Bears at some point against the Lions. Thomas led the Bears in tackles with 13 total tackles and one for a loss. It was a terrible performance by the Bears’ defense overall. Thomas at least had something to show on the state sheet.

Chicago Bears Duds

Justin Fields’ passing game

Fields looked hungover, looking like he stayed up till the clock struck midnight watching the Ohio State Buckeyes blow their National Championship Semifinal game against the Georgia Bulldogs. He was absolutely awful as a passer against the Lions.

Fields didn’t get much help from his offensive coordinator or wide receivers, but he also made terrible decisions. His multiple turnovers were due to him forcing plays and not throwing the ball away. Fields needs to play smarter next week. Seventy-five yards and a 40.8 rating against the Lions in Week 17… Yikes.

Chicago Bears run defense

The Bears’ defense was pretty bad all around. But the run defense was terrible. The Bears surrendered 265 yards on the ground. They did so by giving up chunk plays of 58, 35, and 40 a pop. The Bears haven’t gotten better at defending the run than what they were doing in Week 2. The defensive line is probably the first thing general manager and the team will address this offseason.

Matt Eberflus

The performance by the Bears on New Year’s Day was the worst under first-year head coach Eberflus. His “H.I.T.S” philosophy was not on display in Detroit. The Bears’ body language did not look good for most of the game Sunday. For a coach that’s really trying to win, his team didn’t seem to care they were getting their butts handed to them by “that team“. The Bears players looked like they wanted to be anywhere but playing football for the Bears during the holiday. That’s on Eberflus for losing the locker room in Week 17.

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Follow us on Twitter at @chicitysports23 for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE

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DETROIT — The Bears were outclassed by the Lions on Sunday, setting a franchise record with their ninth-straight loss and providing only one piece of optimism not named Justin Fields: that, mercifully, there’s only one more of these games left.

The Bears’ 41-10 loss at Ford Field felt like a new low. In a span of almost exactly two quarters — from the 6:48 mark of the first frame to the 6:44 mark of the third — the Lions scored 38 points. Receiver Chase Claypool, active for the first time in a month, played only a select few downs. By the end of the first quarter, injuries forced the Bears to use their third right guard of game.

Yuck. Ugly. All of it — especially when the Bears tried to pass.

Fields’ runs were dynamic Sunday, the way they’ve been all year. But the Bears’ passing attack — his passing attack — was not NFL quality. He went 7-for-20 for 75 yards — a number more suited for the Bears’ heyday of the 1940s — and was sacked seven times.

He did so against the worst defense in the NFL in terms of passing yards per play.

The same Lions defense gave up 317 passing yards and two passing touchdowns to Jets is-he-a-bust backup Zach Wilson and 250 yards and one touchdown to Jets castoff — and Panthers quarterback — Sam Darnold over the last two games. Earlier last month, the Vikings’ Kirk Cousins threw for 425 and two scores.

Entering Sunday, the Lions defense had allowed a 97 passer rating this season and a 103.6 passer rating in December. Both were fourth-worst in the NFL.

Fields’ passer rating Sunday was 40.8.

All that’s left now is to see whether Fields can chase down a record. Fields entered the game with 1,011 rushing yards — needing 196 rushing yards to pass Lamar Jackson’s single-season record of 1,206 rushing yards, set in 2019.

For a while Sunday, it looked like he could pass it in one game.

On third-and-one on the Bears’ first drive, tight end Cole Kmet went in motion and settled in under center, seemingly to take a direct snap. Rather than sneak, he pitched to Fields, serving as a tailback, for 31 yards. Two plays later, Fields threw a 13-yard touchdown to Kmet.

Fields scrambled for a 60-yard gain later in the first quarter, reaching 20.39 mph, but the Bears eventually had to settle for a field goal.

Fields ran 10 times for 132 yards and needs to 64 yards in the finale against the Vikings to pass Jackson.

The Bears remain a half-game behind the Texans, who lost Sunday, in the race to the bottom for the first overall draft selection. The Texans need to win their finale — and the Bears need to lose theirs — for the Bears to have the No. 1 pick.

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DETROIT — It’s hard to discern anything the Bears are accomplishing other than quarterback Justin Fields making strides in what has been nearly a total loss of a season.

Beyond Fields, their great hope is a war chest of future salary-cap space. Those are still just numbers on a spreadsheet at this point. None of that cap space played Sunday as the Bears got thumped 41-10 by the Lions at Ford Field.

That matters, by the way. Sure, this season was never headed anywhere and it fell apart a long time ago, but the fact that the Lions are this far ahead of the Bears in their dueling rebuilds creates one more hurdle for an organization staring down what seems like an endless string of them.

Other than Fields, this season has been unwatchable. This loss was their ninth in a row, their longest losing streak ever. If they fall again next week to the Vikings, they’ll finish with their second-worst record all-time.

Take that in for a moment. This franchise has been around more than a century and has had some dreadful seasons. This could be worse than all but one of them.

And going 3-14 would be fine if it proves to be a step toward something. If this is what it costs to eventually build a Super Bowl winner, no problem.

But what if it’s just another empty Bears season like so many others? An entire season — five months of mostly meaningless games — is a lot to give up.

Fields has grown into the franchise’s foundational piece — the first time that can be said confidently of a Bears quarterback in years — but this season has shown the cap of how far he can take the team without any blocking, receiving playmakers or defense.

The Bears have wasted the first two affordable seasons of his rookie contract.

The Bears aren’t going to stick with this roster, of course. Almost everyone playing Sunday was a placeholder for whoever general manager Ryan Poles signs with his NFL-high $122.2 million in cap space and drafts with full slate of picks that likely will begin with No. 1 or 2 overall. The Bears also will get wide receiver Darnell Mooney, safety Eddie Jackson and cornerback Jaylon Johnson back after season-ending injuries.

But nothing is guaranteed. Rebuilds have been misguided, money misspent and draftees misevaluated. Filling out the majority of the starting lineup is difficult even with an arsenal of resources, and as a first-time general manager, Poles has never done it. It takes a lot of faith to sit through another loss every week on the assumption that the Bears will get everything right in the coming offseason.

What if the upgrades end up bring more modest than magnificent?

It’d be easier to bet on the Bears’ future if they’d found more answers this season. That was supposed to be part of the process, not merely clearing out Ryan Pace’s bad contracts. Anyone could’ve burned the roster to the ground. Construction is hard part.

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DETROIT — The Bears were outclassed by the Lions on Sunday, setting a franchise record with their ninth-straight loss and providing only one piece of optimism not named Justin Fields: that, mercifully, there’s only one more of these games left.

The Bears’ 41-10 loss at Ford Field felt like a new low. In a span of almost exactly two quarters — from the 6:48 mark of the first frame to the 6:44 mark of the third — the Lions scored 38 points. Receiver Chase Claypool, active for the first time in a month, played only a select few downs. By the end of the first quarter, injuries forced the Bears to use their third right guard of game.

Yuck. Ugly. All of it — especially when the Bears tried to pass.

Fields’ runs were dynamic Sunday, the way they’ve been all year. But the Bears’ passing attack — his passing attack — was not NFL quality. He went 7-for-20 for 75 yards — a number more suited for the Bears’ heyday of the 1940s — and was sacked seven times.

He did so against the worst defense in the NFL in terms of passing yards per play.

The same Lions defense gave up 317 passing yards and two passing touchdowns to Jets is-he-a-bust backup Zach Wilson and 250 yards and one touchdown to Jets castoff — and Panthers quarterback — Sam Darnold over the last two games. Earlier last month, the Vikings’ Kirk Cousins threw for 425 and two scores.

Entering Sunday, the Lions defense had allowed a 97 passer rating this season and a 103.6 passer rating in December. Both were fourth-worst in the NFL.

Fields’ passer rating Sunday was 40.8.

All that’s left now is to see whether Fields can chase down a record. Fields entered the game with 1,011 rushing yards — needing 196 rushing yards to pass Lamar Jackson’s single-season record of 1,206 rushing yards, set in 2019.

For a while Sunday, it looked like he could pass it in one game.

On third-and-one on the Bears’ first drive, tight end Cole Kmet went in motion and settled in under center, seemingly to take a direct snap. Rather than sneak, he pitched to Fields, serving as a tailback, for 31 yards. Two plays later, Fields threw a 13-yard touchdown to Kmet.

Fields scrambled for a 60-yard gain later in the first quarter, reaching 20.39 mph, but the Bears eventually had to settle for a field goal.

Fields ran 10 times for 132 yards and needs to 64 yards in the finale against the Vikings to pass Jackson.

The Bears remain a half-game behind the Texans, who lost Sunday, in the race to the bottom for the first overall draft selection. The Texans need to win their finale — and the Bears need to lose theirs — for the Bears to have the No. 1 pick.

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Nearly every team plays three to five games during the holiday tournament week. It’s a full reboot of the season, so I start fresh with the rankings. It’s a blank sheet of paper with the numbers 1 through 25 running down the side and I go from there.

The full season resume counts of course, but I’m not worried about where anyone was ranked a week ago.

Bolingbrook, Perspectives-Leadership, Hinsdale Central and Libertyville all join the Super 25 today. Bolingbrook and Perspectives-Leadership began the season ranked. Both teams finally have all their key players and played well over the holidays.

Hinsdale Central and Libertyville won holiday tournaments and beat ranked teams in the championship games, so they were easy calls. Lemont, St. Patrick, Marist and Barrington drop out for now.

I was hoping to get Grayslake Central, the champions at Jacobs, into the rankings but there just wasn’t room. The Rams lost their first game of the season and have ripped off 13 consecutive wins.

Evanston nearly returned to the rankings after nice run at Centralia. The Wildkits lost to St. Louis Cardinal Ritter (a team that beat St. Rita and lost to Joliet West) in the championship game.

Super 25 for Jan. 1, 2023With record and last week’s ranking

1. Simeon (12-0) 1Pontiac champions

2. Young (12-4) 5Proviso West champs

3. Kenwood (12-2) 2Lost to Young

4. Benet (16-1) 7Fell short vs. Simeon

5. Rolling Meadows (16-1) 13York champions

6. Hillcrest (16-1) 8Big Dipper champs

7. Mount Carmel (15-1) 11Won Pekin

8. Joliet West (11-4) 3Faces Rolling Meadows Saturday

9. St. Rita (8-5) 4Fell short against Young

10. Brother Rice (14-2) 6Plays Bolingbrook Saturday

11. Lyons (11-1) 16Solid run at York

12. Curie (11-4) 12At Kenwood Thursday

13. Bloom (9-3) 15Lost to Benet

14. Proviso East (10-2) 20Only losses are Benet, Kenwood

15. St. Ignatius (13-3) 9Fell short against Lyons

16. New Trier (14-3) 10Lost to Curie

17. Lincoln-Way East (14-1) 17Champs at Effingham

18. Bolingbrook (10-4) NRHealthy and dangerous

19. Downers Grove North (12-1) 24Very big week ahead

20. Hinsdale Central (12-3) NRHinsdale Central champions

21. Perspectives-Leadership (12-4) NRSecond place at the Big Dipper

22. Oswego East (13-3) 19Second place at Hinsdale Central

23. Hyde Park (14-2) 18Lost to Perspectives-Leadership

24. Libertyville (13-3) NRWon Wheeling

25. Glenbrook North (14-1) 14Lost to Libertyville

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DETROIT — It’s hard to discern anything the Bears are accomplishing other than quarterback Justin Fields making strides in what has been nearly a total loss of a season.

Beyond Fields, their great hope is a war chest of future salary-cap space. Those are still just numbers on a spreadsheet at this point. None of that cap space played Sunday as the Bears got thumped 41-10 by the Lions at Ford Field.

That matters, by the way. Sure, this season was never headed anywhere and it fell apart a long time ago, but the fact that the Lions are this far ahead of the Bears in their dueling rebuilds creates one more hurdle for an organization staring down what seems like an endless string of them.

Other than Fields, this season has been unwatchable. This loss was their ninth in a row, their longest losing streak ever. If they fall again next week to the Vikings, they’ll finish with their second-worst record all-time.

Take that in for a moment. This franchise has been around more than a century and has had some dreadful seasons. This could be worse than all but one of them.

And going 3-14 would be fine if it proves to be a step toward something. If this is what it costs to eventually build a Super Bowl winner, no problem.

But what if it’s just another empty Bears season like so many others? An entire season — five months of mostly meaningless games — is a lot to give up.

Fields has grown into the franchise’s foundational piece — the first time that can be said confidently of a Bears quarterback in years — but this season has shown the cap of how far he can take the team without any blocking, receiving playmakers or defense.

The Bears have wasted the first two affordable seasons of his rookie contract.

The Bears aren’t going to stick with this roster, of course. Almost everyone playing Sunday was a placeholder for whoever general manager Ryan Poles signs with his NFL-high $122.2 million in cap space and drafts with full slate of picks that likely will begin with No. 1 or 2 overall. The Bears also will get wide receiver Darnell Mooney, safety Eddie Jackson and cornerback Jaylon Johnson back after season-ending injuries.

But nothing is guaranteed. Rebuilds have been misguided, money misspent and draftees misevaluated. Filling out the majority of the starting lineup is difficult even with an arsenal of resources, and as a first-time general manager, Poles has never done it. It takes a lot of faith to sit through another loss every week on the assumption that the Bears will get everything right in the coming offseason.

What if the upgrades end up bring more modest than magnificent?

It’d be easier to bet on the Bears’ future if they’d found more answers this season. That was supposed to be part of the process, not merely clearing out Ryan Pace’s bad contracts. Anyone could’ve burned the roster to the ground. Construction is hard part.

Read More

Nearly every team plays three to five games during the holiday tournament week. It’s a full reboot of the season, so I start fresh with the rankings. It’s a blank sheet of paper with the numbers 1 through 25 running down the side and I go from there.

The full season resume counts of course, but I’m not worried about where anyone was ranked a week ago.

Bolingbrook, Perspectives-Leadership, Hinsdale Central and Libertyville all join the Super 25 today. Bolingbrook and Perspectives-Leadership began the season ranked. Both teams finally have all their key players and played well over the holidays.

Hinsdale Central and Libertyville won holiday tournaments and beat ranked teams in the championship games, so they were easy calls. Lemont, St. Patrick, Marist and Barrington drop out for now.

I was hoping to get Grayslake Central, the champions at Jacobs, into the rankings but there just wasn’t room. The Rams lost their first game of the season and have ripped off 13 consecutive wins.

Evanston nearly returned to the rankings after nice run at Centralia. The Wildkits lost to St. Louis Cardinal Ritter (a team that beat St. Rita and lost to Joliet West) in the championship game.

Super 25 for Jan. 1, 2023With record and last week’s ranking

1. Simeon (12-0) 1Pontiac champions

2. Young (12-4) 5Proviso West champs

3. Kenwood (12-2) 2Lost to Young

4. Benet (16-1) 7Fell short vs. Simeon

5. Rolling Meadows (16-1) 13York champions

6. Hillcrest (16-1) 8Big Dipper champs

7. Mount Carmel (15-1) 11Won Pekin

8. Joliet West (11-4) 3Faces Rolling Meadows Saturday

9. St. Rita (8-5) 4Fell short against Young

10. Brother Rice (14-2) 6Plays Bolingbrook Saturday

11. Lyons (11-1) 16Solid run at York

12. Curie (11-4) 12At Kenwood Thursday

13. Bloom (9-3) 15Lost to Benet

14. Proviso East (10-2) 20Only losses are Benet, Kenwood

15. St. Ignatius (13-3) 9Fell short against Lyons

16. New Trier (14-3) 10Lost to Curie

17. Lincoln-Way East (14-1) 17Champs at Effingham

18. Bolingbrook (10-4) NRHealthy and dangerous

19. Downers Grove North (12-1) 24Very big week ahead

20. Hinsdale Central (12-3) NRHinsdale Central champions

21. Perspectives-Leadership (12-4) NRSecond place at the Big Dipper

22. Oswego East (13-3) 19Second place at Hinsdale Central

23. Hyde Park (14-2) 18Lost to Perspectives-Leadership

24. Libertyville (13-3) NRWon Wheeling

25. Glenbrook North (14-1) 14Lost to Libertyville

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The amount of knowledge that Alex Caruso learned in the King’s Dojo was immeasurable.

What the Bulls guard took most from LeBron James, however, was understanding the details. Not only in film study, but in-game tendencies. The Lakers thrived in that department, and Caruso considered him a star pupil.

That’s why the last two Bulls games have given him hope.

In both instances, the defense was front-and-center in scrambling to win the game. Whether it was a simple deflection to mess up the timing of the possession, a simple rotation into the passing lane to give the opposing play-maker pause, or selling out to steal the ball, it was a focus on the details that this Bulls team just doesn’t show enough.

And while it led to a win against Detroit and a loss to Cleveland, it was something to build on. Teaching moments that this group continued needing on that side of the basketball.

“It’s just about being on point with your communication and your rotations, closeouts, little things like that, and just covering for each other,” Caruso said. “I think we’ve shown several times this year that when we do it at a high level we’re a really, really good team. It’s just a consistency thing, though.

“I mean look at that first half [against the Cavs on Saturday], we had a group of guys out there and we allowed them to extend it out to 10 because we were a little lazy with [the defense]. I was on the court, and then we had another spurt where they extended it out to 10 again, so we had to keep fighting back, fighting back. We’re just trying to be consistent. We have to limit those spurts. That’s what’s going to win out over time.”

It definitely did against Detroit on Friday, after the nine-win Pistons tied the game up with just over five minutes left.

First there was a Patrick Williams steal, then the Bulls forcing the young Pistons into a shot-clock violation, Caruso then blocked a Jaden Ivey three-point attempt, and forced Bojan Bogdanovic to turn the ball over by stepping out of bounds.

That tie game quickly turned into a Bulls 12-point lead, as they went on to beat the Pistons by 14.

Fast forward to the game with the Cavs, this time facing a five-point deficit with just under five minutes left.

There was an Ayo Dosunmu steal, a steal by Nikola Vucevic, and then Caruso getting into the thievery with a steal of his own.

Dosunmu nabbed another Donovan Mitchell pass, and after DeMar DeRozan made the driving layup with 29 seconds left, the Bulls were down just one.

A clutch stop on a Caris LeVert missed jumper gave the Bulls the opportunity to win the game, but DeRozan’s 15-footer over a double team missed.

“We’re not going to be perfect on the defensive end,” Caruso said. “But if you have the right intentions you can erase deficits like that and at least give yourself a chance to win the game.”

And that’s all Caruso is asking for.

Keeping up that frenetic pace for 48 minutes is absolutely unrealistic for an NBA team, but limiting the defensive lapses the Bulls seem to have far too often is not a big ask.

That’s what Caruso would like to see. There are valuable lessons to be learned the last two games, and the veteran guard was hoping for some staying power.

“I think we have the right intentions with it,” Caruso said. “Obviously we’re not doing it every single possession, but I don’t think that anyone in the league is capable of that. Coaches have put us in a good spot. It’s about taking the information they give us and executing it on the floor. Like I said, the details.

“We’ve shown that could lead to some good things.”

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