Bears Defense Ends Chicago’s Playoff Hopes with Awful Thanksgiving Performance
Published by Zach Kruse on November 27, 2014
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
It was only fitting that the dreadful defense of the Chicago Bears drove the final nail into the club’s disappointing 2014 campaign.
Given a chance to breathe new life into a dying season, the Bears instead allowed almost 500 yards—including 390 passing yards to quarterback Matthew Stafford—en route to losing a must-win game to the Detroit Lions by a 34-17 final Thursday at Ford Field.
The loss drops the Bears to 5-7. While not yet mathematically eliminated, Chicago would now need a perfect finish and some serious help from the rest of the NFC contenders to make a last-ditch push to the postseason. Neither seems likely.
The Bears can point to the defense to explain how a Thanksgiving matchup with the Lions got away and why there will be no recovery in 2014.
After Chicago delivered a strip-sack of Stafford—the defense’s lone highlight of the holiday—to help put the Bears up, 14-3, in the first quarter, it allowed the Lions to score the game’s next 21 points and 31 of the final 34 points overall. An early 11-point lead evaporated in the second quarter, as Detroit rattled off three consecutive touchdown drives to take a 24-14 lead into halftime.
Coming out of the break, it was much of the same.
Following Robbie Gould’s field goal that pulled the Bears within seven points, the Lions embarked on a 12-play, 95-yard scoring drive to finish off Chicago. Running back Joique Bell punched in the touchdown from one yard out on the first play of the fourth quarter to give Detroit a 31-17 lead. The Bears wouldn’t realistically threaten again.
By the time it was over—and Chicago’s season was all but buried—the Lions had totaled 474 yards, 28 first downs, 383 passing yards and two rushing touchdowns. Thursday marked the fourth time Chicago had allowed over 400 total yards in a game and the fifth occurrence in which an opponent had scored over 30 points.
Through 12 games, the Bears are allowing 28.1 points per contest, which now ranks last in the NFL.
The Bears simply had no answer for Stafford, who came into the contest ranked 26th in passer rating (81.0), 28th in completion percentage (58.8) and 20th in yards per attempt (7.1). He eclipsed season averages across the board.
Against a baffled Bears secondary, Stafford completed 34-of-45 passes (75.6 percent) for 390 yards (8.7 per attempt), two touchdowns and no interceptions. His final passer rating was 116.0, his third highest of the 2014 season.
Receiver Calvin Johnson was his main beneficiary, catching 11 passes for 146 yards and two scores. He tortured Bears rookie cornerback Kyle Fuller throughout the contest. Johnson also helped spark the comeback.
His leaping 25-yard touchdown catch early in the second quarter snapped Detroit’s two-game touchdown drought and began a string of three straight Lions possessions ending in the end zone.
A series later, Bell leaped in from a yard out to finish off a 10-play, 86-yard drive. Stafford then hit Johnson for a six-yard touchdown with 24 seconds left in the half to give Detroit a 10-point halftime cushion.
Struggling against a quarterback like Stafford is nothing new for the Bears defense. In fact, it’s the norm for the unit in 2014. Head coach Marc Trestman summed it up quite matter-of-factly following the Bears’ loss to the Packers in Week 10, per Kevin Patra of NFL.com:
It’s like I told our football team at halftime and after the game: We’re not a very good football team right now. We’ve descended over the last three weeks and didn’t make any changes or any positive movement after the bye, and that starts with me.
And in Week 13, that didn’t change.
In other blowout losses to the Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins this season, opposing quarterbacks feasted on Trestman’s and defensive coordinator Mel Tucker’s undermanned unit.
Over two games, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw for 617 yards and 10 touchdowns (149.0 passer rating). Green Bay outscored Chicago by a final margin of 93-31.
In Week 7, Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw for 277 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions during a relaxed 27-13 win over the Bears in Chicago.
A week later, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady tossed five touchdowns (with just five incompletions) and totaled 354 passing yards in a 51-23 romp over the helpless Bears.
Throw in Stafford’s near-perfect day, and the picture becomes clear: Put a top quarterback against the Bears and the defense is doomed—in a big way.
Overall, the four quarterbacks listed above—Rodgers, Tannehill, Brady and Stafford—have combined to throw for 19 touchdowns without an interception against Chicago this season.
Meanwhile, the Bears’ five wins this season have come over teams quarterbacked by the likes of Geno Smith (benched by the New York Jets), Teddy Bridgewater (rookie) and Josh McCown (veteran journeyman). Triumphs over Matt Ryan and Colin Kaepernick now look more like momentary flukes than anything else.
The Bears’ remaining schedule offers no reprieve.
Next week, Chicago begins a three-game homestand at Soldier Field—where the Bears are 2-3 this season—against the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints, plus a second meeting with the Lions. Entering Thursday, Tony Romo (111.4) and Drew Brees (98.1) were both among the Top Eight in passer rating, and Stafford clearly has Chicago’s number.
Essentially, the Bears would need to sweep the three games at home, go on the road and win at Minnesota in Week 17 and then hope a jumbled mix of NFC contenders falls flat over the final four games.
The top-heavy conference currently has seven teams with at least seven wins, and one playoff spot will go to the winner of the NFC South. It’s possible even a 9-7 record wouldn’t be enough for Chicago to make the postseason.
It’s more likely that the Bears won’t come close to sniffing nine wins or the playoffs.
A defense laughably outgunned failed to even compete this season against some of the best passers in the NFL. Stafford became the latest point man to run circles around the Bears, and it’s very easy to envision Romo and Brees doing the same in the coming weeks.
The Bears’ once promising 2014 season is all but dead. Many are to blame, but the prime suspect in this football fatality is still Chicago’s continuously poor defense.
Zach Kruse covers the NFC North for Bleacher Report.
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