Bear Down, Nerd Up: A historic defensive breakdown costs the Bears

After five weeks of breaking down Bears losses, I really thought this might be the week where I could dig up some numbers that would make Bears fans smile.

It wasn’t meant to be.

But with a sixth straight loss, the Bears keep giving us plenty to talk about. Welcome back to the latest Bear Down, Nerd Up, where I break down the stats and obscure info about the week that was for the Chicago Bears.

Historic: There's no way around it, Sunday's collapse was a historically poor performance from the Bears defense. Statistically, it was one of the Bears' worst games against the pass in team history. The Lions netted exactly 400 passing yards, with quarterback Matthew Stafford totaling 402 passing yards individually.

When taking into account the fact that Lions receiver Kenny Golladay and running back D’Andre Swift – two of their best weapons – didn’t play, it only makes matters worse.

Sunday was the first time the Bears allowed 400 or more net passing yards since 2008. That’s not to say a quarterback hasn’t thrown for 400 yards against the Bears since then. In the NFL, when a quarterback is sacked, those sack yards go against the team’s total passing yardage for the game – but not against the quarterback’s.

For instance, on Oct. 18, 2015, Stafford threw for 405 yards against the Bears. His stat line for that 37-34 Lions overtime win says 405 yards, but the team was docked 14 yards on two sacks. So the Lions totaled only 391 net passing yards.

With that in mind, the last time the Bears allowed 400 net passing yards as a team was Sept. 21, 2008, when Tampa Bay quarterback Brian Griese lit up the Bears for 407 yards. The Bucs won that game, 27-24, on kicker Matt Bryant’s overtime field goal. Despite the 407 yards, Griese still threw three interceptions and attempted an absurd 67 pass attempts (sixth most in NFL history).

The caveat here is that Griese needed overtime to reach 407 yards. Griese threw for 90 yards in overtime.

Here’s where it gets wild. The last time a Bears opponent netted 400 or more passing yards as a team without the aid of overtime was – wait for it – 1985.

Yes, the last 400-yard net passing game against the Bears came against arguably the best defense in modern NFL history. On Sept. 19, 1985, a Thursday night game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, the Vikings poured on 411 net passing yards against the historic ’85 Bears.

The Vikings still lost, 33-24.

Minnesota quarterback Tommy Kramer threw for 436 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. He was sacked four times for a loss of 25 yards.

Pro-Football-Reference.com has team stats for every Bears game dating back through the 1939 season. Since then, Sunday’s loss to the Lions was just the fifth time the Bears have allowed 400 net passing yards.

Bears 400 net passing yards allowed since 1939:

• 506 – Dec. 26, 1982, vs. the Los Angeles Rams

• 411 – Sept. 19, 1985, vs. the Minnesota Vikings

• 411 – Oct. 26, 1947, vs. the Washington Redskins

• 407 – Sept. 21, 2008, vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• 400 – Dec. 6, 2020, vs. the Detroit Lions

Three Rams had 100-yard receiving days with a touchdown in the 1982 game, which the Bears somehow still won, 34-26.

The point of all this is to say that Sunday’s loss wasn’t just a bad defensive performance for the 2020 Bears. It was one of the organization’s worst defensive performances ever. It was the type of bad that costs a defensive coordinator his job, or a head coach.

How do you reconcile that fact with the Bears defense we saw against Tom Brady and the Bucs in Week 5, or the Bears D that forced seven three and outs against Tennessee? How does this happen against a secondary with Kyle Fuller, Eddie Jackson and Tashaun Gipson (all former Pro Bowlers), plus a solid rookie in Jaylon Johnson?

Through the first eight weeks or so, the 2020 Bears defense was not the best in the NFL, but it was solid and consistent.

Against the Lions, the Bears were neither solid nor consistent.

Missing in action: Outside linebackers Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn did not show up in the stat sheet Sunday. Neither had a tackle or a QB hit. That's not to say they didn't affect the game. Each found his way into the pocket to disrupt Stafford a few times – but neither finished on those chances.

The blame for the 400-yard performance cannot fall completely on the secondary. The Bears pass rush needs to help the secondary out.

“Our strength has been to get after the quarterback when [the opponent is] one-dimensional and we know we can go get them,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said. “And then our guys on the back end can go make plays, get interceptions.”

That’s simply not happening right now.

Wasted performance: As if the meltdown wasn't enough, the worst part about the Bears' loss Sunday might have been that Mitch Trubisky played his best game of the year for 57 minutes.

During most of the game, the Bears took what Detroit gave them. Prior to the final drive of the game, Trubisky had only one pass attempt of longer than 20 yards. He learned from his deep-throw mistakes against Green Bay and kept it simple.

For the game, he was 5-for-8 on passes of 10-to-20 yards, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. He was 21-for-23 on passes shorter than 10 yards.

“After watching it, seeing that pass protection, I thought Mitch really did a great job with his decision making,” Nagy said Monday.

Trubisky moved into third on the Bears’ all-time completions list with 914 career completions, passing Sid Luckman (904) and Erik Kramer (913). Only Jim Harbaugh (1,023) and Jay Cutler (2,020) remain ahead of him.

Despite his fumble near the end of the game, his one big mistake, it was a performance to build on.