5 big takeaways from another Chicago Bears blowout loss against Detroit Lions at Soldier Field

CHICAGO – The Detroit Lions stomped the Chicago Bears on Sunday at Soldier Field. The Lions cruised to their 13th victory of the season, 34-17, while the Bears lost their ninth consecutive game.

That makes this the second-longest losing streak in team history behind only a 14-game losing streak from 2022-23. If the Bears don’t win either of their final two games, they will finish the season on an 11-game losing streak.

Quarterback Caleb Williams made some nice plays, but interim head coach Thomas Brown’s team was outmatched Sunday.

Here are the top takeaways from Sunday’s loss.

1. No fight

Bears fans didn’t need to tune in to know that their team has nothing left to give. The Bears were blown out for a third consecutive week since firing head coach Matt Eberflus on Nov. 29.

That being said, Sunday should’ve been an opportunity to show some fight. The Lions defense is as injured as any in the NFL. Detroit lost running back David Montgomery to a knee injury last week. Quarterback Jared Goff and his team had played a grand total of one game outdoors prior to Sunday.

None of it mattered. The Lions, injured or not, were clearly the better team on Sunday.

The Bears received the opening kickoff and quickly punted. Detroit scored on its first five offensive possessions. The Lions led by 20 before the Bears scored a point.

That’s what it comes down to: Just not being good enough. Not making enough plays. Way too many penalties. Too many turnovers. Just got to find a way to eliminate those things.”

—  Keenan Allen, Bears wide receiver

“That’s what it comes down to: Just not being good enough,” Bears receiver Keenan Allen said. “Not making enough plays. Way too many penalties. Too many turnovers. Just got to find a way to eliminate those things.”

There was plenty of Lions blue at Soldier Field on Sunday and only 56,539 total fans showed up to see the game in person.

2. Caleb Williams is the lone bright spot

Any Bears fans still paying attention are doing so because of the No. 1 overall draft pick. Despite the final score, Williams played alright. The rookie threw two touchdown passes in the first half, connecting with Allen and Cole Kmet for scores.

The touchdown throw to Allen came from 45 yards out with time winding down in the first half. It was the longest touchdown pass of Williams' young career.

Allen was on fire in the fourth quarter, although the game was out of hand at that point. He ended the day with 141 yards and a touchdown on nine receptions.

With 334 passing yards, Williams brought his season total to 3,271. That’s now the sixth-best season ever for a Bears quarterback.

Williams passed the best seasons in a Bears uniform by Mitchell Trubisky, Rex Grossman and Jim Harbaugh on Sunday. Erik Kramer holds the Bears record with 3,838 passing yards during the 1995 season. Jay Cutler owns the four next-highest marks.

3. Braxton Jones exits on a cart

Bears starting left tackle Braxton Jones left the game on a cart with an air cast over his left leg. The Bears officially called it an ankle injury. Video showed his leg bending at an unnatural angle after getting hit by a Lions defender.

The Bears also lost left guard Teven Jenkins to a calf injury. Jenkins had previously been dealing with a calf injury during the practice week. The team inserted backups Larry Borom at left tackle and Jake Curhan at left guard.

Asked about the performance of the offensive line with the backups in there, Brown said it was “solid overall.”

“We’ve still got to be better and got to find better ways of getting in the flow of the game and alleviate some pressure off of them,” Brown said.

The Jones injury, in particular, was highly concerning. It’s too early to speculate about the severity of an injury. Still, when a player leaves on a cart, it’s not a good sign.

The Bears elected to designate backup tackle Kiran Amegadjie as inactive on Sunday, so he was not available to play. Amegadjie, a third-round pick out of Yale, was a healthy scratch a week after starting at left tackle against Minnesota. On Sunday, the Bears elected to go with Borom ahead of Amegadjie as the top backup at the position.

4. Jameson Williams burns the Bears

Jameson Williams and Tyrique Stevenson have had beef. Stevenson was fined a few weeks ago for allegedly tripping Williams. The two were trash talking on Thanksgiving and they started Sunday’s game trash talking again. Williams drew a taunting penalty after a tackle by Stevenson out of bounds.

A little while later, though, Williams got the last laugh.

He blew by everybody in the Bears secondary and scored an 82-yard touchdown on a perfect pass from Goff. Stevenson and safety Jonathan Owens were the closest defenders on the play. Williams showed off his speed and left everybody in his dust.

The Lions went ahead, 20-0, after the big score. Owens pinned the mistake on himself.

“[The] guy’s fast,” Owens said. “So I’m back-pedaling and I see Goff looking at me, so by the time he looks at me, I turn and by the time I turned, like Jameson was like even with me. I just got to be better on that, man. In my mind, I had clean feet, clean eyes. I didn’t bite on anything. He just – man, that guy’s fast."

Williams made five receptions for 143 yards and a touchdown in the game.

5. The class of the NFC North

A few years ago it might have been unthinkable. But a fair number of Lions fans swarmed Soldier Field on Sunday and, at one point, they were chanting Goff’s name.

Goff threw for 336 yards with three touchdown passes. Goff has now thrown for a career-high 33 touchdown passes this season. It’s pretty remarkable what the Lions have done with a quarterback who even Rams coach Sean McVay gave up on.

The Lions are 13-2 and could be on their way to the Super Bowl. If anything, they showed general manager Ryan Poles and the Bears just how much of an uphill battle it will be to compete in the NFC North in the coming years.

Poles famously said the Bears would “take the North and never give it back” in his introductory news conference nearly three years ago. In three years, his team is now 2-14 against NFC North division opponents.