CHICAGO – Where was this last week? Or for most of the past month?
Jared Goff threw for 331 yards and the Detroit Lions played some of their best defensive football of the season, one week after they were eliminated from playoff contention, beating the Chicago Bears, 19-16, on a last-second field goal by Jake Bates at Soldier Field.
The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Lions, who finished the season 9-8, their fourth straight year with a winning record – the first time that’s happened since 1969-72.
With little to play for after consecutive losses to the Minnesota Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams, the Lions scored on their first three possessions and didn’t allow a point until Caleb Williams hit Jahdae Walker with a 25-yard touchdown pass 44 seconds into the fourth quarter.
The Bears rallied to tie the game on a 1-yard Williams pass to Colston Loveland with 5:25 to play, but the Lions forced a late three-and-out and Goff led the game-winning six-play, 39-yard drive.
The Bears entered Sunday with the NFC North title in hand, but could’ve fallen from the No. 2 seed to the third seed in the NFC playoffs with the loss, but were bailed out by a Philadelphia Eagles loss to the Washington Commanders.
The Lions finished fourth in the division but swept the season series from the Bears and their former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. They will pick either 16th or 17th in the draft in April, depending on the results of Sunday’s late game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Here are three thoughts from Sunday’s game:
The good
Jack Campbell said last week that everyone on the Lions roster would be playing “for something bigger than himself” on Sunday, and while the win might have cost the Lions a few spots in draft position – they fell from 13th or 14th to 16th or 17th with the victory – it was good to see fight still in the roster after a couple uninspiring losses.
The Lions moved the ball at will in the first half, outgaining the Bears 237 yards to 69. They didn’t punt until there was 10:40 left in the third quarter. They bottled up one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL. And they did it against a Bears team that had a division title clinched but was fighting for the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs.
I’m not a believer that momentum carries over season to season. There’s too much change every year in the NFL for that to be the case.
But I do think Sunday’s performance was a reminder that the Lions probably aren’t as far off as they felt in losing to the Minnesota Vikings last week.
There’s plenty of good talent on this roster, starting with Goff, St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs, and Dan Campbell got that roster to play a complete, well-rounded game with little more than pride at stake.
The Lions need to upgrade the talent on their offensive line and across their defense to contend in 2026, but there’s no reason they can’t be right back in the Super Bowl mix again.
The bad
The Lions let the Bears back in Sunday’s game with a batch of the same type of mind-numbing mistakes that defined their season.
The Lions led 16-8 and had a chance to put the game away early in the fourth quarter when Dan Campbell got too cute with a third-and-1 play call. David Montgomery took a pitch from Goff and was sacked for a 5-yard loss on what was a designed throwback to Goff.
The Lions punted, and the Bears went 88 yards in 12 plays – with the help of more Lions mistakes – to tie the score. Williams fielded a bad snap at the 1-yard line, but was able to throw the ball away after Aidan Hutchinson stopped a few yards from the quarterback.
Two plays later, Williams completed a 19-yard drive-extending pass to Cole Kmet on third-and-10.
On the Lions’ ensuing drive, Goff took an intentional grounding penalty on a miscommunication with St. Brown with just over two minutes to play and the Lions in field-goal territory. Two plays later, he forced a pass into quadruple coverage that was intercepted.
Friendly fire
Amon-Ra St. Brown had 11 catches for 139 yards Sunday, pushing him over 110 catches for the third straight season.
St. Brown did most of his damage Sunday against former Lions safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson – who took a veiled shot at St. Brown and a couple not-so-veiled ones at the Lions at the Super Bowl last year.
Gardner-Johnson said his one season in Detroit in 2023 was “hell” and called Jameson Williams the best receiver on the Lions roster, ahead of St. Brown.
“(I) know so,” Gardner-Johnson told the Free Press at the time. “People get caught up in the hype, but I get caught up in the truth.”
Gardner-Johnson has been an important midseason addition to a Bears defense that’s struggled at times this year, but St. Brown put him in a blender on multiple times Sunday.
St. Brown has battled uncharacteristic drop problems at times this year, but he still finished the season with 117 catches, 1,401 yards and 11 touchdowns and could earn his third straight first-team All-Pro selection next week.
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
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Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions beat Bears, Ben Johnson in feel-good 19-16 win in finale
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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