Bears Report Card: How we graded Chicago in Week 13 loss to Lions

The Chicago Bears took on the Detroit Lions in a Thanksgiving matchup at Ford Field. The Lions came in as one of the best teams in the NFL and the Bears were trying to break a five-game losing streak.

There were a lot of mistakes in this game that caused the Bears to play from behind for all of it. However, despite all of the struggles, they once again had a chance to win the football game late. But another coaching snafu by now-former head coach Matt Eberflus once again spelled defeat, 23-20.

As they have in almost every previous week, Chicago beat themselves and cost the team a win. This is how we graded every unit following the loss.

Offense: B

The Bears offense gets a D for the first half but an A for the second half. Giving them a B for the entirety of the game seems fair. They had nothing going by halftime but they came out with a vengeance and played very well in the second half. Since Shane Waldron was fired and Thomas Brown was hired to be the offensive coordinator, Caleb Williams has taken another step as a passer in the NFL. He works the pocket well, makes good throws, and uses his legs when he has to.

The biggest thing for Williams, since Brown took over, has been getting the ball out quicker and avoiding sacks. It makes him, his receivers, and the offensive line look better when he is smart with his release time. Williams threw the ball 39 times and completed 20 passes for 256 yards. He had three touchdowns and zero interceptions. On the ground, Williams ran it four times for 39 yards. Having the ability to use his legs as a secondary skill makes him that much more dangerous.

One knock on this group is the run game. D’Andre Swift ran the ball 11 times but only tied Williams for the team lead in yards with 39. A lot of their damage came through the air, but running the ball needs to be a weapon for any offense in the league as well. If this group continues to grow with Williams at QB, the season won’t end up being a complete dud with the entire future riding on their development.

Defense: B

The defense was good. It wasn’t the immovable object that they were in the first portion of the season, but they got the job done. The Lions have an elite offense led by quarterback Jared Goff and the Bears held them to 23 points. If the Bears had one of those games where they gave up fewer than 20 they would have had a higher likelihood of winning but giving up 23 to a talented group like the Lions is a nice afternoon. The B grade makes sense for them based on this performance.

The Bears did a decent job of keeping the Lions at bay in terms of pointvscoring. An offense that good is always a threat. However, a knock on them is that they didn’t get a good pass rush developed. They only sacked Goff twice and he wasn’t pressured as much as he should have been. The lack of pressure allowed him to make his throws easier which is one of the reasons the Bears didn’t intercept any of his passes either. One of the big targets during the offseason should be some pass-rushing help. With some of the recent events to come at Halas Hall, it will be interesting to see how the defense responds to some of the changes that they will be dealing with going forward.

Special Teams: C

Special teams weren’t an issue and they weren’t pivotal. We don’t know if they would have made the game tying field goal, but it’s surely a shame that they didn’t give themselves the opportunity. Cairo Santos wasn’t asked to make a field goal at all but he made two extra points. DeAndre Carter had one kick return for 24 yards. Overall, the Bears would like to continue improving with this special teams unit but it is far from the team’s problem.

Coaching: F

Of course, Matt Eberflus was fired the following morning after this loss. It was a long time coming for Chicago’s now-former head coach as there have been a few straight weeks of winnable games that slipped through the cracks. This is a move that should have been done weeks ago. It was apparent after the Washington game that Eberflus was in over his head. Since then, it has been blunder after blunder.

The Thanksgiving debacle was the final straw for the Bears, who had never fired a coach in the middle of the season before. Eberflus didn’t use his last timeout and the clock ran out of time before they were able to attempt a game-tying field goal. It was one of the most egregious clock/timeout mistakes the NFL has ever seen in the regular season. Now, Thomas Brown will take over as the interim head coach. We will see how things look now with him in charge for the rest of the season. For Ryan Poles and his staff, this next hire will be the biggest move of the offseason.

This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears Report Card: How we graded Chicago in Week 13 loss to Lions