LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson left no uncertainty with his former team, the Detroit Lions, coming in Sunday to Soldier Field to close the regular season.
“We’re playing to win this week,” Johnson said on Monday.
Not that the Bears should be coasting yet, even against Johnson’s former boss Dan Campbell and a Lions team now out of the playoff chase. The Bears still have the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs to lock up with a win, and with it home field for the divisional round should they win their wild-card round playoff game at Soldier Field.
It will be difficult to do with defensive production like they had in Sunday night’s 42-38 loss at San Francisco.
Although they gave up a season-worst 496 yards, Johnson almost seemed to be trying to lift the confidence of the defense.
They did get a pick-6 on the game’s first play from scrimmage by linebacker T.J. Edwards, the first time this happened in an NFL game since Week 2 in 2023. They also forced the first punt by the 49ers since the end of November.
“It always comes back to fundamentals and so it’s gap integrity in terms of the run defense,” Johnson said of stopping the 49ers. “You know, we were playing a really good offense right now. So I think that needs to be stated because they’re averaging 35 points over the last five weeks. And so they’re hot.
“I didn’t feel like our offense did our part in the first half. We did not possess the ball. We had a couple three-and-outs. You look at our defense and they got a pick-6, they got a couple punts, and if we bow up in the red zone I think we feel better about (the defense’s) performance and that’s not to take anything away from San Fran, they did a great job, but there are certainly things fundamentally that we can improve on and we’re going to look to address this week.”
Maybe the most troubling aspect for the Bears was red zone defense.
Green Bay went 0-for-5 at scoring touchdowns in the red zone in Week 16. The 49ers went 5-for-5.
“Each week is a little bit different,” Johnson said. “Every offense has a different red zone story to them. They simply executed better than we did with their plan.”
They’ll hope to improve this plan Sunday or they could wind up with a third seed in the playoffs.
What’s working
Passing. Caleb Williams’ 330 passing yards Sunday were a season high and the Bears accomplished this despite a foot injury that kept receiver Rome Odunze sidelined, and an illness that kept receiver Olamide Zaccheaus from playing. Their pass blocking held up despite tackle Darnell Wright playing with an illness that kept him from taking a Saturday flight with the team to California.
Wright flew in by himself on Sunday, the day of the game.
What needs help
Run defense. They gave up 200 yards rushing, 8 more than when they struggled the previous week, and this looked much worse. Christian McCaffrey had runs of 41, 17 and 16 yards in a season’s best 140-yard effort, but the 49ers had been struggling to run all season. They came into the game averaging 3.6 yards per carry, which ranked next to last in the NFL.
Stock up
WR Luther Burden. The rookie shook off an ankle injury that sidelined him against Green Bay and had career highs of eight receptions for 138 yards while also catching a TD pass. He only was on the field for 38 of the 66 offensive plays.
Stock down
WR DJ Moore. He went from being the star against Green Bay with a spectacular 46-yard TD catch in tight coverage for the overtime win to making only one reception for 7 yards against San Francisco. In Moore’s defense, he was a late addition to the injury report with an illness sweeping through the team, but gutted out the game and participated in 92% of offensive plays.
Injuries
Linebacker Noah Sewell suffered an Achilles tendon injury Sunday but Johnson did not update its severity. An NFL Network report said Sewell suffered a torn Achilles tendon. ... Defensive end Joe Tryon-Shoyinka is in the NFL concussion protocol.
Key number
23 — After Sunday’s game, Williams has 23 games in his career when he hasn’t thrown an interception. No starting NFL quarterback has done this in his first two NFL seasons. Williams broke the mark held by Dak Prescott of 22 games without one in his first two seasons.
Next steps
The Bears try to avenge a 52-21 loss they had in Week 2 at Detroit against the Lions (8-8), who have lost three straight.
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