Windy City Gridiron
That was a frustrating game for the Chicago Bears and a frustrating close to their 2025 regular season.
The Bears played uninspired football for three quarters, while the Detroit Lions played with an edge all afternoon. When Chicago finally woke up, they tied the game at 16, but they didn’t have enough to finish.
The Bears lost, 19-16, in a game they needed to secure the two seed in the NFC. Luckily for them, the Philadelphia Eagles also lost, which gifted the Bears the second seed.
“They fought their tails off, but came up short,” head coach Ben Johnson said in his postgame press conference. “We’ve got to play better going forward, we’ve got to coach better going forward as well, and we’re turning the page.”
Technically, these Bears also fell into their NFC North title, because they clinched it when the Packers lost two Saturdays ago. They never got the satisfaction of winning a hat-and-t-shirt game on the field.
As for yesterday’s game, the Lions had the time of possession edge (35:45 to 24:15), more total yards (433 to 270), more first downs (26 to 16), and were better on third down tries (46.2% to 36.4%).
The Bears were 1 for 2 on fourth down and had fewer penalties, 4 for 25 yards, compared to Detroit’s 6 for 35.
The Bears will dissect this tape, figure out what happened, and then it’s on to the Packers.
“We got the number two seed, we’ve got a home game next week, and we’ve got a new season on the horizon,” Johnson said. “Our guys should be reinvigorated by that. I know I certainly am.”
Let’s look at the Bears’ playing time breakdowns and a few individual stats from the game.
Caleb Williams broke Erik Kramer’s thirty-year-old record of 3,838 passing yards, but when asked if he could appreciate the accomplishment, he wasn’t feeling it.
“No. Need to win the game,” Williams said in his press conference before pivoting to the big picture. “Didn’t want to leave it up to another team to put us in the seeding that we wanted to be in. I don’t know what the case happened with that game, but we didn’t execute the way we needed to, and so that number (the record) is the number, and so be it.”
Colston Loveland broke Mike Ditka’s rookie receptions record for tight ends with 58. He also led the team in catches and receiving yards (713).
Eight tackles each from Kevin Byard III, Tremaine Edmunds, and Jaquan Brisker. Byard added an interception, and Brisker had 2 passes defended.
Andrew Billings had 4 tackles, a tackle for loss, a sack, 2 QB hits, and 2 penalties.
Gervon Dexter Sr. had 3 tackles, a TFL, 3 QB hits, and a sack.
Montez Sweat had 4 tackles, a half sack, and a PD.
Grady Jarrett had 3 tackles, a half sack, and a PD.
Austin Booker had 3 tackles and a PD.
