Windy City Gridiron
Detroit Lions
SB Nation site: Pride of Detroit
Record: 0-1
Last week: 27-13 loss to the Packers
Game day, time, TV: Sunday, noon CT, FOX
Spread: The Lions are 5.5-point favorites. The O/U is set at 46.5.
Bears all-time record against: 105-80-5
Historical meetings: The last time the Bears and Lions met in week two was way back in 2006.
The Bears were 1-0 and the Lions were 0-1.
The Bears jumped out to an early lead, set up by a Brian Urlacher sack-fumble of Jon Kitna deep in Lions territory. On Detroit’s second possession, Kevin Jones fumbled (forced by Alex Brown), leading to a Chicago field goal.
They added on in the second quarter with a 41-yard Rex Grossman to Bernard Berrian.
The Lions missed a field goal on their next possession and Chicago tacked on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Grossman to Demond Clark.
Detroit finally got on the board in the third quarter with a Kitna 1-yard run.
But the rout was already on. The Bears added another touchdown (Grossman to John Gilmore) and a field goal.
The Bears finished out a 34-7 win to move to 2-0.
Last meeting: In week 16 last season, the Bears hosted the Lions at Soldier Field and were utterly dominated.
The Lions took a 20-0 lead before Caleb Williams hit Cole Kmet for a one-yard touchdown.
Things didn’t get much better and the Lions ended their scoring with the infamous stumblebum touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Sam LaPorta.
Injury report: The Lions listed four players as limited or not participating on Wednesday’s injury report.
Did not participate
Limited participation
Offense: The Lions offense enter week two ranking 27th in yards and 24th in points.
Detroit’s passing offense ranks 15th and their rushing offense ranks 31st.
That’s quite the drop off from last year, but a one-game sample size isn’t much to go on.
Jared Goff (79.9 pct cmp/225 yds/1 TD/1 INT) didn’t look quite as strong last week, but the team is still settling into their new offense with new offensive linemen.
The weapons return with Amon-Ra St. Brown (4 rec/45 yds./0 TD), TE Sam LaPorta (6/79/0), Jameson Williams (4/23/0) and Kalif Raymond (2/16/0).
However, their reception leader last week was actually Jahmyr Gibbs (10/31/0). Rookie Isaac TeSlaa (1/13/1) caught their only passing touchdown in week one.
Their ground game is still split between David Montgomery (11/25/0) and Jahmyr Gibbs (9/19/0). But they couldn’t get any traction against Green Bay.
Defense: On defense, the Lions rank 25th in points and 11th in yards allowed.
Their passing defense ranks 14th, while their rushing defense ranks 11th.
After getting decimated last year, they welcome back DE Aiden Hutchinson and LB Alex Anzalone (4 tkl). Plus, Terrion Arnold (1 PD/6 tkl), Brian Branch (5 tkl/1 TFL) and Kerby Joseph (1 tkl).
They also have Marcus Davenport and Jack Campbell.
The defense really...
