Bears Defeat Lions 27-23 Behind King Rex
Monday, November 3rd, 2008 | NFL, Sports
The Chicago Bears defeated the Detroit Lions 27-23 on the Chicago lakefront on Sunday. It was a game with 3 distinct chapters. The Bears raced out to a 10-0 1st quarter lead courtesy of a Robbie Gould 36-yard field goal and a 5-yard touchdown scramble by Bears Quarterback Kyle Orton. In the 2nd quarter, the Lions exploded for 20 unanswered points on a 1-yard touchdown run by Kevin Smith and two touchdown passes from Lions Quarterback Dan Orlovsky. The teams then traded field goals to set the halftime score at 23-13 Lions. Right before the 1st half ended, Kyle Orton was injured trying to scramble and pick up some extra yards in the Bears 2-minute offense. Orton would not return to the game and he was replaced by former starter Rex Grossman, who led the Bears to the Super Bowl during the 2005-6 NFL season. In the 2nd half, Grossman and the Bears defense both stepped up to pull
off the comeback against the still-winless Lions. Midway through the 3rd quarter, Grossman hit Rashied Davis with a 6-yard touchdown pass down the middle that cut the Lions lead to 3. And with 5 minutes left to go in the game, Grossman QB sneaked the ball into the end zone for the go-ahead, game-winning score. The Bears did not allow the Lions to score a single point in the 2nd half to preserve the win.
Although Grossman’s final numbers weren’t spectacular, he did enough to allow the Bears win a game they desperately needed against one of the worst teams in the NFL. Grossman had a 49.9 passer rating, hitting only 9 of his 19 passes, with 1 interception. But he did orchestrate the 2 drives that led to the go-ahead and game-winning scores, and that should be enough to come Bears fans for the time being. Bears Running Back Matt Forte put forth a solid effort – 126 yards on 22 carries – a good sign that the Bears will stay true to the run.
On the defensive end, the lack of pressure up front is very discouraging. Only 1 sack against a poor Lions offensive line sends up red flags all over the place. The Bears also should have had more than 1 fumble recovery and 1 interception against Orlovsky and the Lions offense – going into the Bears game, the Lions offense had committed 5 fumbles, and Lions quarterbacks were responsible for 9 interceptions.
The Bears have a 5-3 record and sit alone at the top of the NFC North. The Lions are 0-8 and are in last place in the NFC North. The Bears have a critical 4-game stretch coming up, and the loss of Kyle Orton will hurt that much more because of the competition that stands in their way of an NFC North division win. The Bears host the undefeated Tennessee Titans on Sunday, November 9th at Soldier. Then the Bears embark on a 3-game road trip to Lambeau Field to take on the Green Bay Packers on November 16th, to St. Louis to take on the Rams on November 23rd and to Minnesota to take on the Vikings on November 30th. Given the stiff competition, if the Bears can manage to win 2 of the 4 games during this stretch, they should look at it as a huge positive moving forward to the final 4 games of the season.
