Bears vs Lions: Takeaways from the snap counts, stats, and more

The Chicago Bears lost their third consecutive game, this one 31 to 30 against the Detroit Lions, and they did so in historic fashion according to the Twitter account @OptaSTATS. They Tweeted that the Bears are the first team in NFL history to score 29 points in three straight games and lose all three. The offense is still growing and figuring things out, but it hasn't been the problem in the last month.

Chicago's defense has been one of the worst in the league during their last three games by allowing 381 yards per game, and Bears' opponents are scoring 38.3 points per game in that time. But keep in mind they traded away their best pass rusher on October 26 and their best defensive player on October 31.

There's only so much defensive coordinator Alan Williams can do with a unit starting four rookies and a few castoffs surrounding a few legitimate NFL talents.

For yesterday's game, the Bears outgained the Lions (408 yards to 323) and were better on third down conversions (54.5% to 45.5%), but the Lions had more first downs (25 to 19) and far fewer penalties with just 2 for 15 yards to the 9 for 86 yards called on the Bears.

Now let's take a closer look at the playing time breakdowns for the Bears and also some individual stats.

OFFENSE

Justin Fields had another brilliant overall performance with 147 rushing yards on 13 attempts and 2 touchdowns while throwing for 167 yards on 12 for 20 passing (60%), for 2 TDs, an interception, and a passer rating of 99.4.

The interception was an awful decision that went the other way for a pick-six, and it's a play that Fields was asked about after the game. "Just a dumb play," Fields said of his first interception since October 24. "I can assure you that will never happen again for the rest of my career."

Fields came back three plays later and broke his own team record with this 67-yard TD run.

Both of Fields' TD passes went to Cole Kmet, who had 74 yards on 4 catches.

Darnell Mooney had 4 receptions for 57 yards.

Chase Claypool was only targeted twice, and he had 1 catch for 8 yards. The Bears planned to get him more involved, but the game just didn’t go that way this week.

Byron Pringle caught 1 for 12 yards in his first game back after a stint on IR.

David Montgomery ran 9 times for 37 yards and had 1 reception for 7 yards.

Khalil Herbert ran 10 times for 57 yards, but left late in the game with a hip injury.

DEFENSE

Undrafted free agent rookie Jack Sanborn was all over the field with 12 tackles, 2 sacks, and 2 tackles for loss, plus he had an interception negated with a bogus hands to the face penalty.

Rookie second-rounder Jaquan Brisker had 7 tackles, while fellow second-round pick Kyler Gordan didn't collect a stat besides an unnecessary roughness penalty.

Fifth-round pick Dominique Robinson had 6 tackles.

Rookie UDFA Kingsley Jonathan had 2 tackles and rookie UDFA Jaylon Jones had 1 tackle.

Jaylon Johnson had to come out of the game a bit due to that oblique injury, and he was held to just 4 tackles.

SPECIAL TEAMS*

*The above image has players that only played in the third phase.

Cairo Santos missed one of his fourth extra points and hit a 33-yard field goal.

Rookie Trenton Gill had 3 punts for a 43.0 average while placing 1 inside the 20.

UDFA rookie Sterling Weatherford has a special teams tackle.

To check out the full Bears vs Lions box score, I find that ESPN has an easy-to-navigate site.

All statistics and snap counts are taken directly from the NFL's Game Statistic and Information System, as are the accompanying pictures.