Detroit Falls to 1-3 After Embarrassing Performance in Chicago
Detroit came into this week with somewhat of an advantage against the Bears. While both teams are banged up, Chicago was down their starting quarterback and the top two running backs on the team, along with a starting linebacker and defensive lineman. Detroit still couldn’t put up points against a weak defense and couldn’t stop an even weaker offense. Jim Caldwell has to be feeling his seat getting a little warmer after starting off 1-3, losing a game they had the lead in and losing to a team who is injury plagued. Let’s check out what happened.
Offense
Matt Stafford broke the record for the most passing yards in his first 100 games, removing Dan Marino from the record books. He didn’t have the best day though, going 23/36 for 213 yards and two interceptions. The first interception was Golden Tate’s fault. He ran the wrong route and Stafford was expecting him to be there but Tate kept running straight. The second one could be blamed on Anquan Boldin, but Stafford should have been smarter with the throw.
The rushing attack was horrendous. Dwayne Washington was poised to be a solid fantasy football option, getting more playing time. That turned out to be flat out wrong. Washington had just two carries for six yards and would leave the game with an ankle injury, never to return. Theo Riddick had 11 carries for 31 yards and Zach Zenner had three carries for 12 yards.
Receiving had more drops. While it wasn’t as bad compared to week two against the Titans, it was still an issue. Marvin Jones lead the team with five catches for 74 yards. Next was Eric Ebron and Theo Riddick with four catches, Ebron had 42 yards, Riddick with 27. Anquan Boldin had his most productive game with six catches for 31 yards, but Golden Tate was quiet with just two catches for three yards, getting the two point conversion.
The offensive line was not impressive. Taylor Decker looked fine, but Riley Reiff struggled. Laken Tomlinson kept letting people go and so did Travis Swanson in what was his worst game of the season hands down. Larry Warford had a false start penalty and didn’t do well in blocking.
Defense
The defensive line was absent today. There were only two sacks and they were by Kerry Hyder, who is tied with Von Miller in the league with sacks, and cornerback Darius Slay. A cornerback could get to the quarterback over a defensive tackle, end or linebacker? That is not a good thing. Chicago was able to run over the Lions, getting 117 yards on the ground with their third string running back and former Lion Joique Bell.
Besides DeAndre Levy, the linebackers were healthy. Even with Van Noy and Williams coming back, they still didn’t impress. Zach Miller and Logan Paulsen, both tight ends, combined for five catches for 41 yards and a touchdown. Williams was supposed to cover Miller on his touchdown grab, but he shoved him to the secondary where nobody was there. Whitehead had eight tackles, with one tackle for a loss. Van Noy had seven tackles.
The secondary for Detroit got picked apart by a backup quarterback in Brian Hoyer. Hoyer threw for 302 yards and just made everyone look silly. Nevin Lawson was attacked multiple times and it kept working. Quin and Lawson ended with seven tackles. Darius Slay had four tackles, a sack and three pass deflections. Quandre Diggs looked bad as well, with four tackles he kept tripping up on his feet and letting receivers get open. Alshon Jeffery wasn’t the main problem for Detroit, it was Eddie Royal and Kevin White.
Special Teams was the only part of the team that didn’t look bad. Sam Martin had five punts for 245 yards, one getting inside the 20 yard line. Matt Prater made both of his field goal attempts, the longest from 50 yards out. Andre Roberts still can’t return kicks well, getting three for 71 yards and finally learned to kneel when he should. He did shine on punt return duties though, getting two for 100 yards and a touchdown.
Week Four What it Means
Detroit is 1-3 when they should at least be 2-2. It means we have beat ourselves before and it is costing us now. If Detroit is in a situation late in the season where they are out by one game, we can look back at week two and say “we beat ourselves and we are the reason why we are out of the playoffs”
Detroit lost to Chicago for the first time since 2012. This wasn’t an impressive or strong Chicago Bears team, this was a bruised up team lead by backups and they were able to shut down a team with majority of their starters out there on both sides of the ball.
Detroit is now in last place in the division. While they share the same record as the Bears, Chicago now has a tiebreaker on Detroit until they play later in the year. Detroit is already 0-2 in division games and it will need to win the final four to even have a chance to win the division.
Week Four What to Think About
Jim Caldwell could be fired sooner than expected. Losing to a banged up Chicago Bears team is very poor by the coaching staff and it begins with Jim Caldwell. Teryl Austin and Jim Bob Cooter didn’t do anything impressive as well, but Jim Caldwell is in charge of them, so the finger can be pointed at him directly.
Detroit got another horrible pass interference call against them. Tahir Whitehead was covering Jordan Howard and while he had a hand on his chest, he never touched his hands or arms to make it impossible for him to catch the ball. Sure, Detroit did get away with a holding call but the pass interference penalty in football needs to be cleared up.
Detroit got a total of 66 rushing yards against the second worst rush defense in the NFL. That says something about the offensive line and the running backs Detroit has. Detroit needs some help at these spots and while a trade will probably not happen, look towards next years draft for help.
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