Third Quarter
Wide receiver T.J. Jones put forth a decent 21-yard return on the opening kickoff of the second half. Marvin Jones helped to gain another 32-yards through the air as he caught a pass thrown with perfect touch from his quarterback Matthew Stafford. After failing to convert on 3rd & 6, Detroit trotted out their kicker Matt Prater and he banged through a 52-yard field goal, 26-10 Chicago.
On the next Bear series, Mitchell Trubisky hit Anthony Miller deep for a gain of 55-yards through the air as the young quarterback continued his remarkable play in this game. After the big gain, Detroit’s defense tightened their play as they held the Bears to a 41-yard field goal. Kicker Cody Parkey missed it however as he clanged it off of the upright.
Detroit took back over with the ball after the miss but instead of building momentum, Kerryon Johnson fumbled the ball right back to the Bears for Detroit’s second turnover of the game.
Parkey lined up for a field goal from 34-yards out and astonishingly, he hit the upright for the fourth time in the game for his second missed field goal to go along with his two missed extra points!
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Again though, instead of building immediate momentum off of another missed kick, the Lions gave up another sack for a loss of four. On the next play though, Stafford found Golladay for a gain of 15-yards.
A bad penalty by Marvin Jones negated a nice Kerryon gain and as a result, Detroit would eventually be faced with 3rd & 20. On that play, Stafford misfired on a deep attempt to Marvin Jones and the Lions had to punt. Detroit’s trend of dreadful third quarters throughout this season continued to be a bugaboo for their team.
Chicago came back out to try and extend their lead but they couldn’t make the conversions that they needed and Chicago had to punt it away for the first time. They pinned the Lions deep though as Detroit took over from their own 8-yard line.
Blount powered his way for five yards on the first carry of Detroit’s new drive. Instead of scrambling for the first down with his legs on the next play but he opted for a pass that he missed on. From there, he had to get rid of the ball sooner than he would’ve liked and just like that, fourth down was upon the Lion offense.
After the Martin punt, Trubisky went deep for Trey Burton with a big gain of 24 yards. On the next play, Allen Robinson took a slant route 26-yards to the house for his second touchdown of the game. Chicago went for a two-point conversion and they easily converted with a Burton catch, 34-10 Chicago.
On his first play with the ball again, Stafford suffered his fourth sack of the game. On 3rd & 15, Riddick caught Stafford’s pass, put a move on defenders but he still fell short of the conversion. On 4th & 2, Detroit again went for it and Stafford kept it for himself as he ran for the first down.
A defensive penalty gave Detroit a fresh set of downs but Marvin Jones was injured during the play on the illegal contact penalty from Bear cornerback Kyle Fuller. Jones had to be examined on the sidelines by team trainers as the third quarter ended.