Analyzing Detroit Lions Week 1 woes in five numbers

Detroit Lions- 363

The Lions defense didn’t improve much from 2019’s 400.4 yards-per-game average in this one, surrendering 363 yards to the Bears offense which was ranked 29th in 2019 and featured an injured running back, David Montgomery, and one of the least talented offenses in the NFL.

The Lions did outgain the Bears (426 yards of offense) but dropped an opportunity to escape with a win. In one particularly odd moment during the fourth quarter, Patricia called a timeout to discuss a matchup between Bears tight end Jimmy Graham and Lions safety Tracy Walker; then, they came right back to allowing that mismatch and giving up a touchdown on the play.

That broke open the floodgate and the Lions had no answers after that, being cautious and mistake-ridden on offense and feckless on defense to end Week 1.

The Detroit Lions fourth-quarter possessions went punt, missed field goal, interception, dropped touchdown to end the game. The Bears were touchdown, punt, touchdown, touchdown. As in most things, it’s not how you start that matters, it’s how you finish. The Detroit Lions simply couldn’t finish and it hurt them in every way.