Detroit Lions Week 17 report card: A complete thrashing of the Bears

The Detroit Lions utterly dominated the Chicago Bears by a score of 41-10, and here’s our report card for their performance on Sunday.

Coming off their worst performance of the season, the Detroit Lions’ playoff chances had taken a turn for the worse. The only hope they had was to win out and get some help along the way. The first obstacle in their way was the Chicago Bears, and it ended up hardly being an obstacle.

It was refreshing to have a stress-free game in the final home game of the year. After a rocky opening quarter, the Lions went on a 34-0 run.  They thoroughly dismantled the Bears on both sides of the ball for the final three quarters.

A week ago there weren’t many positive things to say about the game in Carolina. Now this week, there aren’t many negative things to say. It was a near-perfect game in the final home game of the season.

Detroit Lions Week 17 report card: Easily taming the toothless Bears

Rushing offense: 5/5 stars 

The ground game emphatically bounced back against the Bears. Both Jamaal Williams and D’Andre Swift found a ton of success running between the tackles, as well as to the outside. Swift especially shined in this game, doing a phenomenal job of getting north-south decisively more often. He showed a decisiveness that had been absent since the opening few games of the season.

At the end of the game, Detroit had 265 rushing yards as they averaged 6.8 yards per carry. That is exactly what Dan Campbell wanted to do to this Bears team, lean on the offensive line and play smash-mouth football. To draw more connections to the bounce-back after the loss in Carolina, the Lions did to the Bears what the Panthers did to the Lions in Week 16. They punched the Bears in the mouth, and Chicago had no response.

Passing offense: 5/5 stars

The Lions’ passing attack has had more productive games this season, but this was an incredibly efficient game. Jared Goff and the receivers came through when they were needed, and they limited mistakes.

The passing game opened up thanks to the dominant ground game (as well as the Bears’ defense being very bad). Detroit got pretty much whatever they wanted offensively all day. The end result was another notch in the belt of an offense that’s been one of the best in franchise history.

Best offensive player(s): Everyone

Worst offensive player(s): No one

Nothing to really complain about here. As mentioned, Swift was absolutely incredible on Sunday. Jamaal Williams had a monster day and crept closer to Barry Sanders’ franchise record of 16 rushing touchdowns in a season. The receivers were all good, the offensive line was dominant. Special shout-out to Penei Sewell–he was tasked with getting downfield to block on multiple plays and he came through big time.

It was truly a dominant effort from the entire offense. No one dragged the unit down, everyone complimented each other with their play.