Dan Campbell's Detroit Lions are nothing if not resilient, and after their Week 15 loss to the Buffalo Bills (and with another chunk of key injuries) everyone was ready to write them off. Sunday's win over the Chicago Bears could've been a lot closer than 34-17, as an injury-riddled defense bent at times but did not break that often, and the Lions have won 13 games in a season for the first time in franchise history.
When facing bad teams earlier this season (Dallas Cowboys-Week 6, Tennessee Titans-Week 8, Jacksonville Jaguars-Week 11), the Lions took care of business in a way some people found a way to criticize. It's what good teams do to bad teams, it's just offensive to some people because the Lions are the ones doing it and the franchise's prior ineptitude is well-documented.
It wasn't quite that way against the Bears on Sunday. But the Bears made a lot of mistakes (two turnovers, 10 penalties) to knock themselves down and the Lions never let them get back up.
Lions take care of business like a top-notch team should against a bad team
The offense carried the day for the Lions, scoring on their first six of their possessions (a missed 65-yard field goal by Jake Bates to end the first half the only unsuccessful possession among them).
Jared Goff had another excellent performance in a season full of them (23-for-32 for 336 yards and three touchdowns; 137.0 passer rating). Jameson Williams set a career-high with 143 receiving yards, highlighted by a beautiful 82-yard touchdown. Amon-Ra St. Brown had six catches for 70 yards and a touchdown, and tight end Sam LaPorta continued his recent resurgence with a touchdown.
And we cannot forget about Jahmyr Gibbs. In the lead back role with David Montgomery out, Gibbs had 23 carries for 109 yards and a touchdown along with four catches for 45 yards. He touched the ball on 20 of the Lions' first 33 offensive plays, and if the game had been closer in the fourth quarter his career-highs for carries (26) and touches (31), both from Week 8 last season against the Las Vegas Raiders when Montgomery was out, would have been in jeopardy.
After some games that have been a grind in recent weeks, the Lions were able to cruise late on Sunday as the Bears just couldn't get out of their own way long enough to get much done. A good bit of that latter point is a credit to the Lions, and as such they again did what a good team is supposed to do when they're facing bad team-win decisively.