Lions vs. Bears: Live Game Grades & Player Analysis for Detroit

The Detroit Lions took the national stage on the road in Week 7 on Monday Night football, and they got hammered. The Chicago Bears defense dictated the outcome of this game, and it got a lot of help from the Lions and their inability to hold onto the football. The Lions had three red zone turnovers that led directly to this loss.

Let’s look at the Lions’ final postgame grades and evaluations.

Quarterbacks

Matthew Stafford: C-

Matthew Stafford played a pretty poor game on Monday Night Football as he routinely missed on his throws. He was going against an incredibly tough defense and he had a bad game. Stafford is supposed to be one of the game’s elite quarterbacks, but he didn’t look elite against the Bears in this game.

Stafford finished 28-of-46 for 261 yards. He threw a very late touchdown and an interception in the fourth quarter on fourth down. Stafford’s mechanics are way off and he was not accurate against the Bears. This was not a pretty game for Stafford.

The Lions routinely threw short passes because the Bears were playing two deep safeties, and the Bears did a great job in coverage against the Lions. Stafford and the Lions’ explosive offense from 2011 is gone as they look completely out of sorts.

Running Backs

Mikel Leshoure: B-

Mikel Leshoure was the Lions featured back, and he ran tough but he had a very costly fumble against the tough Bears defense. Leshoure carried the ball 12 times and finished with 63 yards. He also caught six passes for 20 yards. In all, Smith touched the ball 18 times and finished with 83 total yards.

Leshoure looked very good carrying the ball against the Bears but the fumble was a killer.

Joique Bell: C-

Joique Bell was a secondary rusher in this game, but he ran for some tough yards and he coughed up a fumble at an incredibly bad time in the game. He leapt to try to break the plane of the goal line but he was too far away from the end zone, and he fumbled the ball before he got to the ground.

Bell ran it three times for 13 yards, and he caught three passes for 16 yards.

Wide Receivers

Calvin Johnson: C

Calvin Johnson had a pretty quiet game along with the rest of the offense as he finished with three catches for 34 yards. The Bears lined up cornerback Charles Tillman on Johnson throughout the game, and they played their safeties 20-25 yards off the line of scrimmage to take away the deep ball.

Johnson was a relative non-factor as he never really threatened to Bears defense vertically. He worked very hard all night to try to get open but simply looked outmatched. The Lions were simply outmatched going up against the Bears defense, but Johnson gave great effort in the game.

Titus Young: B

Titus Young had a very good game as he finished with six catches for 81 yards. He really stepped up when receiver Nate Burleson went out with the leg injury.  Young needs to play better in the coming weeks as he steps into the second receiver role with Burleson out for the year.

Nate Burleson: C

Nate Burleson had an ineffective game against the Bears as he finished with one catch that went for 16 yards. Burleson, along with the rest of the offense looked out of sorts against the Bears. Burleson did not have a great performance in this game, and he was lost for the year with a broken leg.

Ryan Broyles: B

Broyles looked pretty good in his coming out party on Monday Night football. The rookie wide receiver caught three passes for 51 yards and a touchdown.

Tight Ends

Brandon Pettigrew: D+

Pettigrew has a hard time getting any separation from linebackers, and it limits his production. He suffers from rock-like hands as he constantly is fumbling the ball. He fumbled the ball out-of-bounds twice in this game, and he was lucky that neither cost the Lions. Pettigrew caught five passes for 37 yards.

Tony Scheffler: C

Tony Scheffler had a tough game as he caught one pass for six yards. Much like the other players on offense, Scheffler didn’t do too much against the Bears. This was a very quiet game for Scheffler.

Offensive Line

Jeff Backus: C

Jeff Backus did an average job of protecting quarterback Matthew Stafford. He does not help in the run-blocking game, but that is not a particular strength and something that the Lions just have to deal with. Overall, Backus was okay versus the Bears as they had three sacks on Stafford. He took a false start penalty, as he was really trying to get to the edge to prevent pressure from his side.

Rob Sims: C+

Rob Sims did a nice job of keeping Stafford clean in this one. Sims was fairly effective in pass protection and he did an adequate job of giving the Lions running backs some room to operate. He is quietly a very good player and a stabilizing force playing next to Jeff Backus. Sims is one of those players who rarely get called for negative plays.

Dominic Raiola: C

Much like the other offensive linemen, Raiola was average in pass protection. The Lions aren’t asking Raiola to open up holes for them in the running game, as his job is to make the calls for the offensive line. Raiola looks physically outmatched in every game as he struggles to move anybody off the ball.

Stephen Peterman: C-

Stephen Peterman was average in this game. He did not create any push in the running game and the Lions could not run the ball behind him. Peterman is a player that the Lions need to upgrade.

Gosder Cherilus: C

From a penalty perspective, Cherilus was not a problem against the Bears. He was average in pass protection and he lacked the ability to move the Bears' defensive linemen to give the running backs any room to run the ball.

Riley Reiff: B

Reiff entered the game in the jumbo package for the Lions and played alongside both Backus and Cherilus. He is an excellent run blocker and it showed as the Lions ran the ball well with Reiff in the game. In the first quarter, Reiff buried defensive end Julius Peppers on a trap block that sprung Leshoure for a really nice run.

Defensive Line

Ndamukong Suh: B+

Ndamukong Suh had another strong performance as he made a play on quarterback Jay Cutler that could have changed the outcome of the game. Suh is going to get criticized for the violence of the play, but the play was clean and it is exactly what the Lions are asking him to do. Suh finished with one sack and one total tackle.

Cliff Avril: B-

Cliff Avril had a nice performance against the Bears on Monday night. He got pressure on
Cutler and did a good job of getting to the ball. Avril finished with zero sacks and three total tackles.

Kyle Vanden Bosch: A-

Vanden Bosch did a good job of pressuring the quarterback in this game. Vanden Bosch looked as good as he has in some time as he registered two sacks and had three total tackles.

Nick Fairley: B

Fairley is a space-eater inside and he did a solid job of clogging up the interior of the defense. Fairley is one of the players who need to take a step forward in his second year. He finished with three total tackles.

Linebackers

Justin Durant: B+

Justin Durant and the linebacker group as a whole played a great game against the Bears. They were tasked with tackling one of the NFL’s best running back Matt Forte. Durant and the rest of the linebacker group did a great job of preventing the big play and shutting down the Bears offense. He registered seven total tackles and a half sack.

Stephen Tulloch: B+

Stephen Tulloch tackled well throughout the day. He finished with six total tackles and a half sack. It was a tough test, but Tulloch did a nice job against the Bears. The Lions linebackers played a really clean game and they kept the Lions in it when the offense could get nothing going.

DeAndre Levy: B

DeAndre Levy had a strong statistical gameas he was tasked with running down one of the best running backs in the game. Levy finished with five tackles, and he played a huge part in helping to completely shut down the Bears offense.

Secondary

Jonte Green: B-

Green got the start at cornerback in this game opposite Chris Houston. The Lions got a strong showing out of their secondary, mainly because of the pressure the defensive line put on the Bears. Green was not a liability as he finished with four tackles and one sack.

Chris Houston: B

Houston played a good game as he kept everything in front of him. He was giving up too much cushion at times, but he had an effective day against a very good receiver in Brandon Marshall. Houston had six tackles against the Bears.

Amari Spievey: B+

Spievey had a great performance against the Bears until he went out with a concussion. He stopped the run and did a pretty nice job in coverage. Spievey finished the game with eight total tackles as he was really strong defending the rushing attack of the Bears.

Louis Delmas: B

Delmas’ return has sparked the Lions defense two weeks in a row as his value to their defense was fully on display against the Bears. His return makes the defense so much better, and that showed with his three tackles and his steady leadership in the back end of the defense.

Alphonso Smith: A-

Smith was cut at the end of training camp and he was signed this week because of the injuries to Bill Bentley and Jacob Lacey. Smith was very strong against the Bears as the Lions nickel corner. He broke up a few passes and definitely looked the part of a NFL quality corner.

Erik Coleman: B+

Coleman stepped in for the injured Amari Spievey and made an immediate impact against the run. He filled from the safety position and did a great job of tackling in this game. Coleman had four total tackles in the second half on Monday night.

Special Teams

Special Teams: B-

This is the other positive note to see from the game on Monday night. The special teams gave Devin Hester zero opportunities to make any difference in this game.The muffed punt by Stefan Logan was a massively negative play, and the special teams continues to find ways to hurt the team.

Coaching

Coaching: D

The Lions seem to play better when they are scrambling late in the fourth quarter. It’s not too early to look at the coaching here as the Lions struggles on offense have had them behind in every game they have played this year. The offensive coordinator and the special teams’ coaches have to feel that their seats are a little warm.