Detroit Lions Beginning to Show Some Bad Habits in Loss to Bears

If you’re a Detroit Lions fan, Sunday’s game sure looked familiar.

Just like the home opener against the Vikings, the Lions looked almost playoff-caliber in the first half. And then the second half rolled around, and they didn’t.

In the Vikings game, it was the defense that performed admirably in the first half, then let up and allowed 27 unanswered points.

This week, it was the offense, which put up 21 first-half points against the vaunted Bears’ defense, before notching negative total yardage in the third quarter, and three points in the fourth.

All the while, the Bears went on a scoring rampage, putting up 48 points.

Now, it’s tempting to say this isn’t a trend. After all, the Lions beat Washington, right? They must have held up in that game, right?

Not exactly. The Redskins charged back in the last five minutes of the game, before the clock ran out on their comeback attempt about 30 yards short. The only difference is that the Lions decided to wait until the middle of the fourth quarter to check out of the game.

But second-half collapses are not the only problem plaguing the Lions through the first quarter of the season.

Poor special teams play, an inconsistent rushing attack, spotty offensive line work, and suspect secondary are among the issues the Lions have had all season. After four games, we can safely call them trends.

Despite starting kick returner Johnny Knox’s injury, the Bears still managed a kick return average of over 47 yards.

The Lions’ defense has been strong at times, but no matter how good a defense is, it’s going to give up some points when half the field is gone before they can go to work.

Kick coverage has been an issue since last year, and while the Bears have an elite special teams unit, the level of domination they had over the Lions Sunday.

If things don’t improve drastically in the coming weeks, expect calls to fire special teams coordinator Stan Kwan to reach a fever pitch.

Anyone who took a chance on Kevin Smith and started him in their fantasy league was rewarded with two touchdowns (I should know… I made a game-day decision to bench him for Tashard Choice). But anybody who was expecting him to help set the tone against the Bears was very disappointed.

Smith was able to kick-start the Lions’ running game against the Vikings and Redskins, but stalled badly against the Saints and again this week against the Bears.

Much of the reason for that falls on the offensive line, which has been equally inconsistent this season. The interior line has allowed too much penetration on running plays, and Jeff Backus has looked dominated at times, and no better than average at others.

Head coach Jim Schwartz’s vision for the future of the Detroit Lions is a tough, physical team that can rely on its running game and defense. Both areas need to step up if the Lions are to win more football games.

Despite a couple of explosive plays on the ground, the Lions have done a reasonable job stopping the run overall. The secondary, however, has allowed an NFL-worst completion percentage of 72.5.

Every quarterback to face the Lions so far has had a career day. Drew Brees threw six touchdown passes. Brett Favre went 23-for-27. Jason Campbell threw for 340 yards. Jay Cutler had an average day, but still threw for two touchdowns and ran for another.

The Lions have the reigning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month in Louis Delmas, but the rest of the secondary’s starters are not even constant from week-to-week. Regardless of who starts the game in the defensive backfield, the Lions need to cut down opponents’ passing numbers.

Changing these bad habits and trends goes hand-in-hand with the less tangible task of “changing the culture” of losing in the Lions’ locker room.

Maybe it will happen this year, maybe not.

But this season has never been about this season, has it?