5 Takeaways from the Chicago Bears’ huge win over the Lions in Week 14

The Chicago Bears improved their record to 5-8 and won their second-consecutive NFC North game on Sunday at Soldier Field with their upset victory over the Detroit Lions, 28-13.

It took a fantastic all-around team effort to secure the win. Justin Fields led an effective offense, and Matt Eberflus pitched a fantastic game as the defensive play-caller.

Meanwhile, in the NFC playoff race, the Minnesota Vikings improved their record to 7-6 with a gross win over the Las Vegas Raiders, and the Green Bay Packers, who face the New York Giants Monday night, are the No. 7 seed at 6-6. A loss would drop them into a four-way tie (ignoring tie-breakers for now) with the bundle of 6-7 teams in the conference.

The point? The Bears could be one game out of a playoff spot by the time Week 14 ends. And if Chicago defeated the Denver Broncos and Detroit Lions (in Week 11) like they should have, they’d be 7-6 and (almost) in control of their destiny.

Incredible.

Eberflus’ system isn’t that far away from producing a playoff team. The Bears are a few finishes from being one of those teams this year. Maybe it’s time to stop asking whether Eberflus will be fired and instead wonder how much better his team will be the more time and talent GM Ryan Poles gives him.

It’s an evolving narrative, much like the one surrounding Justin Fields, who now has four games to prove he’s the long-term QB1 for the Chicago Bears. He’s two games into a six-game evaluation, and with back-to-back solid games and a 2-0 record, it feels less likely that the Bears will use a first-round pick on a quarterback, even if they end up with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft.

Here are four major takeaways from Sunday’s win over the Lions.

Justin Fields is who the Bears thought he was … and that’s a good thing

Fields completed 19 of 33 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown and added 58 yards rushing and another score. In a word, Fields was effective. Sure, a few too many dropbacks caused Bears fans to yell, “Throw the ball!” but that’s just who he is. And as long as he continues dazzling with his legs and making eye-popping throws along the way, the Bears can win a lot of games with him under center.

Justin Fields making magic.

: #DETvsCHI on FOX
: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/pWMED8SAQa pic.twitter.com/VegG9KS49w

— NFL (@NFL) December 10, 2023

There’s no doubt GM Ryan Poles is keeping an eye on the 2024 NFL Draft order and sneaking a peak at Caleb Williams and Drake Maye as the Bears’ 2023 season winds down. He has to, it’s his job. But I have a feeling Fields is beginning to answer some of Poles’ and the rest of Chicago’s decision-makers’ questions about him: Can he play mistake-free football? Can he finish games for the Bears? Can he lead a team that consistently competes for a playoff spot?

Fields hasn’t thrown an interception in his last three games (93 attempts), and while he does have three fumbles in that stretch, he ended Sunday’s win without any turnovers. That’s a big step forward for him and a big reason why the Bears dominated the Lions from the first quarter on.

Fields appears to be getting more comfortable in the offense by the week, too. His 38-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore on fourth-and-13, a play that started with the defense jumping offsides, was a thing of beauty by Fields.

Eberflus praised his quarterback for that score after the game.

“It’s Justin,” Eberflus saiod. “It’s the hard count. He did a really good job of hard counting and just a really good job there, and they got them to jump. His use of cadence. That’s what it was.”

If he continues to play this way, Justin Fields will put the Bears in the driver’s seat of the 2024 NFL Draft once again. The options for Poles will be limitless, as could be the upside for this team with a developing Fields at quarterback.

Montez Sweat has changed the present and future for the Bears

I still can’t believe guys like Mike Lombardi questioned Ryan Poles’ decision to trade a second-round pick for Montez Sweat. It insulted Poles’ football IQ, but it’s great to see how productive Sweat has been while justifying Poles’ courage to pull the trigger for him.

Montez Sweat. pic.twitter.com/tPy9sl3zBa

— Bryan Perez (@BryanPerezNFL) December 10, 2023

Sweat finished Week 14 with five tackles and a sack and had four hits on Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Here are some nuggets about the Chicago Bears defense since Sweat’s arrival:

– Since joining the Bears in Week 9, the Bears rank No. 5 in total defense. They were No. 30 before the trade.
– Chicago ranks second in takeaways with Montez Sweat on the roster.
– The Bears have 3+ takeaways in three straight games for the first time since 2018.
– Since Week 11, the Bears have 11 takeaways, which ranks the most in the NFL, even with a bye week in between.

So, yeah, adding Sweat was a home run not only for the current winning streak (it’s been a while since we had one of those) that the Bears are on but also for the long-term outlook on defense. The Bears signed Sweat to a four-year, $98 million contract shortly after making the trade. He’ll be in Chicago for a while.

Speaking of trades, DJ Moore continues paying dividends

I don’t want to take DJ Moore for granted, even though it’s becoming easier. He’s having a ridiculous first season with the Chicago Bears. Quite frankly, I can’t imagine where this team would be without him.

Moore scored two touchdowns against the Lions, one rushing and one receiving. He had six catches for 68 yards, including a 38-yard touchdown on what may be the defining play of Chicago’s 2023 season.

.@justnfields with a DIME to @idjmoore

: #DETvsCHI on FOX pic.twitter.com/NoIKvw5p2Y

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 10, 2023

Moore now has 76 catches for 1,071 yards and seven touchdowns on the season. His touchdown catches tie the career-high he set with the Panthers in 2022, odds are he’ll score at least one more and set a new career-best season this year. He’s only 122 yards away from topping the best receiving yardage total of his career, too. He had 1,193 yards in 2020.

Moore’s chemistry with Justin Fields is very real, and he said before the Lions game that he wants Fields to remain QB1 in Chicago.

“We want him here,” Moore said. “I’ve been having a great year with him, so that should speak volumes. Just leave what they do upstairs, upstairs at the end of the day.”

It’s crazy to think the Bears got Moore and the Panthers” 2024 first-round pick in last year’s trade that sent, essentially, Bryce Young to Carolina.

Another big “W” for Ryan Poles.

Matt Eberflus might just be a good coach after all

It’s time to stop the coaching change chatter. It feels moot at this point, doesn’t it?

Jim Harbaugh? Ben Johnson? Who cares. Matt Eberflus has the Bears on a two-game winning streak, and if it wasn’t for a few early-season blunders and a Week 11 choke against the Lions, Chicago would be 7-6 and, basically, in the playoffs.

It’s easy to blame the head coach when things aren’t going well. But if we step back and remember the job Eberflus took, a roster that had to be torn down and was the worst in the NFL in 2022, the fact he’s turned the Bears into a competitive team one and a half years into his tenure is … remarkable.

Seriously, it’s insane.

Eberflus” system is one that’s built on hustle and intensity. And while that’s great and all, patience for wins was wearing thin. That’s changing now.

“You want to see the proof of it,” Eberflus said of his system after the game. “I talked to you guys earlier in the week about the small wins that you have, and you can see the improvement by the unit, by the positions and stuff like that.

‘Then to have a win like this, it’s proof for those guys. It’s proof for our staff. It’s proof really for the Bears fans. They were great out there today. They were loud when they needed to be loud. It was awesome. I just want to tip my hat to the fans.”

The Bears have won two games in a row, a first under Matt Eberflus, both in the NFC North, Eberflus” first two wins in the division, and are silencing the noise around a coaching change this offseason.

Jaquan Brisker had how many tackles?!?!

What a day for safety Jaquan Brisker against the Lions. He totaled 17 tackles, including 13 solo stops. Those are numbers that aren’t easy for a safety to accumulate.

Eberflus summed up Briskers” day … and his overall profile … perfectly after the game.

“It’s unbelievable to get 17 tackles,” Eberflus said. “I don’t think that’s ever happened in my career that a guy had that many tackles. I honestly can’t remember. I’d have to look it up. That’s amazing. And what Brisker brings is the reason why we drafted him. (General manager Ryan Poles) and I always talked about guys we’d acquire and bringing in, they have to love football.

“Because what does that does, that love of football, it brings the passion and the juice to everybody else. If we get enough guys like that, which we have a bunch of guys like that, you can tangibly see that on the field. You can feel that energy, right? And that’s what he is. We just have to keep bringing guys like that in here and doing a great job evaluating. And Ryan and his crew are definitely doing that. But that’s amazing. Seventeen tackles is unbelievable.”

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