The Bears’ bizarre clock management at the end of Thursday’s game in Detroit became the story of the Lions’ 23-20 win and it shifted attention from the way the Lions left the door open for the Bears to mount a comeback
The Lions dominated the first half by picking up 279 yards on 47 offensive plays while the Bears managed 53 yards on 19 offensive plays that did not result in a first down until the final minute of the second quarter. The Lions only turned that advantage into 16 points, however, and the Bears outscored the home team 20-7 after the break to give themselves a chance for a miracle comeback.
A penalty and a sack helped set the stage for the clock blunder that helped the Lions escape with their 11th win of the season and that result was the main thing for head coach Dan Campbell.
“If you’re not careful, you start grading your own wins, and it’s good because you have these standards, the way you think you should play, by your own standards, by what you have, it has nothing to do with the opponent,” Campbell said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “If you’re not careful, you start going too far down that thing, then you start taking the wins for granted. And ultimately, man, that’s a good win against an opponent that has fought every week, and this was the third game in a row, division game, that those guys have brought it over there. So we did what we had to do to win. And we’ll clean up the other stuff that cost us some points. I’m not worried about that. But I will take this W and I’m not going to lose sleep over it.”
The big picture for the Lions is that they are now 11-1 and that they remain in control of their chance to be the top seed in the NFC playoffs. That’s a fine spot to be in, even if the journey wound up being rockier than anyone would have liked.
