NFL
Bears beat winless Lions 16-14 for Thanksgiving win
Bears beat winless Lions 16-14 for Thanksgiving win
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SportsWriters
The Chicago Bears narrowly escaped a loss with a last second field goal to score 16-14 win over the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit.
Cairo Santos’ 28-yard field goal as time expired broke a five-game losing streak for the Bears.
Chicago’s head coach Matt Nagy entered the game with rumors swirling that his job was in jeopardy, as many outlets reported that the Bears were planning to sack him.
The team has never fired a coach midseason — although the fans may have had other ideas, as “Fire Nagy” chants could be heard from the Bears fan sections at Ford Field.
According to The Athletic, Bears chairman George McCaskey cleared up the rumors and labeled them as “not accurate.”
“It wasn’t easy,” Nagy said after the game. “There were things that we want back. But in the end, that last drive shows who they are. To not give them the ball back, to win the game there is a credit to (quarterback) Andy (Dalton) and the rest of those guys.”
Meanwhile, Lions QB Jared Goff could not believe his eyes that they lost that game.
“When we came off the field with all that time left, it never crossed my mind that we’d never get back out there,” Goff said. “I figured, at worse, we would be looking at a four-minute drive to win the game. Our defense had been fantastic all day.”
On the Bears’ final drive, there was some confusion on the Lions’ defense, and Detroit called back-to-back timeouts, which is not allowed and resulted in a penalty.
“Half of our defense had one play call and half had another,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said about the on-field confusion near the end of the game. “If I didn’t do anything, they were going to score an easy touchdown.”
Penalties plagued the Lions all game long, which Campbell was not happy about.
“This team isn’t built to overcome third-and-32,” Campbell said. “No team is, but we certainly don’t have the margin of error to overcome that many penalties. Our defense gave us a chance to win, like they have done so many times before, and we just couldn’t get out of our own way.”
Social comments
Dan Campbell explains why he called two straight timeouts - and willingly took a penalty - on the Bears' game-winning FG drive https://freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2021/11/25/detroit-lions-game-chicago-bears-thanksigiving-dan-campbell/8757303002/… via @freep
On that third-and-9 double timeout, the Lions were in Cover 0. When the Bears checked to max protection, the Lions checked to Cover 2, only not everyone got the call. Dan Campbell thought it was better to take the penalty than give up a TD https://freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2021/11/25/detroit-lions-game-chicago-bears-thanksigiving-dan-campbell/8757303002/… via @freep
The Detroit Lions lost on the game's final play for the third time this season, 16-14, to Chicago Bears, but this one included a major coaching gaffe in the final 2 minutes https://freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2021/11/25/detroit-lions-game-chicago-bears-thanksigiving-dan-campbell/8757303002/… via @freep
Lions lose again on game's final play, 16-14, to Bears on Thanksgiving
The #Lions found a new way to lose. The dropped to 0-10-1 on the season by losing to the Bears, 16-14. It's their fifth straight loss on Thanksgiving.
With Allen Robinson out and Marquise Goodwin leaving the game early, Darnell Mooney stepped up in a big way as @usaydkoshul writes:
Dave Birkett, the most experienced losing game story writer of the past two decades, used the term “boneheaded” to describe latest loss. As usual, Dave came up with correct word. Detroit lose again on game's final play 16-14 to Chicago Bears
#Lions QB Jared Goff says the amount of times Detroit got called for holding vs. the Bears was “not fair.” Which is actually a pretty reasonable assessment — 40% of Detroit’s offensive holding calls on the season came today. More:
NFL Bears cap tumultuous week for Matt Nagy with narrow win over Lions http://dlvr.it/SDCFBp ► http://betbitcoin.pro √
Detroit Lions lose again on game's final play, 16-14, to Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving