Lions 20, Bears 17

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: December 17, 2016

Grading Primer (I wrote this about Michigan, but the grading procedures are still relevant.)

The offense moved the ball decently, but was unable to turn it into many points. Typical. The secondary made a couple big plays to nearly win the game for the team. Not typical. Matthew Stafford led the Lions on a big drive when they needed one. Back to typical. The Bears fought hard, but came up just short, which has been rather typical this season. It’s so typical that the games themselves don’t matter much beyond evaluating the team for next year, so that’s what this space is about. In that spirit, let’s look at the

Player Grades

Takeaways

Matt Barkley had a couple passes that floated, but all-in-all was quite good. He’s two Josh Bellamy drops away from potentially being 3-0 as a starter; I don’t care who you’re playing against, that’s quite good, especially considering that the Bears are down their top 3 receivers and starting tight end. I’m interested in seeing what he can do when he has Alshon Jeffery, but in any case, his three games throwing to backups have made me think that he should be the starter next year, unless one of four things happens:

He lays eggs in each of the last three games.
The Bears are able to pick up Tony Romo.
Ryan Pace and company are truly enamored with Jimmy Garoppolo and the Bears are able to acquire him without giving up a 1st or 2nd-round pick.
Deshaun Watson is still available when the Bears pick in round 2.

Jordan Howard didn’t get a ton of carries, but made the most of them. I’ve seen some criticism of the play calling in that regard – I just don’t get it. The offense didn’t light it up, but it wasn’t anemic, either. Let’s look at the drive chart:

Start	Plays	Yards	Time	Result
Own 20	12 + 1 D pen.	60	7:12	FG
Own 4	7	34	2:39	Punt
Own 25	4 +1 D pen.	6	1:43	Punt
Own 25	1	7	0:19	End of half
Own 19	5	19	3:37	Punt
Own 25	4	75	2:03	TD
Own 20	10 +1 D pen.	29	4:26	Punt
Own 25	12	31	2:58	Turnover on downs

This wasn’t a series of three-and-outs. Howard probably could have gotten a few more carries, but it’s not worth getting that upset about.

Cameron Meredith played well, everyone else was fine. Daniel Brown was a valuable receiving target, his blocking was less valuable.

Cody Whitehair had another great game. There were a couple plays where the whole line wasn’t on the same page, so it’s possible that Whitehair screwed up a couple line calls, but both times, it looked like Bobby Massie just blocked the wrong guy, so I dinged him for those. If those were on Whitehair, then he was slightly less great and Massie was slightly less lousy. PFF loved Whitehair, sayign this game might have been his best, so I’m thinking the biffs were, in fact, a result of Massie not getting the memo, which if we’re being honest, sounds like Massie. Josh Sitton had a fine game of his own. Charles Leno, Jr.’s grade is probably a bit understated – he was very good in pass pro. Ted Larsen was nothing special.

Akiem Hicks had another great performance. Mitch Unrein made it into the positives for a second straight week. Jonathan Bullard was back on the field for this one; he was just okay. I still think he’s going to be a very nice player, but he needs to get stronger to get there. Eddie Goldman had a rough outing. I’m not worried about him at all.

Wille Young, Leonard Floyd, and Pernell McPhee all played relatively mistake-free football. The latter two in particular stood out. Nick Kwiatkoski had a very good game. PFF called him the defensive unit’s top performer.

Cre’Von LeBlanc was excellent. He’s becoming a bright spot in a not-very-bright position group. Bryce Callahan played well. A safety who can cover should be high on the Bears’ list for this off-season.

#FireJohnFox Status: Pretty solid keep.

The team hasn’t quit. Both coordinators have done good jobs lately. Don’t break that up.

#FireDowellLoggains Status: Pretty solid keep.

Unless he massively screw up with Jeffery back.

Fire anyone else status: Still just Jeff Rodgers.

Yet To Be Named Gimmicky Award Meant To Show Who The Best Overall Performers Were

If you have an idea of what I should call this, let me know. Twitter handle and e-mail address are at the end of the blog.

Anyway, up to 3 may be awarded per player. Not necessarily the highest-graded players since different grades mean different things to different players (refer to the primer).

Offense

3: Cody Whitehair, Jordan Howard, Cameron Meredith

2: Matt Barkley, Josh Sitton

1: Josh Bellamy, Charles Leno, Jr.

Defense

3: Cre’Von LeBlanc, Leonard Floyd, Akiem Hicks, Pernell McPhee, Nick Kwiatkoski

2: Willie Young

Yet To Be Named Gimmicky Award Meant To Show Who The Best Overall Performers Were Count