With playoff seeding on the line, the Bears trail Lions at halftime

The Lions spent the first half playing keep away Sunday, grinding away at a Bears defense that looks only slightly less porous than it did a week ago. The result is a 13-0 Lions lead at halftime in the season finale at Soldier Field.

The Bears entered the game as the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs. They can stay there with a win against the Lions or an Eagles loss to the Commanders. If not, they’ll be the No. 3 seed. Either way, they’ll host a playoff game next week.

Quarterback Caleb Williams entered the game needed 109 passing yards to set the Bears’ single-season record and 270 to become the first Bears passer to reach 4,000.

The Bears made little headway on either endeavor in the first half. Williams went 6-for-10 for 45 yards and a passer rating of 70.8.

Th Bears’ best drive ended at the Lions’ 30 with 21 seconds left in the first half. The Bears went for it on fourth-and-two, only for tight end Colston Loveland to drop Williams’ pass over the middle.

When the Lions scored on a 15-yard pass to running back Jahmyr Gibbs to take a 13-0 lead with 4:40 left in the first half, the Bears had held the ball for only a quarter of the time and Williams had thrown just four passes.

On the Lions’ first two drives, the Bears defense did what they couldn’t a week earlier — force a field goal. The Lions have yet to punt.

Quarterback Jared Goff is torturing the Bears defense, going 19-for-28 for 205 yards and a 101 passer rating.

Every other franchise in the NFL but the Bears has had at least one member of the 4,000-yards club.

The youngest team in the NFL, the Texans, began play in 2002. They have thrown for 4,000 or more yards six times — three by Matt Schaub.

Bears coach Ben Johnson argued during the week that he saw the feat as more of a round number than anything worthwhile, saying it had “tertiary” importance. Williams, though, wasn’t shy about wanting to become the first Bears player to throw for 4,000 yards.

“That’s a goal of mine, is to be the top of them all,” he said Wednesday. “I want to be the best quarterback not only for Chicago but in the league. And that starts with consistency, that starts with me preparing the right way.”

Once thought to be a misfit in coach Ben Johnson’s offense, Swift has been exactly what the Bears needed.

 

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Quarterback Caleb Williams will face three quarterbacks from his draft class: Drake Maye, Michael Penix and J.J. McCarthy.

 

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Johnson wore No. 12 for the A.C. Reynolds High School Rockets in Ashville, N.C., where he was an all-conference player as a junior and senior and conference player of the year as a senior.

 

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