Heading into the regular-season finale against the Detroit Lions, the Chicago Bears had one of their worst defensive performances of the season in the 42-38 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The 496 total yards given up was one more yard allowed than in the Bears’ 47-42 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 9. San Francisco finished five for five in the red zone and allowed 200 total rushing yards on the day.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen was critical of his performance during his weekly availability.
“I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about last week,” Allen said. “We've kind of moved on and we're moving on to Detroit. I'll say this, I don't think I coached well enough last week. I don't think we played well enough last week. And so, you learn your lessons. You go back and make the corrections that you need to make. Now we move forward and we're getting ready for Detroit. I appreciate any of the questions about last week, but at the end of the day I've been through it plenty of times, and so I'm ready to go ahead and move on.”
Bears' defense did not get much better in their Week 18 loss to Lions
Allen's unit went through another tough performance in the Bears’ 19-16 loss to the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.
Even though the Lions didn't score nearly as many points as the 49ers, Lions quarterback Jared Goff did throw for 331 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in the season sweep over the Bears.
Detroit also finished with 433 yards of total offense and 26 first downs. Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown ended as the game's leading pass catcher with his 11 receptions for 139 yards.
The Bears' starting cornerbacks struggled in this game. According to Pro Football Focus, Jaylon Johnson allowed six receptions on seven targets for 81 yards. Nahshon Wright gave up four catches on five targets for 68 yards. C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who didn't finish the game because of a concussion, allowed six receptions on eight targets for 93 yards.
The big question about this Bears defense all season long has been what is Allen's unit if it can't create takeaways? The defense struggles to stop the run, create a consistent pass rush, and Goff picked apart the secondary when the defense was in man coverage.
The past two games to close out the regular season haven't created much reason for optimism. A silver lining could be that the Bears didn't allow a touchdown in the second half against the Lions.
But the damage was done in the first two quarters.
Read more: Ben Johnson sounded like he regretted pivotal decision in Bears' loss to Lions
Allen will have to get creative with his players as the team prepares for their wild-card matchup against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field.