This year's Lions team when healthy and with Stafford would be quite good, actually. They were missing their best linebacker (Deandre Levy), their starting safeties are both nursing injuries (Brown has a fracture in his arm and Delmas has a groin injury and has barely practiced), their top corner has a cast on his finger, their backup linebackers (Dizon and Johnson) are also both injured. Two of their top 5 linebackers are healthy. One healthy starting defensive back. The big disappointment in Detroit was with the amount of pressure allowed by the Bears defense. The OL looked great in preseason and it was a concern in each of the last many season. They thought it'd be improved with a healthy RT (Cherilus) and a new LG (Sims, from Seattle).
I don't think it was necessarily that the Bears didn't respect the Lions enough, but I think it was a combination of things. The Lions front four are really good and demanded extra attention. Marts' offense is all about spreading the ball and utilizing various options (which is smart), but when in a compact field (redzone), it's not the same (the Lions had the same offense a few years back). The Bears' linebackers looked like all-pros, but I think if stretched out by some passes (which the Lions failed to do), they'd prove a bit slow.
If you take away the fumble by Stafford, the Bears have almost no scoring. Cutler had a few long passes get away from him...which happens. Overall, I thought he played really well, especially escaping the pocket when he had to (and avoiding big hits).
The Bears did a lot of impressive things, at times, but it'll be interesting to see which team they are. The team with a flashy offense that had a bad game in the redzone, or just a team who can't score in the redzone because of a lack of talent. Overall, the defense seems quite solid, I thought. I like a competitive division, but man...I really hope the Lions games sell out so I can watch them on TV. Last season was pathetic. Detroit's used to bad teams...but historically bad we don't show up for.
Bob, it's too bad about Stafford. I disagree about him being fragile. That was a tough blindside hit by a monster of a man, Peppers. Also, the chop of his arm made me cringe. Any QB not named Rothlesberger would have been hurt, most likely.
As a Chicago fan, it was a frustrating game. The Bears dominated in every area except the score. They had several chances but poor redzone performance - 0/4 - and turnovers cost them scoring chances. Forte had a career game receiving and Aromashodu looked good for most of the day, and with one bonehead exception, Cutler played well. The other receivers (especially Hester) have a long way to go. Turnovers were a killer - 1 int and 4 fumbles for the Bears.
We'll see if this year's Bears are a bad team or a team that played sloppy because they did not respect their opponent. The Lions are one of the worst teams in the league and, despite a pathetic pre-season, I expected the Bears to walk all over Detroit. I don't know any Bears' fans who feel good about this win.
Lastly, if losing a couple games (or more!) is what it takes to get Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo out of this town, then I'm sorry the Bears won. These guys need to go, ASAP.
