{"id":652468,"date":"2026-01-04T05:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/652468\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:18:11","slug":"detroit-lions-at-chicago-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/652468\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nolan Bianchi, Richard Silva, John Niyo and Bob Wojnowski of The Detroit News offer predictions for Sunday’s game between the\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0and Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago (4:25 p.m., Fox\/97.1 FM).<\/p>\n

\u25b6\u00a0Nolan Bianchi: The Lions<\/a>\u2019 season officially will end with Sunday\u2019s game against Chicago, but the mood inside the building would indicate the season has been over for some time. The Bears still have playoff seeding to play for and likely want revenge for the 52-21 beatdown the Lions<\/a> put on them in Week 2 at Ford Field. Chicago\u2019s run game is on fire, and the Lions\u2019 run game \u2014 on both sides of the football \u2014 is a disaster, in addition to all the O-line struggles that have emerged for the Lions over this season. I think Detroit\u2019s offense will be able to put up some points, and I don\u2019t think the Lions will entirely lie down in the finale, but their performance over the last three weeks doesn\u2019t inspire much confidence that they\u2019ll bring their A-game. Pick: Bears, 35-24<\/p>\n

\u25b6\u00a0Richard Silva: I’m not going to predict the Lions sleepwalk to the finish line. But the Bears simply have more to play for, and at this point in the season, they’ve shown to be the better club. Takeaways are fluky, no doubt, and those interceptions that’ve helped propel Chicago to its first division title since 2018 could very well evaporate at any moment. But through 17 weeks, the Bears are who they are, and that’s a good football team led by Ben Johnson. Detroit’s run defense has struggled down the stretch, and that’s Chicago’s bread and butter on offense; the Bears are entering Week 18 with a rushing success rate (49.1%) that paces the NFL. That doesn’t bode well for the Lions, who are hoping to secure their fourth consecutive winning season for the first time in more than 50 years. Pick: Bears, 34-28<\/p>\n

\u25b6\u00a0John Niyo: The trend lines suggest this one could get ugly. Chicago’s run game is humming right now, averaging more than 160 yards per game on the ground with the NFC’s best efficiency stats. The Lions’ defense, meanwhile, has allowed at least 120 rushing yards in six of their last seven games and in all six of their losses since October. In a Week 18 game played in freezing temperatures at Soldier Field, that just might be the ballgame. Throw in the revenge factor for Ben Johnson in the Bears after the Lions clowned them at Ford Field back in September and it’s a recipe for a runaway, no doubt. Chicago’s own issues defending the run could be a mitigating factor, though, and if the Lions can find some measure of ball control despite another jumbled offensive line, maybe they can keep this one close. Pick: Bears, 31-24<\/p>\n

\u25b6\u00a0Bob Wojnowski: The 8-8 Lions have nothing to play for, other than trying to avoid last place. The 11-5 Bears already clinched the division and can\u2019t get the No. 1 overall seed, so they don\u2019t have much to play for either, right? Haha. Ben Johnson surely has scores to settle after the Lions dropped an anvil on the Bears, 52-21, in Week 2. Caleb Williams keeps improving behind a stellar offensive line and running backs D\u2019Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai are a tough duo. Hmm. Sounds like the Lions\u2019 trademark formula, which broke down this year. The Bears force a lot of turnovers, but their defense is leaky. The Lions\u2019 defense doesn\u2019t force many turnovers and has sprung leaks all season. If Jared Goff and Jahmyr Gibbs are playing, the Lions will score some points. But I suspect Johnson and Williams will be determined to score a ton. Pick: Bears, 34-24<\/p>\n

Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nolan Bianchi, Richard Silva, John Niyo and Bob Wojnowski of The Detroit News offer predictions for Sunday’s game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[247,265,374,1700,1036,692,391,324,20247,4903,146,113,2506,707,7,10153,10955,10807,7839,20842,9499,10806,1674,1433,1029,147,248,826,267,246,88,6,35196,245,264,9,266,3392,607],"class_list":["post-652468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-lions","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-bears","tag-caleb","tag-caleb-williams","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bears","tag-conference","tag-dandre","tag-dandre-swift","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-lions","tag-detroitlions","tag-field","tag-football","tag-ford","tag-ford-field","tag-gibbs","tag-goff","tag-hub","tag-il","tag-jahmyr","tag-jahmyr-gibbs","tag-jared","tag-jared-goff","tag-lions","tag-national","tag-national-football-conference","tag-national-sports","tag-neutral","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-hub","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-swift","tag-williams"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115835142797245879","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}