Ok, here we go. Round two for the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears. The Lions won round one in insane fashion when they forgot how to play football for 55 minutes and then remembered how to do it in the last five. What's this game going to be like?
This time around it's in Chicago where weather is slated to be in the 30's to 40's on Sunday. Will that have an impact? We're going to find out soon enough. Until then, we dove into the stats and analytics and picked this weeks four players that can have the most success against the Bears. Here they are.
Jameson Williams
I included Williams in the last one and it paid off. I think it does here again. The reason is the the same as last time. The Bears tend to allow a lot of explosive pass plays.
It's crazy what a couple weeks can do for your rankings in things. The Bears played the Lions and allowed three explosive plays. One of those was the late touchdown from Jameson Williams. Then they played in the ugliest football game in primetime history against the Vikings and didn't allow any. Then they had a week off. So it looks like there number is low, but its' misleading. They've allowed 32 explosive plays.
Right now the Bears defense allows a 40.5 completion percentage on deep shots. That's ninth in the league. It is wild that they have one of the lowest attempts though. Teams aren't testing this secondary. They probably should more.
Aidan Hutchinson
This has to be the one for Hutchinson. The Bears have the seventh most sacks in the NFL this year. That's not something that the Bears have gotten over either. The Vikings got to Fields three times in Week 12.
Hutchinson of course got his last sack against Fields as well. It was a sack fumble. By the way, Justin Fields has fumbled seven times in eight games this year. He's also fumbled the ball 35 times in 35 games. Not all of them were recovered by the opponent, but it shows that if you can get to him, you can knock the ball loose.
Hutchison also seemingly has the benefit of having Bruce Irvin on the other side of the line this time. It's going to hurt that Alim McNeill is out, but if they can get some space eaten up by Quinton Bohanna and Levi Onwuzurkie or Brodric Martin, that could help Hutchinson do his thing.
Jared Goff
You might be a little worried about this one because Goff threw three interceptions last time. I don't see that happening again. Especially now that the Lions have a better idea of what the Bears want to do on defense. The reason I include Goff is because of what the Bears allow on play action.
The Bears allow a 69.5 completion percentage out of play action. Goff has thrown 97 passes out of play action this season and he's completed 74.2% of them for 913 yards and five touchdowns. This is where he shines the most.
The Bears have got lucky this season. They haven't really played any teams that have a good rushing attack. That's why only 18% of the pass attempts they've faced this year are play action attempts.
They have played two teams that excel in play action though. The Lions and the Broncos. They allowed over 31 points in both of those contests. The opponents run game was working and the play action was too. If Gibbs and Montgomery can have a good game, then Goff can really take advantage.
Khalil Dorsey
It's time for the weekly reach. This week I'm going with cornerback Khalil Dorsey. It's not a defensive thing though. I think he has a chance to do some real damage in the kick return world.
The Bears have allowed the fourth most kick return yards in the league this year. Dorsey can really help the Lions score in the field position game all game long. Plus, if there were ever an opportunity to score a kick return touchdown, this feels like the game it could happen.
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