Bears grimace and move ahead after being kicked in the teeth

"It was an embarrassing loss," safety Kevin Byard told reporters afterward. "It's a look-in-the-mirror game, for sure."

Actually, it was so ugly it was more like they broke the mirror.

The 511 yards their defense gave up was more even that Matt Eberflus' defense gave up to Detroit in Ford Field in 2022 by 7 yards, during a loss by the same 31 points, but 41-10. They haven't given up more yards since Detroit piled up 546 yards on Vic Fangio’s first defense in 2015, in a 37-34 Lions win.

Even blowouts revolve around a play or two in the NFL and this one came down to a Caleb Williams interception that led to a scoring drive, and later in the first half a play that seemed to let the Bears get into the locker room down one TD. It was reversed by officials to give Detroit more time for a half-ending touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown and 28-14 lead.

If the Bears get out of those situations and also convert a failed fourth-and-1 sneak, there's no telling what the halftime score would have been, or the way the second half would have played out.

"Coach said something extremely powerful to us after the game, is how much he believes in each and every one of us, coaches included," Williams told reporters. "And we believe in them, everything that they put up, everything that they call, everything that they discuss, you know we believe in them.

"I think we've got to keep believing and keep pushing and not  let anything divide us or anything like that. We've got to keep going. It's only two games and we've got to keep moving along."

The interception Williams threw in the first half to safety Kerby Joseph while trying to target Olamide Zaccheaus was what Williams labeled a miscommunication, not a case where he was attempting to throw away the ball under a heavy rush as it appeared.

"I thought Z was going to go high and he ended up breaking flat," Williams said.

The Lions drove 67 yards for the touchdown after the interception for a 21-7 lead.

Not all of Williams' passes turned out a disaster. He completed seven for 128 yards and TDs of 28 and 6 yards to Rome Odunze. The TDs had them within 21-14 in the late second quarter.

"I think that's just us being together for a year now or a year and some change," Williams said. "I think today when you have a guy that comes out and he's making great catches for you and getting off of man coverage and press and all these different things, you want to keep feeding him the ball. And I think that's what happened today."

Johnson spoke optimistically of the defense turning things the right way in the future but without Jaylon Johnson and T.J. Edwards it could be tough. Edwards had a hamstring injury coming in and left the game, and Johnson's injured groin could have been aggravated as he broke up a pass.

They'll need to find a better way to defend regardless.

"We had a plan and we didn't contain those playmakers very well," Johnson said.

A rushing TD and 94 yards by running back Jahmyr Gibbs, 115 yards on nine catches with three for TDs for Amon-Ra St. Brown were enough to leave Johnson's team 0-2 but not panicking.

"We have a lot of prideful guys," Johnson said. "We're two games into the season. While I think they're just as disappointed as the coaching staff is, we're committed to getting this thing right. I have a lot of belief in them.

"We have leaders we have captains. When you're around the league long enough these games happen. And it doesn't feel any better when it happens. The good teams I've been on, they find a way to respond and I know our guys will do that."

The key words being "good teams."