Lions crush Bears, take over NFC North lead.

Two seasons ago, the Lions squared off against the Bears in week 5 on Monday night football in what was one of the biggest games for the franchise in the 2000's as the Lions used big plays from Calvin Johnson and Javid Best as well as forcing the bears into nine false start penalties to improve to 5-0.  The Lions would go on to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999 and there was hope again for Lions faithful.  After a dissapointing 4-12 season last year, the Lions looked to return to the playoff form of 2011 this year, with by far their most talented roster since that payoff team in 1999.  This Sunday's game against the Bears didn't have quite the same meaning as the return of Monday night football game in 2011, but it was close.  That game in 2011 was the last full game the Lions had Javid Best, an explosive runner the Lions drafted to be a home run threat out of the backfield, who retired due to concussion problems.  Detroit signed Reggie Bush to give them that dimension they've missed since losing Best, and through the first four weeks the difference has been very tangible.  After dominating the Bears, the Lions now hold the division lead at 3-1, cementing themselves as a legitimate playoff threat this season.  The final score, 40-32, was not indicative of the spread at which most of the game was played.  The Lions reeled off 24 straight points, including scoring 3 touchdowns in a 3 minute and 26 second span in the second quarter to take complete control of the game at 30-10.  David Akers connected on his third field goal of the game to start the run, it was followed up be a defensive three and out then Michael Spurlock returned the ensuing punt 57 yards to set the Lions up with great field position at the Chicago 22.  Just four plays later Matthew Stafford jumped, fumbled and recovered the ball mid-flight across the goal line for a Lions TD.  On the Bears first play after the kickoff, Cutler was intercepted down the sideline by Glover Quin and he returned it to the Chicago 2 yard line.  Calvin Johnson caught a fade for a touchdown on the first Lions play, 17 straight points.  Another Chicago three and out was followed by two Reggie Bush runs totaling 45 yards and a TD to give Detroit a working margin they would ride to victory.  The biggest play of the game came during that stretch, and it involved Calvin Johnson.  After the Lions scored two touchdowns in 22 seconds and had the ball back at midfield leading 23-10, Reggie Bush burst through the line up the middle and broke toward the right sideline.  Charles Tillman came in from behind and knocked the ball loose, but Calvin Johnson jumped on the ball, preventing a turnover.  The very next play Bush scampered 37 yards for a back-breaking touchdown.  Had the Bears recovered and scored to make it a one possession game, this is a completely different game.  The Lions stretched the lead to 24 points in the 4th quarter before the Bears mounted a late charge as the Lions played prevent and ran the ball to work the clock for most of the 4th quarter.  The two key stats were 3rd down and turnovers.  The Bears were a measly 1 of 13 converting 3rd downs in the game as the Lions defense has continually gotten off the field on third down all year, allowing just 21% of third down conversions this year, tops in the NFL.  Detroit also forced four Chicago turnovers leading to 17 points and though the Lions coughed it up 3 times themselves, it felt like Chicago's turnovers were much more costly.  This was one of the biggest wins for the Lions since that 2011 playoff season and they have set themselves up to have a similar run here in 2013.  A win next week in Green bay and we can start whispering about winning the NFC north division title for the first time ever.  Lets break down each position group from this past Sunday:

Quarterbacks: 
Stafford was not sharp early, often overthrowing his receivers, and seemed to be holding the ball an extra split second when he was throwing more then ten yards down the field.  In spite of that, he managed the game well enough to get the victory.  He got Detroit into good plays all game, taking advantage of Chicago playing two deep safeties nearly all game long, letting Reggie Bush and the offensive line to do its thing.  Despite feeling as though Stafford's performance was below average, he still completed 65.7% of his passes, finishing with a modest stat line, 23/35 for 242, one throwing and one rushing TD and one interception, one fumble lost and one sack.  The Lions had a large lead in the 4th quarter, leading to a 35-30 split between throwing and rushing attempts, the most balanced attack of the year and the fewest throwing attempts of the season for Stafford.  He will need to play better, however, if the Lions hope to win in Green Bay next week.  So far though, he has done an excellent job taking what the defense has been giving him, trusting his offense to make plays around him.

Running backs:
Reggie Bush's 139 yard effort was the Lions first 100+ yard rushing performance since week three last season when Mikel Leshoure rushed for 100 yards at Tennessee.  Bush can thank his offensive line for giving him space to get to the second level consistently throughout the game but when he gets to that second level he uses his combination of elite speed and elusiveness, often making multiple defenders miss, turning 5 yard gains into 15 yard gains with one spin, juke, cut, or hurdle.  He had 8 runs of 8 yards or more, those 8 carries totaled 125 of his 139 yards.  Reggie was lucky that Calvin recovered his fumble though, as that could have been a huge turning point.  He hasn't had fumbling issues, the bears, and Charles Tillman especially, do that to everyone.  The key will be keeping Bush on the field all season as he obviously adds a dimension to the Lions offense that makes them one of the elite units in the league.  Joique Bell saw his role diminished with Bush's return, and had his least productive game of the year.  His fumble in the fourth quarter allowed the Bears to bring the game within one score, and he needs to clean that part of his game up, but the Lions could have done a better job utilizing him and Bush in combination throughout the game. 

Wide Receivers: 
This group was one of the biggest question marks going into the game without Nate Burleson.  The production from the wide outs was limited to just two players, Calvin Johnson and Kris Durham.  Durham stepped up and made some nice catches for a career high 58 yards.  The Bears did their usual job in limiting Johnsons effectiveness, holding him to just 4 catches and 44 yards, but he did have one touchdown.  Ryan Broyles was only targeted once, and did not make a catch.  The Lions will need more production from these three going forward until Nate is able to get back on the field.  In all fairness to Calvin and the bunch, Stafford did air mail the ball a few times when they were open that would have made the numbers look better. 

Tight Ends: 
Brandon Pettigrew deserves some love.  I, and the entire Lions fan base has been rightfully hard on him the last 13 months, but he stepped up Sunday and caught all seven passes thrown his way, and did not fumble against a team looking to strip everything in their sight.  There was nothing flashy about his game, he just made the plays in front of him and it helped the Lions move the chains.  He also was an integral part of blocking and opening up holes for Reggie bush to romp through all game.  There was even a Tony Scheffler sighting, well, two in fact.  One good, and one bad.  He caught a nice pass up the seam for 22 yards and then dropped a pass that hit him square in the hands just moments later.  Joseph Fauria played 13 snaps on offense but was not targeted.  I thought Stafford might throw the fade his way as he was lined up one on one on the opposite side of Calvin, but Matt went to CJ for the TD.

Offensive Line: 
Another great outing for the offensive line.  With all the hype surrounding the defensive line and Reggie bush, this unit is flying under the radar a bit.  They are a huge reason for the lions success thus far.  Sure there are times when Bush or Bell have no where to run, but the defense gets paid too.  There have been huge holes for Bush and Bell to run through in there three wins, not as many in their lone loss.  Coincidental, I think not.  The protection of Stafford was solid as well, allowing just one sack.  In fact, Stafford has only been sacked three times in four games, and he's been sacked on just 1.9 percent of his drop backs, the best rate in the NFL.  Though, he also is helping his line by releasing the ball faster then any quarterback in the NFL.  The Reiff-Sims-Raiola-Warford-Hilliard unit deserves a lot of praise, as the o-line was a huge question mark entering the season.

Defensive Line: 
One of the biggest match ups going into the game was the revamped Chicago offensive line and how they would handle Detroit's destructive defensive line.  Chicago held its own early, but the Lions constant pressure wore down the Bears line, as they allowed 3 sacks and Cutler was forced into poor throws through much of the second and third quarters.  Matt Forte had 95 yards on 14 carries, but much like Adrian Peterson in week 1, if you take out Forte's 53 yard score, he wasn't much of a factor.  There were too many times however, mostly in the first and fourth quarters that Cutler had too much time to throw down field and the secondary was taken advantage of by Chicago's big receiving threats.  Suh was absolutely dominant again blowing up plays in the backfield and finishing with two sacks, one caused Cutler to fumble and allowed Nick Fairley to scoop and score an easy Lions TD. 

Linebackers:
This was the best game for the linebackers in my opinion.  They didn't make the big interception today but they were tackling machines.  DeAndre Levy has been consistently solid in every game
this year but Steven Tulloch has disappeared at times this year.  He showed up big time against Chicago, recording 14 tackles including a sack.  Tulloch and Levy may not be house hold names like Clay Matthews but they can be as good of a one two punch at linebacker that the lions have seen in a long time.  Ashlee Palmer only played about a third of the defensive snaps, as the Lions matched up in nickel most of the game.  The Lions are still getting fooled by miss-direction running plays, giving up a big reverse to Alshon Jeffery for 27 yards and the 53 yard TD to Forte was a miss-direction toss.

Defensive Backs: 
It wasn't perfect, but it was effective.  The overall coverage still needs work but giving up yards doesn't mean a whole lot when you intercept passes.  The Lions lead the league with 8 interceptions this year, a huge improvement over last years group which totaled just 11 picks all year, 5th worst in the NFL.  The play from the safeties has drawn rave reviews around the NFL, with Delmas ranked as the 5th best safety by Pro Football Talk and Quin the 23rd best this year, making them the top tandem in the division, they have combined for half the interception total thus far.  Lions fans have seen the difference a healthy Louis Delmas makes for the Detroit defense, but Delmas has given lot of credit to Quin, for stabilizing the position next to him, allowing him the ability to take risks without getting burned because he trusts Quin to be in the right place to back him up.  They still need to take better angles in the run game at times, as Peterson, Morris and Forte have all had long TD runs this year because the safeties took poor angles and were run out of the play.  The corners still need work.  Houston was solid but left the game hurt in the 4th quarter and will be questionable to return next week.  Mathis left in the first quarter with an apparent head injury and was not allowed to return, though he seems to be on track to return in Green Bay.  Darius Slay returned to take over for Mathis and was picked on by Cutler, though he did show improvements in his technique, he is still raw and a looks a little overwhelmed at times.  It seems at though the game hasn't slowed down yet for him, and he is thinking too much about not making a mistake.  When he feels more free to line up and just play football, he should be fine but he's going to need more reps.  Jonte Green came back to life and finished the game for Chris Houston.  Jante Green is ALIVE!   

Special teams: 
The coverage units did an outstanding job in frustrating Devin Hester and not allowing him to become a factor in the game. David Akers made all fours of his attempts and Sam Martins kickoffs and punts were solid.  Michael Spurlock redeemed himself, with a big punt return in the second quarter to help set up an easy touchdown for the offense.  Easily the best special teams performance of the year collectively, and it was against a team know for great special teams play.  This kind of effort going forward puts Detroit in position to win games with the talent they have on offense and defense.

Game notes:

• The Lions didn't blitz often, just 9.8% of their defensive snaps, but one of their blitzes in the first half led to the Quin interception.  The Lions sent seven after Cutler, played man to man on the three receivers and Quin as a single high safety, as Delmas was one of the blitzing players.  Cutler knew he had a chance to take a shot deep with just one safety but he stared down Brandon Marshall the entire time and Quin got a great break on the ball.  Cutler threw off his back foot as the blitz closed in on him and it was an easy pick for Quin. 
• Marc Trestman had no chance to get the ball back but insisted on using his time outs at the end of the game, forcing Stafford to snap the ball all three times.  That's cheap and unnecessary.
• Looking at points per game leaders in the NFL and you'll see Denver, obviously, topping the list at an astonishing 44.8 points per game.  The next four teams in order are Green Bay, Chicago, Detroit, and Minnesota.  Whoa!
• If the playoffs started today, Detroit would host San Francisco.  Chicago would travel to Dallas.  Can we trade?

Next week: 
The Lions travel to Lambeau Field to face the 1-2 Packers, looking to end a 22 game road losing streak in Green Bay.