CHICAGO — Contrary to popular belief, the Detroit Lions are still here. They never went anywhere — except to Chicago, for a get-right game. And as the Chicago Bears learned on Sunday, after a 34-17 loss, this was the wrong week to get them.
“Nobody writes our story,” Campbell told his players this week. “We’re the only ones who write our own story. …We have the pen and there’s a lot of football left.”
Those words came from a question asking Campbell what his message to the team was, amid a week where doubt crept in. The Lions had just lost to the Buffalo Bills by six points at home in a shootout. It was their first loss in three months, so perhaps reactionary takes and questions should’ve been expected. Lions players and coaches, much to their chagrin, had to answer them all week long.
Like they weren’t 12-2. Like their goals for the regular season and beyond didn’t remain in front of them. Like they should just accept that their season was over.
It didn’t make sense to them. It never made sense to them.
“We’re 12-2,” Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said. “We’re 12-2 two the sky is falling? We’re going to the playoffs, we in the tournament. Why in the hell is the sky falling for us? …We have a chance to win out and accomplish everything that we want to accomplish. So why should we sit back and wallow and think that the sky is falling? It’s dumb.”
The source of the outside fear was injuries, of course. Cornerbacks Carlton Davis III and Khalil Dorsey, defensive tackle Alim McNeill and running back David Montgomery joined the likes of Aidan Hutchinson, Derrick Barnes, Alex Anzalone, Malcolm Rodriguez, Marcus Davenport and others on a lengthy injury report that reads like a profile in the New Yorker.
Some of the reactions this week were understandable, to an extent. The best season in Lions history, derailed by season-ending injuries. A once dominant team, forced to scrape by. And with the Eagles and Vikings lurking, tied atop the standings at 12-2, the Lions were destined to lose their grip on the NFC North and No. 1 seed, until their lack of depth finally shows and they’re inevitably bounced in the playoffs.
Put the pens down for a second. Close the laptop if you’re writing that narrative. These Lions want you to know there’s more to document.
“I think anything can happen in this league and we knew injuries were going to happen going into the season and we don’t want them to happen, but just like coach Campbell has been saying all week long, no one’s going to write our story for us,” Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said. “We’ve got a great opportunity in front of us this week to win this game and then we already know that we’re going to be a part of the dance, and all bets are off once we get in there.”
The Lions had turned their full energy toward beating Chicago. They practiced outside all week to prepare for the elements. They were eager to get back on the road, secretly liking the feeling of ruining a home crowd’s day. And they have not lost two games in a row since October 2022, when they got off to a 1-6 start. They would close the year winning eight of their final 10 games — the precursor to the best two-year stretch in franchise history.
Shorthanded and all, the Lions were coming. Campbell saw it in practice all week. If you know what that typically entails, you figured it was going to be a bad day to be a Bear.
“I wanted to see us play Detroit football, and I wanted to win,” Campbell said. “That was it. I gave no other stipulations. …I just wanted to see our identity take shape and I wanted to win this game, and we did that.”
Let’s start with the defense since that’s the biggest question mark facing this team. Things were better on Sunday. The best they’ve been in some time.
The Lions held the Bears to just 17 points — their lowest allowed since Week 12 vs. the Colts. About a full month. They won the takeaway battle with two recovered fumbles, after struggling in that department for a bit. They welcomed safety Ifeatu Melifonwu back, who contributed with a key sack late in the game on a blitz off the edge. The defense wasn’t without flaws, but that can’t be the expectation. Some timely plays and a tight red-zone defense (1-of-3 on Sunday) was a much-needed step in the right direction, and something this defense so desperately wanted to get back to.
“All that media stuff, we know our identity,” cornerback Terrion Arnold said after the game. “We don’t really get into that. … We still got the same mentality. When we go in the game, we just know at the end of the day we just gotta go out there and play our brand of football.”
And so, the Lions played their brand on defense and offense. They ran the ball — without Montgomery — for 146 yards. It was almost as if they had a former first-round pick to lean on or something.
All week, coaches talked about their belief in Jahmyr Gibbs, and how they felt he was ready for increased touches. He finished the day with a season-high 27, turning them into 154 scrimmage yards and a touchdown. He said on a couple of occasions before the offense headed back on the field, he asked his coaches whose drive it was at running back.
“Uh, yours?” they told him.
Oh, right. Force of habit. This is a bit new to Gibbs — at this level, at least. But he’s been a No. 1 his whole life. The Lions made him one again on Sunday and needed everything he gave them. They’ll need it the rest of the way, too.
Elsewhere, Jameson Williams was a force on Sunday, as he closes in on his first 1,000-yard season. He finished with five catches for 143 yards and a touchdown — on a beautifully thrown ball by quarterback Jared Goff. Detroit’s passing game, with Goff leading the way, has been on a heater of late. He’s thrown for 4,095 yards and a career-high 33 touchdowns this season, with two games remaining. In his last three games alone, Goff has thrown for 1,113 yards, 11 touchdowns and just one interception. It’s no coincidence the offense has been humming with him playing at such a high level.
“Jared was fantastic in the air today,” tight end Sam LaPorta said. “No interceptions, a lot of completions, three touchdowns. Really balanced today. That’s what we’re looking for each and every week.”
And then, there was Johnson — high on the list of reasons why you shouldn’t count the Lions out yet. Detroit has scored 34, 42 and 34 in the last three weeks. His bag of tricks is deeper than a Michigan pothole. We saw it on Sunday.
The play design everyone was talking about after the game, of course, was a brainchild of Johnson. But its origin perfectly encapsulates what makes him so special. He can draw inspiration from anywhere and use it to his offense’s advantage.
When the Packers traveled to Chicago to take on the Bears in September 2023, there was a play where Jordan Love dropped a snap, picked it up and found a wide-open Luke Musgrave for a gain of 37. The fumble froze the Chicago linebackers and allowed Musgrave to leak out for a big gain. It was not intentional. Johnson’s version was.
He saw it on film, then asked Goff if he thought he could fumble on purpose and pick it back up.
No? OK, how about a fake stumble?
That’s how Johnson operates. It’s a collaborative process, finding out what his players can and can’t do. Along the way, they incorporated Gibbs rolling to the ground into the play — something Goff said really sold it. Once there was a comfort level, Johnson had his players re-create it, practicing it about three or four times before the game in practice. They were coached to yell, “fumble, fumble, fumble,” during the play, an extra layer to the confusion. Then, they ran it for a touchdown.
And the Oscar goes to….@JaredGoff16 @jahmyr_gibbs1 🤣🤣🤣#DETvsCHI | 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/5djB17D9JT
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 22, 2024
“It’s called stumble bum,” LaPorta said. “No particular reason, I don’t think.”
“Ben’s smart,” wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said. “He’s watching tape, tendencies, things that work, things that can’t work. Almost all the plays that he draws up, there’s a reason behind it and there’s intent behind it.”
The Lions are back on track, as we inch closer to the end of the season. Sunday was their 13th win of the season, setting a new franchise regular-season record. Campbell said he wants his team to enjoy it. But not yet. There’s still work to do.
They’re hoping to lock up the No. 1 seed in the NFC and a first-round bye, and got some much-needed help on Sunday. Shortly after Campbell took the stage for his postgame news conference, you could hear the locker room erupt through the thin walls behind him. Jayden Daniels had just found Jamison Crowder for a go-ahead touchdown with six seconds left. The reporter writing this story turned his laptop around to show Campbell the score, with time winding down.
“Why don’t we just sit here and wait for this,” Campbell said, drawing laughs from the room.
If the Lions beat the 49ers next week and the Vikings lose to the Packers, the division is theirs and the conference runs through Detroit. However, the Lions have positioned themselves to avoid scoreboard-watching down the stretch. Win out and they don’t have to worry about anything else outside of their building.
Not that they ever have anyway. Sunday’s game reinforced that.
“I was proud of our guys for bouncing back,” Campbell said. “I knew they would. Right mindset. Look, it takes a special group of guys to emotionally, physically, psychologically bounce back after a tough loss, especially when you haven’t lost in a while, go out, win on the road again. …13 wins has never been done, and I told them one day we’ll be able to look back and enjoy that, but not yet. It’s not the time. …But as far as today, we did what we had to do.”
(Top photo of Terrion Arnold and Kindle Vildor: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
