CHICAGO — For a while Sunday at Soldier Field, everything was right again with the Chicago Bears.
The Bears offense got its groove back, potentially under a different play caller than Matt Nagy. Rookie quarterback Justin Fields was hitting wide receivers Allen Robinson and Darnell Mooney with deep shots. And the Bears defense was pitching a shutout against the Detroit Lions into the third quarter.
Then one play darkened the otherwise happy occasion of a 24-14 victory.
On a 5-yard carry with 11 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, running back David Montgomery went down and immediately clutched his left knee in pain. Several Bears players kneeled on the ground as trainers tended to Montgomery, who eventually was helped off the field.
The Bears announced a few minutes later that Montgomery would be out for the game after he had totaled 106 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries.
The loss of Montgomery, who had two games of more than 100 rushing yards this season, would be a big blow to a Bears team that had just picked up the pieces from an ugly 26-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns a week earlier.
A week after Fields was sacked nine times and had 1 net passing yard, he completed 11 of 17 passes for 209 yards and one interception and was sacked once. Damien Williams, who helped take over for Montgomery when he left, had eight carries for 55 yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, the defense did its part by stopping the Lions inside the 10-yard line on three first-half drives. That included two takeaways, a fumble recovery by defensive lineman Bilal Nichols and a strip-sack by Robert Quinn that Khalil Mack recovered.
Along with Montgomery’s injury, defensive lineman Akiem Hicks left the game with a groin injury he suffered early in the first quarter.
