A look at four defensive plays from the Bears’ come-from-behind win Sunday — just the fourth time in the last 783 games an NFL team successfully rallied from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter:
Danny and the drop
Bears inside linebacker Danny Trevathan almost gave up the game-winning touchdown.
He was playing man defense against rookie running back D’Andre Swift when the Lions snapped the ball from the Bears’ 16, down four, with 11 seconds to play.
Standing to quarterback Matthew Stafford’s left in the shotgun, Swift ran an option pass route straight up the field. Trevathan took two steps toward the sideline, then stopped. He was flat-footed as Swift broke to his left then up toward the front left pylon, and turned to look over his outside shoulder for the ball.
When Stafford threw it, Trevathan had to know he was in trouble — he was four yards behind Swift, with his back to the ball.
Inside linebackers coach Mark DeLeone said Trevathan should have been positioned wider toward the sideline.
“He’s gotta do a better job of his leverage there and staying outside that route,” DeLone said.
Swift reached to catch the ball at the 1. As the ball hit his hands, he began to turn his body to run up the field. He probably could have just fallen backward into the end zone instead.
He dropped the ball. Trevathan got lucky.
Calling him a “grown man,” DeLeone said he’ll treat the play as the error it was.
“I think Danny knows the mistakes he had,” he said. “He’s a competitor. He’s going to be able to correct those.”
The pick
On third-and-6 with 2:45 to play, the Lions lined up with a chance to seal the game. They had two receivers lined up right, but close to the ball – just outside the right tackle. Receiver Marvin Jones and tight end T.J. Hockenson were in a similar tight formation, lined up left.
The Bears had prepared for the play during the week. Safety Eddie Jackson told his teammates during meetings that he would bluff playing deep and then sprint to the center of the field as the “Robber,” trying to pick a pass while the Bears’ cornerbacks played man coverage.
Jackson stood at the Lions’ 42-yard line at the snap. After sitting back for two seconds, he sprinted five yards forward, toward Jones, who ran a dig route seven yards deep — just past the first-down marker — with Johnson in tight man coverage.
Jackson closed on the ball with arms extended forward, and tipped the ball, which then hit Johnson’s shoulder pads. The ball bounced in the air and landed in cornerback Kyle Fuller’s arms for an interception.
“The quarterback threw it right to where Eddie was,” secondary coach Deshea Townsend said. “And those guys made a great play on the ball.”
Johnson gets back up
About halfway through the second quarter, Jones ran a crossing route, caught the ball at the Bears’ 46 and ran up the left sideline. Eight yards later, rookie cornerback Jaylon Johnson put his head down to tackle him. Jones used his right shoulder to knock Johnson down — and practically steal his soul.
“You show me a corner that has never been run over,” Townsend said, “and I’ll show you a corner that hasn’t really played.”
What impressed Townsend was what Johnson did four plays after he was trucked. On third-and-8 from the Bears’ 14, receiver Jamal Agnew, the receiver split nearest right, crossed the middle of the field with Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith behind him. When the ball was thrown, Johnson — playing zone with no other wide receivers on his left-hand side of the field — broke up the pass at the 1.
“His ability to have vision and to see the other route coming across the field was a very instinctive play by a young guy,” Townsend said.
His only quibble: Johnson, who got both hands on the ball, didn’t catch it.
“To make it a great play,” he said, “would have been for him to finish it.”
All Day
The Lions’ Adrian Peterson looked every bit like his younger Hall of Fame self Sunday while rushing for 93 yards on 14 carries. He didn’t need to break many tackles, though.
The first time he touched the ball, he wasn’t touched by a Bears player for 16 yards. On a 21-yard third-quarter run, no Bears player got a hand on him for 19. On his next rush, he wasn’t touched for the first eight. And on one of his two 14-yard runs in the fourth quarter, he wasn’t touched until he’d run for nine yards.
The Bears played Sunday — and will play all year — without their best run-stuffer, nose tackle Eddie Goldman, who opted out. They missed him.
“I’ve seen us play some good downs,” defensive line coach Jay Rodgers said. “But the consistency part of it, we need to be able to be better across the board for the entire game.”
