The Chicago Bears ended the regular season on a sour note Sunday afternoon.

All phases of the game came out flat in the Bears’ 19-16 loss to the Detroit Lions. The offense couldn’t muster up much for the first three quarters of the game. Meanwhile, the defense made some critical stops but couldn’t stop the Lions from moving the ball down the field easily.

The lost didn’t cost the team much. Chicago still earned the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs after the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Washington Commanders on Sunday. But ending the game with two straight losses wasn’t how Bears head coach Ben Johnson wanted to enter the playoffs.

Now the Bears will need to quickly turn the page. They’ll open the playoffs in the Wild Card round on Saturday against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field.

Here are the five big takeaways from a disappointing loss to end the regular season.

No air defense

Chicago’s defense faced questions after offering little resistance against the San Francisco 49ers in their Week 17 matchup. Those questions only grew louder after Sunday’s performance.

The Bears had no resistance to stopping Lions quarterback Jared Goff from moving the ball down the field. The Bears did sack Goff three times Sunday. But other than that, Goff has plenty of time to sit in the pocket and wait for his plays to develop.

It worked out perfectly for Detroit. Goff threw for 331 yards, the fourth-most this season, as he completed 64.3% of his passes. Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown took advantage, catching 11 passes for 139 yards while Jameson Williams added 74 yards off six catches.

Goff and the Lions did it mostly by picking on the Bears middle. Chicago ran a man coverage and Goff did a good job of hitting his receivers in stride for explosive plays.

“They schemed us up,” safety Jaquan Brisker said. “We just had to do a better job covering. So, yeah, they just get us in the right call. They just out-schemed us really.”

Another slow offensive start

A week after going toe-to-toe with the San Francisco 49ers in an offensive shootout, the Bears offense looked like a completely different unit in the first half.

Chicago couldn’t get much going offensively in the opening half. The Bears picked up 69 yards on 20 plays, gained four first downs and possessed the ball for 10 minutes, 48 seconds. Detroit meanwhile dominated with 237 total yards of offense on 39 plays to build a 13-0 lead.

Sunday marked a worrying trend for the Bears offense heading into the playoffs. The 21 first half points the unit scored over the past three games against the Green Bay Packers, 49ers and Lions all came against San Francisco. Chicago has averaged 116 total yards of offense and 19.7 plays in the first half over those three games.

The Bears have found ways to come back from slow starts. That could be a tough task to do each time in the playoffs, which has led to frustrations.

“I was not pleased with the offense at all today,” Johnson said.

Shutdown defense in the red zone

Despite the high statistics, Chicago’s defense did show improvement in a key area Sunday.

The Bears defense showed its bend-don’t-break qualities again as it improved in its red zone defense. Detroit went 1-of-4 in the red zone and settled for two field goals instead of touchdowns.

Sunday was a nice sign for the defense as it showed mixed results over the previous two games. Chicago shut out the Packers in all five of their trips to the red zone in their Week 16 win. But the 49ers scored on all five of their trips to the red zone in Week 17.

Chicago was happy that its red zone defense made a difference Sunday. Finding a way to fix the other issues will be important before Saturday.

“We’re getting too many long drives,” safety Kevin Byard said. “We’re forcing field goals in the red zone, which is good, which is what we did in the Green Bay game, which I think kind of kept us in there. But we just got to be playing better overall as a team.”

Caleb Williams’, D’Andre Swift’s career day

Both quarterback Caleb Williams and running back D’Andre Swift capped the regular season by having career-bests against the Lions.

Swift set a new career-best in single-season rushing yards with a good showing Sunday. He rushed for 40 yards on 10 carries against Detroit to set a new career-high at 1,087. Swift just needed three yards to break his previous record 1,047 rushing yards.

Williams meanwhile etched his name into the Bears’ record books. His 212 passing yards Sunday helped him become the Bears’ single-season passing leader. He ended the regular season with 3,942 passing yards, besting Erik Kramer’s 3,838. Williams did fall short of becoming the first Bears quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in a season.

Despite the accomplishments, both players didn’t wan’t to celebrate them too much. Their team had lost. To them, those are just numbers.

“That number is the number,” Williams said. “So be it.”

Looking ahead

Chicago will start the playoff with a rematch against a longtime rival on Saturday night. The Bears will host the Packers at 7 p.m. at Soldier Field.

The team maintained the No. 2 seed in the NFC despite losing Sunday. The Eagles (11-6) also ended the season with a loss and the Bears hold a tiebreaker after their win over Philadelphia on Black Friday.

It will be the third time Chicago plays Green Bay in five weeks. The Bears dropped the first matchup at Lambeau Field before coming back in dramatic fashion. The two teams are 1-1 against each other in the playoffs all-time, with the last matchup coming in the 2011 NFC Championship game.

The Bears remained encouraged despite ending the season on a two-game losing streak. They’d experienced it all in an 11-6 season. They were ready for what’s next.

“I think we got think we got guys who hungry, want to work the tail off every day and expect greatness,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “Obviously, wasn’t playing to lose the last two. We came up short, but like we always have, I believe we’re gonna respond. And that’s the that’s the most exciting part about being part of this team.”