Things quickly got out of hand for the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon. After coming up with some stops early against the Detroit Lions, the game went from bad to worse in the second half, leading to a 52-21 loss.

Yes, the Bears offense was inconsistent once again and turned the ball over Sunday. But the defense had no solutions for a determined Lions offense that wanted to send a message to its former offensive coordinator and Bears head coach Ben Johnson.

[ What Ben Johnson, Chicago Bears said Monday after blowout loss to Detroit Lions ]

There were plenty of eye-popping numbers for the Lions. Quarterback Jared Goff threw for 334 yards and five touchdowns while wide receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams each finished with more than 100 receiving yards. A deeper look at the numbers show just what went wrong for Chicago’s defense.

Every week, the Shaw Local News Network takes a deep dive into the numbers in Bear Down, Nerd Up. This week, those numbers look pretty bad.

Goff spreads the wealth

The Lions set the tone for Sunday’s win when they marched down the field on its opening drive touchdown. Goff found his receivers at different parts of the field and continued to do so for most of the day.

His passing chart reflects just how efficiently he sprayed the ball around the field. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Goff completed 2-of-4 passes for 73 yards on passes thrown 20 yards or farther, 6-of-7 passes for 168 yards between 10 to 19 yards, 10-of-12 passes for 76 yards between the line of scrimmage and 9 yards and 5-of-5 for 17 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

The sweet spot was close and up the middle. He went 3-of-4 for 110 yards on passes thrown up the middle between 10 to 19 yards and hit on his only pass up the middle beyond 20 yards for 44 yards. Goff also hit on all four passes up the middle up to 9 yards for 42 yards.

It quickly became clear that Goff wanted to get the ball to his playmakers up the middle and let them do the rest. St. Brown, Williams and other Lions took advantage of some mismatches or Bears miscommunication.

Eight different Lions finished with at least one reception while four had three or more. St. Brown led the way with nine catches off 11 targets for 115 yards and three touchdowns. He averaged 12.8 yards per reception and his longest catch was for 34 yards.

Sunday was hardly a career day for Goff. His career-high in passing is 517 yards, which came in 2019 with the Los Angeles Rams, according to Statmuse. But Goff did match his career-high in touchdowns and became the fourth quarterback in NFL history to complete 80% of his passes, throw for six touchdowns and accumulate a passer rating of 125 through the first two games of any season.

Creating separation

Many around the NFL wondered whether new Lions offensive coordinator John Morton could create space for his playmakers as much as Johnson did. Morton proved Sunday that wouldn’t be a problem.

Detroit’s playmakers created space in order to come up with some big catches. Lions tight end Sam LaPorta created an average of 4.15 yards of separation from defender on his four targets, compared to the league average of 2.98. Tight end Brock Wright created 4.1 yards of space while Williams averaged 3.99.

The ironic part is that St. Brown was below league average at 2.27. He did average 3.8 yards after a catch as he contested for tight passes for most of the day.

A historic defensive letdown

Sunday’s defensive performance had different historic elements to it for all the wrong reasons.

Detroit’s 52 points was the most Chicago had allowed in a game since 2014. The Green Bay Packers infamously scored 55 points against the Bears on Nov. 9 after the New England Patriots had scored 51 against Chicago the previous game. The back-to-back blowout losses eventually led to the firing of former Bears head coach Marc Trestman.

The Lions’ 511 total yards of offense also hadn’t been done against a Bears defense in regulation in over a decade. The Miami Dolphins totaled 541 total yards of offense in October of the 2018 season but that game went into overtime. Sunday’s total was the most since the Philadelphia Eagles put up 514 yards in December of 2013.

A lot of Goff’s success came because of the lack of pressure the Bears’ defense created. Chicago failed to record a sack Sunday, though one by defensive end Montez Sweat was nullified because of offsetting penalties. It was the first time the Bears didn’t sack an opposing quarterback since Nov. 5, 2023, against the New Orleans Saints.

Checking in on the rookies

One of the early critiques of Johnson and Bears general manager Ryan Poles has been the lack of use of his highly drafted players from this year’s draft.

First-round tight end Colston Loveland has played in 55% of the offensive snaps through two games and has 12 receiving yards on two receptions off three targets. Second-round wide receiver Luther Burden III has 2 receiving yards off two catches and three targets while offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo and defensive tackle Shemar Turner were healthy inactives Sunday. Trapilo has played five special teams snaps while Turner hasn’t seen any game action.

Fourth-round cornerback Zah Frazier was placed on the non-football injury list at the start of the season while fifth-round linebacker Ruben Hyppolite has four tackles on defense and mostly played special teams. Sixth-round offensive lineman Luke Newman played three offensive snaps and eight on special teams in two games and seventh-round running back Kyle Monangai rushed for 28 yards on seven carries and added 19 receiving yards on two receptions and four targets.

Johnson said earlier in training camp that the rookie would need to earn his trust. That’s continued into the season.

“What these guys look like when the ball’s not in their hands is a big deal for us,” Johnson said. “There were some plays [Sunday] that we weren’t quite as pleased with what that looked like on tape, so we’re going to find out this week at practice who wants to practice hard and who wants to be a little bit more involved with the game plan here going into Sunday.”

Going the extra mile

There was a positive for the Bears secondary in Sunday’s game.

Safety Jaquan Brisker made an impressive play to stop a score in the third quarter. Brisker ran 95 yards to complete a tackle that stopped Williams on a pass that he ran out for a 64-yard completion.

According to Next Gen Stats, it’s the longest tackle in the NFL two weeks into the season.