CHICAGO — Ben Johnson’s greatest frustration Sunday night stemmed from another uneven and at times wobbly offensive effort that forced the Chicago Bears to play catch-up most of the game.

The 19-16 loss to the Detroit Lions in the regular-season finale was concerning, with the Green Bay Packers up next Saturday at Soldier Field in the wild-card round.

The Lions were just the latest offense to march right through the defense. The Bears have surrendered 1,313 yards and 82 first downs in the last three games, including the Week 16 win over the Packers. Since the Week 12 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, a once stout third-down defense has been hit hard. The last seven opponents are 43 for 87 (49.4%).

Lions quarterback Jared Goff carved up the Bears in whatever coverage they played. Some say they cannot play man coverage with their current personnel. Goff completed 17 of 30 passes for 228 yards (7.6 yards per attempt) versus man coverage. Against zone, he was 10 of 12 for 103 yards (8.6 ypa), although free safety Kevin Byard III’s interception came on a zone drop. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t, right?

Those numbers and a middling (on good days) pass rush are cause for concern while preparing for Jordan Love and the Packers. But at the end of the game Sunday, the Lions had only 19 points and there was a clear opportunity — again — for the Bears to steal a victory.

“The No. 1 thing is we’re looking to limit the opponent with their points,” Johnson said. “You left that game with a good offense and they only scored 19, 16 up until the last two minutes. I thought our defense played well enough for us to win the ballgame.

“I know we want to get off the field faster and we want to create more possessions for our offense. There’s ways to get that done. At the end of the day, the No. 1 objective is to limit their points. I’m going to keep that the main thing with our defense.”

What kind of offensive plan will Johnson and staff draw up for the third meeting with the Packers in six weeks will be fascinating for a variety of reasons.

— Wide receiver Rome Odunze, who returned to practice on Friday, could be on track to play for the first time since the Nov. 28 game at Philadelphia.

— The offense leaned into the tight ends in a major way against the Lions. The Bears had 30 snaps with 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two wide receivers), 11 plays in 13 personnel (one RB, 3 TE, 1 WR) and only 10 in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR).

— Olamide Zaccheaus went from playing 164 snaps over the previous three games to getting just six against Detroit.

— Left tackle Ozzy Trapilo could potentially return after missing Week 18 with a right knee/quad injury. He worked out on the field before the game but wasn’t moving efficiently.

Looking back on the two prior meetings with the Packers, the Bears fought their way back into the Week 14 game at Lambeau Field when they changed the tone with their rushing offense. They ran for 150 yards in the rematch in Week 16 and that was a week before the Baltimore Ravens ran roughshod over the Packers for 308 yards and four touchdowns in a 41-24 blowout.

Coaches always want to present a different plan, look or both on a weekly basis. But it’s worth wondering if Johnson will want to continue to lean into his tight ends to help with the running game. Plus, Colston Loveland made 10 receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown against the Lions. Cole Kmet provided a couple of really big plays when he started out blocking against defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and then got into the pattern, including on the second two-point conversion.

I wondered if the Bears went heavy with tight ends against the Lions in a bid to keep Hutchinson off quarterback Caleb Williams, especially with Theo Benedet replacing Trapilo at left tackle.

“I think more than anything it was just to be multiple,” tight end Durham Smythe said of the uptick in personnel groupings for the position. “We had a lot of run/pass options and when you have two tight ends in the game, you can kind of run all of the run game if you need to. So, I think it probably came down to that but, yeah, when they have ends like that, specifically (Hutchinson), it helps to have some extra eyes and bodies on him.”

Williams has to be better, too. The interception he threw to Avonte Maddox, when he went for the big play to DJ Moore, was similar to the concept used on Moore’s game-winning touchdown in overtime against the Packers. But Smythe was completely uncovered and would have gained a huge chunk of yardage — he might have even scored.

Williams never looked off the alert — Moore — and when he released the ball, the Lions had a triangle over Moore with Maddox and two cornerbacks. On the first down throw to Luther Burden III before the punt with 1:55 remaining, the wide receiver had a nice lane for run-after-catch but Williams’ throw was high and was a fastball when a touch throw pass was required.

After the game, Johnson said he let the offense know he was disappointed with a disjointed effort that didn’t produce a score until the fourth quarter.

“They know,” the coach said. “I didn’t tell them anything that they didn’t already know. We’re capable of a lot on offense. The standard is very high and when we as a unit feel like we’ve fallen short, we call it out, we address it and we get better from it.”

Johnson talked about small details and noted that coaches, after film review, counted six mental mistakes in the first 11 snaps. The Bears chose a “simpler” game plan with less pre-snap motion and fewer shifts in an effort to play faster. That they failed in that objective has to be irksome.

The Bears have started slowly on offense too often near the end of the season. In the two games against the Packers and the losses to the 49ers and Lions, the offense converted only 3 of 19 third downs in the first half with five three-and-punts. That’s led directly to struggles by the defense and halftime deficits.

They can fix it and advance to the divisional round, or head into the offseason wondering how things went off the tracks. The Bears have to be more sound defensively and if they’re not going to force turnovers in bunches, the bend-don’t-break model that stands tall in the red zone can’t be hit for all sorts of explosive plays.

Johnson seems intent on ratcheting things up on offense, and for as hyperfocused as everyone is on where the Bears hit speed bumps on that side of the ball, remember the Packers are doing their own scramble drill in an effort to address their defense.

“We’re not far away,” Johnson said. “You never are in this league. We’ve just got to clean up some of the mental errors. We’ll be a lot sharper here going forward and we’re going to be OK.”

____

©2026 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.