Bears defense tries to rebound after struggling against 49ers

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Bears defense tries to rebound after struggling against 49ers

2025-12-30 08:12 Last Updated At：08:20

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson left no uncertainty with his former team, the Detroit Lions, coming in Sunday to Soldier Field to close the regular season.

“We’re playing to win this week,” Johnson said on Monday.

Not that the Bears should be coasting yet, even against Johnson’s former boss Dan Campbell and a Lions team now out of the playoff chase. The Bears still have the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs to lock up with a win, and with it home field for the divisional round should they win their wild-card round playoff game at Soldier Field.

It will be difficult to do with defensive production like they had in Sunday night’s 42-38 loss at San Francisco.

Although they gave up a season-worst 496 yards, Johnson almost seemed to be trying to lift the confidence of the defense.

They did get a pick-6 on the game’s first play from scrimmage by linebacker T.J. Edwards, the first time this happened in an NFL game since Week 2 in 2023. They also forced the first punt by the 49ers since the end of November.

“It always comes back to fundamentals and so it’s gap integrity in terms of the run defense,” Johnson said of stopping the 49ers. “You know, we were playing a really good offense right now. So I think that needs to be stated because they’re averaging 35 points over the last five weeks. And so they’re hot.

“I didn’t feel like our offense did our part in the first half. We did not possess the ball. We had a couple three-and-outs. You look at our defense and they got a pick-6, they got a couple punts, and if we bow up in the red zone I think we feel better about (the defense’s) performance and that’s not to take anything away from San Fran, they did a great job, but there are certainly things fundamentally that we can improve on and we’re going to look to address this week.”

Maybe the most troubling aspect for the Bears was red zone defense.

Green Bay went 0-for-5 at scoring touchdowns in the red zone in Week 16. The 49ers went 5-for-5.

“Each week is a little bit different,” Johnson said. “Every offense has a different red zone story to them. They simply executed better than we did with their plan.”

They’ll hope to improve this plan Sunday or they could wind up with a third seed in the playoffs.

Passing. Caleb Williams’ 330 passing yards Sunday were a season high and the Bears accomplished this despite a foot injury that kept receiver Rome Odunze sidelined, and an illness that kept receiver Olamide Zaccheaus from playing. Their pass blocking held up despite tackle Darnell Wright playing with an illness that kept him from taking a Saturday flight with the team to California.

Wright flew in by himself on Sunday, the day of the game.

Run defense. They gave up 200 yards rushing, 8 more than when they struggled the previous week, and this looked much worse. Christian McCaffrey had runs of 41, 17 and 16 yards in a season’s best 140-yard effort, but the 49ers had been struggling to run all season. They came into the game averaging 3.6 yards per carry, which ranked next to last in the NFL.

WR Luther Burden. The rookie shook off an ankle injury that sidelined him against Green Bay and had career highs of eight receptions for 138 yards while also catching a TD pass. He only was on the field for 38 of the 66 offensive plays.

WR DJ Moore. He went from being the star against Green Bay with a spectacular 46-yard TD catch in tight coverage for the overtime win to making only one reception for 7 yards against San Francisco. In Moore’s defense, he was a late addition to the injury report with an illness sweeping through the team, but gutted out the game and participated in 92% of offensive plays.

Linebacker Noah Sewell suffered an Achilles tendon injury Sunday but Johnson did not update its severity. An NFL Network report said Sewell suffered a torn Achilles tendon. ... Defensive end Joe Tryon-Shoyinka is in the NFL concussion protocol.

23 — After Sunday’s game, Williams has 23 games in his career when he hasn’t thrown an interception. No starting NFL quarterback has done this in his first two NFL seasons. Williams broke the mark held by Dak Prescott of 22 games without one in his first two seasons.

The Bears try to avenge a 52-21 loss they had in Week 2 at Detroit against the Lions (8-8), who have lost three straight.

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A bomb cyclone brings blizzards to the Midwest before turning east

A strengthening bomb cyclone barreled across the northern U.S. on Monday, unleashing severe winter weather in the Midwest as it took aim at the East Coast.

The storm brought blizzard conditions, treacherous travel and power outages to parts of the Plains and Great Lakes on Monday as sharply colder air, strong winds and a mix of snow, ice and rain swept through.

Forecasters said the storm intensified quickly enough to meet the criteria of a bomb cyclone, a system that strengthens rapidly as pressure drops. The sharp cold front left parts of the central U.S. waking up Monday to temperatures as much as 50 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius) colder than the day before.

All that wind and snow created “a pretty significant system for even this part of the country,” said Cody Snell, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center. Dangerous wind chills plunged as low as minus 30 F (minus 34 C) across parts of North Dakota and Minnesota.

The National Weather Service had warned of whiteout conditions beginning Sunday that could make travel impossible in some places.

In Iowa, blizzard conditions eased by Monday morning but high winds were still blowing fallen snow across roadways, keeping more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Interstate 35 closed. State troopers reported dozens of crashes during the storm, including one that killed a person.

Forecasters expect the storm to intensify, fueled by a sharp clash between frigid Canadian air and lingering warmth across the southern United States.

Nationwide, about 350,000 customers were without power Monday afternoon, more than a third of them in Michigan, according to Poweroutage.us. Airports reported over 6,000 flight delays and around 775 cancellations within the United States.

Snow piled up quickly in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where as much as 2 feet (0.6 meters) fell in some areas, according to the National Weather Service. Meteorologist Ryan Metzger said additional snow was expected in the coming days, although totals would be far lighter.

Waves on Lake Superior were expected to reach 20 feet (6 meters) Monday, sending all but one cargo ship into harbors for shelter, according to MarineTraffic.com. Weather forecasting on the lakes has improved greatly since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975 after waves were predicted at up to 16 feet (5 meters).

The fierce winds on Lake Erie sent water surging toward the basin’s eastern end near Buffalo, New York, while lowering water on the western side in Michigan to expose normally submerged lakebed — even the wreck of a car and a snowmobile.

The National Weather Service said lake levels had risen to just below 8 feet (2.4 meters), with the potential to reach 9 feet (2.7 meters) or more by late Monday, due to the strong southwest wind flow, and predicted “significant lakeshore flooding” along the Lake Erie shoreline of Erie and Chautauqua counties as well as along the upper Niagara River.

Rain and a wintry mix fell farther east across parts of the Northeast. Freezing rain was reported in northern New York, with the threat extending into Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Forecasters warned the ice and wind could strain power lines and trees. More than 57,000 power outages were reported across upstate New York on Monday afternoon, utility officials said. Heavy lake-effect snow and possible whiteouts were forecast Tuesday for the northwestern part of the state, the National Weather Service said.

On the West Coast, the National Weather Service warned that moderate to strong Santa Ana winds were expected in parts of Southern California through Tuesday, raising concerns about downed trees in areas where soils have been saturated by recent storms. Two more storms were forecast later this week, with rain on New Year’s Day potentially soaking the Rose Parade in Pasadena for the first time in about two decades.

A weekend snowstorm hit Alaska’s northern panhandle with 15 to 40 inches (38 to 102 centimeters), according to the National Weather Service, keeping the region under a winter storm warning Monday as Juneau braced for up to 9 more inches (23 centimeters) and possible freezing rain. City facilities were closed and road crews piled snow into towering berms, while communities farther south faced flood watches from snowmelt and heavy rain.

And in central Illinois, an EF1 tornado with peak winds of 98 mph (158 kph) damaged buildings and snapped power poles on Sunday.

Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York; Corey Williams in Detroit; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut; and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed.