Lions vs Bears: Week 18 - The Season Wraps
All stats found on detroitlions.com and espn.com
The Lions and Bears met on a cold evening in Chicago with not much on the line. However, one thing was apparent in this game: though the Lions were eliminated from the playoffs they were playing for pride.
The offensive line looked a bit more stable than it has for most of the 2025 season. As it turns out Goff only needed a little bit better, as he came out with a solid day: 27 completions on 42 attempts for 331 yards, a single touchdown and a single interception. Goff has done everything he can this year behind a patchwork offensive line, and while week 18 was not perfect, he looked more like himself than he had in previous weeks.
Furthermore, Bates sank 4 out of 5 field goal attempts, and Gibbs found the end zone once. On the defense Maddox notched an interception and Hutch notched a sack. While the game was far from perfect, it was a better ending than we may have expected given a number of the games this year.
This victory cemented the Lions at 9-8 on the season, bringing up the fourth winning season in a row. Now, I don’t know about all of you Lions fans out there, but I do know that it is nice to consistently win compared to years past in my Lions fandom. I remember a time when simply stringing together two wins back to back seemed like an amazing accomplishment. Now we find ourselves coming off of a winning season and it’s … disappointing. Fun or not: This is progress.
Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes have created a consistent winner. While it is true they have not brought the franchise to the super bowl, they have raised the expectation of the fans. Something I would have never thought would happen in my lifetime.
This offseason will likely lead to the departures of some of the coaching staff, a number of free agents, and older players via retirement. However, Dan and Brad have built a roster that is a consistent winner, and I have no reason to think they won’t continue to do so. I’m not saying the Lions will be perfect next. I’m simply saying they deserve a chance.
One final note: I know I suggested we throw the towel and play all rookies in my post “The Retool Needs to Begin Now”. However, Michael Grey of the Detroit Lions Podcast (@themichaelgrey on X, detroitlionspodcast.com) commented “Appreciate the passion in this but i’m not sure it fits what this team is all about…”. I thought a lot about this comment, and you know, he is absolutely correct. That is not what this team is about. This team is about fighting, about GRIT. Perhaps the GRITTIEST thing that could have been done to close the season was to hand Ben Johnson and his division winning Bears a loss and show them the Lions still have fight and won’t be so easy to topple in 2026.