Bears Get 1st Win With 17-14 Victory Against Lions
CHICAGO (AP) — Brian Hoyer threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns, and the Chicago Bears earned their first win of the season with a 17-14 victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
The Bears (1-3) got a win after starting 0-3 for the second time in as many seasons under coach John Fox.
They also stopped a six-game home losing streak as well as a six-game slide against Detroit (1-3), though things got tight near the end.
Bernstein: Competent-enough Bears finally get one
Chicago was leading 17-6 when Andre Roberts returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown. Golden Tate then caught a 2-point conversion pass from Matthew Stafford to cut it to 17-14 with 1:52 left, but the Bears recovered the onside kick.
Hoyer was on target in his second straight start with Jay Cutler nursing a sprained right thumb. He was 28 of 36 passes against a defense missing the injured Ezekiel Ansah and DeAndre Levy.
Eddie Royal caught seven passes for 111 yards and a touchdown. Rookie Jordan Howard ran for a career-high 111 yards for Chicago.
Zach Miller caught a touchdown, and the Bears gained 408 yards in just their second home win in 10 games under Fox.
The Lions dropped their third straight, with Stafford struggling to find open receivers and a short-handed run game once again unable to get going.
Stafford was 23-of-36 for 213 yards and was intercepted twice deep in Bears territory. He got picked off by Jacoby Glenn on a miscommunication with Tate near the end of the first half.
And the Lions had the ball on the Chicago 23 when Deiondre Hall picked off a pass intended for Anquan Boldin with about four minutes remaining in the game.
Marvin Jones Jr. had 74 yards receiving after setting a career-high with 205 yards against Green Bay the previous week.
The Lions settled for a 21-yard field goal by Matt Prater on the opening drive of the second half after two runs at the Chicago 1 got stopped.
Hoyer hit Royal deep down the middle for a 64-yard gain on the next drive, setting up a 6-yard touchdown catch by Miller that increased Chicago's lead to 14-6 with 3:34 left in the third quarter.
But Chicago's Kevin White was slow to get off the ground after being tackled by Glover Quin following a short catch and eventually walked to the locker room with an ankle injury.
MISSING PLAYERS
Lions: Ansah sprained his ankle two weeks ago in Detroit's loss to Tennessee and didn't return to the game. Levy has a quadriceps injury. He missed much of last season with a hip injury.
Bears: Besides Cutler, Chicago played its second game without LBs Danny Trevathan (sprain thumb) and Lamarr Houston (season-ending left ACL tear). RB Jeremy Langford (ankle) was inactive after getting hurt last week at Dallas.
INJURIES
Lions RB Dwayne Washington limped off in the first with a left ankle injury after he was tackled by John Timu on a second-quarter run. ... TE Eric Ebron aggravated his ankle injury and hurt his knee blocking on a run in the first quarter, but returned to the game.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
