CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO/AP) — Darrell Bevell had a hard time processing everything from his first game as an NFL coach.
He watched as the Detroit Lions wiped out a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter, recovered a strip-sack in the closing minutes to set up the go-ahead touchdown, and squeezed out a 34-30 victory over the Chicago Bears.
"My emotions right now, I can't even think straight," Bevell said. "I'm just trying to wrap my head around this whole thing on what just happened."
So were the Bears.
Adrian Peterson scored from the 5 after Romeo Okwara strip-sacked Mitchell Trubisky with about two minutes left, capping the comeback. Matthew Stafford threw for 402 yards and three touchdowns, and the Lions (5-7) came away with a wild win following a major shakeup after a Thanksgiving loss to Houston. They fired general manager Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia while elevating Bevell, their offensive coordinator, to interim coach.
"It was a crazy, amazing week," Bevell said. "I just couldn't be happier with how they did today."
Detroit trailed 30-20 early in the fourth period after Trubisky threw an 11-yard touchdown to Cole Kmet on a bootleg. Chicago's Bilal Nichols then intercepted a short, sidearmed pass intended for Jesse James.
But the Lions turned things around down the stretch, sending the Bears (5-7) to their sixth straight loss.
Detroit cut it to 30-27 with 2:18 left on Stafford's 25-yard pass to Marvin Jones Jr. Then, the Bears had a third down at their 17 when Okwara stripped Trubisky. John Penisini recovered and the Lions took over at the Chicago 7.
Peterson ran it in two plays later for his second touchdown of the game. The Lions came out on top after losing four of five, and Stafford gave Bevell the game ball.
"Guys were having a blast," Stafford said. "Obviously, it was a crazy one, down to the wire. Defense made some huge plays late in the game. We were able to put enough points on the board, come away with the win. Happy for (Bevell). Happy for our team. Just excited to get a win and thought it was fitting;he needed to get that game ball. It's his first game as a head coach, and to get a win is huge."
Stafford completed 27 of 42 passes, and the Lions snapped a five-game losing streak to Chicago. The 12-year veteran has 3,278 yards, the ninth time he has surpassed the 3,000 mark. He has 31 fourth-quarter comebacks, the most in the NFL since 2009. His 38 winning drives during that span rank second in the league.
Jones had eight catches for 116 yards and a touchdown. Quintez Cephus caught a 49-yard touchdown pass. And Peterson ran for 57 yards.
The Bears are on their worst skid since eight in a row in 2002. And the latest loss figures to fuel more speculation about coach Matt Nagy's future. He lit into his team following a blowout at Green Bay last week, then watched a 10-point lead disappear in the final moments.
"Is this right now a difficult time?" Nagy said. "You're damn right it is. It really is. It's hard. It challenges you in a lot of different ways. It's hard, but this is also why we're in the position that we're in, is to let these guys see the authenticity of your belief and trust in them. I think think the easy way out is for people in different positions like myself as a head coach to just chalk it up and say this wasn't our year, but that will never happen to me and our guys. They feed off of that and that's all we can do."
WBBM Newsradio's Josh Liss and Pat Cassidy spoke to Bears coach Matt Nagy following the loss to the Lions.
Liss: Matt, how are you hanging today? What might be bugging you the most? Where are your thoughts waking up today?
"Obviously when you have a loss like that it is tough, and the only thing you can do is pick up the pieces and get right back at it this week, so we have to fix where the problems were and it starts with today and getting back at it," Nagy said.
Cassidy: Coach, well I guess you didn't sleep well last night, like you didn't after the Packers game, because I know you care so much. What's happening with the Bears defense, giving up two late touchdowns like that? Is the defense losing their edge, are they getting tired, what's going on?
"I thought yesterday, what happened, there was just a couple big situations in the game where whether it was some third downs, third down and longs, or that drive there at the end of the game where they were able to take it from the minus 4 and go down pretty easily and get that touchdown; and there are times like that where that's going to happen and I look back to us on offense too and we got to be able to finish the game there with the lead and be able to get first downs and you know we didn't do that so, the complementary football side yesterday, I thought the offense, being able to get first downs, a bunch of them, and stay out of too many third downs, and score touchdowns was important, and again just watching the tape I saw there were some times where they made some big third down plays and we got them in third down and then they made a few; at the end of the game we just weren't able to finish on both sides," Nagy said.
Liss: And there is that strip sack on Mitch Trubisky, setting up Detroit's winning touchdown. Is is worth second-guessing the play call or any other assignment there? I think Bears fans may be frustrated that there is no one to blame but the Lions there Matt.
"I can understand from both sides of this, in regards to where you're at, but when we are in that situation, we need to be able to get a first down and make them use their time outs. And we felt really good with the play call, and we felt really good with the decision there, and unfortunately when a bad play like that happens, we are always going to look back and say 'darn what if we would have called something else' so it was an inopportune time for us and we have to make sure that kind of stuff doesn't happen and the Lions made a play there," Nagy said.
Liss: How are you judging Mitch's performance overall and how he was able to operate yesterday?
"Yeah I thought he did well, I really did," Nagy said. "I thought he played within the game. He threw a lot of completions, he ran the offense really well. I was really happy with the balance of our offense being able to run the football and get first downs, and then throw the football in the red zone when we needed to, throw the football and get some third downs, some key third downs there in the second half; I was pleased with how he played. It's frustrating because the only thing we care about is winning, but for two weeks in a row now I thought we've had a little bit more of a rhythm with the offense than we have had at the start of the year."
Liss: Adversity is at an all time high, you are fielding questions about job security and big picture stuff. How are you managing to keep the focus on what actually matters at this point? What does matter most for your team right now?
"Yeah, it's just that: to win," Nagy said. "We were so close yesterday. The guys came out, we talked all week about going 1-0, we talked all week about finishing, we talked all week about controlling what we can control, and unfortunately that didn't happen yesterday, and I know our guys care and so what we have in front of us is four games, and we can only focus on this week against Houston and make sure we have a great practice and try to get this feeling off your back when you want a win. It didn't happen this past week , and we know it could've and should've but we have to do it this coming week against the Texans."
You can hear more from Matt Nagy on the Bears Coaches Show on Mondays at 7 p.m.
The Chicago Bears take on the Houston Texans on Sunday at noon for Game 13.
