1. Anthony Miller is coming on strong.

Standing in a tent outside his team’s locker room underneath the stands at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Bears coach didn’t invoke coachspeak or claim he’d have to watch the tape when he was asked about quarterback Mitch Trubisky’s only interception of the game. It was simple, and all Nagy needed was the handheld tablets on the sideline to confirm what he thought he saw in live action. Wide receiver Anthony Miller had run a 16-yard route when the play calls him to cut it off at 14 yards. In an effort to clear Trubisky, whose pass was high at Miller’s depth and would have been higher at 14 yards, Miller was placed under the bus. Motivational tactic? Perhaps. Direct honesty? No doubt. Enough is enough? Definitely.

For a variety of reasons, one of which was an occasional lack of attention to details, Miller was sporadic for the first half of the season. He was one of the many offensive skill-position players not named Allen Robinson underachieving, especially when considering Miller’s penchant for big plays as a rookie last season, when he led the team with seven receiving touchdowns. The decision to swap future draft capital to pick up a second pick in Round 2 of the 2018 draft in order to nab Miller was starting to look questionable.

I don’t know that Nagy’s blunt placement of blame for that pick against the Rams has anything to do with Miller’s performance the last two weeks, but the receiver definitely has come around. That bodes well for the Bears, whose search for an offensive spark this season has been such an exhausting process.

Miller delivered in a big way against the Lions with a career-high nine receptions for 140 yards. The Bears liked the matchup they had with Miller going against Justin Coleman, the NFL’s highest-paid slot cornerback, who came over from the Seahawks in free agency. The Bears thought their young receiver could win battles against Coleman, who has played well this season. Miller did that against man-to-man coverage on the game-winning drive, hauling in two of the best passes Trubisky has thrown all season.

On the first play, the Bears had third-and-4 on their own 16-yard line with 5 minutes, 27 seconds remaining. Fail to move the chains and they’re staring at a punt that likely would give the Lions decent field position. Miller hesitated slightly and ran a corner route, getting ample separation from Coleman, who was on an island. That’s because safety Will Harris was shaded to help cornerback Darius Slay with Robinson on the other side of the formation. The play went for 35 yards, the kind of chunk play that’s been missing in the Bears offense.

“It was just the route,” Miller said. “Coach set me up on a good route and, you know, I made the best of the opportunity. (Coleman) played outside leverage. We were taught to go outside no matter what. But I just improvised and so did Mitch. He seen it and he threw it.”

Said Trubisky: “We knew we had man coverage. Kind of dialed it up for him. And we like Anthony on corners, he ran a great route, the O-line did a great job of giving me time, and I just put it in a spot where he could make the play, and he made a huge play for our offense.”

Four plays later, the Bears faced third-and-5 from the Lions’ 34. Nagy would have been looking at a 52-yard field-goal attempt from Eddy Pineiro to tie the score if they didn’t gain another yard. Again, the Lions locked on Robinson, doubling him with Slay and safety Tracy Walker. That left Miller in the slot one on one against Coleman. Miller ran what amounted to almost a wheel route. Trubisky placed the ball perfectly, and Miller held on to the ball for a 32-yard gain to the 2-yard line.

“Yeah, man coverage again,” Trubisky said. “He beat the guy up.”

The Lions sold out to take Robinson, the Bears’ clear preferred target, away in crucial situations. Miller stepped up to become a difference maker. Nagy has lauded him since Day 1 for his competitive fire and the energy he brings to the locker room and field. It hasn’t always included steady play, but Miller has totaled 21 receptions for 271 yards in the last three games.

Miller didn’t let a bumpy first half take him out of this game mentally. He dropped a pass that originally was ruled a fumble. He also was named as the guilty party for an illegal-formation penalty that was declined after Nagy elected to go for it on fourth-and-6 from the Lions’ 32 in the second quarter. More on that coaching decision later.

“I believe I was safe,” Miller said of the penalty, the fifth he’s been called for this season. “I was confused about that one.”

Still, he was frustrated at halftime after he was targeted eight times but had four catches and 30 yards to show for it.

“What I am thinking about is the first half I had,” Miller said after the game. “I think it was horrible. I think it was one of the worst halves I’ve had since I’ve been playing in the league. That’s stuff has to get corrected first. But I just told myself, ‘Man, just do what you know you can do,’ and that’s what I did.

“I dropped a ball, it was almost a fumble. I was in the right spots but I wasn’t in my groove, so I just had to pick it up.”

Pick it up, he did. For as much has been written and talked about Trubisky’s rough season, players such as Miller haven’t always given him the finest support. It clicked against the Lions, and Miller described Trubisky’s passes as “dimes. The ball was where it was supposed to be, and all I had to do was make a play.”

But after Miller’s most productive game as a pro, he was most proud of some dirty work, not the huge third-down catches for an offense that has been starved for such plays.

“I think it was the play where I have a crack, where I have to block certain linebackers,” Miller said. “I believe I got in there two, three times today, and I am just proud of myself for sealing the deal on the outside, blocking those linebackers.”

Miller can’t stop now. With four games remaining, he needs to put together some more productive outings to change the narrative on his 2019 season. There’s enough time to emerge as a player about whom the Bears can be confident for 2020, not a player the Bears are projecting and/or hoping can step up.

“I have been running the same routes and I have been getting the same opportunity to run those routes,” Miller said. “I guess it’s just how certain teams play certain defenses; they open up in different ways so different guys may get the ball.

“I started off a little slow this season with production. It’s time to pick it up for me. I am ready for the challenge.”

2. How does a team rack up 419 yards of offense? By being really good on first down.

The Bears reached 400 yards for the first time since the Nov. 11 win against the Lions last season at Soldier Field. While two of quarterback Mitch Trubisky’s best throws came on third down as documented above with the Anthony Miller catches, he was excellent during the second half and good on first down throughout the game.

Trubisky completed 17 of 19 passes on first down for 177 yards with two touchdowns, the connections with Allen Robinson and Jesper Horsted. In games in which the offense has performed poorly — and the Bears didn’t top 300 yards offense until their seventh game of the season — maintaining proper down and distance has been a consistent struggle. They’ve been behind the chains. Trubisky helped the Bears stay ahead of the chains here by being much better on first down.

It was a fantastic second half for Trubisky and a good game overall. He completed 12 of 14 passes for 192 yards in the second half, and his only true mistake was the late throw to Robinson on a crossing route that Lions cornerback Darius Slay stepped in front of for an interception. Trubisky threw his receivers open. That’s been a consistent criticism of his play this season. He helped his receivers win one-on-one matchups against man coverage, which he Lions probably play more of than just about any team in the league. He made touch throws, like the one to Horsted, and he made accurate throws downfield.

Coach Matt Nagy has been saying for two weeks that Trubisky has been playing better.

“Again, I said it the last two weeks and now I can stack a third week on top,” Nagy said. “Decision making-wise, making plays, and then for our offense. When things don’t go well it goes to the quarterback, when things go well, he is going to get all the credit. There was a lot of stuff that went well in this game for our offense. So, we will reset. We will enjoy it tonight, then tomorrow it’s all a reset.”

We have to recognize that this win, the yardage and the impressive passes came against the Lions, who fell to 3-8-1 and have a full-blown crisis with general manager Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia. The Ford family typically has shown patience with their football people. Remember how long Matt Millen his job as team president in Detroit? Quinn fired former coach Jim Caldwell after a 9-7 season, his third winning season in four years, to hire Patricia, who after 28 games is 9-18-1. That, however, is an issue for the Lions’ version of 10 thoughts.

The point is the Bears have won three of their last four games, with two of them over the Lions and the other over the 2-9 Giants. They’ve caught a great part of the schedule to shift the narrative of what’s been wrong with this team. Will it last with the Cowboys, Packers, Chiefs and Vikings up next? I don’t know. While Nagy thought Trubisky was better in the loss to the Rams and win over the Giants, I didn’t see much that really stood out. Here? Plenty stood out, and Trubisky deserves credit for that. He’s been humble in defeat, and he was humble after the win as well.

“It feels like we just went out and did our job,” Trubisky said. “It felt good to win, and we put ourselves in a good position for next week. I know me, myself, and this team, I think we’re just hungry at this point to continue to get that feeling that you feel after you win. We just have to keep that hunger and just continue to get better and find ways to grow. We’re getting closer, but we’re not there yet.

“We’re not trying to prove anything to anyone but ourselves. We just have to continue to get better, eliminate mistakes, keep growing, keep coming closer together. If everybody just goes out there and does their job, I think that’s the type of results that we can get. But, like I said, we just have to continue to stay hungry and want more for ourselves and the team.”

When the quarterback looks good on first down and delivers big-time throws on third down, it’s a big step in the right direction.

3. Jesper Horsted is an intriguing prospect at tight end.

Jesper Horsted displayed impressive skill hauling in his 18-yard touchdown in the third quarter, using his right hand to pin the ball against his right shoulder as he went to the ground ahead of safety Will Harris. If Horsted can display that kind of athletic ability — and he’s just sort of scratching the surface as an NFL tight end — there should be a little intrigue. The Bears are desperate to have a pass-catching tight end emerge. I don’t know whether we’ll learn anything definitive about Horsted in the final four weeks. I kind of doubt we will, but the Bears ought to keep running him out there to see what he can do.

Horsted made his debut against the Giants and got four snaps on offense, catching one pass for 4 yards, and eight more snaps on special teams. Those plays proved to be really valuable.

“Everything was at 100 mph last week, and it was just really nice to get that out of the way because this game I was really able to focus on my assignment more,” Horsted said. “Last game, it was loud, it was fast, everything was big. This game, things kind of slowed down for me, and I was able to just focus on my assignment and do what I have been doing.”

The Bears presented the Lions with a new look on the touchdown. Running back Tarik Cohen motioned to the right side of quarterback Mitch Trubisky, not far from where Cordarrelle Patterson was lined up almost as an H-back. Trubisky faked a pitch to Cohen as Horsted released from the line of scrimmage and ran across the field, getting behind Harris right away. Trubisky lobbed the throw and Horsted hauled it in, tying the score 17-17.

“It wasn’t necessarily schemed for me,” Horsted said. “Thankfully, I had a good outside leverage on the man and it was a beautiful ball from Mitch. I wasn’t going to let that one drop. I knew I caught the ball but I want to go back and watch it. I knew it was a contested catch and I knew there was no way that ball was dropping. It was in slow motion and yet I really don’t remember what happened. I just remember looking the ball into my hands and rolling over so (Harris) couldn’t rip it out.

“I was very excited, but I had to go down for kickoff next, so you got to move on to the next play.”

The coaching staff deserves credit for getting Horsted rolling. He was promoted to the 53-man roster last week before Ben Braunecker went out with a concussion. With Adam Shaheen still out, Horsted is the best pass-catching tight end who is healthy. There’s so much he still needs to learn, and that’s reflected in what was again limited playing time, but he’s also proven to be a quick learner.

“I am by no means a finished product," Horsted said, "and there is a lot of stuff in my game I want to continue to work on, but I am getting opportunities and I am making the most of them here.”

4. Sometimes having a great return man can have unintended consequences.

What kind of influence does Bears kickoff-return ace Cordarrelle Patterson have on opposing special-teams units? Sometimes he influences them to do different things, things that might blow up on the Bears. After offsetting penalties on the game’s opening kickoff, Patterson had a 57-yard return, setting up the offense for only its second opening-drive touchdown this season. The Lions were concerned about the dangerous return man, so after the Lions took a 14-7 lead on their second possession, kicker Matt Prater squibbed the kickoff — hard. The goal was to keep the ball away from Patterson. The result turned out much better as the ball went off the Bears’ Deon Bush and the Lions recovered.

“It was one of those crazy things,” Bush said. “They were trying to squib it. It was hard to get out of the way.”

Bush was not trying to field the ball — it went off his side — and special-teams coordinator Chris Tabor doesn’t want him to try to make a play on a ball coming at him that hard.

“They’ve got a great returner, they’ve got a great return game,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said. “It’s top in the league. They’ve got a great punt returner, too. So, we knew that we had two problems, special teams-wise, that we were going to have to deal with, and they had some really good returns out there and obviously have some great players. So, in that situation, trying to get a little bit of a different kick.”

It really worked out in the Lions’ favor. Fortunately for the Bears, their defense was able to get a quick stop to get the ball back and prevent the Lions from going ahead by two scores. It’s something to watch for moving forward, though: The squib kicks and the possibility a ball is deflected by someone on the return team.

5. Ross Tucker was insightful as always.

I had a fun chat with Ross Tucker, the former lineman who now does a whole host of work in the league. He called this game for Westwood One radio, and he works for SiriusXM NFL Radio in addition to the always-excellent Ross Tucker Football Podcast. I like visiting with Tucker for a couple of reasons. He’s as sharp as you will find because he went to Princeton, and he’s always willing to share an opinion that’s based on his tape observations. He’s not regurgitating what he heard or spinning someone else’s opinion. You get a fresh take from a guy who knows what he’s watching.

The first thing I should point out is that Tucker all but guaranteed a touchdown for Jesper Horsted, the undrafted rookie who also played at Princeton. I wanted to get Tucker’s opinion on the question everyone has been asking, what’s been wrong with the Bears offense this season? Yes, plenty was right in this game, but Tucker was catching a late Thursday flight to Las Vegas to connect to Honolulu to call the Army-Hawaii game, which kicks off at 11:30 p.m. Saturday. So, I needed to chat with him before the Bears and Lions kicked off.

“As you know, it’s always the combination of a bunch of things,” Tucker said. “I’ve been disappointed in the offensive line. I don’t really understand the switching of (Cody) Whitehair and (James) Daniels. I think Whitehair was better at left guard and Daniels was better at center. And I can tell you that is not conducive to success. Moving guys around a lot is not a good idea. It’s just not. It’s like anything else in life. You’re better off with your computer and doing what you’re doing because if someone said, ‘You have to type this story on your phone,’ it’s just different.

“So, I think the right guard (Rashaad Coward) has struggled. It feels like (Charles) Leno has kind of taken a step back, and now the right tackle Bobby (Massie) is out of the lineup. So, in all sincerity, what offensive-line position do you really feel good about right now? I would have stuck with Whitehair at left guard and Daniels at center.

“So, the offensive line is part of it. (Mitch) Trubisky, man, I was at the Eagles game, actually sat with my wife in the stands for the first time ever at a game, and he looked like he was rattled. He did not look like he was confident. He made some horrific throws. It seems like he’s played a little bit better the last couple games, but that Eagles game, holy cow. There were Bears fans sitting around us and me and Eagles fans were legitimately saying to them, ‘We’re really sorry.’ We legitimately felt bad for them that Trubisky was that bad.

“I think he can be a solid quarterback if the defense is awesome, the offensive line plays really well, and they run the ball effectively. But if the offensive line is not playing very well, and they’re not running it effectively, he really struggles in situations where you know he’s gonna have to pass. And they’re just not running it really well. The reality is there are not many things on the offense right now to feel good about other than Allen Robinson. The one thing I would say is a positive is the last couple weeks they got Anthony Miller going a little bit. I don’t know what happened to him in the first half of the year.”

6. David Blough deserves credit for being poised in the pocket in his first NFL action.

The Lions saw a little something in quarterback David Blough, an undrafted rookie from Purdue, during his preseason action with the Colts, and they swung a trade to add him behind Matthew Stafford and Jeff Driskel. Blough was comfortable in the pocket because the Lions offensive line won the day against the Bears’ pass rush. The Bears struggled to generate pressure without blitzing. That gave Blough plenty of time to throw, and he did a nice job managing the pocket.

That is why Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano blitzed near the end of the game after the Lions, down four, had reached the Bears’ 26-yard line with 41 seconds remaining and two timeouts left. The Lions had started on their own 17 and methodically advanced the ball, forcing Pagano to dial up double A-gap pressure with linebackers Roquan Smith and Nick Kwiatkoski. Smith got home to sack Blough for a 13-yard loss. The Lions handled it so poorly that Pagano doubled down and called it again on fourth down. Kwiatkoski hit Blough just as he released a floater that free safety Eddie Jackson easily picked off for his first interception of the season.

The Lions outplayed the Bears up front in terms of pass protection. If you’re Pagano, you can’t lose the game playing quarters or cover two, and his front four was gassed. So he rolled the dice and blitzed. It’s always an interesting decision. If the Lions step up and handle the pressure, you’re looking at man-to-man coverage and chance for the quarterback to make a big play. If you sit back in zone with the idea that the defenders will keep everything in front of them and make the tackle, you’re one missed tackle away from losing the game.

Pagano put his foot down and the Bears got off the field. It’s fitting Smith had the big sack at the end. He had a career-high 15 tackles with 10 solos. He got his first two sacks of the season and is really playing well. The 15-yard unnecessary-roughness call just before the sack was avoidable. He’s got to disengage in time to avoid a costly penalty at a crucial time like that, but Smith was all over the field.

7. David Montgomery had a nice game.

Bears rookie running back David Montgomery carried 16 times for 75 yards, numbers that would have been more impressive had he not had a couple plays wiped out by penalties, including a 14-yard run negated by a Charles Leno Jr. holding penalty. Montgomery also lost an 11-yard reception on an ineligible-man-downfield call against Cody Whitehair. Montgomery did a nice job securing the ball on a 3-yard touchdown catch, the game-winner.

“It was a quick play,” he said. “So, get to the line fast and I had a shallow coming across and I just happened to squeeze open and I caught the ball. I almost dropped it, but I caught it.”

Montgomery was the third read on the play for quarterback Mitch Trubisky and he came free from the backside of the formation when linebacker Jarrad Davis essentially dropped coverage to become a sixth man rushing the quarterback on the play, second-and-goal from the 3-yard line.

“We were obviously in a call there, trying to get after the quarterback a little bit,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said. “And a little bit of, it’s really a front-side play, what I would call off to the offensive right. That’s kind of a primary read. Honestly, (Darius) Slay and Justin (Coleman) I think were the two DBs over there. They did a great job of playing that play. It was really a very specific deal, and then that’s a late lead coming out of the backside that the quarterback found late and we’ve got to get on it.”

Said Bears coach Matt Nagy: “That’s a growth for Mitch, getting through progression one, progression two and making plays happen. I think that’s what I’m probably most proud of.”

8. You have to believe there is concern for Taylor Gabriel, who did not make the trip to Detroit.

Bears wide receiver Taylor Gabriel self-reported a concussion following Sunday’s win over the Giants, according to coach Matt Nagy. It’s the second concussion of the season for Gabriel, who suffered his first during the Sept. 23 victory over the Redskins at FedEx Field. He missed the next two games, which included the team’s trip to London to face the Raiders, and then had an extra week with the bye before returning to play against the Saints in Week 7. Where this heads for Gabriel from here, I’m not going to even venture a guess. I do know that no two concussions are the same and concern is generally raised the more a player has.

“It was the same as the one I had a long time ago,” Gabriel said of the concussion in September after being cleared to return. “It’s just something you have to just rest and relax. And that’s something they let me do.”

The 5-foot-7, 168-pound Gabriel suffered a concussion in Week 6 of the 2016 season when was with he Falcons and missed the following week before returning. In 2015, he suffered a concussion in Week 10 when he was with the Browns. Gabriel missed the next three games and had the benefit of a bye week before returning to action in Week 15.

Tight end Ben Braunecker also did not make the trip to Detroit as he suffered a concussion against the Giants. Braunecker missed the Week 9 game at Buffalo last season with a concussion as well.

9. Congratulations to the 3 finalists for the first Patrick Mannelly Award: Ohio State’s Liam McCullough, Notre Dame’s John Shannon and Iowa State’s Steve Wirtel.

The finalists were announced last week for the award, which will be presented during a dinner and ceremony Dec. 14 at Bernie’s Book Bank in Lake Bluff. It’s the culmination of a year’s worth of work by former Bears long snapper Patrick Mannelly, NFL agent Kevin Gold and Chris Rubio, who directs the longest-running camp for long snappers.

“The most amazing things about all the kids, the 10 semifinalists and even the ones that were outside of that list, is how consistent they are,” Mannelly said. “From 1998, my rookie year, to what the long snapper has become now, just all of these guys that are good, they are so consistent. It blows me out of the water, to be honest with you, how good these guys are.

“I think there is a stat that around 2004, I think it was 7 percent of the Division I schools gave out scholarships and now it is close to 80 percent or above. Now, the kids understand it is a position. There are 32 of them in the NFL and with the scholarships that are available in college, kids are starting to work at this craft when they’e 10 years old and they’re starting to master it. It’s helped the kicking game tremendously, it’s helped the punters and kickers. These kids now, you just don’t see bad snaps anymore.”

Gold and Rubio kicked around the idea of creating an award for long snappers. Considering there are awards for nearly every other position in college football, it made sense. They reached out to Mannelly during the holidays last year to see if he would like to be involved — and more importantly have the award named after him in recognition of the high level of performance he had at Duke and then during 16 seasons and 245 games with the Bears. Mannelly was all in, and they hooked up with Bernie’s Book Bank to help raise awareness and funding for the nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing book ownership for at-risk children, certainly a worthy cause.

A watch list was created before the season, and everyone involved was tracking performance. Only long snappers from FBS schools are eligible.

“You can kind of tell from a trained eye,” Mannelly said of the process of identifying the very best for consideration. “Everybody that is looking at them knows the position. It would be like an offensive lineman watching all the guards. You kind of know which ones are better. You start with, obviously consistency and speed, accuracy, and then we evaluate athletic ability, running down the field. We also evaluate mentality, a big snap in a big situation in the game. Are they on point and on the money?”

The three men partnered with Pro Football Focus to add an element of unbiased grading to the process.

“That has become very valuable because they do a great job of fine tuning where a guy missed, on the right chest plate, to the left hip,” Mannelly said. “It’s been a nice little mix between the (three of us) and PFF.”

Mannelly has always been drawn to the special-teams phase of games but was even more tuned in this season.

“If I was walking around the house and I heard, ‘Fourth down,’ I turned right to the TV,” he said.

Voting for the winner will be done by a 16-person selection committee that includes Mannelly, former Bears kicker Robbie Gould, former Bears punter Brad Maynard, former Bears coach Dave Wannstedt (who coached special teams for the Buccaneers in 2013), and longtime NFL writer Rick Gosselin, who pioneered special-teams rankings with a system that was adopted by many teams and coaches.

Shannon is from Lake Forest and played at Loyola Academy. Wirtel is from Orland Park and played at Mount Carmel. His brother John was with the Bears during training camp.

Tickets for the award dinner are available here and the event will include a panel discussion with former Bears Olin Kreutz and Charles Tillman.

10. While the Bears were shut out from the list of 25 modern-era candidates to be semifinalists for the 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame class, that doesn’t mean the franchise will go without an inductee.

For the NFL centennial, the Hall of Fame will have up to five modern-era players in the class as well as 10 seniors, three contributors and two coaches. The idea is this will help the Hall of Fame clear through more deserving players from yesteryear who for whatever reason have fallen through the cracks over the years. This is a chance for former Bears players such as left tackle Jimbo Covert, center Jay Hilgenberg, linebackers Joe Fortunato and Larry Morris, defensive end Ed Sprinkle and running back Beattie Feathers, among others, to possibly be recognized.

The Hall of Fame created a special panel of 25 people to select the ballot for the seniors, who must be retired for at least 25 years, as well as the coaches and contributors. The panel includes Patriots coach Bill Belichick, Hall of Fame coach John Madden, former Ravens general manager and Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome, retired Hall of Fame executive Joe Horrigan and former Tribune writer Dan Pompei of The Athletic, among others.

10a. Cornerback Kyle Fuller made one of the game’s biggest plays when he stopped running back J.D. McKissic in the open field on third-and-1 from the Bears’ 5-yard line early in the fourth quarter.

If Fuller doesn’t make the play, tripping up his right leg, it’s not a first down, it’s a touchdown. The running back bounced it outside after Khalil Mack drove back right tackle Rick Wagner. It’s worth wondering if McKissic still could have gained the half-yard needed for a first down by going straight ahead. It took a great effort by Fuller to stop him, and it is fair to question why Lions coach Matt Patricia didn’t have bigger back Bo Scarbrough in for that handoff. Patricia noted that the offside penalty on Ha Ha Clinton-Dix on the previous snap created some confusion as to where the ball would be specifically spotted.

“We were trying to figure out exactly what the distance was, so we had the personnel out because the clock was running, and they were trying to figure out the spot and everything like that,” Patricia said. “Once we got all of that organized and saw what it was, we didn’t want to sub late. We have a lot of confidence in J.D. He runs hard, he’s got a great skill set, and it puts the defense in a little bit of a bind. As far as what exactly are we going to do with him on the field as opposed to Bo in that situation? Obviously, (Fuller) made a great play. I thought he was out and thought he was going to go, but that’s really what happened on that play. The clock was moving, and we were waiting for them to get it spotted and then made the decision once we headed out there. It was like, ‘We have a good personnel group out there, let’s go.’ ”

10b. With right tackle Bobby Massie out with a sprained right ankle, it would not surprise me if the Bears consider a roster move to add an emergency swing tackle to the roster. On a short week, it probably was not realistic to have tryouts and add a player, but it sounds like Massie could be sidelined for another two or three games with what I am told is a high ankle sprain. Cornelius Lucas started in his spot and when Charles Leno had to come out for a snap for a shoe issue, Alex Bars replaced him. The Bears view Bars as a better option at guard and I’m not sure they’ll want him to be the swing tackle again next week. They can promote rookie Dino Boyd from the practice squad or consider a more veteran option that is on the street. Or they could roll with Bars as the emergency option again. Stay tuned.

10c. Coach Matt Nagy talks about having faith in kicker Eddy Pineiro, but that’s fair to question when he’s got fourth-and-6 on the Lions’ 32-yard line with 8:13 remaining in the second quarter trailing 14-7. It’s either count on an offense that entered the game 31st in the NFL in yards per play to get 6 yards or ask Pineiro to try a 50-yard field goal in a dome. The pass for Javon Wims was incomplete, and a penalty on Anthony Miller would have backed the Bears up anyway.

“I just felt that at that point in time, staying a little bit aggressive,” Nagy said. “If it had been a little bit further out — what was the exact distance? Fourth-and-7-8-9 in there probably, we probably would’ve attempted a long field goal. Yeah, because we fought — I forget. Was it first-and-35? Thirty-two, yes. So, we got back to manageable, and we’re in the gray area. Do you settle for three? Or do you show, ‘Hey, let’s go get this thing.’ We felt good with the play call, but it ended up not working.”

10d. Prince Amukamara did his film study. He saw the Lions in a similar spot on the field with a similar down and distance run what looked like the same route against the Redskins last week. So he pounced. And when Amukamara bit on a fake slant by Kenny Golladay, it tuned into a 75-yard touchdown for David Blough’s first career completion. Amukamara bit on the double move where wide receiver Marvin Jones, on the outside on the same spot last week, turned in and Jeff Driskel promptly fired an interception.

“That was just me trying to be greedy and trying to get one, and they kind of did a double move on it, but great play by them,” Amukamara said. “Anytime there’s a backup, you know the team wants to get him started and get him some confidence, so we knew there was going to be some shots early, and they did a good job of scripting that in.”

The good cornerbacks roll the dice from time to time and they do it based on tendencies. This one just didn’t work out.

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