Rivalry builds with Lions
The rivalry between the Bears and the Detroit Lions turned up a notch this weekend.
A late hit here. A facemask there.
By the fourth quarter, players were coming off of the sidelines to shove each other.
The Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 37-13, in the teams' second and final meeting of the regular season. Whenever the teams meet again, bad feelings quickly could return.
Bears nickelback D.J. Moore was ejected during Sunday's game because he charged at Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford in the fourth quarter. Moore was angry because Stafford had yanked him down by the facemask during an interception return by Tim Jennings.
The Bears also had plenty of hard feelings for Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who ripped the helmet off of Bears quarterback Jay Cutler during a dirty play in the first half. Suh added a late hit against Cutler later in the game but was not penalized.
How intense could the Bears-Lions rivalry become in the next few seasons?
"Of course, you can only have one true rival," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "It will always bee Green Bay.
"You could call that a rivalry, too, with [the Lions]. You need to win your division, and division games are always like this. Detroit has played pretty good football this year. We knew what type of game this was going to be."
The Bears will return to Halas Hall on Monday to watch film of the win. They will return to the practice field Wednesday to prepare for next week's game against the San Diego Chargers.
-Tom Musick
