Bears' Howard, stout 'D' out to stall Lions

Allen Park — The Bears (3-9) want to spoil someone’s season, and after beating the Lions 17-14 Oct. 2 in a good defensive effort, they are hoping it is on tap against the Lions (8-4) on Sunday.

“We definitely want to spoil it for anybody that we can,” said the outstanding rookie running back Jordan Howard, who has five 100-yard games.

“Coach (John) Fox, he talked about we won’t have a winning record overall, but we can still have a winning record in our division and set up momentum for next year to let them know they’re going to have to go through us, that it’s not going to be easy when they play against us.”

Howard and a good defensive front, which includes three players with more than six sacks, are the Bears’ best attributes.

Former Lion Willie Young (7½ sacks), Leonard Floyd (7) and Akiem Hicks (6), whom the Lions wanted in the offseason but failed to obtain, are all threats to Matthew Stafford, who tossed two interceptions in Bears territory two months ago.

Against the lowly 49ers earlier in the week, the Bears had their best game rushing the quarterback in four years, sacking Colin Kaepernick five times and Blaine Gabbert once.

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler is out for the season, amid some possibility that, as a free agent, his eight-year run with the Bears is over.

Howard gained 111 yards against the Lions in Chicago.

“He’s a big physical guy, he’s 235, he’s got a low center of gravity,” Fox said of the rookie, who replaced Jeremy Langford (high ankle sprain) earlier in the season.

“If not No. 1, he’s up in the top three in the league as far as yards after contact,” Fox said. “He’s got good feet, good vision and a real humble young man that the success hasn’t gone to his head and you know, he’s handled it kind of more mature than some young guys.”

Howard, who played at Indiana and Alabama-Birmingham in college, said he is a little surprised at the success he has achieved early in his career.

“But I always felt like I had the talent to produce this way. I’ve just been grateful for the opportunity,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been doing pretty good, but there’s always some things I can work on.”

Howard has a rugged, tackle-breaking style.

“I attribute that to my mentality,” he said. “You just can’t let the first person bring you down and just always have to keep moving your legs and just be relentless when you run the ball.”

Fox likes the defense the Bears are beginning to put together.

“Well, I think you know, we’ve made a lot of changes defensively,” he said.

“You know, if you look back to two years ago, there aren’t very many familiar faces remaining. I think, you know, a lot of young guys, some free-agent vets we brought in, Akeem Hicks, he just won the NFC Defensive Player of the Week.

“ You know, he had a pretty impressive game last week, he’s been a solid performer.

“Leonard Floyd, our first-round pick, I think he’s had a pretty good rookie campaign.”

The Bears’ big weakness is at quarterback, where they have a tradition of difficulties.

“We’ve been through four quarterbacks,” Fox said. “We lost a young guy, Connor Shaw, in our third preseason game against Kansas City to a broken leg. So I think and it’s not an excuse, it’s just reality.

“I mean that position is hard to replace.

“I don’t think anybody else in the league has gone through as many as we have.

“But I’m really proud of our staff, really offensively and defensively, because they’ve kept the guys rolling. They’ve stayed very aggressive in their game plan.

“I think our staff’s done a tremendous job.”

gregg.krupa@detroitnews.com

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