CHICAGO — One play summed up the vast difference between where the Lions and Bears are right now as franchises.

Coming out of halftime Sunday, the Lions were already boasting a 27-14 lead and received the second-half kickoff.

[Bears-Lions recap: Highlights as they happened at Soldier Field]

Jared Goff marched the team down the field and on 1st-and-10 from the Bears’ 21-yard line, pulled off a trick pass unlike anything the NFL has ever seen before.

Goff took the snap from under center and while he was running backwards, pretended to trip and fumble the ball. Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs even dove on the ground like he was going for the ball.

Meanwhile, Detroit tight end Sam LaPorta was snaking his way through the Bears defense and wound up wide open in the end zone for a touchdown. That put the Lions up 34-14 and served as a dagger in the Bears’ 9th straight loss.

Many watching assumed it was a designed play and the Lions confirmed as much after the game.

In fact, the Lions even practiced it during the week after offensive coordinator Ben Johnson had the idea.

“At first, it started on Monday with Ben asking me if I thought I could fumble on purpose and pick it back up and I said, ‘I don’t know about that,'” Goff told the media after the game. “We kinda got off that pretty quickly and we were like, ‘let’s just pretend we’re falling or pretend we’re fumbling but I’m holding on to the ball.’

“I think the part with Gibbs where he dives really sells the play. I’m only doing half of it. But yeah, it worked like a charm.”

Johnson, by the way, is one of the hottest head coaching candidates on the market and is reportedly “intrigued” by the Bears open gig.

The inspiration for the play actually came from the Bears-Packers game in September of 2023 when Jordan Love dropped the ball but still picked it up and fired to a wide open receiver for a huge gain:

The play itself was called “stumble bum”:

Bears defenders spoke to the play after the game and admitted to falling victim to the trickery.

“They were yelling, ‘Ball!’ to make sure your eyes look for the ball,” Chicago safety Jonathan Owens said. “Then you look in the backfield and you see a running back on the ground.

“And so, by that time, a guy came from the other side and wheeled. It was a good play design. I guess they got the coverage they were looking for and ran it.”

Bears corner Kyler Gordon and safety Kevin Byard tipped their caps to the Lions for the trickery.

“It was creative, for sure,” Gordon said. “I didn’t see a ball on the floor, so I didn’t react to a fumble.”

“It was a good scheme play versus the defense we were in,” Byard admitted.

All in all, it was a perfect example of the clear disconnect between the two teams – with the Lions soaring to their best season in franchise history while the Bears are staring down the possibility of 11 straight losses to end the year.

“Those plays make you feel good, ’cause everybody’s invested in it,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said. “It’s fun; it’s different.”