The first meeting between the Bears and Lions this season featured a hit by defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh on Bears quarterback Jay Cutler that Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall thought was a cheap shot.
The league and Cutler disagreed with Marshall, but one of his Bears teammates is using past experiences with the Lions to be on guard for Detroit play that crosses the line this weekend. Defensive tackle Henry Melton expects to see a fair share of dirty play from their division rivals in the regular season finale.
“They’re dirty. They’ve always been a dirty team since I’ve been here. I don’t like them. We’ve just got to hold our composure and play the game we know,” Melton said, via ESPNChicago.com. “They just try to do all this extra stuff: talking, little cheap shots. If you look at the tape, they’ve always thrown cheap shots. We had a brawl I think last year. So it is what it is. I’m ready.”
There were nearly $100,000 in fines between the teams because of incidents in last year’s games so there’s definitely some bad blood built up between the NFC North sides. Melton, who missed last week’s game with a clavicle injury, also had some choice words for one of the guys he figures to match up with on Sunday. Melton said Lions center Dominic Raiola is “old, and he just talks.”
With a playoff spot possible if they win, the Bears already have all the motivation they need for this one. We’ll see if the Lions find any from Melton’s comments.