Yes, the ball landed in their cornerbacks’ arms as though it had been flown in via remote control.
But say this: the Bears built a defense that could win a game when their own offense was just as bad Sunday night. The Bears beat the Buccaneers 27-24 in a slopfest because their defense overcame their offense.
That would have seemed impossible after Week 1, when the Bears outscored the Panthers 59-37, or Week 5, when the Packers hung 31 on the Bears.
“Sometimes, we want to be relied on, you know, as a defense, too,” safety Cam Lewis, who had a second-quarter interception, said Monday. “It just doesn’t have to be just solely on the offense.”
The Bucs helped. They had five false starts. Their quarterback, Baker Mayfield, was worse than Caleb Williams, whose four interceptions doubled his previous career high. The Bears improved to 7-2 despite Williams’ mistakes and penalties that cost the Bears a kickoff return touchdown and, perhaps, a successful fake punt. They won despite getting a punt partially blocked — and with the offense going the entire third quarter without a first down.
“The defense is really the unsung hero of this game,” coach Ben Johnson said.
Credit cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who has struggled all season, returning a Mayfield pass 67 yards for a touchdown with about four minutes left in the third quarter. He ran up the left flank and into the north end zone for the second pick-six of his career. Defensive end Montez Sweat was his lead blocker, shoving Mayfield out of the way at the 15.
Asked what he told Sweat, Johnson smiled and said, simply, “Thank you.”
The Bears defense gave up just 11 points in the drives immediately after each of their five turnovers, with the lone touchdown coming after receiver Luther Burden fumbled at the Bears’ 17 with 3:38 left in the game.
“That was really the story of the game — those guys stepping up,” Ben Johnson said.
When Jaylon Johnson intercepted the pass, the Bears were ahead by just four points. Soldier Field exhaled.
“That’s just who we are — we always fight,” said Jaylon Johnson, who got the only game ball handed out by his head coach.
Jeffery Simmons, the Bears’ best defensive player, ran a longer distance during the first half than Bucs running back Bucky Irving. He sacked Mayfield with about six minutes left in the fourth quarter, one play after Austin Booker’s third-down sack was wiped out by a facemask flag. One play after Simmons’ sack, Daniel Hardy and Grady Jarrett shared a sack. Two plays later, the Bucs, down by eight, were forced to punt with about 4:30 to play.
The Bears’ defense had an identity before general manager Ryan Poles traded for the defensive tackle two weeks ago, Lewis said.
“[Simmons] just elevates it a little bit more,” Lewis said. “We still want to fly around. We still want play physical. We still want quarterbacks to fear us. We still want to take the ball away. It’s just making our defense a little bit better.”
Simmons said he was double-teamed 99% of the time, but he found a way to make an impact. He chased down receiver Emeka Egbuka 21 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
“How can I affect the game when I’m not hitting the quarterback?” he said. “When I’m not getting tackles for loss in the backfield? When teams know they’re not running the ball inside and are bouncing the ball outside. How can I be around the football? I took a lot of pride in being around the football. You just never know. The ball may pop out. I can force a fumble. I can save a touchdown just by running to the ball.”
Sunday, they needed every ounce of his energy to win the game.
“Once we put a complete game together, good luck,” Simmons said.