4 Takeaways from Chicago Bears' 21-13 Win over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Chicago Bears did exactly what they needed to do Sunday against Lovie Smith, Josh McCown and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: win.
By no means was the win pretty. Jay Cutler and the offense put zero points on the board in the first half for the third time in five weeks. To make matters worse, the Bears offense had zero first-half plays in the red zone. The Bears trailed 10-0 at the half.
“To me, it was very easy,” coach Marc Trestman said of the slow start. “Dropped balls, penalties, tipped balls – all of that. As I said to the guys at halftime, there was no one guy. We passed it around to everybody. You just can’t be efficient playing football that way, especially when you are dropping footballs and you have penalties.”
Halftime is when Trestman’s fortune changed, as the Bears scored 21 points in the third quarter, and the defense forced three turnovers, four in total, to seal the win.
Two weeks ago, this Bears team was left for dead, following a three-game losing stretch of which 133 points were allowed by the Mel Tucker-coached defense. Oh, how the times have changed.
The Bears have now won back-to-back games, allowing a total of 26 points during the short streak. The 26 points allowed is the fewest points allowed over a two-game stretch since Week 5 and Week 7 of the 2012 season.
Ignore the fact that the Bears have played the Minnesota Vikings and the Buccaneers in the past two weeks. What matters is the games serve as wins in the standings.
Cutler said it best after the game: “We’ll take two straight versus anybody.”
On that note, let’s go through the four takeaways from Sunday’s big win.
All quotes pulled from the postgame press conference transcripts unless otherwise noted. All stats pulled from game books provided by the Chicago Bears.
Stephen Paea Is a Man on a Mission (for a New Contract)
1 of 4
Stephen Paea was all about it Sunday for the Bears. Not only was the defensive tackle the Bears’ best all-around player on the field, he was the best defensive player on either side of the ball, including Tampa Bay’s franchise player, Gerald McCoy, who had a sack-fumble on Cutler.
"Today, Paea was the tone-setter," fellow defensive tackle Jeremiah Ratliff said. "Everybody wants to be the tone-setter and the guy up front, and game-to-game, across the defensive front, that changes. Paea was that guy [Sunday]. He got great penetration, great pocket push, and it allowed the rest of us to play off off him."
Not only did Paea record two sacks in the second half, he put the pressure and hit on McCown that led to Chris Conte’s impressive first-half interception.
Tucker clearly tried to free up his inside rushers against the Buccaneers, as Paea frequently was used on stunts. All the coaching staff can do is put its players in positions to succeed, and Paea should be cited as the main catalyst for the Bears’ defensive success.
"His effort level was good today – he created some havoc inside among the other guys," Trestman said. "It’s really the four guys, five guys, six guys working together in the pass rush. We got better at it today. We’re moving forward today, and I think that was a big part of creating those turnovers was the pressure we put on Josh."
Paea has a career-high six sacks on the season—in a contract year, too. With a few more strong games, Paea will be in line for a very lucrative contract offer in the offseason, by the Bears or someone else.
Marc Trestman Just Cannot Get the Offense Right
2 of 4
In last week’s win over the Minnesota Vikings, the Bears registered 468 total yards of offense on 74 plays. This week, against a Tampa Bay defense playing without its leading tackler, Lavonte David, the Bears only reached 204 yards of total offense on 56 plays.
As previously mentioned, Cutler took a grand total of zero first-half snaps inside the red zone, while the Bears were shut out in the first half for the third time in five weeks. All three of Tampa Bay’s sacks came in the first half, highlighted by a McCoy sack on Cutler that resulted in a fumbled recovery for the Buccaneers.
The Bears were booed by fans as they ran to the locker room at halftime.
Speaking at halftime to Bears sideline reporter Zach Zaidman on WBBM 780 AM, Trestman called the offensive performance “inexcusable.” Not known to be a very successful coach at making in-game adjustments, as cited here, the Bears looked like a completely different team in the third quarter.
“We all took our turns messing up,” left tackle Jermon Bushrod said of the first-half struggles. “And we had to find a way to come together, and we did.”
Set up by three defensive turnovers, the Bears offense found quite a bit more success in the third, scoring three touchdowns during one four-drive stretch. Matt Forte gained 51 of his game-high 89 rushing yards in the third.
It was a head-scratcher of a day for the Trestman-coached offense. The Bears’ first offensive drive of the third quarter was hands down the best drive, start to finish, of the day. One thing that was discussed quite a bit leading up to the week was moving Cutler around in the pocket.
The first and last time Cutler rolled out of the pocket was the first play of the third quarter. The play resulted in a pretty 11-yard gain over the middle to Brandon Marshall. The first down set up a 13-yard gain for Forte. Four plays later, Cutler hit Alshon Jeffery for a two-yard touchdown.
Judging the entire four-quarter effort, aside from the drive described above, just about everything needs to be fixed before the Bears take the field Thursday against the Detroit Lions.
The Bears Cannot Win Unless the Defense Takes the Ball Away
3 of 4
Through 11 games (5-6) this season, the Bears have forced 18 turnovers and have allowed 21 turnovers. In the five wins, the Bears are winning the turnover battle by a margin of 13-4. In the six losses, the Bears are losing the battle 5-17.
The main reason for the turnovers is Cutler, who has a league-high 18 giveaways on the season. But Cutler did a better job of limiting mistakes against Tampa Bay, turning the ball over just once: the McCoy sack-fumble. That turnover was caused by a blown assignment on the offensive line, not anything Cutler did or didn’t do.
“Can’t say enough the way they played,” Cutler said. “The way they performed. They had pressure on Josh (McCown) from the first snap to the last snap. [They] forced some turnovers there. [They] gave us some short fields. Defense won the game today.”
The Bears had four turnovers against the Buccaneers, one more than the unit forced in the previous five games.
“We play for takeaways every game,” safety Ryan Mundy said. “Getting the ball back to the offense, that’s our M.O. We knew that they were going to be playing for takeaways because when coach [Lovie] Smith was here that was the coaching points for them. We had to go out and execute and we did that.”
With the Bears’ margin of error for the postseason at zero, expect this defense to play as opportunistically as possible over the next few weeks.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Despite the 1st-Half Struggles, the Bears Still Haven’t Given Up on the Season
4 of 4
The Bears easily could have thrown in the towel after the 3-6 start that was capped off by back-to-back losses to the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers by a—historically bad—combined score of 106-37.
Trestman’s team had every reason to roll over and die on the season, but he somehow rallied his group despite calls for his job and the jobs of many of his staffers.
Now, two weeks later, the Bears sit at 5-6 with two games on the calendar in the next 11 days. With confidence and momentum surging, it’s within reason to think this Bears team can go into Detroit on Thursday and beat a struggling Lions team that has scored just 15 points in back-to-back losses.
After Detroit, the Bears have a home matchup against the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football. The last time Dallas played in Chicago, in Week 14 of 2013, the Bears destroyed the Cowboys by the score of 45-28.
So, if you’re looking for hope for the postseason, there’s your hope.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
