Bears vs. Tampa Bay

The Bears ruined Lovie Smith’s return to Soldier Field with 21-13 on Sunday afternoon over the now 2-9 Buccaneers and have won two straight after two straight embarrassing losses.

The Bears trailed 10-0 at halftime and the defense forced 3 turnovers in the 3rd quarter. Running Back Matt Forte led the way with two TD’s in the 3rd quarter both because of two Buccaneers turnovers.

Quarterback Josh McCown, who was with the Bears for 3 seasons on and off, lost a fumble and threw an interception in the 3rd quarter.

Quarterback Jay Cutler threw a 2-yard TD pass to Wide Receiver Alshon Jeffrey which got the Bears on the board.

The 3rd Buccaneer’s turnover was after Wide Receiver Vincent Jackson fumbled the ball after a 24-yard reception which would have given the Buccaneers a first-and-goal.

In addition to the 3 takeaways, the Bears held the Tampa Bay offense to just 156 yards in the second half. “We did much better on third down,” said safety Ryan Mundy, who had a third quarter interception.

Even with two straight wins, the damage from those losses in New England and Green Bay have not been un-done and will not burrowing a post-season appearance. However if the Bears can finish at 8-8 considering when the season hit rock bottom a couple weeks ago, it wont look as bad as it could have been other wise.

As I have said before, the Bears can not win consistently when they are involved in high scoring games like they have been quite often since Marc Trestman became head coach in 2013.

If the Bears are going to go back to their winning ways, they have to improve a defense that is aging with members such as Lance Briggs, who has been injury prone lately and Charles ‘Peanut’ Tillman, who was lost for the season in week 2 and is possibly on the verge of retirement.

The Bears have a short week to prepare for a Thanksgiving game at Detroit, and one of the keys to stopping the Lions will be to hold Matthew Stafford in check like the New England Patriots did Sunday. Stafford was 18-46 with 0 TD’s and 1 INT in Detroit’s 34-9 loss in Massachusetts.