The Bucs defense had a field day on Sunday against the Bears. They gave the offense everything they could have asked for. They allowed just 10 points, less than 300 total yards of offense, and created 4 turnovers.
The 1st turnover was on the Bears’ 2nd drive of the game. With 7:18 left in the 1st quarter, Jay Cutler tried to throw a short 9-yard pass to the right side for Alshon Jeffrey and was intercepted by Brent Grimes on the TB 28 yard line. Grimes only made it 1 yard before being taken down by Bears WR Cameron Meredith. Being that close means Grimes possibly saved a touchdown from being scored once again, or at the very least a field goal.
The 3rd drive for the Bears ended in an even bigger disaster than the 2nd one did. The very first play was a 1-yard pass to the left, intended for TE Logan Paulsen which was intercepted by Chris Conte and returned 20 yards for a touchdown.
The next turnover came just over a minute into the 2nd quarter. The Bears were on the 4-yard line and certainly thinking they had a touchdown this time, until Noah Spence came in and sacked Cutler, as well as causing him to fumble the ball. Kwon Alexander recovered the fumble at the 10-yard line and made it 4 yards before being tackled by RB Jeremy Langford.
The 4th and final turnover for the Bucs defense were another forced fumble. This time, however, it came on a handoff to RB Jordan Howard with 5:48 left in the 2nd quarter. He made it 10 yards before being hit by William Gholston and Chris Conte at the same time, with Gholston knocking the ball loose. Bradley McDougald recovered the fumble this time and made it 6 yards before going out of bounds at the Chicago 29 yard line.
Everyone on the defense seemed to play with increased intensity and passion for all 4 quarters finally. Partly due to the fact that the offense allowed them much more rest this week by having a time of possession of nearly 15 minutes more than Chicago. Hopefully, we’ll be able to at least see a little bit of this recipe for success against some of the better teams, like the Kansas City Chiefs coming up next.