Another week, another come-from-behind victory for the Chicago Bears. This one was somewhat their own doing compared to the other two games. After leading 16-3 heading into the fourth quarter, J.J. McCarthy tried to repeat his late-game magic from Week 1, scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter to take a 17-16 lead. Thanks to a 61-yard kick return from Devin Duvernay and some hard running by D’Andre Swift, they helped set up Cairo Santos’ 48-yard game-winning field goal. While they did allow the Vikings to score those 14 points in the fourth, the story of the game was the defense. They held McCarthy under 100 yards passing for most of the game, snagged two more interceptions (could’ve been three), and held the Vikings to 3/11 on third down.
“It’s kind of been the story of our wins, we know how important that statistic is of taking care of the football on offense and getting our takeaways on defense,” head coach Ben Johnson said. “Most of these seven wins that we’ve had, we’ve been winning that turnover battle. No secret to us, no secret to our opponents, and we gotta keep that trend going.”
Kevin Byard added to his interception collection with his fifth of the season, which leads the NFL. Tied at No. 2 are his teammates Nashon Wright, who picked off McCarthy today, and Tremaine Edmunds, with four each. It was an emotional day for Wright on two fronts. Not only was he going up against a team he used to play for, he was mourning the loss of his college head coach, John Beam, who was shot and killed on Thursday. Wright spent a season under Beam at Laney College in Oakland, California.
“He was the game captain this week, so I know it means something to him to be going against his former team to be able to haul one down,” Johnson said. “He’s so long that he’s able to knock balls away or haul them in, so we definitely needed that one.”
The pass rush was able to get some big plays in the game as well. While they never put McCarthy to the turf for a sack, they had five QB hits, one of which led to the interception by Byard. Montez Sweat and Edmunds also had key pass breakups. It was a much better effort by the Bears’ defense and the team overall, compared to their Week 1 collapse, to close the deal.
“You have to have a killer instinct to be in these games and finish the games the way we have,” Caleb Williams said. "To fight all the way through and come out victorious, to sense a killer instinct. For the idea of killer instinct, when there is blood in the water, we’ve got to go and, you know, when the defense turns the ball over for us and we get the ball back, we’ve got to put up seven points. When they get three and outs, we’ve got to put up seven points. That’s a mindset and belief that we have to grow towards and get better at. ”
Chicago will return home next week to face off against an old enemy, as Aaron Rodgers comes to town with the Pittsburgh Steelers (provided he’s cleared of injury). While Pittsburgh is tied for the 3rd-best turnover differential in the league at +8, Rodgers has tossed seven interceptions in 10 games this season.
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