Bears survive five turnovers, beat Buccaneers 27-24 on Cairo Santos' walk-off field goal
Caleb Williams threw four interceptions, but Jaylon Johnson's pick-six and a 38-yard Cairo Santos kick sent the Bears into the bye at 7-2.
The Chicago Bears go into their bye at 7-2, but they took the long way to get there. Cairo Santos made a 38-yard field goal as time expired Sunday night at Soldier Field for a 27-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Chicago scored the first two touchdowns of the night and then nearly gave the game away with five turnovers.
Caleb Williams threw four interceptions, a career high at any level, according to CBS Sports. The Chicago Sun-Times noted that the Bears had not won a game in which their quarterback threw four picks since 2010. Donald Gooch of SB Nation's Windy City Gridiron tracked the game quarter by quarter. Williams opened with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Rome Odunze. Luther Burden III then turned a short throw into a 56-yard score by breaking several tackles, and Chicago led 14-0 after one quarter.
The second quarter went the other way. Williams threw three interceptions, two to Zyon McCollum and one to Tykee Smith. Tampa Bay got only two Chase McLaughlin field goals out of those short fields, and Chicago led 17-6 at halftime. Bucky Irving's 2-yard run opened the third quarter and cut the lead to four. Zavion Thomas answered with a 91-yard kickoff return to the Tampa Bay 1, but a holding call on D'Marco Jackson wiped it out. Jaylon Johnson then intercepted Baker Mayfield and returned it 67 yards for a touchdown, putting Chicago up 24-13 going into the fourth.
The lead didn't hold. McLaughlin added a 35-yard field goal. Burden then fumbled deep in Chicago territory after a hit to the helmet, and Irving scored again from short range. Mayfield ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game at 24. Williams recovered in time. His 38-yard completion to Colston Loveland with 40 seconds left set up Santos. Williams finished 22 of 37 for 279 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions. Irving ran for 97 yards and two scores for Tampa Bay, which came in at 3-5.
Gooch summed up the result with "a win is a win, and 7-2 is better than the alternative," and the standings agree with him. The tape will raise harder questions about ball security.
What it means for the Saints game
The Bears are off until Sunday, Nov. 22, when they host the New Orleans Saints on Fox. They will be riding a four-game winning streak that includes road wins at Atlanta (31-23) and Seattle (34-17) and home wins over New England (30-24) and now Tampa Bay. Chicago has scored 122 points in those four games, about 30.5 per game.
Over the full season, the Bears have outscored opponents 241-184, a margin of 57 points through nine games. They are 4-1 at Soldier Field, and the only home loss was a 9-3 game against Minnesota. Their other loss was a 31-7 defeat at Green Bay.
The two weeks off give the coaching staff time to address the giveaways. The Sun-Times credited the run defense and timely takeaways for carrying Chicago on Sunday, and Johnson's pick-six was the defense's biggest play. That group has kept the Bears ahead even on nights when the offense has struggled. Ball security will matter most against the Saints. Tampa Bay turned five Chicago turnovers into 18 points, and the Bears can't count on a defense or a last-second kick to cover for that every week.