It wasn’t a pretty night for the Chicago Bears, but you don’t always have to look pretty to win football games.
The Bears were able to outlast the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27-24, in a game where the offense didn’t shine as much as the score suggested. Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield and Chicago’s Caleb Williams threw six combined interceptions, which is the most combined interceptions by two quarterbacks in a game this season.
However, Chicago won despite turning the ball over five times. Had to kick the game-winning field goal as time expired, but won to improve to 7-2 as Tampa Bay fell to 3-6 on the season.
Here are my highlights from Sunday night’s game.
Caleb Williams had a strong opener and closer in Sunday’s game. He threw for 105 yards and two touchdowns in the Bears’ opening two drives, connecting with Rome Odunze and Luther Burden for scores to give Chicago a 14-0 lead.
And on the final drive, Williams made his biggest play of the night when he connected with Colston Loveland for a 38-yard gain. He completed 3 of 4 passes for 52 yards on that possession, helping Cairo Santos hit a 38-yard game-winning field goal as time expired.
Williams was good enough on those three drives that it didn’t matter that he threw a career-high four interceptions on Sunday. In fact, he had the worst game of his career outside of those three possessions. He was 13 of 25 for 122 yards and four interceptions on the team’s other 10 drives. He had never thrown more than two picks in a game before Sunday.
Fortunately for Williams, the Bucs weren’t able to capitalize on all those turnovers. The first three were converted into three points, and the fourth was followed by a Bears six-pointer, so they essentially took minus-4 points through four turnovers.
The Bears got it going Sunday night, but they have a turnover problem. They committed just 11 turnovers all of last season en route to winning the NFC North, but this year’s team already has 16, and that will get them up against tougher competition.
NFL teams that threw four or more interceptions had a 2-73 record since 2014 before the Bears’ win on Sunday. So it’s certainly not sustainable.
2.
Baker Mayfield is back, but not healthy
Baker Mayfield missed three games with a thumb injury, and his first two games back were barely pass attempts. He threw 11 passes in a win over the Carolina Panthers and had zero completions in a shutout win against the Atlanta Falcons last week.
The Buccaneers knew they were going to have to throw the ball Sunday night, and you saw the best and the worst of it. He had a 44-yard toss to running back Kenneth Gainwell and a 57-yard deep ball to receiver Tez Johnson. However, he also had two costly tackles, the latter of which was returned 67 yards for a touchdown by Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson shortly after Williams threw his fourth pick of the day.
Mayfield had been able to keep his turnovers in check since Week 1, when he lost three touchdowns in the opening loss to the Bengals. He had just two total turnovers in his four games since before Sunday.
However, Sunday brought some good and bad with the Buccaneers quarterback. And the injury concerns are still there. Mayfield was limping off the field in the second half. No injuries were reported, but he didn’t look like he was at full strength and didn’t have the grappling ability that had helped him so much. He finished with one carry for 0 yards and was sacked on back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter when the Buccaneers had a chance to drive for a game-tying touchdown.
3.
Relationships are what the Buccaneers do best
The Buccaneers defense has gotten quarterbacks who have avoided interceptions to throw many of them in three straight games.
Two weeks ago, Carolina’s Bryce Young had thrown two picks all season and the Bucs got two in a major league road win. Last week, Michael Penix Jr. of Atlanta had thrown one all season, and the Bucs forced him to throw four of them in a close win over the Falcons.
And perhaps most impressively, Chicago’s Caleb Williams had thrown just one pick this season, and the Bucs got three in the first half and four overall. Two of those came from cornerback Zyon McCollum, who has four in the last three games.
Williams had been elite at limiting his mistakes — he hadn’t thrown multiple interceptions in a game since his first month in the NFL in September 2024. He had gone 36 straight games with one or no interceptions, but the Bucs got three in one stretch.
Tampa Bay has already surpassed their total for all of last season (13), and the Buccaneers are leading the NFL in both interceptions (15) and sacks (19). That’s what Todd Bowles’ defense relies on and was, along with their running game, at the heart of their winning streak in three of four games entering Sunday’s game in Chicago.