Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Chicago Bears: Full Report Card Grades for Chicago
Published by Matt Eurich on November 23, 2014
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Needing a win to stay relevant in the playoff race, the Chicago Bears came away victorious on Sunday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bears struggled mightily on offense in the first half but found life in the second when their defense was able to create three turnovers.
The offense scored 21 second-half points, and the team came away with a 21-13 victory.
“We all took our turns messing up,” left tackle Jermon Bushrod said about the team’s struggles in the first half, via Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “And we had to find a way to come together, and we did.”
The offense struggled as a whole all afternoon, racking up just 204 yards of total offense. Quarterback Jay Cutler threw for just 130 yards on 27 attempts and was sacked three times. After carrying the football just six times for 16 yards in the first half, running back Matt Forte finished the game with 89 rushing yards on 23 carries with two touchdowns.
On the other side of the football, Chicago’s defense gave up 367 yards of total offense, including 341 yards through the air to quarterback Josh McCown. Despite McCown’s big numbers, Chicago was able to force him to turn over the ball three times and sacked him five times.
Defensive tackle Stephen Paea stole the show for Chicago’s defense. He sacked McCown twice and was the team’s tone-setter on defense.
“Today, Paea was the tone-setter,” defensive tackle Jeremiah Ratliff said, via Jeff Arnold of ChicagoFootball.com. “Everybody wants to be the tone-setter and the guy up front, and game-to-game, across the defensive front, that changes. Paea was that guy [Sunday].”
The win helped the Bears improve to 5-6 on the season. They will now head to Detroit this Thursday to take on the Lions on Thanksgiving Day.
Here are our grades for each Bears unit following their Week 12 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
