USA Today
Bears Backup Defense Delivers in Win
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A win in Matt Eberflus' first game as Bears coach smoothed out a rough start by both his offense and defense.
The Bears started preseason Saturday with a 19-14 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at Soldier Field, a win fueled entirely by what the substitutes did in the second half after the starters and second team trailed 14-0 going into the locker room.
"I think the guys did well," Eberflus said. "Just an overarching view of it, the guys operated well, there were no presnap penalties, very few penalties at all. I thought the kicking game operated really nice. And really, the defense played well, you know, in the second half. They did a nice job of setting some short fields.
"I thought we played complementary football to win the football game. We had a goal at halftime to get that done and the guys came through with that."
It happened because Lake Zurich native and Wisconsin product Jack Sanborn intercepted a pass in the third quarter to set up a touchdown and recovered a fumble forced by new Bears linebacker DeMarquis Gates that set up a field goal.
"They were talking about it in there: He needs to get a game ball, for sure," quarterback Justin Fields said of Sanborn. "He made plays on defense and special teams, so just seeing him go out there and ball out and just seeing him coming to work every day and seeing him put in the work, he's a baller, and of course he showed it out there on the field today."
It wasn't the smoothest start for Fields. He went 4 of 7 for 48 yards and ran for 10 yards over three series. The Bears went three-and-out his first series, then he managed a 26-yard completion on a jump ball to Darnell Mooney on the second drive that went 32 yards.
"He played well," Mooney said of Fields. "He had some pressure and he got sacked a few times but he stayed safe, he stayed healthy."
Fields' 10-yard scramble and a third-down 19-yard pass to Tajae Sharpe along the sidelines highlighted two first down during his last drive but it didn't get the Bears into scoring position. Sharpe had two catches for 48 yards as he is trying to make in-roads for a roster spot with Velus Jones Jr. and Byron Pringle out injured.
"I think Tajae's a lot like Darnell where he can adjust to balls thrown at him and stuff like that, and of course he has that savviness off the ball, and he's probably 2 to 3 inches bigger than Darnell, too," Fields said. "So he has a good range, he has great hands, as I said before, great ball skills, so I'm excited to see what he can do for us this year."
While Fields couldn't mount a scoring threat, Patrick Mahomes did it the first drive against the Bears defense. They went to the end zone in 11 plays, the last 5 on a tight end screen to Blake Bell.
Mahomes went 6 of 7 for 60 yards and left the game. Shane Buechele went 12 of 19 for 99 yards for the Chiefs and beat safety Elijah Hicks with a post pattern pass to Justin Watson in the second quarter for the 14-0 KC lead.
Then the Bears defense and special teams took over when Sanborn stole a pass from tight end Jordan Franks and returned it 13 yards to the 27, setting up Trevor Siemian's 12-yard TD pass to Trestan Ebner.
The Bears got the ball back at their own 48 after a poor punt and Siemian's 25-yard pass to Dante Pettis set up a 13-yard TD pass to Dazz Newsome and the Bears trailed 14-13. They had failed on a two-point conversion run after the first TD, deciding to go for two because of a penalty on KC.
The go-ahead points on Cairo Santos' 20-yard field goal after Sanborn's fumble recovery at the Chiefs 20. The Bears had wiped out the deficit, then added to it later with an 11-play, 53-yard drive to a 47-yard Santos field goal with quarterback Nate Peterman in the game.
Siemian went 7 of 13 for 89 yards and two TDs, while Peterman was 4 of 6 for 36 yards. Ebner led the way on the ground with 31 yards on six carries.
For the Bears, Michael Joseph (hamstring), Jayson Stanley (knee) and linebacker Javin White (knee) left the game.
The Bears will look to get players back healthy, particularly receivers, for a Thursday night game at Seattle.
"Like I said before, even though a lot of guys are hurt, I feel like we have a lot of good depth at receiver where guys are hungry right now," Fields said. "Of course they want to make plays. Just seeing those guys go out there and make plays, it was awesome to see for sure."
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