Bucs Let Caleb Williams and the Bears Off the Hook in a Win Straight Out of 2006

If there's an uglier way to win a football game than the Chicago Bears' undeserved Week 9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I don't want to see it. Frankly, airing such a game would likely violate the Geneva Conventions. On Sunday night, after a first quarter in which Caleb Williams looked like prime Peyton Manning, Murphy's Law took over and everything went downhill for the Bears, with Williams throwing a career-worst four picks.

Somehow, someway, the Bears still managed to pull off a badly needed win, and they did it in classic Bears fashion: a dominant defensive performance to dig the Bears out of the gigantic hole dug by the offense.

In fact, this Sunday night game harkened back to arguably the most well-remembered game from the Bears' 2006 Super Bowl season. According to ESPN's Courtney Cronin, last night's win was the first time since Week 6 of the 2006 season that the Bears won a game with a -3 turnover differential.

Caleb Williams channeled his inner Rex Grossman

For those that need a refresher, that Week 6 game was that famous showdown with the Arizona Cardinals in which the Bears came back from a 20-0 deficit to win. Quarterback Rex Grossman threw four interceptions, but the defense scored two touchdowns on forced fumbles and Hall of Fame returner Devin Hester carried a punt into the endzone for the go-ahead score.

After this game, the Cardinals head coach Dennis Green unleashed his postgame iconic rant, shouting to the media, "The Bears are who we thought they were, and that’s why we took the damn field... they are who we thought they were, and we let them off the hook!"

Tampa Bay's head coach Todd Bowles gave no such statement after the game, but he could hardly be blamed if he did. Caleb Williams channeled his inner Rex Grossman and nearly sunk the Bears with four disastrous interceptions. In his defense, at least he started off red-hot with back-to-back touchdown drives, but it was still a disgraceful performance.

Much like that 2006 game, Chicago's defense stepped up big time. They sacked Baker Mayfield four times, forced several three-and-outs and also repeatedly held the Bucs to field goals in the red zone. Then, in the fourth quarter, Jaylon Johnson picked off Mayfield and took it all the way back for a touchdown, his second career pick-six.

As frustrating as this game was for Bears fans, there's a bright silver lining, and that is that trading for superstar Jeffery Simmons has made this defense a Super Bowl caliber unit. A defense that can overcome five turnovers from the offense is a defense that can go all the way, and that was the biggest question facing the Bears entering the 2026 season.

— Sign up for the Bears OnSI newsletter for more free coverage from Chicago Bears on SI —

Add us as a preferred source on Google