Bears Defense Punishes Tom Brady at Key Moments in Win

Tom Brady made his share of plays against the Bears defense.

What the defense did best, though was make sure most of those came early in the game.

After allowing three scores on the first four Tampa Bay possessions, the defense delivered with physical play, a key turnover forced by Kyle Fuller and a 20-19 victory over the Buccaneers.

They sacked Brady three times, had eight quarterback hits and six tackles for loss and most importantly held him to 4 of 14 on third-down tries. The other key team stat was 1-for-3 on red-zone attempts by the league's No. 1 red-zone defense.

'Man, this defense, man, these guys, it's a mentality or whatever," linebacker Khalil Mack said, after a two-sack night that also included another sack eliminated by penalty. "When our backs are against the wall, there's a lot of doubt out there, we believe in each other and we know in those moments that we can count on one another."

The final drive by New England died at midfield when Brady threw a fourth-and-6 pass downfield to tight end Cameron Brate that DeAndre Houston-Carson knocked down. Houston-Carson was playing defense then because Deon Bush missed the game due to injury.

"The DBs tonight, they did a hell of a job," Mack said. "Hell of a job. It was time to get there. DHC, he ran those routes. He ran that last route. It's a beautiful thing to see out there, man."

The strong secondary play included a play made by cornerback Kyle Fuller. He hit Ke'Shawn Vaughn on the football after a short catch crossing the middle of the field in the late second quarter after the Bears had pulled within 13-7, and knocked the ball free. Robert Quinn picked it up and officials blew the play dead as an incompletion or the Bears could have returned it 27 yards for a touchdown.

They also picked up an unnecessary roughness flag on Fuller for what was a perfect hit on the ball. The replay of the incompletion showed Vaughn taking three steps before being blown up on the play with the ball, and the possession went to the Bears although they lost the chance at a return.

"It's always a boost when we get turnovers," Mack said. "That's just the mindset of this group, man. It's everybody going after the ball and trying to make a play. We made the play tonight.

"Kyle, man, he finally got a call to go his way. He always plays hard."

They had Brady frustrated enough that he was throwing down ipads on the sideline and hollering. He may have even forgot what down it was at the game's end when Houston-Carson knocked down the final fourth-down pass.

"Yeah, I mean, I can't really say what he was going through," Mack said. "I just know that we smelled a little blood in the water."

The defense seemed a bit angered over pregame hype slanted in Tampa Bay's favor nationally. Even the replay scoreboard before the game had a score prediction on it during warmups in a video and it had the Bears losing at home 27-17.

"I definitely feel like we had a chip on our shoulders going into the game," linebacker Roquan Smith said. "We heard a lot of noise, and we don't pay much attention to that, so the main thing is just keeping the main thing the main thing.

"But there's obviously some things we need to clean up. But we’ve gotta take this W. It's hard to come by in this league."

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