Teams generally don’t win this way.
Here, a punt is blocked and returned for a touchdown, the ball is knocked loose on a sack and recovered to set up a field goal, 67-yard kick returns to set up a field goal, a pick-6 for the game-winner, and another interception to clinch the win.
This all sounds almost like Lovie Smith, something that a team would do or would have to do whose defense is too focused on performance and the offense is not sufficiently supported.
Caleb Williams didn’t make the cut in his first game, but the Bears found a way as a team to come back from a miserable start on Sunday and overtake the error-prone Tennessee Titans 24-17.
“When you put a rookie quarterback in, which we do, he’s going to have ups and downs and good moments and other moments,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “Like I said, we just have to play well around him, make sure everything’s clean, that we don’t lose the ball and give people short fields and open plays.”
“And it’s OK to end the series with a kick. So as long as we end it with a punt, with an extra point or a field goal, and like I said, Cairo (Santos) did a great job today making his kicks. The operation was good. We have a new long snapper (Scott Daly) and a new short snapper (Coleman Shelton). I think it was a good operation for those guys today.”
Eberflus always talks about how they’ve built a tight-knit team with strong character and how that all helps a team win. If that’s what he meant, overcoming a 17-point deficit despite showing no signs of consistent offense, then he may be right.
Even the defense and special teams weren’t great early on, with Velus Jones Jr. handling a kickoff the way he used to handle punts before the Bears used true punt returners. He botched it, and it led to a field goal.
The defense gave up 115 rushing yards in the first half, most of which came from the same defensive linemen who formed the league’s best rushing defense last year, and then allowed 25 rushing yards in the second half.
“You know that in the NFL every week is different,” Eberflus said. “There are going to be times when the games have their ups and downs, that’s just how it is. You just have to be good as a team.”
“It’s never just about one side or one person. It’s about us figuring it out as we go along and finding our winning formula for that particular day, and that could change.”
Tyrique Stevenson scored the winning points with a 43-yard pick-6 in the fourth quarter, his first pick-6 of his career, and then Jaylon Johnson sealed the deal with another pick in the final seconds.
“At some point the offense will help us,” Stevenson said. “It is what it is.”
Nobody could blame him for his performance that day.
“It’s the NFL, it’s a long game,” Owens said. “So you have to keep learning how to execute. That’s the most important thing. And even when you’re ahead, you have to keep going and making plays because if you don’t, a team can come back and slip into the game.”
“So we encouraged plays, especially on defense and on special teams, and encouraged plays for the team.”
That’s something they’ll need to do more often while the young quarterback and new offense are still putting everything together.
Twitter: BeasOnSI
