Nov. 24--As improbable as it seems, two weeks after the Packers became the second team in as many games to hang 50 points on the Bears, this team is clinging to some hope.
Maybe it's only a shred, but the Bears are locked onto it and unwilling to consider the alternative. A come-from-behind 21-13 victory over the Buccaneers on Sunday at Soldier Field has them at 5-6. Strictly looking at the team ahead of them in the NFC North, they can pull within a game of the Lions (7-4) with a victory Thursday at Ford Field.
"The best part about it is we're in the hunt," defensive tackle Stephen Paea said. "We've got to feel like that. There is everything on the line right now. Not just players -- coaches, everyone."
Perhaps the Bears are kidding themselves, but to put it on the line physically every week -- and twice in a five-day span this week -- they've got to grab hold of some kind of belief, however realistic. To have an opportunity to climb back to .500 is something in itself, as bad of a rut as this team was in, and the defense is why the Bears are in this position.
The offense has been held scoreless in the first quarter in six consecutive games and has been shut out in the first half of three of the last five games, putting the Bears in a perpetual hole, one they escaped this time with three takeaways in a 4-minute, 35-second span of the third quarter.
There was some irony to the fact the Bears had four takeaways in a game for the first time since Week 2 -- a victory over the 49ers -- against former coach Lovie Smith, who recites turnover ratio statistics in his sleep.
"One thing we talk about always is, of course, that turnover ratio," Smith said to open his postgame remarks.
Those takeaways set the stumbling offense up at the 15- and 13-yard lines of the Bucs, leading to Matt Forte's two touchdown runs.
"Credit to our defense," right guard Kyle Long said. "I love some good alley-oops."
Defensive end David Bass stripped Josh McCown from behind and Christian Jones recovered the fumble to precede Forte's first touchdown. Ryan Mundy intercepted McCown on the Bucs' next play and Forte scored again to complete a 21-point spurt in the third quarter, erasing a 10-0 halftime deficit, the sixth time this season the team has trailed by double-digits to start the third quarter.
McCown wound up throwing for 341 yards but was pressured pretty thoroughly throughout. The defense had a season-high five sacks against Tampa's struggling offensive line and totaled 13 quarterback hits. Paea had two sacks and flattened McCown on Chris Conte's interception in the first quarter.
The Bucs didn't show much intention to run the ball. They handed the ball off 19 times and McCown had one sneak, so there were only 20 called runs on 75 offensive plays, a terrible discrepancy.
Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker used a new twist, or at least went to a seldom-used portion of the playbook a lot more, walking down a linebacker to the end of the line of scrimmage to give the Bears five against Tampa's five offensive linemen. The Bears also relied on more stunts than they typically show.
"It was all from the play-calling," Paea said. "When we had a linebacker lined up at the end, we started having one-on-ones like that, it is hard to block us. Mel was calling out plays that worked. He knew what the matchups were and we got after it."
With .500 in sight, anything can happen. That is certainly how the Bears have to operate with seven teams in the NFC owning better records.
"We know about it," defensive end Jared Allen said. "As cliche as it is, we're in a one-game season. We put ourselves in this hole and we are trying to slowly dig out of it. We've got some momentum and we've got to carry that through."
If the Bears are going to carry over momentum, they have to start fast against the Lions, who have too much talent to spot a 10-point lead like they have to the Bucs and Vikings the last two weeks.
"Too many people want to break this down quarter by quarter, half by half," Allen said. "We won the game. We won in convincing fashion."
Allen might have a hard time getting a group of people that don't take up residence in the locker room to believe this was a convincing victory over the 2-9 Bucs, but for this team and at this point, the Bears will take it.
bmbiggs@tribpub.com
Twitter @BradBiggs
