Bears survive five turnovers, beat Buccaneers 27-24 on Santos' field goal at the gun

Cairo Santos kicked a 38-yard field goal as time expired and the Chicago Bears beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27-24 on Sunday night at Soldier Field, winning a game in which they turned the ball over five times. Caleb Williams was intercepted four times and Tampa Bay erased an 11-point second-half deficit to tie it at 24 with 2:51 left. Chicago (7-2) still won its fourth in a row. According to The Associated Press, it was the Bears' first victory with five or more turnovers since Dec. 3, 2006, against Minnesota.

Fourteen points in nine minutes

Nothing about the start hinted at the mess to come. Chicago went 53 yards in 10 plays on the opening drive, and Williams found Rome Odunze for a 9-yard touchdown on third-and-6. On the next possession, again on third down, Luther Burden III took a short throw over the middle, broke a couple of tackles and turned it into a 56-yard score. With six minutes left in the first quarter, the Bears led 14-0.

Tampa Bay answered with a 13-play drive that lasted more than seven minutes and produced only three points, a 27-yard Chase McLaughlin field goal early in the second quarter.

Four interceptions in the second quarter

Then the Chicago offense came apart. On second-and-goal from the 21, Tykee Smith picked off Williams at the Tampa Bay 3. The Bears' defense got the ball back by stopping the Buccaneers on fourth down in their own territory, and on the very next snap Zyon McCollum intercepted Williams again. Santos pushed the lead to 17-3 with a 25-yard field goal with 3:02 left in the half.

The final minute of the half was the game in miniature. Cam Lewis intercepted Baker Mayfield with 48 seconds to go; one play later, Williams threw deep for Kalif Raymond and McCollum came down with his second pick of the night, awarded after a replay review overturned the incomplete call. Tampa Bay used the short field, and McLaughlin hit from 21 yards on the last play to make it 17-6.

The Buccaneers opened the second half with their best drive. Tez Johnson's 58-yard catch set up Bucky Irving's 2-yard touchdown run, and the lead was down to 17-13 with 11:37 left in the third.

One possession, two interceptions

The decisive sequence began with another Chicago mistake. A deflected Williams pass landed in the hands of linebacker Alex Anzalone, and Tampa Bay took over at the Bears' 37 with 4:32 left in the third quarter, a touchdown away from its first lead. Two plays later, Mayfield threw for tight end Cade Otton. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson jumped the route and returned the interception 67 yards for a touchdown. A drive that could have flipped the scoreboard instead left Tampa Bay trailing 24-13.

"That obviously was the difference in the game," Mayfield said, according to the AP.

The Buccaneers kept coming. A 25-yard Irving run set up McLaughlin's 35-yard field goal, which made it 24-16 with 11:24 to play. Then, with Chicago trying to run out the clock, rookie Rueben Bain Jr. hit Burden after a catch and jarred the ball loose; Ifeatu Melifonwu returned the fumble to the Bears' 17. Irving needed two carries, for 11 and 6 yards, to score his second touchdown, and Mayfield ran up the middle for the 2-point conversion. Tie game, 2:51 remaining. Burden, who had seven catches for 97 yards, did not return; the AP reported that he sustained a concussion.

Loveland, then Santos

Williams got the ball back at his own 31 with nearly three minutes left. He moved the Bears to their 46, and on second-and-9 with 47 seconds to go he found Loveland alone down the left sideline. The tight end gained 38 yards before he was pushed out at the Tampa Bay 16. Williams knelt twice to drain the clock, and Santos made his second field goal of the night from 38 yards.

"I don't get gun shy. That's not me," Williams said afterward, according to the AP. Coach Ben Johnson acknowledged that it is hard to win with five turnovers and said his players know they did not play as well as they can.

Third downs kept Chicago afloat

The box score explains how a team can give the ball away five times and win. The offenses were nearly even in total yards (352 for Tampa Bay, 349 for Chicago), but the Buccaneers converted just two of 12 third downs, compared with seven of 13 for the Bears. Chicago's defense, which came in as the league's best at getting off the field on third down, also sacked Mayfield four times. One of the sacks belonged to Jeffery Simmons in his first game at Soldier Field since arriving in a trade from Tennessee.

Tampa Bay reached the red zone five times and scored two touchdowns. The other three trips ended in McLaughlin field goals, even though the visitors held the ball for 32:52.

The meeting of the NFL's top two rushing offenses never materialized. Irving ran for 97 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries, and Tampa Bay finished with 126 yards on the ground, far short of the 324 it piled up against Atlanta a week earlier. Chicago managed 72. Mayfield, who did not complete a pass in that rain-soaked win, went 18 of 32 for 243 yards with two interceptions. Williams was 22 of 37 for 279 yards and two touchdowns to go with the four interceptions, his first since returning from a hamstring injury.

The AP also reported that Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. left in the second quarter with an ankle injury and that Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson hurt a thumb.

Both teams are off next week. The Bears (7-2) host the New Orleans Saints on Nov. 22; the Buccaneers (3-6) visit the Detroit Lions the same day.