TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers gave up a Hail Mary touchdown pass to Jay Cutler in the final seconds of the first half, but as Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said to his team at halftime, "Let's not let one bad play overshadow a good first half."
Indeed, that play didn't overshadow a solid effort by the Tampa Bay defense, which came up big in a 36-10 win over the Chicago Bears and played a much more aggressive style after giving up 1,087 yards total in its previous two games.
The Bucs used their "mini-bye" after the Thursday night loss to the Atlanta Falcons to re-evaluate things.
"We talked about adding on quicker on our blitzes, hugging up more with our linebackers and our safeties," Koetter said. "It paid off in a big way. I thought [defensive coordinator Mike] "Smitty" [Smith] called a great game, and I thought our players executed very well."
The defense got two interceptions and a sack in the first 10 minutes of Sunday's game. Brent Grimes jumped a route on a pass intended for Chicago's Alshon Jeffery, and former Bears safety Chris Conte had a pick-six against a struggling Cutler on a pass intended for Logan Paulsen. Clinton McDonald added a sack in his first game since Week 4.
“I think it’s a mindset and guys were ready. The pressure really helps us. When those guys get after the quarterback, it really makes our job easy," Conte said. "It's a big confidence booster for us going forward. We need to take this momentum and keep it going into next week.”
They forced four turnovers in the half and swarmed Cutler all game, stepping up in an area that Koetter and Smith have harped on the past few weeks, even when critics pointed to a secondary that was getting gashed left and right. Rookie Noah Spence got a strip sack, his fourth sack of the season (the fumble was recovered by Kwon Alexander), and Robert Ayers took Cutler down for a safety in the third quarter.
"We wanted to pressure the quarterback, get him off his spot, make him uncomfortable and I thought we did that," Smith said. "They really did a good job, whether it was a four-man rush or five-man pressure and six-man pressure. It's not always about hitting him -- it's getting him off his spot and having him feel the pressure up in his face."
Alexander said he felt a change in the team when they got back to practicing Wednesday.
"It was just a different vibe," Alexander said. "Everybody was hungry, running, everybody was there making plays on balls, so the energy was there and we brought it out here to the game and that’s how we need to do it from now on.”
It was exactly the kind of effort that was needed for an ailing unit that had given up a franchise-record 626 yards to the Raiders two weeks ago, and was called out earlier this week by Pro Football Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks.
It also was a boost for a struggling team that hadn't won at home this season and whose six-game home losing streak was the longest in the NFL. At 4-5, the Bucs may not have a shot at catching the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC South or earning a wild-card spot, but they needed hope, even if it came at the expense of a team that came in at 2-6. The fans needed hope, even if half the lower bowl and upper decks were filled with folks wearing orange and navy instead of red.
The Buccaneers face a tough Kansas City Chiefs team at Arrowhead Stadium next week, then the Seattle Seahawks the week after that; they won't be favored to win either. For now, that doesn't matter, nor does the fact that only a few Bucs fans actually stuck around to watch the whole game. It was a much-needed step in the right direction for a team in desperate need of a win.