Jennings picks his spot

TORONTO — Cornerback Tim Jennings stumbled, and the Bears defense staggered around as a whole much of Sunday.

They all regained their footing in time to provide the big plays needed for a 22-19 victory that allowed them to avoid the embarrassment of supplying the Buffalo Bills' first win of the season.

“Like the coach said, that was a great 0-7 football team,” Jennings said afterward about Buffalo.

It might have been a “great” 1-7 football team if not for Jennings' interception of quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick with 9:16 left in the game. The Bears' defense had given up no more than 2 touchdowns to any team all season, but it allowed Fitzpatrick and his receivers to chalk up 3 and a 19-14 lead to that point.

In particular, wide receiver Steve Johnson lit up the Bears' secondary in much the same way Seattle wide receiver Mike Williams had earlier this year in the Seahawks' 23-20 victory at Soldier Field.

Johnson made a career-best 11 catches for 145 yards, and Fitzpatrick went his way again 33 yards downfield at the Bears' 38-yard line as the Bills went for the kill in the fourth quarter.

Jennings turned just in time to make a break on an underthrown ball.

His interception and 39-yard return to Buffalo's 23 set up the game-winning touchdown pass from Jay Cutler to Earl Bennett.

“He ran a double move and I kind of bit on the first move,” Jennings said. “I kind of stumbled on that play. I bit on the first move because I figured I needed to make a play.”

The Bears, who favor their cover-2 zone, played man-to-man defense on the play.

“I knew I had help inside,” Jennings said. “So I forced him to my safety and (Fitzpatrick) kind of threw a ball on a rope and I just undercut him and made a big play.”

It was Jennings' first Bears interception after coming over in free agency from Indianapolis and taking the starting left cornerback spot from Zack Bowman.

Bears coach Lovie Smith admitted his defense was reeling at the time.

They gave up 299 yards passing to Fitzpatrick, the third highest total of the Harvard product's career, and allowed 10 third-down conversions in 16 attempts (63 percent) by far their worst effort of the year.

“In the end, when you are off-balance a little bit, you need to make plays in critical situations,” Smith said. “It was a double move for Tim, a good route by the receiver, but finishing the job, getting that, really kind of switched momentum in our favor.”

The defense wanted nothing to do afterward with suggestions that the Bears barely pulled out a game against a winless team.

“I think people are caught up in the 0-8 part, but they are a good football team,” insisted safety Chris Harris, who sealed the win with 32 seconds remaining on his 11th career pick the first since he returned to the Bears in a trade this season. “They have great skill-position players.

“I don't know if people were expecting us to win by 20-30 points, but this is the NFL and that doesn't happen often.”

The secondary's problems stemmed, in part, from the lack of sacks.

The Bears had only 1. The Bills double-teamed defensive end Julius Peppers much of the day, but the Bears did produce a season-best 12 quarterback hurries.

“We were a little inconsistent, yeah,” said defensive end Israel Idonije. “But when it was time to really show up, that's what a good defense does.

“You stick your chest out, you make basic changes and say, ‘let's go after it.'

“That's what we did. We got after it.”