Rozner: Bears show some fight in taking down Bucs

The Bears showed up Sunday.

That might not sound like much, but after three straight weak outings and looking very much like a team playing out the string, at least the Bears made an appearance in a meaningless game in Tampa.

“I never had any doubts,” said Bears coach John Fox. “This team has responded pretty well. Last week (in Minnesota) was not one of our better performances and they knew it better than any of us standing here.

“I like the way they responded. The game didn't start real smooth. (Tampa) blocked a punt and went in for an early touchdown, and our guys kept clipping away and I liked our toughness.”

The 26-21 victory over the Bucs did little more than harm their 2016 draft position, but there were some positives aside from the Bears making an entrance in their penultimate match of the season.

The offensive line bounced back and allowed only a single sack, and with no receiving corps to speak of, the Bears committed to running the ball against the second-ranked rush defense and they pounded Tampa for 174 yards on the ground.

With nothing to play for and an eye toward developing players for 2016, it's fair to wonder why Jeremy Langford and Ka'Deem Carey aren't getting all the work at running back if indeed Matt Forte is done in Chicago.

Of course, the Bears haven't made any declarations, but Forte is feeling insulted that management hasn't handed him a new contract already, and made noise last week about thinking he's probably gone.

If that's really the case, the Bears ought to be giving all the carries to Langford and Carey, both of whom had a nice day Sunday.

While Forte ran 11 times for 54 yards before leaving with a back injury, Langford rushed 19 times for 83 yards, and Carey had a 1-yard run for touchdown in the first half that tied the game at 7-7, and a 1-yard TD catch early in the fourth quarter that put the Bears back in front at 20-14.

“The offensive line kind of set the tone,” said quarterback Jay Cutler. “Going into it, we knew we would have to run it, hopefully get 5 yards a carry, lot of dink and dunk and make some plays on third down, and that's what the guys did.

“The offensive line played well. Blocking the front four was paramount for us. I think we wore them down a little bit as the game went on with our tempo and that kind of helped our running game.”

As for the Chicago future of injured Bears tight end Martellus Bennett, Zach Miller continues to impress as Cutler's favorite target. Miller had 7 grabs for 69 yards Sunday, including 3 catches converted for first downs.

Robbie Gould also bounced back with a 4-for-4 day kicking field goals and added a 50-yarder in the fourth quarter that gave the Bears a 23-14 lead and pretty much ended the game, and against Lovie Smith's Bucs the Bears won the turnover battle 3-0.

“It's a tribute to our players. They keep hanging in there,” Fox said. “They don't look for excuses. It's just next man up. We keep fighting through it.

“We need to improve. They know it, but they're still trying to finish this year well. We've got one more game to try to avoid a double-digit losing season.”

So the interminable 2015 season is nearly over after the Bears improved to 6-9 in Tampa, a win more than last season, leaving just a lonely game at home against Detroit next Sunday.

But just when it looked like they had completely quit, the Bears showed up Sunday afternoon.

Considering how undermanned they are right now at so many positions, they deserve some credit for that.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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