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Jaylon Johnson knew it was coming. When the call came in from Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams, Johnson felt a surge of excitement.
“I was juiced,” the Bears cornerback said. “It was like, ‘If we do what we’re supposed to here, we’re creating a turnover.’”
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Safety Eddie Jackson had a similar feeling. He recognized the formation the San Francisco 49ers were in on third-and-5 early in the fourth quarter — with receivers Jauan Jennings and Deebo Samuel bunched together just outside the left hash marks — and knew a huge moment had arrived.
“It was the perfect call,” Jackson said. “Just make sure you’re in the right spot, looking and keying on the right things.”
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If we’ve learned anything about the 2022 Bears over the past four or five months, it’s that they are hellbent on becoming a team that feeds off effort and preparation. And early in the fourth quarter Sunday at Soldier Field, the defense’s focus paid major dividends.
With Johnson and Jackson locked into their assignments and also ready for what their opponent was about to do, a chance to seize an upset presented itself.
Johnson had a hunch Jennings would run a slant for quarterback Trey Lance and knew he could help steer the play right into the teeth of the call the Bears had on — right toward Jackson.
“It’s just me executing my leverage and trusting that Eddie is going to be there,” Johnson said.
Jackson knew to keep both Jennings and Lance in his vision, ready to attack on a quick pass right in front of him.
Five seconds before the snap, many of the Bears defenders knew what Jackson could pull off three seconds after the snap.
“I was kind of peeking back out the corner of my eye, right back at Eddie,” rookie safety Jaquan Brisker said. “I knew he was going to get a pick.”
Sure enough, Lance tried the quick slant to Jennings and Jackson intervened. With a diving interception near midfield and a 26-yard return, Jackson provided arguably the biggest play of a spirited defensive effort in the Bears’ 19-10 season-opening win.
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The energy of that moment?
“Oh, man, it was over,” rookie pass rusher Dominique Robinson said. “That was it. Honestly, that was it.”
With a short field, the offense quickly marched 21 yards for a punctuation touchdown, taking a two-score lead on a field that was becoming a pond.
“Turnover and a score? That’s huge,” Brisker said.
Added Jackson: “I’m not going to lie to you. That felt good.”
The Bears were ahead 13-10 when Jackson made the interception — his first since Dec. 29, 2019 — but the takeaway added fuel.
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After a dismal first half on offense in which the Bears were shut out, gained just five first downs and didn’t complete a pass beyond the line of scrimmage, the game turned on Justin Fields’ improvised 51-yard touchdown pass to Dante Pettis on the Bears’ first drive of the third quarter.
It was a timely blast of broken-play magic with Fields escaping pressure, rolling to his left and lofting a pass back to the right to Pettis, who didn’t have a 49ers defender within two zip codes.
“That was the play that changed the momentum of the whole game,” Fields said.
But the Bears were hanging around at that point only because of the stinginess of their defense, a unit that turned months of investment into a Week 1 performance that included two sacks, two takeaways and an afternoon’s worth of feistiness.
The Bears held the 49ers to three points after halftime, battered Lance into a 50.3 passer rating for the game and limited Samuel to 66 yards from scrimmage, 45 below his 2021 average.
The tone was set on the 49ers’ first drive, a march that chewed up 45 yards and took them inside the red zone. The Bears got off the field with a turnover when Brisker put a big hit on Samuel and Johnson fought off a block and used his left fist to dislodge the football.
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“I knew I couldn’t truly make the tackle, so I was like, ‘How can I really try to make this play?’” Johnson said. “When he cut inside, I saw the ball and was like, ‘I might as well punch.’”
That play was the perfect snapshot of coach Matt Eberflus’ H.I.T.S. principle.
“If you just hang in there on defense and you keep pounding the rock, good things will happen,” Eberflus said. “That’s what happened.”
It’s way too early to draw big conclusions from Sunday’s win, but Bears players had a sense of a few things they learned.
“We won this game with mental and physical stamina,” Fields said.
That’s an important achievement for a young, growing team to add to its resume.
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Added Johnson: “I honestly feel like we have the pieces. We just have to keep building in the right direction and not get too far ahead of ourselves. There’s still a lot to prove.”
While the 49ers continually hurt themselves with ill-timed penalties — 12 in all, including three on third down that kept Bears touchdown drives alive — Eberflus’ team again played with discipline and intelligence, avoiding the “That just can’t happen!” blunders that became so common the past few years.
The resolve and intensity on defense through the afternoon also wasn’t taken for granted.
“H.I.T.S. principle, man,” Robinson said. “We’re hustling.”
And what happens when that persistent attitude and mindset becomes contagious throughout the group?
“What happened today,” Robinson said.
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What happened Sunday surprised much of the NFL world and allowed Eberflus to start his Bears tenure at 1-0. But inside a joyous home locker room, the Bears felt like they set themselves up for this success — and much more.
“Man, this feels good,” Jackson said. “Nobody is surprised inside this locker room. Everyone on the outside is way more surprised than we are.
“We know what we’ve got. We’re going to surprise a lot of people with the way we work. No one works harder than us. And the mindset we have with what we’re building is something special.”
For the first afternoon in a long season, the Bears clawed for the result they so badly wanted and generated confidence heading into Week 2.
