Bears Stay Unbeaten With Win Over Steelers
On the big stage of Sunday Night Football, the Chicago Bears looked ferocious on both sides of the ball and the Pittsburgh Steelers looked lost at home, as the Bears impressively prevailed 40-23 and remained unbeaten on the young season, advancing to 3-0.
While the Bears found solid production on the ground from Matt Forte (16 carries for 87 yards, 1 TD) as usual, Pittsburgh aided them with several miscues. The Steelers turned the ball over five times in all and forced no takeaways of their own as they dropped to 0-3 on the season, marking their worst start since 2000.
“As of right now we have way too many turnovers and it goes both ways,” Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel said, according to ESPN.com. “We’ve got to find ways to get the ball. That’s what great defenses do.”
Amazingly, the Steelers lost despite outgaining the Bears by 201 total yards of offense. Ben Roethlisberger threw for 406 yards, but also tossed two interceptions, and as the his team was finally mounting a late-game rally, fumbled the ball into the hands of Bears defensive end Julius Peppers, who rumbled 42 yards for the victory-clinching score.
“I happened to be at the right place at the right time and the ball bounced to me,” Peppers said. “I got a hand on it and took it in, so there wasn’t much else to talk about. That was the longest run I had with the ball, yes, I will tell you that.”
While it appears the Steelers will have a hard time competing with the defending champion Ravens and the youthful Bengals in the AFC North this season, the question for the Bears is: Can they keep this strong play up as they look to recapture the North division in the NFC?
Even though they relied on the other team’s mistakes to earn win number three on the year, the Bears – at least Peppers – are confident they can continue their early success.
“That’s what we do, we take the ball away,” Peppers said. “We stress it in practice every day, and it carries over to the game … we have to continue to do that on a weekly basis to continue to win, and I believe we’ll be able to do that.”
Possibly more fortunate for Chicago has been Green Bay’s unexpected 1-2 start. The Bears are now two full games ahead of their bitter rival, but of course, there is a lot of football yet to be played.
While the Bears have impressed so far in 2013, it’s clear that they are far from a complete team. They still haven’t shown the ability to throw the ball down field and have only defeated one quality opponent (Cincinnati). Look for Chicago to be a contender come playoff time, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves and buy into too much Bears stock at an unreasonable price.
