On Sunday, The Chicago Bears came away with a 17-3 home victory over the Carolina Panthers.  The win against Carolina and the win last week against the Baltimore Raven makes this the first time since November of 2015 that the Bears have managed to win back-to-back games.  

During their past two victories the Bears defense has come up big, not allowing an offensive touchdown in either game.  They also managed to finally start taking the ball away from opposing offenses and win the turnover battle, forcing three against the Panthers (two interceptions and one fumble).  Rookie safety Eddie Jackson accounted for two of those takeaways and returned both for touchdowns resulting in 14 points, which ended up being the difference.  

Jackson’s first touchdown occurred after Curtis Samuel mishandled a pitch from Cam Newton.  The ball was knocked around until Jackson scooped it at the Panther’s 25-yard-line and returned it 75 yards to the house.  Jackson’s second touchdown occurred when Newton tried to force a ball into a covered Kelvin Benjamin.  Prince Amukamara was on the coverage and batted the ball into the air, Jackson chased down the ball for the interception and returned it 76 yards while placing a nice juke move on Newton on his way into the end zone.  

The Panthers only score came at the end of the first half on the strength of Graham Gano’s leg when the kicker converted on a 36-yard field goal attempt, his only attempt of the game.  

The Bears only offensive scoring drive came after a 70-yard Trubisky pass to Tarik Cohen.  After the pass got the Bears inside the 10-yard line, it appeared Trubisky scored on a play that was ruled a touchdown scrambling and diving at the pylon.  The scoring play was reviewed and overturned as former Bear Julius Peppers was able to chase and dive at Trubisky marking him down at the one-yard line.  After the stop, Connor Barth converted on the chip shot 19-yard field goal which is a shorter distance than even the old extra point was kicked from.  This gave the Bears their 17-3 lead, which is where the score stood until the end of the game.

The final takeaway of the game came in the fourth quarter when Cam Newton threw a pass right into the hands of Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan.  After the turnover the Bears were able to convert a couple first downs and ice the game.