Best Offense Is Bears’ Defense

The Chicago Bears’ defense has become downright offensive. That’s why the Bears have a three-game winning streak for the first time since 1995.

“We’re so much better than we were two years ago. Just the movement on the field,” Chicago Coach Dick Jauron said Sunday after the Bears beat the Arizona Cardinals, 20-13.

“I think it’s too early to tell how good we’re going to be. But I love the way we’ve started out.”

R.W. McQuarters returned a third-quarter fumble 69 yards for a touchdown, the second consecutive week the Chicago defense has scored a touchdown.

“Mike Brown made a good tackle. I was running to the ball and I got a good bounce. I didn’t even have to break stride and I was running,” McQuarters said.

The only Cardinal player with a chance of catching him was quarterback Jake Plummer, and that was no contest.

“I took a peek over and I saw him take about seven hard steps, and then I saw him shut it down,” McQuarters said.

Brown knocked the ball loose from Michael Pittman, who suffered a concussion on the first scrimmage play and had trouble remembering parts of the game.

McQuarters picked it up on a nice hop and ran untouched for the score that put the Bears up, 20-6, with 7:33 left in the third quarter.

“I’m just disappointed in myself. If I don’t fumble, they wouldn’t have had those seven points that we lost by,” Pittman said.

Brown was just trying to wrap up Pittman when the ball came loose. “I was just thinking about tackling him. I think I got around both his arms and when you get locked up like that, it’s hard to move around and I think it just popped out.”

Last week, Brian Urlacher went 90 yards with a fumble recovery for a touchdown against Atlanta.

Chicago (3-1) held Arizona (1-3) without a touchdown until Plummer connected with Frank Sanders on a seven-yard pass with 2:52 left, completing a 13-play, 99-yard drive.

The Cardinals botched the ensuing kickoff as rookie Bill Gramatica booted the ball out of bounds, giving the Bears the ball at the 40.

But Arizona held and got the ball back with 1:02 left, 63 yards away and no timeouts. Plummer, who engineered an upset of Philadelphia a week ago with a final-minute drive, threw incomplete, was sacked by Bryan Robinson and completed a nine-yard pass.

And when Arizona was called for a false-start penalty on fourth down, officials declared the 10-second rule and the clock ran out.