CHICAGO – If the Bears learned anything about protecting a lead in last weekend’s crushing defeat in Carolina, it certainly didn’t show in Sunday’s home opener against the Buccaneers.

Chicago blew a double-digit advantage for the second straight week, turning cheers to boos in a gut-wrenching 27-24 overtime loss to Tampa Bay before a crowd of 59,937 at Soldier Field.

Brandon Lloyd leaps to catch a 19-yard touchdown pass in Sunday's 27-24 overtime loss to Tampa Bay.

The Buccaneers erased a 24-14 deficit with 10 points in the final 3:11 of regulation before winning the game on Matt Bryant’s 21-yard field goal with 4:21 left in overtime.

“A loss is a loss, but it does hurt when you have control of the football game,” said coach Lovie Smith, whose team fell to 1-2. “If you were never in a football game and you lose, you’ve been miserable the entire football game. But that wasn’t the case. We had control.

“In those situations, you just have to have the killer instinct at the end to make a couple plays. Normally you’re just one play from all things being OK.”

What made Sunday’s loss even more painful was that the comeback was orchestrated by a quarterback the Bears traded away in March. Brian Griese picked apart Chicago’s defense, setting career highs in all passing categories with 38 completions, 67 attempts and 407 yards.

Griese engineered a 12-play, 63-yard drive that resulted in Bryant’s 35-yard field goal, which drew Tampa Bay to within 24-17 with 3:11 left in the fourth quarter.

After the Bears went three-and-out, the Buccaneers took over at their own 21 with 1:49 to play. Griese proceeded to march Tampa Bay the length of the field, capping the 11-play, 79-yard drive with a 1-yard TD pass to tight end Jerramy Stevens with just :07 remaining.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to make some plays in the second half,” said middle linebacker Brian Urlacher. “We didn’t get to the quarterback, we didn’t catch the ball when we had chances. We didn’t tackle when we had a chance to tackle.”

On the Buccaneers’ final three scoring drives in the fourth quarter and overtime, Griese completed 17 of 29 passes for 203 yards. The 11-year veteran was not sacked despite throwing the fifth most passes in a game in NFL history.

“They just made plays and we didn’t,” said safety Mike Brown. “We had opportunities to make them and we didn’t do it. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit. Griese’s a hell of a quarterback. He’s a great professional and he ripped us apart. They were making plays all over the field and we weren’t able to stop them when we needed to.”

The one time the Bears did stop the Buccaneers, they gave Tampa Bay new life with one of the costliest blunders in recent memory. Danieal Manning tackled Stevens at the Buccaneers’ 10-yard line following a 2-yard reception on third-and-nine, seemingly forcing a punt.

But a fight broke out, and Charles Tillman drew a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty when he appeared to throw a punch at Tampa Bay receiver Michael Clayton. Instead of punting from their own end zone, the Buccaneers were awarded an automatic first down.

“It was a costly mistake on my part,” Tillman said. “It shouldn’t have happened. The saying is they always see the second push. Obviously it was a costly mistake. I shouldn’t have put myself in that situation. I was just trying to swing him off me. I was trying to pull guys off my teammate, and one thing led to another. I’ve got to be smarter than that.”

Brian Griese passed for 407 yards against his former team Sunday at Soldier Field.

The Bears defense dominated before its late meltdown, intercepting three Griese passes, recovering a fumble and forcing three three-and-outs on Tampa Bay’s first eight possessions. The only blemish in the first three quarters was an 8-play, 81-yard drive that Griese capped with a 4-yard TD pass to Ike Hilliard, giving the Buccaneers a 7-6 lead late in the first quarter.

Offensively, the Bears struggled in the first half, settling for three field goals and failing to take advantage of excellent field position. Lance Briggs returned a Griese interception that was tipped by Urlacher three yards to the Tampa Bay 15 on the game’s second play from scrimmage.

But Chicago’s offense went in reverse, losing seven yards on a third down sack of Kyle Orton before Robbie Gould’s 40-yard field goal gave the Bears an early 3-0 lead.

The Bears took over at the Tampa Bay 38 early in the second quarter, but they gave the ball right back two plays later when Orton’s pass intended for rookie running back Matt Forte in the end zone was first broken up and then intercepted by Buccaneers linebacker Barrett Ruud.

While that interception wasn’t Orton’s fault, that wasn’t the case later in the half when his pass over the middle to tight end Desmond Clark at the line of scrimmage was intercepted by defensive end Gaines Adams and returned 45 yards for a TD that gave the Buccaneers a 14-6 lead.

“I didn’t see him, but I just can’t make a mistake like that,” said Orton, who completed 22 of 34 passes for a career-high 268 yards with 2 TDs, 2 interceptions and an 83.9 passer rating. “I pride myself on that and it certainly wasn’t good.”

“Whenever you get four takeaways, you should be in decent shape with the game,” Smith said.
“But they scored with their defense. There were just too many things we did wrong in the end.”

After Gould’s 28-yard field goal on the final play of the first half cut the deficit to 14-9, the Bears offense came to life. Orton capped an 8-play, 86-yard drive with a 6-yard TD pass to Forte. Orton followed with a two-point conversion pass to Brandon Lloyd, giving the Bears a 17-14 lead with 2:54 left in the third quarter.

Lloyd’s leaping 19-yard TD reception over Ronde Barber widened the margin to 24-14 with 6:38 remaining the fourth quarter. With Devin Hester missing his first NFL game due to a rib injury, Lloyd picked up the big-play slack, catching six passes for 124 yards. Forte helped as well, rushing for 89 yards on 27 carries and catching a team-high seven passes for 66 yards.

But their efforts went for naught as the Buccaneers rallied to stun the Bears one week after Chicago had blown a 17-3 third-quarter lead in a 20-17 loss to the Panthers.

“We haven’t finished,” Brown said. “The defense was in position to win the football game again, and we couldn’t capitalize. This one hurts because I feel like it’s all on the defense. We talk about being a great defense, but we haven’t shown it. We lost, and it’s disgusting.”