BALTIMORE – The Bears led the Ravens 6-0 after the first quarter Sunday but were outscored 16-0 between the second and third periods. They rallied to close the gap to 16-13 but ultimately lost 30-16 at M&T Bank Stadium.
The key moment of the game came in the fourth quarter after the Bears had cut the deficit to 16-13 on D'Andre Swift's 3-yard TD run with 12:22 to play.
After forcing a punt, the Bears took over at their own 4 with 9:48 remaining. But Caleb Williams' pass over the middle intended for Rome Odunze was intercepted by cornerback Nate Wiggins, who returned it nine yards to the Chicago 9.
The Ravens converted the takeaway into Tyler Huntley's 10-yard TD pass to tight end Charlie Kolar, widening the margin to 23-13. Starting in place of the injured Lamar Jackson, Huntley completed 17 of 22 passes for 186 yards and a 116.9 passer rating while being sacked twice.
Cairo Santos' third field goal of the game, a 47-yarder, drew the Bears to within one score at 23-16 with 5:06 to play. But the Ravens answered with a 9-play, 66-yard drive that culminated in Derrick Henry's second 2-yard touchdown run of the game, widening the margin to 30-16 with 2:09 to play.
The loss snapped the Bears' four-game win streak and dropped their record to 4-3.
"Give Baltimore a lot of credit," said coach Ben Johnson. "They came out and they played a physical brand of football, just like you would expect. They were hungry, they were determined, and truth be told, I expected a little bit more out of our squad to counter that. We fell short."
After generating 15 takeaways during their four-game winning streak, the Bears did not force any turnovers against the Ravens.
"When that happens, you've really got to play a clean game, and we didn't," Johnson said. "We were double digits in penalties once again and we're not scoring in the red zone. We couldn't quite get off the field as often as we'd like on defense."
The Bears committed 11 penalties for 79 yards and scored one TD on three red-zone trips. After forcing a punt on the Ravens' first drive, the defense allowed points on six of Baltimore's seven possessions (three TDs and three field goals) before a kneel-down to run out the clock.
Asked specifically about what needs to improve on offense, Johnson said: "You see flashes of some explosive plays and some really good things happening, but the penalties to me is what stands out first and foremost. We still have some of the pre-snap issues. There's occasional not getting lined up quite right, there's occasional not getting the motion quite right. That stuff adds up and it hurts us. We get away with it occasionally, but it's just not the way you win in this league. I really put it on the leaders in that locker room to get this ship going in the right direction in that regard. Us coaches, we've been pounding that drum for a while and we haven't gotten the results we wanted, so it's on the leaders here on this team to get us right."
Williams connected on 25 of 38 passes for 285 yards with one interception and a 77.2 passer rating. Odunze caught seven passes for 114 yards. Olamide Zaccheaus added seven receptions for 33 yards. DJ Moore caught four passes for 73 yards.
The Bears held Henry to an average of 3.4 yards per rush, gaining 71 yards on 21 attempts with a long run of 10 yards. But Huntley ran for 53 yards on eight attempts in addition to the damage he did through the air.
"We were intent on not letting '22' (Henry) get started," Johnson said. "I thought for the most part we did a pretty good job of that. But then Huntley hurt us with both his arm and his legs. We let him get some big ones on the ground and he threw some accurate balls there in the air. He played really well, and we didn't do enough to affect him."
Santos' 32-yard field goal gave the Bears a 3-0 lead on the game's opening possession, capping a 13-play, 64-yard drive. Williams looked sharp, completing 4 of 4 passes for 54 yards, including 3 for 36 yards to Odunze.
Santos followed with a 39-yard field goal on the Bears' second possession, widening the margin to 6-0 with :03 left in the first quarter. The Bears dominated the opening period, holding decisive advantages in yards (125-8), first downs (9-0), plays (22-3) and time of possession (12:41-2:19), but only led 6-0.
"Penalties and being able to score in the red zone … I think that's the two main things that we've got to fix," Williams said. "We could have been up 14 with those first two drives that we had. That could have created a bunch of momentum for us, and I think that's how it's been a good amount of the year, especially these past two games. [We've] been in the red zone a bunch and have not necessarily been able to punch it in."
After the first quarter, the Ravens scored on four straight possessions to take a 16-6 lead on Henry's 2-yard TD run midway through the second quarter and Tyler Loop field goals of 42 yards late in the first half and 28 and 32 yards in the third period.
The Bears answered with an 11-play, 83-yard drive that was capped by Swift's 3-yard TD run on third-and-goal, closing the gap to 16-13. The possession was highlighted by Williams' 27-yard completion to Odunze on third-and-6 from the Chicago 39.
After the Ravens extended their lead to 30-16, the Bears reached the Ravens' 3 on Williams' 42-yard pass to Moore down the right sideline with 1:18 to play. But the offense was unable to get into the end zone, turning the ball over on downs when Williams couldn't connect with Moore on fourth-and-goal from the 1.
The Bears played without their top three cornerbacks: Kyler Gordon (calf, groin) joined Jaylon Johnson (groin) on injured reserve Saturday and Tyrique Stevenson sat out Sunday's game with a shoulder injury. Nahshon Wright was joined in the starting lineup by Nick McCloud and Jaylon Jones.
"I've got full confidence in those guys," said safety Kevin Byard III. "We just didn't make enough plays today as a defense. We didn't do enough to help them. We didn't affect the quarterback enough and we didn't get any turnovers. It was just not a recipe for winning."
The Bears will look to rebound next Sunday when they visit the Bengals in Cincinnati.
"We're going to get this thing cleaned up," Johnson said. "I know they understand how important it is that we play cleaner as a team and we complement each phase better than we did today. That will be our mission here this week."
