Comeback falls short as Bucs lose to Bears Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 24 October 2011 Having failed miserably at the long-weekend approach to this overseas excursion, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers chose to turn their second sojourn to London in the past three seasons into a true business holiday. They flew here on Monday and spent six days adjusting to the five-hour time difference, the weather and — for some — the food. Once game day rolled around, though, they couldn't adjust to the Chicago Bears. Though the Bucs rallied to put themselves in a position to win late, they never fully overcame an all-too-familiar array of problems during a 24-18 loss at a less-than-sold-out Wembley Stadium. "You get what you deserve in this league and today we deserved a loss," Bucs coach Raheem Morris said. "The whole offense struggled early on and (on defense) we didn't get there to make the tackles. We had too many penalties and too many mistakes on offense, defense and on special teams. And they capitalized on just about every one of them." The Bucs have lost twice in London in three seasons. In 2009, Tampa Bay arrived on Friday, but lost 35-7 to New England. Tampa Bay (4-3) has a bye this week before traveling to New Orleans on Nov. 6. Against a defense that held three of its previous four opponents to less than 100 yards rushing, Matt Forte ran 25 times for 145 yards and a touchdown and caught four passes for 38 more yards. "We knew they were going to give the ball to Matt all day and he had two huge runs right out of the box against us," Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber said. "We had our opportunities to stop him. We just didn't take advantage of them. We just missed too many tackles early on, and you know what? That shouldn't be happening. This is Week 7 of the season. We should be over that kind of thing by now." Likewise, quarterback Josh Freeman probably should be over forcing passes to Kellen Winslow. Admittedly, he isn't. He paid for it again Sunday as he threw four interceptions, the second-most in a game in his career. All but one derailed potential scoring drives as Freeman was intercepted twice inside the Bears' 10-yard line and at the Chicago 25-yard line on Tampa Bay's final drive. "You can only overcome so many hurdles, and we presented ourselves with enough today to shoot ourselves in the foot," Morris said. "We just couldn't get anything going." The same could be said of the Bears. After all, the Bucs were the only team to turn any of Freeman's turnovers into scores when they recorded a safety one play after his first interception. Barber and rookie defensive end Adrian Clayborn combined to stuff Forte for a 2-yard loss on the play that gave the Bucs their first score, but they were unable to build momentum off of it. Bogged down by penalties and the loss of running back Earnest Graham to an ankle injury that forced them to alter their game plan, the Bucs could only mount a field goal drive through the first three quarters. The defense, meanwhile, continued to give up big plays to Forte and running back Marion Barber that allowed the Bears to build a 21-5 lead early in the fourth quarter. Freeman, however, has shown a penchant for bringing his team back from greater deficits than that. By the middle of the fourth quarter, he had the Bucs headed in that direction yet again. Sparked by an interception by safety Corey Lynch, who replaced an injured Tanard Jackson (hamstring), Freeman guided the Bucs to two consecutive touchdown drives to cut the Bears lead to 21-18 with 7:17 to play. The defense struggled to get the ball back, though, allowing the Bears to drive 64 yards in 12 plays and giving them second life when Aqib Talib was called for a face-mask penalty after Ronde Barber sacked Bears quarterback Jay Cutler at the Bucs' 10-yard line on third down. The defense stood again, stuffing Forte and Marion Barber for consecutive 3-yard losses that forced the Bears to settle for a 25-yard field goal. But those three extra plays left Freeman with just 1:50 to pull out the victory. He moved the Bucs into scoring position with a couple of big throws, but a third-and-10 throw for Preston Parker was intercepted by D.J. Moore at the 25, ending the comeback attempt. "I always expect to win in those situations and it's frustrating when you don't," Freeman said. "We were making plays there. We were moving the ball. I think our sense of urgency wasn't great enough." Ronde Barber didn't disagree. The trip to London and the week of preparation at an unfamiliar facility had nothing to do with the loss, he said. "That's not the issue," he said. "Our issue has to be having the same urgency at the beginning of football games that we have at the end. If we do that, then we win this football game. It really is as simple as that."