Disastrous quarter ensures another Bucs losing season Bears fans hadn’t been treated to a game like this since, well, Lovie Smith was their coach. Just as he has with the Buccaneers, Smith always preached defense and takeaways to the Bears. And his Bears defense took the ball away a lot, forcing a league-best 2.2 turnovers per game during his nine-year run in the Windy City. That average has dipped decidedly since Smith was fired two years ago. Going into Sunday, the Bears averaged only 1.6 takeaways per game through 26 games under Smith’s successor, the offensive-oriented Marc Trestman. But Smith’s return to Solider Field seemed to spark something anew in what’s left of his old defense, as the Bears forced four turnovers, including three in a pivotal third quarter, in handing the Bucs a 21-13 loss in front of a crowd of 61,109. In falling to 2-9, Tampa Bay is assured of a fourth consecutive losing season. “That was the biggest determining factor in the game – the turnover margin,’’ Bucs nose tackle Clinton McDonald said. “That allowed them to flip the field on us in the third quarter and turn the game around.’’ The turnaround came quickly. In the time takes to pop a bowl of popcorn, the Bears transformed a 10-7 Bucs lead into a 21-10 deficit by twice taking the ball away from Bucs quarterback Josh McCown. The first takeaway came on second-and-8 from the Bucs 37-yard line, when McCown was chased down in the flat and stripped of the ball from behind by defensive end David Bass. “I was looking downfield trying to make a throw,’’ McCown said of the run he made to the left. “I didn’t feel (Bass). I thought I was more open than I was, obviously.’’ Bass’s poke of the ball created a fumble that linebacker Christian Jones recovered and returned to the Bucs 13-yard line. One play later, Bears running back Matt Forte ran for a touchdown. That series of plays gave the Bears a 14-13 lead and a lot of momentum. They struck again on the Bucs’ next offensive play. McCown’s short pass for running back Charles Sims was a little high. When the ball slipped off of Sims’ hands, safety Ryan Mundy was waiting for it. Mundy’s 6-yard interception return to the Bucs 15-yard line set the stage for the Bears’ put-away score, which came on a 1-yard Forte run. “They didn’t have to go a long ways for their 21 points,’’ Smith said of the Bears, who traveled a total of 76 yards in five minutes, four seconds in erasing Tampa Bay’s 10-0 halftime lead. “That’s not a good thing. But most teams win with that turnover ratio, and there are a lot of guys on the other side, defensive players, who have bought into that, because in most games, that’s what’s going to determine the winner.’’ It was certainly a determining factor in this game. The Bucs took the ball away just once, on McDonald’s first-quarter recovery of a sack-fumble by Gerald McCoy. But turnovers weren’t the only determining factor. Though Smith lamented the Bucs’ failure to take the ball away on at least two other occasions, other things contributed to their latest loss. One was their running game. With Doug Martin back after missing three games with an ankle injury, the Bucs had a full complement of running backs for the first time this season. It didn’t matter, though, because Martin, Sims and Bobby Rainey ran a combined 18 times for just 52 yards (2.8 yards per carry) and no one, including McCown, could gain even a single yard when Tampa Bay needed it most. Tampa Bay was still within one score — a touchdown and two-point conversion — trailing by eight when it faced second-and-1 at the Bears 36-yard line with 2:36 to play. After a McCown pass for Mike Evans fell incomplete, Sims was stuffed for no gain on third down and McCown was stopped for no gain on fourth down. “We have to do a better job of blocking, providing holes for (our backs),’’ Smith said. “Even on days like this you need to be able to get more production from the running game.’’ It wasn’t just the Bears’ defensive execution that made it hard for the Bucs to run the ball. The Bears’ scheme slowed the running game as well, forcing McCown to check out of several run plays before the snap. “They did a good job of (stopping) some of the things we wanted to get done running-wise with the way they brought down support and stuff like that,’’ McCown said. “We got neutralized in that a little bit.’’ The wet ball McCown had to deal with during a game played mostly in the rain neutralized the Bucs a bit, too, with McCown saying it took him out of some downfield throws he would have otherwise tried to make. Still, McCown completed 25 of 48 passes for 341 yards and a touchdown, a 19-yarder to Evans, whose score gave the Bucs their 10-0 halftime lead and extended to four his streak of consecutive games with at least one touchdown catch, matching the team record. The defense, meanwhile, limited Bears quarterback Jay Cutler to a season-low 130 yards passing and gave up only 3.5 yards per rushing attempt, despite being without Pro Bowl linebacker Lavonte David, who sat out the game with a sore hamstring. “There just weren’t enough takeaways on our end, that was the problem,’’ defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said. His opinion was supported by the man he plays next to on most every play. “They beat us in the turnover ratio,’’ McDonald said. “End of story.’’