Tug of war: Bears beat Redskins behind 5 takeaways from dominant defense

LANDOVER, Md. — The Bears’ defense was back in the end zone and up to its old stunts.

With players standing in a circle, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, who had just returned an interception 37 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter of the Bears’ 31-15 victory Monday night against the Redskins, stood across from fellow safety Eddie Jackson, and . . . was that a game of tug-of-war?

“We had been working on it all week, and I kinda went blank when it was time for us to do it,” Clinton-Dix said.

Outside linebacker Khalil Mack admitted that “my performance was terrible,” while cornerback Prince Amukamara applied that critique to the rest of the team.

“We weren’t organized; we weren’t ready,” Amukamara said. “We let America down.”

The rest of the game, though, they lived up to their reputation just fine. The Bears’ defense looked like the unit that was the NFL’s best last season — only more so. Their five takeaways were the most for any Bears team since 2013 — and five times more than their season total through the first two games.

Clinton-Dix’s score was the Bears’ seventh defensive touchdown since the start of last season, the most of any NFL team.

“Being a part of this team, we emphasize scoring,” said Clinton-Dix, who broke down the Bears’ huddle in the locker room after defeating his former team. “We don’t care about catching the ball — we care about scoring.”

And Mack cares about getting the ball. In the first half, he sacked Redskins quarterback Case Keenum twice, forcing two fumbles by swinging at the ball.

The Bears recovered one of them. After Akiem Hicks fell on the ball, he sprinted toward the sideline before stopping to spike it, Refrigerator Perry-style.

Another Mack sack was wiped out by his own offside penalty — and a Mack sack-fumble was taken away by Amukamara’s illegal-hands-to-the-face penalty.

“He just loves showing out,” Amukamara said. “And I’m not complaining about it at all.”

How dominant was the Bears’ defense? It sacked Keenum three times and intercepted him twice more on his first 14 drop-backs. It hit him on seven of those plays and knocked him down five times.

The defensive showing gave the Bears something they’ve spent the entire season searching for: confidence on offense. After not throwing a touchdown all season, quarterback Mitch Trubisky threw for three in a 6:11 span.

Ahead 7-0 after Clinton-Dix’s touchdown, Trubisky and the Bears marched 67 yards on 11 plays, aided by three Redskins penalties. Trubisky converted two third downs — an 11-yard pass to Allen Robinson and a 15-yarder to Anthony Miller — before rolling left on second-and-goal from the 3. He could’ve walked it in but threw to an open Taylor Gabriel to go up 14-0.

Two plays later, Mack’s strip-sack of Keenum — and Hicks’ fumble recovery — gave Trubisky the ball at the Redskins’ 11. Three plays later, he threw a one-yard pass to Gabriel.

Two plays later, cornerback Kyle Fuller picked off Keenum, starting a Bears possession that ended with a 36-yard strike from Trubisky to Gabriel on third-and-16.

Trubisky hit Gabriel at the front right pylon, but officials ruled the play an incomplete pass. Upon further review, Gabriel — who in the fourth quarter was ruled out with a concussion — was judged to have gotten both feet down before falling out of bounds.

The Bears led 28-3 at halftime before the Redskins scored the only two touchdowns of the second half, missing two-point conversions each time. Down 13 with about seven minutes to play, Keenum tried a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-one at the Bears’ 16, but inside linebacker Danny Trevathan swiped the ball out of his hands. Jackson fell on it.

“You know, you get a turnover, you get a pick, you get a sack,” Trevathan said. “Kinda like Oprah.”

They weren’t the queens of daytime. Five turnovers made the Bears the kings of prime time.

They eventually added a 38-yard field goal by Eddy Pineiro, who missed an early try but made four extra points as he battled through a pinched nerve.

“The caliber of guys we have in this locker room is built for this,” Mack said. “It’s built for these moments. We want to go out and show the world every time we step out what Chicago Bears football is all about.”