Chicago Bears: Your Week 12 awards that are totally real and sincere

You’d be hard-pressed to find a play that exemplifies why this defense is so terrifying and fun more than his game-turning pick-six. 

Before you go any further into this, you should probably watch it.

The best part is the all-22 replay. Jackson is moving before Matthew Stafford is two steps into his drop. Sure, his assignment is the tight end, and he’s supposed to get to him as quickly as possible. But it’s more than that.

Because Eddie Jackson knows that the Bears are going to get home on this blitz, just like their defensive backs know their defensive line is going to get to the quarterback most plays, he knows there are only one or two places the tight end can go. He snakes through traffic like Jaws.

You could see it live when you were watching at home. There’s a white flash across the left side of your screen that you immediately know is heading toward the football. And you can calculate based on the speed of both that he’s going to easily get you there.

And if you’re me or many other Bears fans, the rate of that white flash moving across your screen was proportional to the rate of you getting off the couch or chair. You were drawn to it without thinking about it. By the time Jackson got his hands on the ball, you were already standing, pulled there by his anticipation and yours.

It’s easy to forget now how itchy the game was at that moment. The Bears offense had stalled out, the game was tied, and if there’s one thing Stafford has done enough over the years to scare you is come up with a fourth-quarter drive to win games. There’s a reason he has to bring them from behind so much, but he does it enough that you weren’t comfortable.

And with one quick read and dash, Jackson put everyone at ease for another two weeks (because who is going to worry about the Giants?)