Chicago Bears: Khalil Mack wreaked havoc on Tom Brady

Khalil Mack and the Chicago Bears defense applied constant pressure on Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady during Thursday’s win.

During their Thursday Night Football matchup, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive line had absolutely no answer for the Chicago Bears vaunted pass rush and Khalil Mack.

It was that constant, in-your-face pressure that left Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady shaking his head in disbelief at one point while picking himself up off the turf.

The big reason for Brady’s constant headache was Mack and the game-changing pressure he applied in the passing game. During the matchup, the Bears pass-rusher sacked Brady twice, had three quarterback hits, and manhandled Tampa Bay offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs by throwing the rookie over his hip following a sack during the third quarter.

“I just know that we smelled a little blood in the water,” Mack said after Chicago’s win.

Brady, the 43-year-old quarterback, looked to be completely discombobulated at times. The quality of play from his protection unit was less-than-impressive as it included multiple missed assignments and penalty offenses during the second half of the Bucs’ 20-19 loss to the Bears at Soldier Field. The last time Brady faced this much pressure in a single game dates back to 2017.

According to Next Gen Stats, Mack and Chicago defender Robert Quinn, along with the rest of the Bears defense, were a nightmare for Brady on a regular basis all evening long. In total, the unit managed to apply pressure on the future Hall-of-Fame signal-caller during 43.2 percent of his dropbacks.

Mack led the way and applied six pressures to go with his pair of sacks on 34 pass rush attempts (17.6 percent). Meanwhile, Quinn was able to apply constant pressure from the opposite end of the defensive line (17.9 percent). As a result, the ageless Brady was unable to mobilize Tampa Bay’s passing game during the second half of the loss.

Following their win over the Bucs, Mack said Chicago’s defense was a “special group,” and that “they love that pressure, man. It clicked tonight like I knew it would. It clicked at the right time. It was a beautiful thing to see going up against (Brady) one of the best ever.”

The pocket collapsed around Brady on what seemed to be nearly every play. The six-time Super Bowl champion was clearly frustrated, as he was sacked for a loss three times, while also being hit often for a total of eight times.

The frequent pressure by Mack and the Bears defense lasted all the way until the final drive, where Brady was caught on camera displaying a look of confusion and waving four fingers in the air following Tampa Bay’s final offensive drive where the unit turned the ball over on downs. The elder player seemed to have forgotten that it was already fourth down.

Following the game, Brady’s dialogue with journalists focused on the mental lapse and the Bucs’ lack of execution on offense. “We just had some negative plays in the second half,” Brady said, “when you get behind in down and distance, that’s not where you want to be. So we all have to do a better job.

This isn’t any one position. This isn’t any one player. This is a teamwide thing that we all got to collectively learn each other quickly and make improvements quickly. We all have to do a better job.”