The Bengals defense finished Thursday's joint practice with the Bears the same way it has been trying to finish games: with a takeaway. In two last-minute drills, the Bengals forced interceptions, and Dexter Lawrence II played a central role in both sequence-ending plays.
Lawrence tipped a screen pass to himself on one rep and later pressured Caleb Williams into an interception on another, giving the Bengals a clean late-practice finish against a Bears offense that has given them problems before. The work came with a little extra context, too. Last November at Paycor Stadium, the Bengals lost to the Bears after they could not hold a one-point lead with 54 seconds left.
A different finish from the Bengals defense
Demetrius Knight Jr. said the Bears game helped change the way the defense approached those moments. “After the Bears game, we started to learn how to finish as a defense,” he said, adding that the group has been shaped by that experience and the work that followed. “We got closer. We got forged in the fire, and they brought more pieces to that fire. We're starting to see the product of our hard work.”
That progress showed up in the final drills Thursday. The Bengals had 283 rushing yards in last year's meeting with Chicago, but this time Ted Karras said the defensive front validated the work the team has been putting in. “Our defensive line validated what's been a hard month for us,” he said. “It's been back and forth. That's a real unit over there.”
Jordan Battle also pointed to improvement against the run, even if the Bengals were not perfect. “I thought we played the perimeter runs better,” he said. “We let a couple get out. They had some big runs. But I think for the most part we played it better.”
Why the practice mattered
The setting was only a joint practice, but the stakes were easy to understand. The Bears offered a playoff-level opponent in a controlled environment, and the Bengals' ability to create turnovers late is the kind of detail that can carry over into the regular season. Thursday's finish also gave a useful look at a revamped defensive front, with Caleb Williams and the Bears testing it in the kind of situations where execution matters most.
Amarius Mims singled out rookie Cashius Howell for his play, saying, “Cashius was making some grown-man plays.” He added that Howell looked unusually advanced for a first-year defender: “He's the least like a rookie player I've seen on defense since I've been here (three years). A grown man.”
For the Bengals, the larger takeaway was not just the interceptions. It was the way they came at the end, in the pressure moments the defense had to learn from last season. After allowing an average of 16 points over their final eight games, the Bengals appear to be carrying that lesson into August. Thursday's final drills suggested the finishing problem is starting to look more like a strength.
