CHICAGO — Lovie Smith saw a familiar sight on his return to Soldier Field on Sunday. The problem was, this time he was on the wrong side of it.

Smith, the coach who led the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl in 2006 and built a dominating defense that was known for forcing turnovers, is now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach. Since he was fired following the 2012 season, the Bears’ defense has gone from one of the best in the NFL to one of the worst.

Nonetheless, at least for a day, Chicago played defense like it used to.

The Bears, who had just 14 takeaways in 10 games, took the ball from the Buccaneers four times — including three times on consecutive possessions in the third quarter. That was the difference in the Bears’ 21-13 victory over the Buccaneers.

Chicago’s last two touchdowns, both scored on short runs by running back Matt Forte, followed takeaways on successive Tampa Bay offensive plays. The two touchdown drives totaled just 28 yards and five plays.

In fact, the Bears were held to a season low 204 yards total offense but nonetheless won their second straight game — both by the same score and both after trailing 10-0 — to move within a game of .500 and facing a critical Thanksgiving Day matchup at Detroit.

“Defense won the game today,” said Bears quarterback Jay Cutler.

Cutler had one of his poorer games, completing 17 of 27 passes for 130 yards, but he was much better than his former backup, Bucs quarterback Josh McCown, who frequently seemed totally unaware of backside pressure, overthrew open receivers, and wound up getting sacked five times, throwing two interceptions and fumbling twice, losing one.

McCown led the Buccaneers to a first-quarter touchdown and a field goal just before halftime for a 10-0 lead; Chicago went scoreless in the first quarter for the sixth game in a row.

“Marc (Trestman, the Chicago coach) challenged us, and the players challenged each other (at halftime),” Cutler said. “We knew if we continued down this road, we were going to lose.”

“Verbally, we questioned guys … and made sure when we left the locker room, everybody’s minds were on what we were trying to accomplish.”

Trestman admitted the Bears “were very fortunate” to start the second half with only a 10-0 deficit.

What the Bears said:

“It was certainly not the way we want to start offensively (but) we’ll take the win.” — Coach Marc Trestman.

“We all took our turns messing up and we had to find a way to come together, and that’s what we did.” — Offensive tackle Jermon Bushrod.

What the Bucs said:

“We (shut the Bears down) for the first half. We have to do it the whole game. We didn’t do it enough. We have to be more consistent and do it the entire game.” — Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

“It’s tough to win football games when you lose the turnover ratio.” — Coach Lovie Smith.

What we learned about the Bears:

1. If nothing else, Chicago appears able to control teams with poor quarterbacks. Last week it was Minnesota and rookie Teddy Bridgewater, this time it was the Bucs and Josh McCown. In their last two games against established NFL starters, the Bears were torched for more than 50 points by Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.

2. Some of the young players on the defense may be showing signs of stirring. Although the Bears lost rookie cornerback Kyle Fuller, their top draft pick, at halftime with a minor knee injury, they got two sacks and frequent pressure from fourth-year defensive tackle Stephen Paea, who also forced a fumble, and they got sacks from second-year defensive linemen David Bass and Cornelius Washington. Para credited teammates for pressure on his sacks, saying, “Those O-lines, sometimes they don’t even look at me.”

–RB Matt Forte may be one of the most underrated players in the NFL and perhaps the best player on the Chicago roster. He carried 23 times for 89 yards rushing and caught a team-high five passes for 23 yards. Forte now has 1,532 yards from scrimmage, on a pace to finish with 2,228. No Bears player ever has gained 2,000 yards from scrimmage in a season.

–DT Stephen Paea now has six sacks, matching his career total for three previous seasons in the NFL.

–With one interception apiece in the third quarter, SS Ryan Mundy and FS Chris Conte now have three apiece, tying CB Kyle Fuller for the team lead.

What we learned about the Bucs:

1. Josh McCown was a good backup quarterback for the Bears who filled in admirably for an injured Jay Cutler last year, but he is in over his head as a regular starter. It was painful to watch McCown frequently unaware that a big defensive lineman was chasing him, ultimately to catch him and a couple of times to force fumbles on sacks.

2. There is some good young talent if the Bucs can get the quarterback issue solved. McCown couldn’t get the ball often enough to rookie wideout Mike Evans but rookie Charles Sims showed some flashes running with the ball.

–WRs Wideouts Louis Murphy and Vincent Jackson both exceeded 100 yards receiving against the Bears. Murphy’s 113 yards on six catches was nearly half his season’s previous total of 242 yards receiving. Jackson had five catches for 117 yards.

–DT Gerald McCoy is a load in the middle of the line and he was a disruptive force in the first quarter while the Bucs were making three sacks, one which was his.

–Rookie WR Mike Evans is tough to cover. But he managed only three catches (including one touchdown) for 47 yards even though Josh McCown threw to him 11 times, largely because too many of the passes were either too high or too low.