Minkah Fitzpatrick Finally Ends the Jets' Interception Drought — and the Bears Win Anyway, 23-12

CHICAGO — The New York Jets have an interception. Let that sink in for a second. For the first time in 20 games — an NFL record — for the first time since the final weekend of the 2024 season, a Jets defender came down with an opponent's pass. Minkah Fitzpatrick stepped in front of Tyson Bagent early in the second quarter Sunday at Soldier Field, and for one shining moment, the most snakebitten takeaway drought in modern league history was over.

Then the Bears went back to running the Jets off the field. Chicago won 23-12 in a game that wasn't nearly as close as the score, outgaining New York 492-157 and piling up 34 first downs to the Jets' seven. The drought is dead. The losing isn't.

The play itself was a beauty. About three minutes into the second quarter, with Chicago leading 7-0, Bagent targeted tight end Colston Loveland — and Fitzpatrick, reading the quarterback's eyes the whole way, drove on the in-breaking route at his own 39, snagged it, and returned it 27 yards before tight end Sam Roush shoved him out of bounds. It was Fitzpatrick's 22nd career interception, and his first game back since leaving the season opener with a groin injury. “Receiver kind of stuttered at the top of his route, so I knew it was most likely running an in-breaking route,” Fitzpatrick said afterward. “Quarterback was looking my way, so I just, I drove it.”

Here's the cruelest part: it could have ended so much sooner. The Jets have now had three interceptions wiped out by penalties in this stretch of misery — a would-be pick earlier Sunday erased by a flag on cornerback Azareye'h Thomas, Brandon Stephens' fourth-quarter interception nullified because Demario Davis jumped offsides on a free play, and rookie D'Angelo Ponds' would-be first career pick erased by a holding call. Twelve penalties for 76 yards on the day, against four for 29 on Chicago. This team keeps finding new and creative ways to hand the football right back.

And that's really what the drought said about this defense. Twenty consecutive games without a defensive interception. Six hundred thirty-six opposing pass attempts. The first pick of the Aaron Glenn era, in his second season on the job, and it took a future Hall of Fame safety playing his first game in a month to get it. As one takeaway column put it this afternoon: let's find one good thing — an interception happened. When a single takeaway is the highlight of your October, the problem was never just the takeaways.

The rest of Sunday was a demolition wearing a close-ish final score. Chicago's opening drive went 93 yards in 14 plays, and D'Andre Swift appeared to score on fourth-and-goal — until replay showed his elbow was down after Brandon Stephens' tackle. No matter: Kyle Monangai punched it in from the goal line moments later for a 7-0 lead. After Fitzpatrick's pick, Jason Sanders drilled a 36-yard field goal to make it 7-3, and that was New York's entire first-half output. Cairo Santos answered with 30-yarders to make it 10-3 and then 13-3 at the half, and after Sanders opened the second half with a 30-yard field goal of his own, Chicago simply pulled away.

The quarterback contrast was the story within the story. Bagent — the former Shepherd University star making his first start since 2023 with Caleb Williams sidelined by a hamstring injury — went 25-of-34 for 268 yards and looked completely in command. Geno Smith went 8-of-15 for 119 yards, managing one late touchdown pass to Isaiah Williams long after the outcome was decided. The Bears ran it 29 times for 112 yards in the first half alone; Monangai finished with 146 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Braelon Allen managed 59 yards on 14 carries filling in for the injured Breece Hall, which tells you everything about how the afternoon went in the trenches.

So here's where the Jets stand: 1-3, outgained by 335 yards by a team starting its backup quarterback, and celebrating a moral victory that arrived 20 games late. Fitzpatrick himself wasn't in a celebrating mood. “I don't think we did anything well that we wanted to do well,” he said, which is about as honest as a postgame podium gets. He's right. A defense that finally forced a takeaway still surrendered 492 yards. The interception drought was a symptom, not the disease — and one pick doesn't cure a team getting bullied at the line of scrimmage.

The Bears, meanwhile, are 3-1 and very much alive in the NFC North without their starting quarterback — a sentence nobody had on their Week 4 bingo card. For the Jets, the only real consolation is that Fitzpatrick is healthy again, and this defense finally remembers what an interception feels like. Now it has to remember what winning feels like. See how the rest of the league's early window shook out in our NFL Week 4 Sunday takeaways — including the Patriots' classic win over the Bills, the Cowboys' shootout with the Texans, and the 49ers grinding past the Broncos.