Asked about the sack he didn’t have, Chicago Bears defensive end Montez Sweat couldn’t help but chuckle in his deep, baritone laugh.

“That’s the difference between being good and great,” Sweat said.

On the play, early in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s win over Pittsburgh, Sweat sidestepped an attempted block from the running back — who frankly was no match one-on-one for the 6-foot-6, 270-pound Sweat — and zeroed in on Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph.

Sweat placed two hands across Rudolph’s hips and looked like he had a sure sack, what would’ve been his third of the game. Sweat spun to the ground and somehow Rudolph twisted out of his grasp and lofted an incompletion out of bounds.

“It would have been my first hat trick,” Sweat said. “Maybe we can try again next game.”

Nobody is blaming Sweat for not cashing in on the hat trick. He had two sacks in the game, including a game-changing strip sack in the second half that he himself recovered and wound up leading to a Bears touchdown a short while later.

Bears defensive end Montez Sweat, right, closes in on Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph in the fourth quarter at Soldier Field on Nov. 23, 2025, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Sunday marked his sixth game with two or more sacks in his seven-year NFL career, and his first since he had a career-high 2 1/2 sacks against the Cleveland Browns in 2023, not long after the Bears traded to acquire him.

Coach Ben Johnson awarded Sweat with one of two game balls in the locker room after Sunday’s victory. Sweat now has 7 1/2 sacks on the season, including 6 1/2 of those over the last six games.

“He’s been heating up since the bye week,” Johnson said. “You just feel it each week. He seems to impact the game a little more each week.”

Sweat had just one sack over the first five games of the season. Johnson is right, his top pass rusher is heating up.

Sweat leads the Bears with 30 quarterback pressures, according to NFL Pro. His 11% pressure rate is second among Bears defensive linemen with enough snaps to qualify, behind only defensive tackle Gervon Dexter’s 11.5%.

It’s notable that his 11% pressure rate is actually Sweat’s lowest since 2021. He pressured the QB 14.7% of the time last season. Perhaps what’s most remarkable about Sweat’s recent success is that he’s capitalizing on his chances even when there haven’t been a lot of chances. Prior to the Steelers game, he had gone four straight games with a pressure rate below 10%. He still cashed in on 3 1/2 sacks over that four-game stretch.

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Against Rudolph and the Steelers, his pressure rate jumped to 16%. Johnson said Sweat isn’t doing anything different, he’s just taking advantage when he sees a chance. Defensive tackle Grady Jarrett feels that, too.

“I think just being in the right place, man,” Jarrett said. “Playing hard. I think another thing that helps him when he makes those nice, big plays, he’s able to make them outside of the pocket because of his crazy athleticism, man. So fast, to be that big and the quarterback’s thinking they’re going to get away from him and he’s just going to hawk them down. Super impressive to see.”

Sweat has been a big reason why the Bears are now in the midst of their second four-game win streak of the season. They’ve won eight of their last nine games. They are 6-1 in one-score games.

“We take a lot of pride in it,” Sweat said of winning close games. “We understand that that’s not necessarily been the story around here in the past years I have been here. We are creating a history of competing in these close games. We feel pretty comfortable in it. We know when we are down or it’s a close game that we are still in the fight. I feel that coming from all phases, we’re still fighting.”

Sweat is heating up at the right time. The Bears have a pivotal stretch coming up with five of their final six games against teams that are currently holding onto a playoff spot or just outside the wild-card picture.

That includes Friday’s matchup against the defending Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles, who for years have had one of the best offensive lines in football.

Ben Johnson: No injury updates on Monday

Johnson did not provide any injury updates on Monday. Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson (hip) and linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II (shoulder) exited Sunday’s game with injuries and did not return. The Bears will release their first injury report of the week on Tuesday.

It remains uncertain if cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon will be activated off injured reserve ahead of the Eagles game.

Bears make several practice squad transactions

The Bears placed tight end Nikola Kalinic on the practice squad injured list. The team called up Kalinic from the practice squad for the Steelers game and he played 16 snaps on special teams. That was Kalinic’s first appearance for the Bears this season.

Additionally, the Bears signed linebacker Dominique Hampton, tight end Qadir Ismail and defensive end Jeremiah Martin to their practice squad Monday.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/24/chicago-bears-pittsburgh-steelers-montez-sweat/