Matt Forte has hailed his side's defense for keeping the Chicago Bears in the match against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following a poor first-half display from their offense.

The Bears were down 10-0 to the Buccaneers at Soldier Field due to mistakes made on the offensive side of the ball, but their defense restricted the visitors to just one touchdown and a field goal.

Jay Cutler and Forte rallied the offense in the second half to rally Marc Trestman's men to a 21-13 victory.

"Basically at half time coach was telling us that basically we just played the worst half of football and we're only down 10 to nothing," Forte told reporters.

"Our defense definitely kept us in the game with that. We can't come out and lay an egg in the first half and expect to come from behind all the time. Luckily it was only 10 points.

"Our defense did a great job in the second half causing turnovers that we could convert into touchdowns down in the red zone. Our defense did a great job doing that and helped us win the game."

The Bears are 5-6 in their season following their win over the Buccaneers.