As the buzz began to build on the Chicago Bears sideline when they went up by two scores at Soldier Field, the players had the ultimate reminder to stay focused lurking in the back of their minds.

That 12-point lead the Bears took over the Detroit Lions at the beginning of the fourth quarter Sunday? The Lions easily overcame the same deficit in just four minutes in the teams’ last meeting on Nov. 19 at Ford Field.

“You definitely get that feeling where you’re up two scores, you’re kind of getting a little happy,” Bears defensive end Montez Sweat said. “We’re like, ‘Hold on, back up, because we just got humbled two, three weeks ago.’ So we wanted to finish on a good note this time.”

This time, the Bears’ defensive second-half performance in a 28-13 win qualified as finishing on a good note.

After falling behind 13-10 at halftime, the Bears didn’t allow the Lions a second-half point.

In seven second-half drives, the Lions and quarterback Jared Goff went three-and-out on three of them. Two ended in Bears takeaways. And the other two were turnovers on downs. That included when Sweat and Gervon Dexter shared a sack for a loss of 7 yards on third down and then Goff threw incomplete to Amon-Ra St. Brown on fourth-and-17 on the Lions’ second-to-last drive.

“The way we lost that last game in Detroit, that kind of left a bad taste in our mouths,” defensive lineman Justin Jones said. “So we came out here and knew we had to pay attention to details and make sure that we homed in on what exactly we had to do this game. We just came out with energy and played all four quarters, played 60 minutes.”

Bears coach Matt Eberflus, who is likely coaching for his job over this final stretch of the season, called the complete-game performance “proof” for players, coaches — and even fans, he said — that the team is making progress.

The defensive turnaround under Eberflus as the coordinator — with a healthier group and with Sweat rushing opposing passers — has shown up in the stats. Sunday was the second straight game and the third time in four games the Bears have held an opponent to fewer than 14 points. With three takeaways Sunday, the Bears also upped their total to 11 in three games.

And in this one, the contributions came from all over the Bears defense.

There was cornerback Jaylon Johnson’s fourth interception of the season, on a pass intended for Sam LaPorta in the second quarter.

“We saw them come back with that same route concept, where they run a three-level out route,” Johnson said. “You’ve got a short route, one in the middle and then you had a deep one. Considering the pressure, I sunk on the ball, thought I might have seen him looking toward the second one, so I just came off and I made a play.”

The Bears held LaPorta and St. Brown — the Lions’ top two targets this season — in check. LaPorta had two catches on six targets for 23 yards and St. Brown had three catches on nine targets for 21 yards. Goff threw for just 161 yards, and the Lions netted 267.

There were a handful of big plays by Bears linebackers, including Tremaine Edmunds’ interception of Goff to seal the game with 2 minutes, 39 seconds to play in the fourth quarter. It was the Bears’ ninth interception in the last three games — and fifth against Goff this season.

T.J. Edwards got in on the Bears’ takeaway party with his third in three games. He recovered a fumbled snap between center Graham Glasgow and Goff late in the third quarter, and the Bears went up by 12 points five plays later on Justin Fields’ 11-yard touchdown run.

Jack Sanborn had another drive-ending play in the second half when he and Tyrique Stevenson stopped Jahmyr Gibbs for a loss of 4 yards on fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter.

“That was a call we really liked in that situation,” Eberflus said. “It’s kind of a slanting line. We actually end up slanting right into it.”

There were safety Jaquan Brisker’s 17 tackles, of which Eberflus said, “Isn’t that crazy? Sounds like my college stats for crying out loud.”

Brisker, who also had two passes defended and a forced fumble, said “it felt like five or six for real.”

“I was just trying to stay focused every single play, just trying to focus on one single play at a time,” he added.

And there were the Bears’ four sacks of Goff, including three in a span of six plays during two fourth-quarter drives, starting with the Sweat and Dexter sack. Then on the Lions’ last drive, Sweat and Jones combined for a sack for a loss of 10 yards and Jones had another two plays later for a loss of 9 yards.

That pushed the Lions into the fourth-and-long situation that resulted in Edmunds’ interception.

“I would just say we found our swagger,” Jones said. “They came out with looks that were different from what we practiced all week. So we had to come out in halftime and adjust to it. … We adjusted to it pretty good.”

Eberflus also complimented the Bears’ halftime routine to make adjustments after they allowed the Lions to score two second-quarter touchdowns for the halftime lead.

“Our coaches do an unbelievable job getting the pictures right. They’re all drawn up. It’s like looking at a playbook,” Eberflus said. “They do a great job making the adjustments, and we all gather together. Everybody is sitting in there, we talk about what happened, where were the breakdowns, and then what are we going to do going forward, and what’s going to be the calls, and I tell them how we’re going to adjust, what we’re going to do differently on third down in situations.”

Eberflus called the Bears’ performance and two-game winning streak against two NFC North teams “a big deal,” especially because his team won the turnover margin and finished in the fourth quarter.

But Bears players also seemed to be grounded in not getting too high over back-to-back wins.

“It’s a great divisional win, but we didn’t do nothing yet,” Brisker said. “The defense has to get better. We’re 5-8 right now. We have to find a way to keep stacking them one game at a time, one day at a time.”

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The events of Oct. 7 and the war that has followed, at an incomprehensible scale of civilian violence and death, is devastating. This war so far away feels palpably close to us all and has shaken our community to its core.

For us as women, there has been an additional aspect of the attacks on Oct. 7 that has felt like a double assault: the systemic rape of women and girls by Hamas terrorists and the lack of response from the world.

Sexual and gender-based violence is horrific, with emotional wounds that linger well beyond the physical wounds. The healing process for the survivors of the Oct. 7 assaults begins with being heard and believed. We cannot overstate the importance of supporting these women, like we would all survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

We recoiled when reading about Shani Louk, a 23-year-old German Israeli, who can be seen in a Hamas-made video, semiconscious and half-naked, being taken to Gaza in the back of a pickup truck with men sitting astride her. Another video shows a woman being led out of a vehicle by heavily armed men, her wrists and ankles sliced open and her jeans bloodied at the crotch. First responders have recounted finding dead Israeli women with unmistakable evidence of rape and mutilation.

Our heartbreak is not only that these brutal sexual assaults were perpetrated against these women and girls, but that so many international women’s organizations and leaders remained silent about it for too long. That is why this has felt like a double assault.

We ask that all people of goodwill acknowledge this assault, horror and heartbreak. Your bearing witness matters. Speaking in solidarity supports survivors to describe the horrors they endured without fear. When survivors believe they will not be believed or that the crime will be minimized, many will not speak up for fear of retraumatization.

Speaking in solidarity, we bring attention to the urgent need to release all hostages still being held in Gaza, including those who endured or witnessed sexual and gender-based crimes — enabling them to receive the vital physical and emotional medical care that they are currently being denied.

Speaking in solidarity, we increase pressure on organizations to condemn and sanction the perpetrators, which helps prevent the recurrence of these severe violations of international law and fundamental morality.

As so many know firsthand, sexual and gender-based violence can be devastating, and the shame lingers well beyond the physical wounds. By speaking in solidarity, we enable the survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and their families — and the families of the victims who did not survive, like Louk — to feel the support they need to help them begin to heal.

We can join with grassroots efforts in Israel and elsewhere, such as the Deborah Institute, which has launched the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children. This unique and all-too-rare collaboration of international human rights experts and women’s rights organizations was created to gather Oct. 7 testimony, evidence and advocacy and to provide expert advice.

As the Jewish community celebrates Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, we are reminded that even a small flame can dispel the darkness. In that spirit, may we come together to kindle flames of hope for the world we all share, and the type of world we hope to create, together.

Rabbi Shoshanah Conover is senior rabbi at Temple Sholom in Chicago and Rabbi Wendi Geffen is the senior rabbi at North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe. They wrote this column for the Chicago Tribune.

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This year’s MLB winter meetings are unlike any other Chris Getz has attended in the past.

“It’s different in the sense I’m running the meetings and having the direct conversations with other clubs and agents,” Getz said Monday at the Opryland Resort.

This is Getz’s first winter meetings since becoming the general manager for the Chicago White Sox. He was the team’s assistant general manager/player development before taking over as the GM on Aug. 31.

“More than anything, you’re just trying to find ways to get better with your club, regardless of what role you’re in,” he said.

The Sox are one of the teams to monitor at the winter meetings as they come off a 101-loss season. There are holes to fill and some players currently on the roster have been mentioned in trade speculation.

The one name that keeps popping up in that chatter is pitcher Dylan Cease.

“There’s certainly no urgency to move Dylan Cease,” Getz said. “And just like I’ve said from the beginning, if there’s an opportunity to help our club both near term and long term, we’ll look at it. But we’re talking about one of the best pitchers in baseball. There’s a responsibility for your organization, for the Chicago White Sox, to do what’s best for them.

“Dylan’s a star in our game. There’s no real reason to come here and expect us to move a Dylan Cease, but if a team brings something that meets a threshold that we feel we’ve just gotten a lot better, then we’re going to do that.”

Getz said there’s typically “a pace to these things.”

“I’ll continue to take the calls and certainly compare different opportunities for, perhaps, getting better,” he said. “The starting pitching market is always an area in which teams are looking to dive into to improve their club, and Dylan’s right at the top.”

With or without Cease, pitching is an area for the Sox to focus on.

“There’s different ways to go about it,” Getz said of addressing the pitching needs. “It could be a veteran. It could be a young player ready to break into the big leagues. We were fortunate to acquire some arms at the (trade) deadline. We’ve done a pretty good job recently with drafting and developing some of these arms that are pushing toward the top of the minor leagues.

“We are having a lot of conversations with both teams and agents that either have starting pitching and looking to move in deals, but also certainly talking to agents as well for guys who can cover innings for us.”

The Sox added pitchers Michael Soroka and Jared Shuster last month as part of the six-player trade that sent reliever Aaron Bummer to the Atlanta Braves.

They also acquired infielder Nicky Lopez in that deal and later added more defensive help by signing shortstop Paul DeJong to a one-year deal.

The Sox will continue what Getz said could appropriately be phrased as a “retool.”

“I say that because we do have talent on this roster,” Getz said. “Obviously, it hasn’t worked, so you’ve got to be creative and find ways to improve it. Whether it be, we talk about the makeup and the chemistry of the team or certainly add depth or acquire players who are flat-out better. We are on a pursuit to improve this team and there are different ways to go about it.”

Generally speaking, there isn’t an urgency for specific accomplishments this week, “other than the fact that we want to continue to use the momentum that we’ve already gained here in the offseason from the Aaron Bummer trade and look for opportunities and if we feel like there’s something to really act on, we’ll go ahead and do that,” Getz said.

There’s plenty of time — and work to be done — before pitchers and catchers report in February.

“Every day you wake up, you’re looking to better your club and quite honestly I’m obsessed with that,” Getz said. “Talk about winter meetings and accomplishing something while we’re here, it’s possible. We’ve got months before we get to spring training and we’re going to look for every opportunity to improve the club. There are different ways to go about that.

“We need to fill out a rotation, and to feel good about it. We need to have depth underneath it. The bullpen, you’ve got to have depth, both at Double A, Triple A that are, what you’re hoping for is knocking at the door to become an option at some point. The defense, improving the catching position and maximizing that area along with other areas around the diamond. We have time and I look forward to continuing to get back to work and finding ways to improve this.”

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