Arguably, the best time of the year in Chicago is the summer months, and in August, the Chicago Bears show glimpses of their potential during training camp. Like the last few offseason, there has been much hype ahead of the regular season, but it has never translated, leading to six consecutive seasons without a winning record.

Just three weeks away from the start of the regular season, the new-look Bears, under head coach Ben Johnson, had their second joint practice of the preseason against the Buffalo Bills. Unlike the team’s fast and dominant start a week ago in their joint practice against the Miami Dolphins, the Bills presented a more challenging test for the Bears. However, Chicago still showed plenty of positives from Friday’s practice.

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Dennis Allen’s defense was easily one of the highlights during Friday’s practice. Coming away with three interceptions against MVP quarterback Josh Allen was a telling sign of what the Bears plan to do on defense this season.

After intercepting Tua Tagovailoa in the last week’s joint practice, Chicago’s defense replicated those same takeaways, and did much more to disrupt Allen the Bills offense.

During the first-team period of practice, Allen didn’t complete a single ball to any of his receivers. Jaquan Brisker came away with deflected balls on the first two pass attempts. On the third play, Kevin Byard, on a deep ball contested Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid, and ripped the ball away coming up with the interception.

Chicago’s second interception of the day came from Nahshon Wright, who, after spending time with Bears defensive backs coach Al Harris in Dallas, has caught the attention of coaches. Gervon Dexter Sr. tipped the ball that landed in the hands of Wright, but it was brought back due to defensive holding.

The third and final interception against Allen came in the red zone, when Brisker once again got his hands on the ball, deflecting it to former Buffalo Bill Tremaine Edmunds. Still, like the second one, it was also taken away due to a defensive penalty.

Chicago’s hunger to take the ball away spread down to the second and third units on Friday. Defensive back Alex Cook was able to make a play, punching the ball free, which he picked up himself, racing to the end zone.

And rookie linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II continuing to impress, this time came away with an interception off of the Bills’ third-string quarterback Mike White during team drills.

Following a strong showing from the Bears’ defensive units, Edmunds took to the stand to praise Chicago and their efforts against the Bills’ starters.

“Each time you walk off the field and you make a big play like that, game-changing plays, initially you are going to think it’s good because that’s what we play the game for, to be able to set our offense up,” Edmunds said. “If I’m not mistaken, I know that we had a couple of takeaways, the defense D-line was disruptive up front. It’s a good thing; there are many positives we can take away. As it always is, there are going to be some things that we need to correct, as well.”

Other notes

Bears second-round rookie Shemar Turner suited up for the first time since day one of camp, when he injured his ankle.

And Dexter, ready to make a leap in his game in year three, was in the backfield providing pressure and had multiple batted balls during the first team reps. Veteran Grady Jarrett was also vocal at practice, trying to jump-start the second and third units.

Chicago will now be in action Sunday night at Soldier Field for the team’s second preseason game against the Bills.