The Chicago Bears held on for a 23-17 preseason victory over the Tennessee Titans on Saturday at Soldier Field.

Here are five moments that mattered as the Bears dived back into game action for the first time this summer.

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DJ Moore’s preseason introduction to Bears fans was about as good as it gets.

On the offense’s third play, the new Bears wide receiver caught a pass from Justin Fields behind the line of scrimmage, raced by blocks from Darnell Mooney, Braxton Jones and Teven Jenkins and outran three Titans players to the end zone.

The 62-yard touchdown catch was a prime example of why the Bears are excited about what Moore will bring to the offense this season.

“When you add a playmaker like that to your football team, there’s excitement,” Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. “Automatic excitement in the whole building. It doesn’t matter what side you’re playing on because you know this guy is special and he can make a lot of things happen.”

Moore’s catch, coupled with the 56-yard catch-and-run touchdown from Khalil Herbert later in the first quarter, helped Fields finish his two series 3-for-3 for 129 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Kicker Cairo Santos made three second-half field goals to carry the Bears to the win.

“When you increase your skill on your football team, the catch-and-runs get larger, and the stat line looks better,” Eberflus said.

Rookie cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, a second-round pick, said he has a date with the jugs machine after nearly picking off Will Levis’ pass intended for Colton Dowell in the first quarter.

The ball bounced off Stevenson’s hands and he settled for a pass breakup, but it was still one of several big plays for the rookie.

Later in the first half, Stevenson stopped Jonathan Ward after a catch for a loss of 3 yards. He finished with a team-high seven tackles.

“The reason he’s here is because of his length and because he’s physical,” Eberflus said. “You saw that today.”

The Bears have put Stevenson and fellow rookie Terell Smith in competition for the starting outside cornerback spot opposite Jaylon Johnson, with Kyler Gordon at nickel. But Smith sat out of practices with an undisclosed injury during the week and didn’t play, and Stevenson made an impression.

“I know as a rookie I’m going to pretty much get challenged in all phases,” Stevenson said. “I’m up for the challenge. I really have no problem with it.”

There were some mistakes. On the Titans’ first offensive play, Malik Willis hit Chris Moore for a 30-yard pass after Moore got behind Stevenson, who said he probably was too “juiced up” for the start of the game.

“Just took my eyes off my man,” Stevenson said. “Just trying to guess things and play the play before the play instead of actually looking at my keys and using my technique and everything like that.”

Stevenson also was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty late in the half on a hit on running back Julius Chestnut near the sideline. Stevenson didn’t agree with the call, but said, “I get paid to play, and they get paid to ref. … Next-play mentality.”

The question of who will be the Bears punt returner this season remains a big one after Velus Jones Jr. made a key mistake on a second-quarter punt.

Jones tried to catch the punt on the bounce, but Titans safety Mike Brown crashed into him as the football bounced out of his grasp and the Titans recovered the ball.

“It comes down to fundamentals,” Eberflus said. “It comes down to technique, and we’re going to work on that. Reading the flight of the ball, getting ourselves in position early, getting under the football and squeezing the ball down on the catch.”

It has been a troubling trend for Jones. In the span of three weeks last season, Jones muffed two late punts against the New York Giants and Washington Commanders.

Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said earlier in the week that Jones has made improvements in tracking punts in practices, getting to his spot quicker and looking more relaxed as the football came down.

Jones had one 7-yard return on a first-quarter punt. Rookie Tyler Scott, who didn’t do punt returns in college, had one for 9 yards and also one 13-yard kickoff return. Nsimba Webster had a 15-yard punt return. Dante Pettis, who filled the role at times last season, just came off the non-football injury list this week and didn’t play in the game.

Rookie defensive tackle Zacch Pickens sat at his locker, still in uniform, talking on the phone to his mom. She tries to be at every game, but when she’s not, he makes sure to call her.

“She was just happy for me,” he said.

Pickens, a Bears third-round pick this spring, had a memorable NFL debut to discuss, with a sack, a fumble recovery and four tackles.

On third-and-9 on the Titans’ second drive, Pickens pushed through two offensive linemen to take down Levis. Pickens said it’s “been a minute” since he last got a sack.

Later in the first half, when pass rusher Terrell Lewis had a strip-sack of Willis, Pickens jumped on the ball for the takeaway.

“We’ve been trying to get myself ready for this moment, and I was definitely ready for the moment,” Pickens said.

The Bears, worst in the league last year in sacks, had eight sacks Saturday — two from Lewis, 1 1/2 from Jalen Harris, one each from Pickens, Trevis Gipson, Noah Sewell and Micah Baskerville and a half from Travis Bell.

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Running back Khalil Herbert already had sprinted more than 50 yards after catching a short pass from Fields in the first quarter. All that was left was 5 yards — and three would-be tacklers to get by.

Herbert shook off the three tackle attempts to finish the 56-yard touchdown catch — and avoid a Bears no-no.

“If we break a run, and you get tackled in the 5, you’ve got to pay a fine,” Herbert said. “So that was definitely on my mind. Didn’t want to pay that fine.”

The Bears didn’t re-sign running back David Montgomery in the offseason, leaving Herbert as the top returnee, and he made good in his first showing in that role. Herbert received the first-team reps, followed by newcomer D’Onta Foreman.

Herbert finished with four carries for 15 yards to go with his big catch, while Foreman had three carries for 9 yards.

“It was real nice, just being able to go out there and execute, make big plays,” Herbert said. “We try to do that a lot in our offense, make some explosives. And I feel like we’ve got a bunch of guys who can do it.”