In an up-and-down season, the Bears came to last Sunday’s game with an opportunity to define themselves once and for all. On the strength of an impressive upset of the Miami Dolphins the week before, the Bears had gotten themselves to 6-4, tied for second in the Central Division of the National Football Conference, a game behind the Minnesota Vikings. The day’s opponents, the Lions, were no great shakes as a football team–their record stood even at 5-5–but they had beaten the Bears in Detroit, and given the National Football League’s tendency toward parity (read mediocrity), the football gods seemed to desire an outcome that would leave both teams at 6-5 and confirm them as middle-of-the-pack also-rans with an outside chance to embarrass themselves in the playoffs.
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We gathered with good friends Mark and the Boomer to watch the game against the Dolphins–really, to bury the Bears’ hopes for the season. Sure the Bears were 5-4, and sure they were 4-0 under quarterback Steve Walsh, but of their five wins two were against the woeful Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and of the other three only an upset of the Buffalo Bills (who clearly had underestimated the Bears and got caught with their pants down) had any sort of merit at all. The Bears, even if they could back into the playoffs, looked like fodder for some true Super Bowl team. The Dolphins, on the other hand, were 7-2, one of the best teams in the American Football Conference, banged up a bit but still with a strong defense and Dan Marino at quarterback.
Last season the Bears surprised some teams almost as good as the Dolphins, but they did so by deceit. They’d play a muddled game, fall behind, lull the other team to sleep, and hang around in hopes of stealing the victory at the end. Against the Dolphins, however, the Bears stole the game early and then guarded the victory with determination–a completely different and far more respectable approach.
It was, we have to admit, an ugly, ugly play. Yet it gave the Bears the lead, and they guarded it with all the ferocity of a dog defending a stinky old urine-soaked chew toy from its master. The Dolphins drove on a couple of occasions, but the Bears held them to field goals both times to maintain a 7-6 lead at the half. Then the Bears marched for a legitimate touchdown at a critical juncture in the third quarter to seize a 14-6 lead. Marino, however, not only drove the Dolphins for a touchdown, but added a two-point conversion to tie the score more than midway through the fourth quarter. It was then Walsh rallied the Bears anew and marched them downfield for a field goal. When Marino quickly brought the Dolphins back in the final minute, a potentially game-tying field goal was blocked by the Bears’ 6- foot-7 tackle James “Big Cat” Williams. The Bears had knocked off one of the main contenders for the Super Bowl–on the road, yet.
The second time the Bears had the ball, they nibbled the Lions to death. They threw short passes in the flat to spread out the Detroit linebackers, then ran it up the middle to exploit the Lions’ three-man front. It was like those moments in the Three Stooges when Moe hits Curly in the stomach, then pokes him in the eyes, hits him in the stomach, pokes him in the eyes. The long drive ended with a Bears touchdown early in the second quarter.
Then came the razzle-dazzle. Abramowicz had noticed that the Lions like to pull their kick-return blockers back into a knot in the center of the field, the better to spring Gray free. It’s one of the things Abramowicz no doubt discovered when studying the films of Gray’s touchdown return in the earlier Detroit game. The Lions’ formation leaves them open to an onside kick, and that’s just what the Bears did, recovering the ball on their own 42 yard line with little difficulty. Walsh marched the team downfield again, but as they were nibbling on the Lions with crisp runs and short passes he went to the very same long pass he’d tried before, this time to Jeff Graham. Blades couldn’t get over in time, Graham caught it in stride, and he coasted into the end zone.
