Bears’ pride too much for Jets

Just for the heck of it, the Bears won 19-6 and made the Jets virtually
disappear from the AFC East Division title picture.

There was nothing in the cards for the Bears but pride, and it proved too much for the desperate Jets to handle. The loss knocked the Jets out of a
three-way tie for first in their division, although they can clinch a playoff spot by beating the Cleveland Browns next week.

Because it was advertised as meaningless, the Bears’ victory was as
impressive as any of their other 13 in an increasingly meaningful year. No
other Bear team has won 14 games in a season.

“That’s okay,” said coach Mike Ditka. “We’re just plugging along. We
have another one next week.”

“It was important to win just so we wouldn’t have to face the inevitable questions,” said safety Gary Fencik.

“You don’t need any motivation except pride,” said defensive lineman
Dan Hampton. “We don’t care about wins and losses. We just want to play hard and play well.”

They played smart, too, and avoided the mental mistakes on defense that
had raised questions for the last two weeks.

Four field goals by Kevin Butler of 18, 31, 37 and 21 yards and one 7-
yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jim McMahon to tight end Tim Wrightman
was luxury for this defense.

With the National Football League’s leading passer, Ken O’Brien, trying
to throw with a gusting 28-mile-an-hour wind at his back in the third quarter, end Richard Dent climbed on his back and forced two fumbles.

Dent ran starting tackle Reggie McElroy out of the game.

“I underestimated his speed on film,” McElroy said.

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Ditka said Dent reminded him of Mandrake the Magician.

“Our defense took the game away and Butler did a great job,” Ditka
said. “Dent played well, but what about Otis Wilson? What about Hampton? No
question, the weather was more in our favor because of the Jets’ passing
game.”

Earlier in that same decisive quarter, the Bears defied the wind to
complete the longest play of the game, a 65-yard swing pass to Walter Payton. It set up Butler’s second field goal, a 31-yarder that made the score 13-6.

The Jets held Payton to 53 yards on 28 carries. Eleven times, they
stopped him for losses or no gain and ended his record string of 100-yard
games at nine.

“A lot of teams try to stop the run and then we burn them on the pass,” Payton said. “I’m not disappointed at not getting 100. I’m just disappointed at the way we attacked them.”

With Payton and the offense in check, Butler did it. His second field
goal broke Mac Percival’s 1968 club record of 25. His fourth, with only 17
seconds left to play, was attempted to rub out Bob Thomas’ 1984 club record of 11 in a row, although the Jets might have thought Ditka was rubbing it in.

“We were just going for the record,” Ditka said.

Butler’s first two field goals were against the wind, which Butler
claimed was increased by friendly Jets’ attendants who raised a sliding gate
in the east end of the stadium both times he got ready to kick.

“That gate would come up and you could feel that draft come in. Home-
field advantage,” Butler said. “We’d do it, too, if we had a gate.”

Late in the third quarter, Butler turned down a chance for a 34-yard
field goal after he saw the 31-yarder barely make it over the crossbar.

“I didn’t think I could make it,” Butler said. “I didn’t want to hurt
the team then. It was almost the fourth quarter and we got two more chances.” The Bears failed to gain on fourth down and gave the Jets the ball at the 18.

“They didn’t have field position anyway,” Ditka said.

It was the fifth time the Jets had taken possession in the third quarter. Their drives were for none, six, two, four and four yards in a magnificent
display of defense.

The Jets scored on the first drive on a 55-yard field goal by Pat Leahy
to close to 10-6 and get the capacity crowd of 74,752 excited. McMahon and
Payton quieted things two plays later. Flanker Dennis McKinnon set a pick on
linebacker Lance Mehl and left him scurrying after Payton down the sidelines. The Jets chose the wind after they won the toss, but the Bears controlled the ball for 11 minutes 10 seconds, causing the strategy to backfire. When the Bears took the ball to start the third quarter, the Jets took the wind, hoping to make up the 10-3 deficit.

Wrightman had broken the 3-3 first-quarter tie on a 7-yard scoring pass,
his first in the NFL. It followed two big breaks for the Bears on the first
two plays of the second quarter.

First, officials said an apparent interception by Jets’ safety Kirk
Springs hit the ground. Then safety Lester Lyles was called for a personal
foul when the Bears failed to gain on second and 10.

The Bears were not able to run as well against the wind in the third
quarter as they were in the first because the Jets adjusted.

“They started overloading and blitzing us,” McMahon said. “Tough to
run against that.”

Several of McMahon’s passes were dropped, two by the reliable McKinnon
after the fumbles Dent caused.

“Disappointing,” Ditka said. “We were trying to catch with the body
instead of the hands.”

“No question we’ve got to play better,” McMahon said. “But under these conditions, we’ll take a win. They’re not pretty all the time, but as long as we win, who cares?”

“They were the best defense we’ve faced,” said center Jay Hilgenberg.
“We can do a lot better, though. They were just trying to stop No. 34 and
have us beat them another way. Jim made some big plays.”

A 23-yard pass to Willie Gault in the fourth quarter with the score 13-6
got the Bears out of a hole and enabled Cliff Thrift to down a punt by Maury
Buford at the 4-yard line. It set up Butler’s third field goal with 4:41 to
play.

The Bears have held 11 of 15 opponents to 10 points or less, but after
subpar performances the last two weeks, defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan
required his players to take three classroom tests on the Jets’ game plan last week. They passed the final exam in a breeze Saturday.

“Everything we did worked. They were heavily typed, but most teams we
play are,” said safety Dave Duerson. “Against Miami, we didn’t play smart.”