outkicking and outblocking the Los Angeles Raiders 6-3 Sunday.
It meant they will open the National Football Conference playoffs Jan. 9
or 10 in Soldier Field against either New Orleans or Washington.
“I don’t know how pretty it was; I really don’t care,” said coach Mike
Ditka. “I liked what I saw. We’ll probably go into the playoffs as the weak
sister. Let people think what they want. Somebody’s got to come through
Chicago, and we’ll be ready for them.”
After two losses, the Bears were happy to regain their balance any way
they could, even if it meant using the pathetic arm of Marc Wilson and erratic leg of Chris Bahr as handrails.
Wilson fell all over himself to make sure the Bears will open the
playoffs at home. Brigham Young quarterbacks always seem to do wonders for the Bears’ confidence.
The revamped Bears defense sacked Wilson eight times and halfback Marcus
Allen once when he tried to pass. But if Wilson had been a fish, the Bears
would have been ridiculed by 78,019 chuckling Coliseum fans into throwing him back.
Kevin Butler outkicked Bahr 2-1, the winning field goal coming from 30
yards with 4:56 to play after Ditka decided to pass up an 18-yarder for
unknown reasons in the third quarter of a 3-3 standoff.
In the first half, Bahr made one from 48 yards after Dan Hampton got a
hand on it. The Raiders must have decided it was a good idea, so Bahr tried to richochet two more off Hampton and Al Harris and failed. They both got a hand on one from 44 yards, and Hampton batted another away from 46 before the Bears drove 60 yards for the winner.
With the new defense shutting down the Raider receivers and pressuring
Wilson without many blitzes, end Richard Dent got 31/2 sacks, tackle Steve
McMichael 3, tackle Hampton 11/2 and strong safety Dave Duerson 1.
The apparently confused Wilson surrendered whenever he saw white, but
“gimme” sacks count, too. Dent got at least two of his sacks when the
inside rush of McMichael and Hampton flushed Wilson out of the pocket.
“Marc doesn’t move around as well as Elway or some of the others,”
Ditka conceded.
“He was a scared puppy all day,” Duerson said.
Since Wilson makes $1 million a year and Raider owner Al Davis is a
genius, the Bears didn’t mind winning.
“Like Davis says, ‘Just win, baby,’ ” Hampton said. “There’s a lot to
that.”
“We needed a win,” said Walter Payton of his final regular-season game. New left cornerback Maurice Douglass intercepted Wilson’s first pass and
earned a permanent job.
“He dresses funny, but he’s a football player,” Ditka said.
It was the only turnover the Bears got while continuing their troublesome habit of giving up the ball.
Payton gained a season-high 82 yards on a season-high 20 rushes. But he
threw an interception that drew Ditka’s wrath, and he fumbled on his final
carry to nearly turn the day into a nightmare. He also didn’t score, finishing his career one short of Jim Brown’s record of 126 touchdowns.
Amazingly, the last fumble was supposed to be a “throwback” pass to
quarterback Mike Tomczak. Ditka took the blame, labeling it “one of the all- time dumb calls.”
“I lost Tomczak and I was hollering ‘Go’ to the offensive line,” Payton said. “They couldn’t hear, and they didn’t want to go (illegally) downfield
in case I threw the ball.”
Payton reversed his field trying to avoid going out of bounds, and
linebacker Jerry Robinson knocked the ball away.
The Raiders recovered at the 50 with 1:31 left. Wilson completed a 17-
yard pass to Todd Christensen to get to Bahr’s blocking range. But a 5-yard
sack by Dent forced two more passes by Wilson.
The Bears were safe. One was badly overthrown, and cornerback Vestee
Jackson batted down the last one.
Tomczak’s passing statistics were no better than Wilson’s. But he was
sacked only once and was the victim of some drops. He knocked himself out
trying to win it. He had to be helped from the field on a rollout and dive to the 1-yard line.
Team physician Dr. Clarence Fossier said Tomczak may have broken his nose on the play.
Ditka sent in Jim Harbaugh and ordered him to sneak on fourth down,
passing up a field goal or a chance for Payton to try for No. 126. Harbaugh
was stopped short.
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“If we can’t score from the half-yard line . . . Jim jumped too quick,” Ditka said. “We’d have kicked in a playoff-type situation.”
Tomczak returned and completed a big third-down pass of 17 yards to Ron
Morris to get Butler into field-goal range.
Besides the damage to Tomczak, flanker Dennis McKinnon was sidelined with a knee injury that was not believed to be serious. It occurred when he tried
to field a short punt and fumbled it away.
New left tackle John Wojciechowski is out with a knee injury.
Ditka said he is confident that quarterback Jim McMahon, left tackle Jim
Covert and left linebacker Otis Wilson will be healthy in two weeks. Fullback Neal Anderson remains very questionable.
“The last three games almost kind of felt like the preseason,” said
center Jay Hilgenberg. “We had the division clinched and a lot of guys hurt. We want to get as healthy as we can.”
Without a single brawl, it was hard to gauge the intensity of these two
macho teams. But Ditka, defensive coordinator Vince Tobin and the Bear players said the hitting was hard.
One of Ditka’s nine lineup changes was at right guard, where Kurt Becker
took over for Tom Thayer, who was voted an alternate for the Pro Bowl.
“Certain kinds of people play hard for me,” Ditka said. “I was very
pleased with Kurt Becker. He doesn’t take any crap. I think we saw
improvement. I don’t know how it looked to others; I was on the sideline, and half the time I was a madman anyway.”
Tobin said concentration during the week’s practice was better.
“You can’t attribute it all to the changes. When you get beat twice, you get the attention of the players. When you’re winning, you have a tendency to go out and think you can continue winning without preparing the way you
should,” Tobin said.
“You don’t know if it’s the changes or the team you’re playing. The
Raiders had nothing to play for.”
“It didn’t do a whole lot to my confidence,” said middle linebacker
Mike Singletary. “We just have to stop killing ourselves. I know we can play that way.”
“This game was of utmost importance,” Duerson said. “As important as
the Giants’ opener. It was intense. Look at the score.”
“We reaffirmed some things,” Payton said. “We got back to some
physical football, and that’s a plus for us going into the playoffs.”
Payton added a reminder for himself that could serve for his teammates
and coaches: “Regardless of how long you play or how old you are, you can
always improve.”