When Bears coach Dave Wannstedt said big plays would make the difference Monday night against the Packers, was he thinking about that underhanded, left-handed, blind heave by Todd Sauerbrun to Jim Flanigan for the first two-point conversion in Bears history?
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It was two exclamation points on a stunning 87-yard drive against the No. 1 defense in the NFL, a drive that left the Packers’ linemen, as well as the Lambeau crowd, gasping for air.
No matter what else happened for the rest of the night, the Bears had already accomplished more than anybody outside their huddle expected. They missed on several big-play opportunities and still stood toe-to-toe with a 15-point favorite.
By the early second quarter, the Packers’ big-play guys were getting carted off, and the Lambeau crowd was so quiet Bears quarterback Erik Kramer could calmly call audibles.
Huge nose tackle Gilbert Brown was face down after a leg injury. Cornerback Craig Newsome was gone with a knee injury. Tight end Mark Chmura was gone with a bad knee. Defensive end Reggie White had to take himself out for a breather. Newsome and Chmura were on crutches in the second half, an ominous sign for a team that already had lost its No. 1 rusher from last year, Edgar Bennett, for the season.
The Bears were outplaying the Packers on offense and defense. They were controlling the ball by more than a 2-1 margin. They had put the Pack on its back.
On defense, they pressured Brett Favre, stuffed running back Dorsey Levens and covered their receivers. John Thierry was in the backfield. So was Alonzo Spellman. They blitzed and confused the Packers. Bryan Cox, Ron Cox, Barry Minter, Paul Grasmanis and Flanigan were all over the Packer front.
Clearly, the Bears were establishing themselves as physically, mentally and emotionally capable of playing the Packers. Bryan Cox had suggested his teammates might be afraid of the champions. The only people who seemed afraid were sitting on their hands in the stands, wearing green and gold.
But who would make the big plays?
No way could the Bears bulldoze the Packers for an entire game.
Big plays often have inauspicious starts. Ryan Wetnight and Tyrone Hughes dropped third-down passes on the Bears’ first two series that could have kept drives alive. Bobby Engram didn’t get a call from officials who failed to see Tyrone Williams hold him on a fourth-down pass.
Minter barely missed making an interception on a screen pass by Favre that would have been returned for a touchdown.
But then the big plays came in spurts for the Packers.
Green Bay coach Mike Holmgren had said the biggest difference between the teams was their quarterbacks. During the last five minutes of the half, Favre showed why.
Kramer was intercepted by cornerback Doug Evans on a nice play by Evans, shaky decision by Kramer.
Favre passed a yard for a touchdown, then threw the kind of pass on a two-point conversion to Levens that only Favre can throw. Rolling right and backward, he flipped the ball 30 yards and squeezed it into the corner.
After the teams traded interceptions and the Bears tied it at 11, Favre struck to Robert Brooks on consecutive plays that had to make the Bears wonder what hit them. All their hard work and Brooks spins cornerbacks Tom Carter and Walt Harris around on back-to-back passes covering 62 yards.
The Bears had established the run, controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides, held the Pack to minus-2 yards rushing in the first half, held the ball for 20:50 to the Pack’s 9:10, and were behind 18-11.
The Packers came into the game figuring they were better than they were a year ago despite losing last year’s Super Bowl MVP, Desmond Howard, the league’s leading punt returner.
Funny, but the only area where the Packers clearly demonstrated they are as good was in punt returning, where unsung Bill Schroeder–the man who caused a furor in the Bears’ locker room by questioning whether the rivalry was still big–introduced himself by returning Sauerbrun’s punts as if Howard had never left.
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