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Dan Peters
Sports Editor
Oak Park
Journal
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Chicago
Bears make New York “My Kind of Town” Stun The Giants with come from
behind win.
by Dan Peters
The Chicago Bears
headed into the Meadowlands Sunday night 1 point underdogs to the surging New York Giants. For nearly
28 minutes of football, it seemed the odds makers were geniuses. Then the
hibernating Bears woke up and began
to show the national TV audience and a
noisy Giants crowd that their bite is worse that their bark.
Early in the week, some Giants were heard saying that
the Bears were not the best team they have faced this year.
The Giants were
riddled with key injuries on both sides of the ball. But
that did not seam to rattle them in the first half.
Kiki Barber, ran 40
yards on the first series of the game, making everyone wonder, “Here We go again,” referring to the
Bears previous game where the the Dolphins dominated
them from the get go, capitalizing on the teams
un-characteristic mistakes and miscues.
Barber’s
efforts put the Giants in field goal range for kicker Jay Feely.
The usually sharp Feely missed
the attempt, maybe the swirling winds were to blame. Either way you
could Sense that the Bears
luck may be changing.
Then, on
the Bears first drive, Grossman’s pass
was deflected and intercepted by the Giant’s M Kiwanuka,
returning the ball 32 yards,
setting up the Giants first touchdown. The Bears countered wit a field goal of 49
yards by Robbie Gould, closing the gap to 7-3.
The Bears defense “
awoke” from hibernation limiting Eli Manning
& company to just Two field goals heading toward the end of
the 1st half, 13-3 Giants.
Then, like the
Bear’s defense, the offense awoke from hibernation &
the comeback was on. The Chicago Bears never looked back.
Thomas Jones late
1st half burst for 26 yards changed the momentum of the game putting
the Bears back in the game
going into halftime.
“They were
blitzing the whole first half and bringing a lot of
guys,” said Jones. After a slow start, Jones rushed for
a season-high 123 yards on 30 carries and also scored
a touchdown. His previous long run was 29 yards against the
Seattle Seahawks on Oct 1., another
Sunday night game.
Jones credited his
offensive line and their blocking for his success. “The
offensive line Did
a really good job of holding
their blocks and letting me get
to the line of scrimmage. The safety came down
and missed the tackle. I was looking at the first-down marker the whole time.
I was thinking that if we could
get the first down maybe we could at least get a field goal and
give us some momentum going into halftime.”
Maybe we should call
Jones “Mr. Primetime,” He seems to shine
under the National spotlight.
“It was
huge,” said Rex Grossman. “It allowed
us to get some momentum going
into halftime. It set up the
touchdown pass. We
knew they were going to drop into a prevent-type defense.
It’s usually what teams do in that
situation. He was able to make a few guys miss
and make a huge play. That was a big play in the game.”
The 26 yard Jones
run on 3rd and 22 was the longest rush on 3rd down by a
rusher since 1999.
This year the Bears seam to find a way to either tie
or break NFL and their own records.
Robbie Gould breaks
Kevin Butler’s field goal record…
Another record fell
by the wayside in the first quarter when Gould hit a 49 yard field goal
Giving the
Bears their first points of the game. The field
goal was Gould’s 25th straight without a miss, dating back to
last season. He broke Kevin Butler’s team
record of 24 set in the 1988-89 season.
Gould has connected
on all 23 field goals and 29 extra points attempted
this season. He is 10 for 10 from 40
yards or more. He only made 3 of 8 from that distance
last season. Currently,
Gould is the most accurate kicker in NFL history among
kickers with at least 40
attempts, having converted 44 of 50 attempts (80%)
since he joined the Bears last
Season.
DEJA VU ..
Devin Hester sparks the Bears with an electrifying 108
yard return of Jay Feely’s
missed 52 yard field goal attempt.
Hester set himself
up at the back of the end zone, anticipating Feely’s 52
yard attempt in The
swirling winds that are common to the Meadowlands. After
the ball was short of the goal posts, Hester caught the
ball, then stood there for a moment, looking like he might
just take a knee and
down the ball. Suddenly, he jumped up and ran the
ball out of the end zone like he was shot from a
cannon. Great blocking from the Bears special
teams, especially a key block from Hunter
Hillenmeyer, enabled Hester to go coast
to coast and put the Bears up 31-20.
You
could just hear Lovie Smith on the
sidelines yelling “No, No, No., then Go, Go, Go’” as the entire Bears
team ran down the field.
“As I caught the
ball, I just kind of slowed down and looked at the
defenders to see what They
were doing and the majority of them were walking off the field,”
Hester said. I saw One
guy coming down the field and I saw a swarm of my teammates come
out and crush Him and open up
everything for me.”
The
record tying return matched Nathan Vasher’s
run last year when the 49ers tried to kick a field goal at
Soldier Field, in 30 plus wind gusts. Both returns are the longest
plays in NFL history. What are the odds of the same team making the
same play almost a year to the day? Ask the Las Vegas
odds makers on that one.
Technically
speaking, Hester’s run actually measured 108.4 yards, making it longer
than Vasher’s, but the NFL rounds yardage to
the nearest yard. So the Bears players will share that
record.
The touchdown
was his third of the season. The first two came on punt returns of
84 and 83 yards.
“Whenever
Hester has his hands on the ball with a little
bit of space between (him and would-be tacklers), I feel pretty good
about our chances,” said Lovie Smith. Just a week ago,
Hester fumbled several times and turned the ball over, not tonight.
Good players and teams don’t make those mistakes twice.
Rex Grossman guided
the Bears offense down the field for the final score, a 2 yard Jones
run, sealing the deal and the Bears walked away with the 38-20 win and
are now 8-1.
Grossman rebounded
well from his dismal outing against
Miami, completing 18 of 30 passes for 246 yards and a passer rating of
105.7
The Bears should
have just stayed in the New York area.. They play
the New York Jets on this same field next Sunday.
Until this road trip, the Bears
have only played at the Meadowlands 6 times in nearly 30 plus years,
now 2 weeks in a row.
With the dominating
second half, the Bears should have home field advantage here next week.
© Oak Park Journal photo
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