Bears “Escape From New York”  Shut Out Jets, Improve to 9-1.
by Dan Peters

The stingy Bear’s defense shut down the New York Jets and vaulted the Monsters of the Midway to tie the Indianapolis Colts for the best record in the National Football League. Both teams are now 9-1.

Indianapolis was the only undefeated team heading into Sunday’s games. The Colts ran into an improved Dallas Cowboys team in Dallas. No miracle comeback today for Peyton Manning and company.

“Nine wins, a tough place to play (For the second straight week) and we got a shut out.” said Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith responding to a reporter who asked about the Bears “Winning Ugly.” He responded by saying, “We’ll take these types of games each week.”

The victory today, coupled with losses by Green Bay and Minnesota; give the Bears a five game lead with six remaining. The Bears can clinch their second straight division championship as early as next week. That task won’t be easy. The Bears will face the New England Patriots next week in Foxboro, their third consecutive road game. Let’s hope the offense rises to the task.

The Bears offense looked “Offensive” in the first half of play with -1 net yards passing in the half. The Jets did not look much better. The Bears played their first scoreless half of football since a 7-0 win at Buffalo way back on October 7, 1979.

Brian Urlacher and Nathan Vasher intercepted Jets quarterback Chad Pennington twice  leading the Bears to its second shut out of the season.

“Anytime you get a shutout in the NFL, it’s big,” said Urlacher. He stopped the Jets best scoring threat with a second quarter pick in the end zone. “I don’t care what team you play. They’re hard to get and we’re excited about getting it.”  Defensive coordinator Ron Rivera could not agree more, “It’s a big thrill to be able to do that. It’s a great tribute to the guys and how hard they played and the fact that we got takeaways at timely junctures.”

The Bears running game was back this week, early and often as Thomas Jones rushed for over 100 yards for the fourth time this year. Jones and Cedric Benson pounded the ball for a season high 173 yards on 35 carries. Jones was nothing short of impressive with 121 yards on 23 attempts.

“They were lining up in different defenses, but our line was blocking well coming off the ball, getting a push,” said Jones. “They were sustaining their blocks enough for me to get through the hole and get in the secondary and get extra yards.”

Like last week against the Giants, Jones seems to be a spark for the Bears offense and Rex Grossman.

Today, Grossman found the second year receiver Mark Bradley for a 57 yard touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter, giving the Bears a 10-0 lead. It was all the Bears needed today. Until that point, Grossman was an anemic 5 of 11 passes for just 7 yards.

“Several times they had an all-out blitz and didn’t have any safety help, putting the corners kind of on an island,” Grossman said. “It was just a three step drop. I hit him (Bradley) on a quick hitch and he turned to the inside where (Coleman) had no help and he just outran everybody. It was a great play by Mark and the offensive line did a good job picking up their blitz.”

The Jets tried to surprise the Bears on the second half kickoff with an onside kick, but the Bears Chris Harris was not surprised. “I wasn’t too shocked,” Harris said. I kind of saw it coming. After studying film and seeing who lines up on their right side, I saw there were a couple of guys that aren’t normally on the right side. We didn’t know which way they were going to kick it, but we knew something was up.”

On the ensuing drive following the kickoff, Thomas Jones carried on all seven plays to set up the Bears only other score of the game, a Robbie Gould 20 yard field goal. Jones picked up 19 yards on the first snap and then 13 yards on third and two.

“They were doing some things early in the game, causing some confusion,” Jones said. “But we made some great adjustments. The coaches did a really good job analyzing what they were doing and putting us in the right position in the second half.”

The Bears had a conservative game plan against the blitz happy Jets defense. Grossman completed 11 of 22 passes for 119 yards and the sole touchdown of the game. And this week—no interceptions. His quarterback rating today was 81.4 percent.

“I’m very happy with Rex,” Said Smith. “He managed the offense well. Sometimes you won’t have those great passing numbers. (But) we’ll take that any day of the week when we run the football like that.”

By completing the “New York sweep” in back to back away games in the same stadium, the Chicago Bears have won the first two legs of their first three game road trip since 1999.

“New York has been good to us,” Smith said. Coming here in a tough place and getting two wins like that is big. It’s big for our ball club to get that ninth win. A few weeks ago we had a three-game stretch that looked pretty tough. Now we’re down to one game and we’re anxious to play a good New England team next.”

Local Sports and Teams