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Dan Peters
Sports Editor
Oak Park
Journal
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Bears get
Early Christmas Present, Winning another Nail Biter in record cold…
20-17 Over Packers in Overtime.
By
Dan Peters
Frozen Tundra,
painted dirt, record cold temperatures.. The way football should be
played!
The fans booed, the fans froze in the record cold, but in the end it
was all worth
the wait in yet another come from behind win for these “Cardiac Bears”
During the first quarter the air temperature dropped to 2 degrees with
a wind chill
of -13, the coldest game ever played in Soldier Field since they
started keeping
records in 1963. (The Bears played at Wrigley Field until 1970)
If you look at the stats, the Bears should have been blown out of this
game in
nearly every facet of the game. The lone bright spot through four
quarters was
the stellar play of Daniel Manning, who nearly broke another kickoff
for a touchdown.
That play seemed to awaken the hibernating Bears and the rest is
history.
Alex Brown just
saved the Chicago Bears’ season..
Brown blocked Crosby’s 38-yard attempt with 18 seconds to go in the
fourth quarter
Monday night, forcing overtime against the Green Bay Packers. “We got a
great
push from a lot of different people. I was just the one who got my hand
on it,”
Brown said. “We were saying on the sidelines that we have to block it.
I got
through pretty good but I didn’t really think that was going to happen.
You just go as hard as you can and see if you can get a hand up and
hopefully
you can get it.”
Good as “Gould”...
Once the Bears got to the extra period, reliable Robbie “Pure Gould”
kicked a
38-yard field goal for a 20-17 win. “I knew it was going to be in
before he
kicked it,” said the Bears quarterback. “He’s money in those situations
and he’s
done a great job. There’s not too much doubt about it when he comes out
there.”
Said Orton.
Gould has helped the Bears keep their playoff hopes alive by becoming
the first
NFL kicker to win back-to-back overtime games with field goals since
the
Philadelphia Eagles’ David Akers in 2000. On Dec. 11 against the New
Orleans
Saints, Gould tied the score 24-24 with a 28-yarder on the final play
of
regulation before winning the game 27-24 with a 35-yarder on the first
possession
of overtime.
“You’re at a loss for words when you talk about Robbie,” said return
specialist
and nickel back Danial Manning. “He’s a professional. You can’t shake
him.
You can’t rattle his cage. He’s just so poised and he’s a great
kicker.”
Asked what goes through his mind as he prepares for a game-winning
attempt,
Gould said: “Run through your keys, find your target and swing as true
as you
possibly can to that target line. It’s going to go through if you do
everything
you’re supposed to. I don’t really think about much other than make the
kick.”
The 38-yarder against Green Bay was the seventh game-winning field goal
of Gould’s
career. All have come in November or later, including a 49-yarder in
the 2006
divisional playoffs against the Seahawks that propelled the Bears into
the NFC
Championship Game. “Robbie Gould has been a guy that you can count on
it seems
like every time we’ve asked him to step up to the plate,” said coach
Lovie Smith.
“That’s his seventh game-winning field goal, and they’ve all come in
November or
later, so that’s really telling you what type of player he is.”
“It’s great,” he said. “Regardless of how you win, you’ve got to win.
Everyone’s
got to do their job and everyone’s got to contribute the way they’re
supposed to,
and mine’s to make field goals. I’m just happy to get an opportunity to
do my
job, and we’ve still got a heartbeat.”
Gould has excelled in frigid conditions the last three games at Soldier
Field,
even though the ball feels like it's filled with cement.
“It’s like kicking a cold turkey, it really is,” he said. “It’s going
to be hard.
It’s going to be tough. But the thing is you know going into it. If
you’re in it
all the time, like we practice in it, then you’re not really thinking
too much
about how hard it’s going to be. It’s just a matter of trusting your
technique
and knowing that it’s going to go through.”
The Task
Ahead...Playoffs and Maybe the NFC North are still in Reach...
After the impressive victory, the Bears are still in the running for
the playoffs,
but once again they must have some help. Simply winning their last game
won’t
be enough. And they must step up and play better in Houston, as the
Texan’s have
began to surge at the end of the season. The Texans have nothing to
play for
and therefore can become spoilers in the last game of the season.
Houston will have
fans in a few NFL teams, namely the Vikings and Bucs, who like the
Bears still
hope to make the post season.
The Bears (9-6), who stayed in contention for the NFC North over the
weekend when
Atlanta beat Minnesota, won their third straight and rallied from a
14-3 halftime
deficit to do it. If the Bears win at Houston next Sunday and the
Vikings lose
at home to the Giants, Chicago captures the NFC North. Minnesota holds
the
tiebreaker over the Bears, so if both teams win on the final Sunday,
the Vikings
win the division.
But Chicago is still alive for a wild-card berth, too.
“Everything fell right, gave us a lot of momentum and energy coming
into this game.
We just had to carry it all the way through,” quarterback Kyle Orton
said.
And the Bears had to overcome the elements, too, as did the Packers.
Orton hit a 17-yard pass to Greg Olsen and a 15-yard penalty on Green
Bay’s Aaron
Rouse for a horse collar tackle gave the Bears the ball at the Green
Bay 35 in overtime.
A third-down pass of 14 yards to Matt Forte got it to the Green Bay 20
to set up
the winning kick—Gould’s second straight game-winner in overtime.
“You know it’s going to be chilly, the ground is going to be hard.
You’ve just got
to go out there and do your job. There’s no excuses for missing,” Gould
said.
Green Bay (5-10) dominated the first half, but lost its fifth straight
after
routing the Bears 37-3 at Lambeau Field in mid-November.
“It’s disappointing. It’s tough. It’s frustrating,” Green Bay
quarterback Aaron
Rogers said.
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