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Chicago Bears skin Seahawks in NFL overtime
2007-01-15
The Chicago Bears won a nail-biting playoff game on Sunday, skinning the Seattle Seahawks 27-24 in overtime to advance to the NFC Championship Game for the first time since the 1988 season. The Bears tied Seattle with less than five minutes to play in regulation with a gutsy 41-yard Robbie Gould fieldgoal into a howling wind, before holding off the opposition to force extra time. Chicago quarterback Rex Grossman then orchestrated a seven-play, 34-yard drive in overtime, putting Gould in position for a 49-yard shot. The crowd erupted as Chicago clinched its first home playoff win since 1991, in its first ever overtime playoff game. "I knew I hit it solid -- I didn't even watch the end of it," Gould said of his winning shot. The earlier kick made the crossbar with "maybe a yard to spare," he said. Chicago will play the resurgent New Orleans Saints next Sunday for the right to advance to the Superbowl in Miami on February 4. The Saints edged out the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday by an identical 27-24. Sunday's come-from-behind squeaker obliterated memories of the Bears' final regular season game, an embarrassing loss to division rivals Green Bay in a nationally televised New Year's Eve rout. BEAT HANDILY Chicago ended the season with a record of 13-3, enough to clinch home-field advantage for the playoffs, but the loss raised concerns that the team would find a way to lose another home playoff game to a team it beat handily in the regular season. "Last night I talked to the team about finishing -- after all we've gone through this year it would be a shame not to finish," said Bears coach Lovie Smith. Chicago needed to weather an all-out assault by the Seahawks at the end of regulation, successfully keeping the visitors out of fieldgoal range. "In the end, the defense had to make a stop," said Smith. Grossman finally put Chicago in a position to win with a 30-yard toss to wide receiver Rashied Davis. The notoriously streaky Grossman had a solid game, completing 21 of 38 passes for 282 yards, the lion's share of the Bears' 371 yards of total offense. "Our whole time just played great," Grossman said. "This is an unbelievable situation -- two wins away from having a (Superbowl) ring on my finger for the rest of my life." KEY PLAY The Bears got a key play near the end of the first half, when Coach Smith opted to "go for it" on a fourth-and-inches play that resulted in a 7-yard rushing touchdown for running back Thomas Jones. "It felt like a time when we needed to get 7 (points) and not just 3," Smith said. That decision was a confidence booster for Grossman, whose fumble after a sack minutes before had threatened to shift momentum into the Seahawks' favor. Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck capitalized on the gaffe, engineering a quick 26-yard drive capped by a 4-yard touchdown run by Shaun Alexander. Indeed, the Hasselbeck-Alexander combination almost brought Chicago's dream season to an end. Alexander, who missed the Bears regular-season pasting of Seattle, finished with 108 yards of rushing, including 71 yards in the second half. "I thought Shaun ran hard. He's been playing and running hard since the San Diego game and he wanted it against a team that is pretty stout," said Seattle coach Mike Holmgren. Hasselbeck completed 18 of 33 passes for 195 yards, and total Seattle offense of 306 yards uncovered a few holes in the Bears vaunted defense -- but failed too many times to convert on third-and-short situations. Sunday's winning kicks continued a dream comeback for the boyish Gould, who worked in construction after he was waived by Baltimore in 2005 and before being picked up mid-season by the Bears. "A year ago I'm pounding nails -- now I'm hitting game-winning kicks and going to the Pro Bowl," said Gould.
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