THE WINDY CITY FLYER CELEBRATES HIS 108 YARD RETURN OF A MISSED FIELD GOAL FOR A TOUCHDOWN

The first 28 minutes of last night’s Bears-Giants game was like something out of Nightmare on Elm Street for Chicago fans. The Chicago offense was asleep and being attacked by a Freddie Krueger-like New York defense as the Giants cut and slashed the hapless Bears mercilessly.

Rex “The Wonder Dog” Grossman looked more like a pussycat as his errant passes sailed, hovered, wobbled, and attempted the unlikely trick of trying to dig through the plastic turf at the Meadowlands in a fruitless search for the remains of Jimmy Hoffa.

Wide receiver Rasheid Davis should have stayed in the locker room that first half. The poor guy caught a virus in the rain and wind. No, not a cold but the dropsies. The offensive line must have been drunk or hung over given the number of times one of them forgot the snap count. And Offensive Coordinator Ron Turner must have lost the part of the playbook with all the running plays because he called running back Thomas Jones’ number only 10 times.

But it was the 11th time Turner called on Jones that made all the difference in the world, awoke the hibernating Bears, and sent them on to a hard fought 38-20 victory.

Less than 2 minutes in the half and the Bears were 3rd and 22 from deep in their own territory. It is at moments like this that the offensive coordinator either calls for a hail mary bomb or a simple off tackle play. Turner chose the latter (and said the hail mary anyway) – a draw up the middle that Thomas Jones juked left, then right, then ran to daylight. An astonishing 26 yard gain had the ball in Giants territory and Chicago was in business.

A nice 23 yarder to Mohammed followed by a pop fly to Bradley who had beaten the cornerback badly and the Bears, who had been trailing 13-3 at the time, appeared to have some life after all and went into halftime down 13-10.

The second half was a rout. Outscoring the Giants 28-7, the Bears offense looked like world beaters. Wonder Dog found his rhythm and started throwing darts, picking apart the injury riddled Giants secondary. Thomas Jones ran with purpose and abandon, punishing the New York linebackers and safeties. On the Bears second possession of the half, a 10 yard pass to Mohammed (who had fumbled on the Giants two yard line the previous series) gave the Bears the lead and they never looked back.

New York returned the kickoff to the 25 and promptly handed the ball back to the Bears as defensive end Alex Brown forced a Manning fumble on 2nd down and the Bears took over at the Giants 21. After a couple of brilliant Jones runs, Wonder Dog found Desmond Clark in the endzone for a 3 yard score and just like that it was 24-13 and the Giants looked perplexed.

They got all bug eyed when, following a New York drive that took the ball to the Bears 35 yard line, Giants coach Tom Coughlin opted for a field goal try, an iffy proposition given the weather and field conditions.

The 52 yard attempt by Feely was short and caught by The Windy City Flyer Devin Hester fully 8 yards deep in the end zone. Being just a dumb kid, Hester was unaware of the NFL tradition of not running a ball out of the end zone when you catch it with your backside touching the endline. The Giants would have explained it to him but they were too busy walking off the field, convinced the play was over.

But Hester is da joker. After sauntering a few steps nonchalantly toward the goal line, making it appear that he was one of those smart rooks who played by the rules and followed all the traditions, Hester took off. I mean, he literally ignited and propelled himself forward at warp speed. Dashing by the first wave of Giants who had bothered to continue down the field, The Flyer looked down the right sideline and saw nothing but friendly, white jerseys and a lot of green fake plastic grass. He ran by his teammates faster than he ran by the Giants. I could have sworn I saw some smoke trailing in his wake but that might have been only steam coming from his shoes. Fully 108 yards later, Hester and the Bears were celebrating at 31-20 lead.

The Bears scored once more in the 4th quarter following a Chris Harris interception set the Bears up at the New York 46. A beautiful 38 yarder to Bradley was followed by a 2 yard scamper by Jones and the Bears were up 38-20.

The Bears defense took over from there, stymieing the Giants on their next possession. After the punt, the Bears then took the ball deep in their own zone and ran nearly 6 minutes off the clock using Thomas Jones as a combination battering ram and time waster. That was it. It was too late for New York to do anything to get back in the game.

All in all, an adequate effort. Wonder Dog showed that he can bounce back from adversity within a game. The offense continues to show improvement in the running game. Special teams rock on. And the defense, while showing some troubling lapses, featured great efforts by Alex Brown and Peanut Tillman who held big mouth Plaxico Burress to only 4 catches.

Next up – back to the Meadowlands for the Jets. And in two weeks, a rematch of Super Bowl XX with New England in Foxboro.