Cornerback Mike Richardson said a leg injury almost forced him to leave Sunday`s game against the Oilers in the second half. But he hung on and helped stop Houston quarterback Warren Moon`s attempts to rally the Oilers.
”I bruised it badly above the knee the first quarter on a tackle,”
Richardson said. ”I thought I`d have to come out it hurt so bad.
”By the fourth quarter it was close to putting me out. It was play-by-play. It forced me to give Houston`s receivers a little more cushion and that`s why Moon completed some passes in the second half.”
Considering that Moon completed only 12 of his 29 passes, imagine what may have been the results if Richardson had been able to go full-tilt.
— Walter Payton thought he had surpassed 20,000 combined yards in the third quarter before he was informed he needed 100 instead of 61. The discrepancy came because the Bears had credited him with a 39-yard punt return as a rookie in 1975. It was really a punt. The game was not stopped to give Payton the ball.
— Dennis Gentry`s 21-yard touchdown run that broke the scoreless tie was a
”check with me” audible called by quarterback Jim McMahon at the line of scrimmage. The play was called in the huddle, but McMahon had to call which way he wanted Gentry to go after seeing whether the nose tackle lined up to the left or right of center Jay Hilgenberg.
— Payton and Matt Suhey had to sneak up behind McMahon before plays to see if he was calling audibles. ”If we had stayed in the backfield, we`d have never heard him,” Payton said. ”A couple times, he did call an audible.”
One was on a 9-yard run by Suhey to the 9-yard line to set up the second touchdown.
— Moon said that a team can be ready for the Bears but still find it impossible to beat them.
”I think we were prepared,” he said, ”but there`s a big difference between preparing for the Bears and playing them. They have great personnel up front and do a good job of making the quarterback throw before he`s ready.
”You have to try and run it against the Bears. You can`t count on going 80 yards downfield against these guys like we have against other teams.”
— Kevin Butler had no idea he was kicking for a record on the first of his two field goals in the fourth quarter. After he found out, he didn`t care that he`d gotten on the board for a team-record 13th consecutive game, breaking George Blanda`s record.
”I`m not worried about records. I`m still trying to save face from what I did earlier,” he said, referring to four missed field goals against Philadelphia in the Bears` second game.
Butler hasn`t missed since because he knows ”I won`t last long if I have a couple games like that one.”
— Offensive tackle Jim Covert also toughed out an injury. He had his elbow jammed on a hit late in the first half when the Oiler defense intercepted a pass. He first thought the injury would sideline him, but he was ready to play after halftime. ”Man, did it hurt,” he said. ”But I stayed in there with it.”
— Wide receiver Keith Ortego complained strongly to officials that Oiler defenders were holding him when he failed to get free in the end zone for a McMahon pass in the fourth quarter.
”They held me the whole game,” Ortego said. ”They grabbed the jersey for the second they needed. The referee claimed I would never have gotten to some balls anyway, but how am I going to get there if they`re holding?”
Ortego, who had six receptions last week, had two catches Sunday for 47 yards. He criticized his own blocking, saying it was no good. ”The whole offense wasn`t that good,” he said.
— Oilers` safety Bo Eason wondered why he was so tired. ”What was the time of possession?” he asked. Told the Bears had the ball for more than 35 minutes and Houston almost 11 minutes less, he said: ”That`s why I`m tired.” — Rookie Neal Anderson had his 66-yard fourth-quarter run for an apparent touchdown called back by a holding penalty on guard Mark Bortz. But he was pleased he was able to show the speed Bear fans can expect to see when his playing time increases.
”It felt good to make the run,” said Anderson. ”When I saw it being called back my stomach sank a moment.”
Bortz disagreed with the official`s call. ”I don`t think I did anything,” Bortz said.
— Lew Barnes said he didn`t know where the Houston coverage was when he called for a fair catch on the first punt of the game. Mike Ditka chewed him out for not running with the ball. ”He told me to go ahead and make a decision,” Barnes said.
— Defensive end Richard Dent said he wasn`t his usual self, although he had a sack. He missed last week`s game with a groin pull. ”I was off a step because I`d been away a week,” he said. ”I didn`t hurt at all. I`ll do better next week if I can get my timing back.”
— If the Bears didn`t play like world champions, it might have been because their pregame accommodations didn`t make them feel like world champions.
They stayed in a spartan downtown Holiday Inn at a room rate of $22 a night across the street from ”Fuzzy`s Dancing” and the ”Lone Star Saloon.” Players said they would have hated to see where management would have put them if they weren`t world champions.
