What looked like a slowdown before Tuesday`s strike date turned into another victory on the Bears` assembly line Sunday.
The victims were Tampa Bay`s local chapter in the brotherhood of football workers. Looking more like accomplices than opponents, the Buccaneers matched the Bears two fumbles for two fumbles and two interceptions for two interceptions before dropping a 20-3 decision.
Even referee Bob Frederic`s crew appeared to earn their union cards by ignoring penalties on both sides. They called nine against the Bucs and eight against the Bears, but they let players get away with blatant holding and hugging at the line of scrimmage as if to condone expressions of labor solidarity.
One Bear, Dan Hampton, tossed his hard hat in frustration after Tampa`s Ron Heller tackled him right in front of Frederic, who must have been sneaking a nap at the time.
Afterwards, the Bears praised the Bucs as worthy cohorts far superior to last year`s 2-14 edition that made scab teams look like a good idea.
”That`s a good football team,” said coach Mike Ditka. ”They made it awfully tough for us to get our job done. Our defense again was outstanding.” ”Give Tampa Bay credit,” said quarterback Mike Tomczak.
”Them boys are going to surprise some people,” said defensive tackle Steve McMichael.
The Bears put the final pieces of their product together only 3:20 before closing time, when Walter Payton caught a 9-yard pass from Tomczak and scored his second touchdown of the day.
Payton`s first came in the first quarter, 9:14 after both teams punched their time cards. That one from a yard out was Payton`s 107th rushing touchdown of his career, breaking Jim Brown`s record and earning Payton a standing ovation from the Soldier Field crowd of 63,551. It was his 10th National Football League record.
Neither touchdown appeared to please Payton, who barely got past the line of scrimmage on 14 other rushes and one other pass reception, finishing with only 24 yards rushing and a net of 2 receiving. He also lost a fumble deep in Tampa territory.
Payton played apprentice to fullback Neal Anderson for the second game in a row and left the plant without stopping to talk about it.
Anderson enjoyed his first 100-yard day for the Bears, gaining 115 on 16 carries and scoring on a 27-yard trap play perfectly called and executed against a Tampa blitz. That gave the Bears a 14-3 lead by the halftime lunch hour.
It became apparent early that running was all the Bears needed to do to beat the Bucs, who have yet to totally retool their shop after finishing 28th against the run last season.
Ditka said the Bucs were still keying their defenses to stop Payton. He blamed his own play selection for stereotyping the Bears` running game and formations. He knows he has a problem in trying to balance the workload between the guy about to collect his pension and the bright employee fresh out of his apprenticeship.
”They`re taking a lot of things away from Walter,” Ditka said, speaking of defenses. ”It`s really not Walter; it`s just that they`re taking things away from him, and we have to counter.
”We`re a little stereotyped the way we run the ball. The best thing we had going for us is we made adjustments and ran counters, and Neal made some great plays.”
Payton`s TD catch was made on a pattern called to Anderson.
”Neal got crushed in the fake, and Emery (tight end Moorehead) was the outlet and I was the third guy,” Tomczak said. ”Walter wasn`t in the pattern, but I`d rather have the ball in Walter`s hands than mine.”
Payton made a good play to elude linebacker Winston Moss, then lunged over the goal line.
”When they start keying on Neal, we`ll have Walter opening up his stuff again,” said tackle Jim Covert.
”They`re two different styles,” said Moorehead. ”Neal has great speed, and Walter`s got to have it a lot and wear a defense down. If Walter doesn`t get the ball a lot, it`ll be tougher for him to show what he does best.”
The Bears` defense made big plays whenever they needed them, as if they were robots programmed to do whatever defensive foreman Vince Tobin desired. They shut the Bucs out of the end zone despite another decent statistical performance by quarterback Steve DeBerg.
DeBerg left work early when McMichael rolled onto his leg with less than three minutes to go, the second quarterback exit the Bears have forced in two games. His misfortune gave the league`s No. 1 draft choice, Vinny Testaverde, his first job assignment against a hungry defense that sacked him once and left him with a 1 for 4 passing log.
DeBerg completed half his 36 passes for 195 yards, but was sacked three times, twice by Otis Wilson.
”I think DeBerg is one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the league,”
McMichael said.
End Richard Dent made the biggest defensive play when he sacked DeBerg, stripped him of the ball and recovered the fumble after DeBerg had a first down at the Bear 14.
That was with 32 seconds left in the half and the Bucs threatening to take their break with only a 14-10 deficit instead of 14-3. DeBerg
inadvertently kicked the fumble before Dent scooped it up. Then he tackled Dent at the 46, 32 yards behind the line of scrimmage.
”That`s terrible he got me,” Dent said. ”Fellas will get on me for that.”
Tomczak completed 15 of 27 passes for 150 yards and threw two interceptions. He also fumbled away a snap with no one around him. Under the rules, that becomes the Bears` only quarterback sack in two games.
”It was just a fumble. I`d like them to change that,” he said.
Although Tomczak wasn`t nearly as sharp as he was in beating the Giants on Monday night, Ditka said he was ”pleased overall” with his performance.
Tomczak admitted the Bucs weren`t the second coming of the Giants. ”I`m sure, subconsciously, we had an emotional letdown. We`re human, right?”
The Bears are also 2-0 and not inclined to strike, although they are expected to decide at a meeting Monday that they will have no choice at first. ”We don`t want to play the scabs, that`s for sure,” said alternate player representative Dave Duerson.
Owners are mobilizing free agents to start playing through a strike by the fourth weekend after taking next week off.
Ditka said he is nevertheless preparing for next week against Detroit until bad comes to worse.
Several players said there is a ”possibility” the Bears could lead a leaguewide return to work if necessary at some point, but they have no interest in staying on the job with or against pickup teams. If they return to work, it will be leading the rest of the pack back.
”We`re professional athletes,” Duerson said. ”If I`m going to win the Super Bowl, it`s going to be because we went out and beat the best players. Not because we went out and beat the Arena Football guys who tire out after they`ve gone 50 yards because they play on a shorter field.”
The Bears also are aware that fans may tire out regardless of the length of the field. Not many laborers work in front of cheering crowds.
”We`ve just won back the hearts of the fans in the last couple years,”
Duerson said. ”Fans pay the salaries and give the profits to the owners. Without them, there is no NFL.”
