Jim McMahon sneaked back into football Sunday the way a bull might tiptoe through a china shop.
The idea was for the rehabilitating quarterback to slip unnoticed into the Bears` huddle after 11 months off and shake some rust from his shoulder after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had been safely stored away.
The script didn`t fit, so McMahon rewrote it. Michael Jackson doesn`t play clubs anymore. Eddie Murphy doesn`t do birthday parties. Meryl Streep makes no cameo appearances.
McMahon scored one touchdown with 5 minutes 31 seconds to play and threw a touchdown pass to Neal Anderson with 1:28 left to give the battered Bears a 27-26 victory they didn`t deserve but gladly grabbed.
”Just another Hollywood story, huh?” said tackle Keith Van Horne.
”He knew exactly what he wanted to do, exactly what was going to happen,” said guard Tom Thayer.
McMahon completed all six of his passes in the final 71-yard drive that began with 2:44 left and the Bears owning only one timeout. They didn`t even have to use it.
With 9:50 left, McMahon directed an 85-yard drive, completing six of eight passes and scoring on a sneak to pull within six, 26-20. Kevin Butler missed the extra point to set the final stage, then made the kick to win it.
The 13 points in the final 5:31 recalled McMahon`s dramatic three-touchdown entrance against the Minnesota Vikings in 1985, but the Bears trailed by only eight points, 17-9, when McMahon arrived in that one. This time, he was a real replacement quarterback.
”Jim McMahon did it. He did it on his own. He called the plays by himself on the final drive. He`s a tough son-of-a-gun,” said coach Mike Ditka.
”Jim is our starting quarterback. He will be our starting quarterback until there`ll be an injury. That question should never be brought up again.” McMahon took over for starter Mike Tomczak at halftime with the Bears trailing 23-14. The Bucs had stunned the Bears with three touchdowns in the first 11:50 and a 20-0 lead that had Ditka ”groping” for a game plan.
These Bear players had been humbled by their union`s strike, ridiculed by their coach, abandoned by their fans, replaced by subs, turned away by management and now were getting pounded by the Buccaneers.
McMahon saved them from all this plus embarrassing Monday explanations. In the process, he even made Chicago forget Mike Hohensee.
In the final 2:44, it was McMahon at his best, totally unfazed by a layoff since last Nov. 23 and surgery for a torn rotator cuff on Dec. 12.
On his first series in the third quarter, he had absorbed his first hit in classic McMahon fashion, inflicting it upon himself. It came on a run as he dived for a first down and landed on his right shoulder underneath two Bucs.
With 2:44 to go and McMahon fresh from the 85-yard march, the Bucs backed off into more zone coverage.
”Maybe they got too conservative,” Ditka said. ”If you play zone against that guy (McMahon), he`ll kill you.”
McMahon`s first pass went to Willie Gault for 19 yards on the sideline.
”We had to use the sidelines because we didn`t have but one timeout,”
McMahon said. ”We had to go to deeper and deeper `out` routes to get it done.”
Anderson took a six-yard swing pass out of bounds and then McMahon found Ron Morris over the middle for 19 yards.
McMahon was going with no huddle now. Instead of using the time out, he hit Gault again for 16 yards to the 11 at the two-minute warning.
”I just tried to hang onto it as long as I could and give the guys time to run their routes,” McMahon said. ”Give the line credit.”
The long ”out” patterns are the most difficult for a quarterback to throw and they demonstrated how far back McMahon has come.
”I tried to tell you how well he was throwing in practice,” Ditka said. ”I was shocked. He throws the ball on anticipation as well as anybody I`ve ever seen.”
From the 11, he found Anderson on a swing pass to the 6. With 1:34 left, McMahon called a pass to Gault over the middle, but hit Anderson instead coming out of the backfield.
Anderson caught the ball at the 6 and jumped over two defenders into the end zone.
”I had a blocking assignment, but the linebacker didn`t rush, so I was able to go out three or four yards and turn around,” Anderson said. ”Jim read the play well.”
The Bears were careful not to over-react to McMahon`s rescue mission, because they never want to feel so dependent on him as they did last year. But it was difficult.
”If we had run only 17 plays in the second half, Jim McMahon couldn`t have won it with only 17 plays,” said center Jay Hilgenberg. ”Our whole offense and defense and special teams had to come together to win it.”
There were no magic potions spilled in the huddle.
”Everybody said something,” Anderson said.
”(Line coach) Dick Stanfel said if we had any guts, we would see if we could come back and do something,” Van Horne said.
”We were cool,” Morris said. ”Jim kept everybody calm. He said, `Hey, we only have a few minutes. Keep our heads in the game. Don`t get excited.` ” It was the first experience for the rookie Morris with McMahon.
”He`s a great quarterback,” Morris said. ”He calls plays to the strong side and he`ll throw to the weak side. You don`t know what he`s going to do out there. He sees things we don`t see, so we have to run routes full speed regardless if the ball is not meant for us.”
The Bucs had played the Bears off their feet from the opening drive of 80 yards, when quarterback Steve DeBerg completed 7 of 12 passes, most on short pass drops that kept the rush at bay.
After a seven-yard touchdown pass to tight end Calvin Magee put the Bucs up 7-0, Ditka seemed to abandon plans to establish the run.
He called four play-action passes in a row. One came on second and three; another on third and three, both long incompletions.
The Bucs came back with a flea-flicker touchdown pass of 28 yards from DeBerg to halfback Jeff Smith that made it 14-0 at the end of a 73-yard drive. A 59-yard kickoff return by Dennis Gentry was nullified by an illegal block by Maurice Douglass, one of nine Bear penalties in a first half dominated by referee Ben Dreith`s careful crew.
At their 18, Hilgenberg was called for holding on a running play. So Ditka went to the pass again, and Tomczak fumbled when hit by defensive end Ron Holmes at the goal line. Linebacker Winston Moss recovered in the end zone for a touchdown.
Al Harris blocked the extra point with 3:10 to play in the first quarter when nobody realized it was the turning point.
A 38-yard touchdown dash by Anderson made it 20-7 and a 65-yard punt return by Dennis McKinnon made it 20-14.
McKinnon`s return-a Bear-record second of the season-came after a questionable decision by Ditka to refuse field position at the Tampa 48 and order a rekick. The strategy backfired when Dave Duerson was called for running into the punter in front of Dreith`s unforgiving eyes.
But on the next punt after the next series, McKinnon took it all the way. ”Either Mike enjoys watching me run, or he felt I had a chance to break one,” McKinnon said. ”Get me a crease and set me free and I`ll find a way to the end zone.”
The Bears couldn`t find another way to the end zone until Donald Igwebuike kicked two field goals to put Tampa Bay up 26-14 with 6:01 left in the third quarter and McMahon still feeling his way.
With 9:50 to play, Ditka replaced tight end Emery Moorehead with Cap Boso and McMahon found Boso for gains of 17 and 18 yards in the 85-yard drive. One of McMahon`s eight passes was overthrown and another dropped. He hit Morris for 11 yards to the 1 and sneaked for the touchdown.
”I admire McMahon more than any quarterback in the game,” said Tampa Bay linebacker Scot Brantley. ”He`s like a linebacker in a quarterback`s uniform. There`s not a better competitor at that position who`s ever played the game.”
McMahon looked almost bored afterwards.
”I`m just thinking about next week,” he said. ”Hopefully, my career isn`t over yet. I`ll worry about the great moments when I`m done.”
Could he have written a better return?
”I wouldn`t have written an interception in there,” he said.
