Not only are the Flanigans a big part of the Bears-Packers rivalry, there’s no telling where they’ll turn up.
Jim Flanigan, a Green Bay native whose father, Jim, played linebacker for the Packers from 1967-70, caught a 2-yard touchdown pass from Bears quarterback Erik Kramer in the final minute of the third quarter. Flanigan, a defensive tackle, is also the Bears’ fullback in goal-line situations, but almost always is used as a blocker.
He is the first defensive lineman to score a touchdown for the Bears in a regular-season game since Chris Zorich returned a fumble for a score at Dallas in December 1992. But in the playoffs last year against the 49ers, Flanigan and Kramer connected for a 2-yard touchdown pass.
Monday blues: The Bears’ Monday night record plummeted to 12-26, the most losses and the sixth-worst percentage since the series began in 1970.
Their eight-game losing streak is also the longest in Monday Night Football history. Kansas City lost seven in a row before recently winning, while Atlanta and Denver have both lost seven straight. Atlanta doesn’t play on the dreaded day this year while Denver plays later in the season.
“We said we weren’t gonna have a Monday night massacre like we did last year,” said safety Mark Carrier. “We were going to try to win this game.”
Cornering the market: It was a long night for Bears cornerbacks, who were burned early and often, especially in the first half as Green Bay took a 24-7 lead.
But Donnell Woolford and Jeremy Lincoln tried to make amends later in the game. Late in the fourth quarter, with the Packers ahead 27-24 and in a third-and-6 situation on the Bears’ 9, Lincoln turned around just in time to tip Brett Favre’s pass. The incompletion prevented a Packer score when a field-goal attempt failed because of a fumbled snap.
Woolford was burned in the second quarter when the Packers’ Brett Favre and Robert Brooks hooked up for a 99-yard play, just the eighth in NFL history.
But his fourth-quarter interception set up a Bears TD that cut the Packers’ lead to 27-21. It was Woolford’s first this season and 23rd of his career, tying him with Roosevelt Taylor for eighth on the Bears’ all-time list.
“I gambled and I missed,” Woolford said of the touchdown to Brooks. “The next time I gambled and got it.”
A long one: That 99-yard touchdown pass brought out the record books. It was the longest play by an opponent at Soldier Field since New England’s Tony Eason and Craig James connected on a 90-yarder Sept. 15, 1985.
Although 99-yard passes have occurred just eight times in NFL history–most recently Sept. 18 of last season, when the Chargers’ Stan Humphries and Tony Martin did it at Seattle–the Bears have been victimized twice. The other time was when Sonny Jurgensen found Washington’s Gerry Allen on Sept. 15, 1968.
The Packers’ previous longest completion was 96 yards, from Tobin Rote to Billy Grimes on Dec. 10, 1950, in San Francisco.
Streak broken: Bears running back Lewis Tillman played in every game since being drafted by the Giants in 1989, but his streak ended Monday when he was placed on the inactive list due to a sprained ankle. Tillman played in 97 straight games. Center Jerry Fontenot has the record now, with 98 consecutive appearances.
Catching up: Gov. Jim Edgar and his wife, Brenda, attended Monday’s game. That gave Bears President Michael McCaskey a chance to get an update on how Edgar’s legislative proposals to aid a new stadium is coming along.
