Some of Adewale Ogunleye’s defensive teammates stayed on the bench. A couple of others might not have wanted to watch, maybe out of habit.
With the Bears’ offense 97 yards away from a game-winning touchdown with no timeouts left and only 112 ticks left on the clock, they were closer to thinking of 2008 than thanking Brian Griese for keeping this year alive.
“I wanted to see it,” Ogunleye said.
Every Bears defender sure needed to see Griese take the offense for a memorable Sunday drive.
What happened in that final 1 minute 52 seconds took the once-proud and much-maligned Bears defense off the hook and proved to everybody that Lovie Smith’s team can win a football game without the defense having to save the day.
Dare anyone say the new Bears? Maybe not yet, but for the second straight week the offense proved in the final two minutes times might be changing at Halas Hall.
Griese spread the ball around to five different receivers among his seven completions on the last drive. His head was as big an asset as his arm.
When the Eagles dropped deeper than the deepest, Griese threw short. When they jumped short routes, Griese found the open man across the middle. When desperation called for someone to make a play, he lofted a pass that Muhsin Muhammad caught over Sean Considine for a winning 15-yard TD catch with nine seconds left.
Why the Bears were left without any timeouts due to inexcusable coaching mistakes was deemed a moot point thanks to Griese’s heads-up play. The second-down call, made by Griese, called for all four Bears receivers to run go routes and simply try to beat their men. Muhammad did just enough to come up with the catch.
“It probably wasn’t the prettiest play ever called, but it was effective,” tight end Desmond Clark said. “Brian just stepped back and threw it.”
Griese played the final series without the aid of his helmet headset, which was broken. It prevented him from communicating with the sidelines and forced him to call all the plays himself. The final message Griese delivered was clear enough for everybody in the locker room to hear.
“He’s earning our respect,” Ogunleye said. “That’s what you need, especially in games like this.”
Nothing like a Griese diet to cure a Super Bowl hangover.
That revelation by Tommie Harris that they have lacked hunger since losing to the Colts in February turned Sunday’s game into a measure of collective will for the Bears more than a gauge of where they stood in the NFC. The accountability of every player and coach at Halas Hall had come under question after the most embarrassing loss of Smith’s tenure against the Vikings.
“If this wasn’t a pride check, I don’t know what is,” Clark said.
The Bears arrived looking for an offensive identity and returned home with one easy to spot by his steely eyes, long sideburns and tousled hair. They came looking for a life preserver and left talking about a playoff voyage again.
“As far as we were concerned, the playoff tournament had started,” Smith said.
Bracket busters, the Bears no longer have to be. They maintained a realistic shot at a playoff berth by pulling out an evenly played game. They protected the football without turning it over, improved defensively as the game went on and affected the game on special teams as the Eagles kicked away from Devin Hester enough to impact the outcome.
At least the Bears aren’t getting carried away with this win the way they appeared to after beating Green Bay — the last supposed season-saving victory.
“I’m not going to look at it like it saved the season because if we lose the next one [against Detroit], then the next one will be saving the season, and how many times can you save the season?” Clark said. “We have to start stacking wins up, get over .500 and make a run at it.”
Luck as much as grit helped the Bears make a run at this one.
Robbie Gould’s key 45-yard field goal with 9:21 left in the fourth quarter bounced off the left upright and sailed over the crossbar. Those points never would have gone on the board if not for a rare ruling by referee Ed Hochuli six plays earlier.
When the snap from Olin Kreutz rolled through the legs of Griese and Considine scooped the ball up and started a return that would have given the Eagles a sure scoring opportunity deep in Bears’ territory, a flag was thrown. Who knew that NFL rules state when a ball is snapped between the quarterback’s legs, he has to be the one to get the ball or it’s a false start? Instead of trying to keep the Eagles from taking a lead, the Bears faced first-and-15 in a tie game.
“I know the rulebook fairly well, but I didn’t know that one,” offensive coordinator Ron Turner said.
In fairness, the Bears were due some good karma after getting shut out in that department over the first six games. The defense also was due for improvement after looking so pathetic against the Vikings.
Defensive coordinator Bob Babich responded to last week’s embarrassment with a few subtle changes: Trumaine McBride started at cornerback, Danieal Manning moved back to safety and Charles Tillman shadowed the Eagles’ No. 1 receiver, Kevin Curtis, to help McBride. The moves helped force McNabb to check down most of the day and prevented most big pass plays outside of tight end Matt Schobel’s 13-yard TD pass in the soft spot of Cover-2 with 4:57 left.
Overall, the secondary tackled better as the game wore on and the Bears focused more on the ballcarrier than the ball. No, they didn’t create a turnover, but they didn’t whiff badly trying to wrap up Brian Westbrook either.
During the game and after it, you might say the Bears had a pretty good grip on this one.
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dhaugh@tribune.com
IN THE WEB EDITION
*David Haugh answers your Bears questions in a live video chat at 3 p.m. Monday at chicagotribune.com/sports
