Lovie’s Bears bash Saints, win NFC

CHICAGO – The tradition has been dormant for more than two decades. No one will ever mistake Rex Grossman and Lovie Smith for Jim McMahon and Mike Ditka.

But on the shores of Lake Michigan, with the snow falling, the Bears revived that “Monsters of the Midway” mystique. They ran on the New Orleans Saints early, used their stifling defense to force three turnovers and ended up with a dominating 39-14 victory in the NFC championship game.

The Bears will play for Super Bowl XLI in Miami on Feb. 4, the storied franchise’s first appearance in the title game since the days of McMahon, Ditka and a rout in Super Bowl XX.

Smith and Colts head coach Tony Dungee will be the first black coaches to lead their teams to the Super Bowl. Smith had the NFC’s best team all season long, but his Bears still felt doubted despite the conference’s top defense.

Defensive end Adewale Ogunleye opened up a folded piece of paper in the locker room Sunday, showing a list of NFL pundits who all picked the Saints to win. “We’ve had a lot to motivate us,” said Ogunleye, who sacked Drew Brees and fell on a loose ball with 13:41 left with the Bears ahead 25-14. That drive ended 2:04 later on Cedric Benson’s 12-yard touchdown run to seal the win, part of a 196-yard rushing day for the Bears.

“It’s snowing, we’re running the football, our defense is playing hard, getting turnovers, making some big hits,” said Thomas Jones, the Bears’ other running back who ran all eight times for 69 yards and the game’s first TD with 1:56 left in the first half. That gave the Bears a 16-0 lead. “It was the perfect situation.”

The Saints, who rushed the ball only 12 times after finding no room early, pulled within 16-7 on Marques Colston’s 13-yard touchdown reception from Brees with 46 seconds left in second quarter; they pulled even closer on their second offensive play of the third, when Brees popped a timing pass to Reggie Bush and watched the rookie do the rest. Bush faked Danieal Manning to the ground and raced 88 yards for a score.

The Saints had the Soldier Field crowd under control, forcing a quick series by the Bears offense. Brees (27 for 49, 354 yards) then marched his team down again, but the Bears held and Saints kicker Billy Cundiff missed a 47-yarder that would have given the Saints the lead.

Off the next Chicago three-and-out, punter Brad Maynard bounced one out of bounds at the Saints 5. On second down, Brees tried to throw the ball away with Bears linebacker Lance Briggs charging. He drew an intentional grounding flag in the end zone, which resulted in a safety.

That was the first play that restored the Bears’ mojo. The second was wide receiver Bernard Berrian’s diving – no, more like falling – catch and roll into the end zone. The 33-yard scoring pass by Grossman, his only TD throw of the day to go with zero interceptions and zero sacks, gave the Bears their two-score lead back with 14:23 to play in the game.

“Bernard just saw the ball in the air and made a great play on it,” Grossman said. “That was huge for our momentum.”

“It wasn’t so much the safety as when we were able to drive and not come away with points,” Saints first-year coach Sean Payton said. “There are a lot of things to look at.”

The Bears have had plenty to look at and think about after they got out to a 7-0 start and had to hear the questions about their weak quarterback, their weak conference and, this past week, the Saints’ high-powered offense.

“We won 14 games, and we didn’t convince you then,” Smith said. “But that’s not really our plan. Our plan is once you win it, if you can win it all, then get respect. You don’t get respect until then. We get our respect once we’re able to hold up that ultimate trophy.”

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Bears 39, Saints 14

Chi—FG Gould 19

Chi—FG Gould 43

Chi—FG Gould 24

Chi—Jones 2 run (Gould kick)

NO—Colston 13 pass from Brees (Carney kick)

NO—Bush 88 pass from Brees (Carney kick)

Chi—Safety, Brees intentional grounding in end zone

Chi—Berrian 33 pass from Grossman (Gould kick)

Chi—Benson 12 run (Gould kick)

Chi—Jones 15 run (Gould kick)

A—61,817.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—New Orleans, Bush 4-19, McAllister 6-18, Karney 1-11, Brees 1-8. Chicago, Jones 19-123, Benson 24-60, Davis 1-16, Grossman 2-(minus 3).

PASSING—New Orleans, Brees 27-49-1-354. Chicago, Grossman 11-26-0-144.

RECEIVING—New Orleans, Bush 7-132, Colston 5-63, Miller 4-31, Copper 3-29, McAllister 3-27, Henderson 2-57, Campbell 2-6, Karney 1-9. Chicago, Berrian 5-85, McKie 3-6, Clark 1-30, Muhammad 1-20, Gilmore 1-3.

MISSED FIELD GOAL—New Orleans, Cundiff 47 (SH).