Windy City Gridiron
Season 1 of the Marc Trestman era was full of hope, at least on the offensive side of the football. The 1st year head coach piloted his team to the 2nd best scoring offense in the league at 27.8 points a game, and while the defense was lacking (30th overall in the league in points allowed) the offense generally did a good job of keeping the Bears in the game.
They did just that in Cleveland as the 7-6 Bears traveled to take on the 4-9 Cleveland Browns in a game that saw the wind chill hit 14 degrees.
The didn’t stop either offense from putting up numbers.
Lead by quarterback Jay Cutler, the Bears offense churned out 23 first downs, 440 yards and held a near 10 minute time of possession edge.
Matt Forte ran for 127 yards, his 3rd 100-yard rushing game in a row, wide receivers Earl Bennett, Brandon Marshall, and Alshon Jeffery all caught touchdowns, the most impressive of the bunch was Jeffery hauling in a 45-yard in double coverage.
The defense chipped in as well, with Bears cornerback Zackary Bowman intercepting 2 Jason Campbell passes, returning 1 for a 43-yard pick 6.
The 1983 season was a sign of things to come for the Chicago Bears, and more importantly the NFC Central. Coaching in his first full season, former Bears tight end Mike Ditka has his team sitting at 6-8 with 2 weeks remaining. The Minnesota Vikings were playing host to those Bears, and sitting at 7-7 in a fairly week NFC Central, they were hoping to try to distance themselves for a late Central title.
But stout defense, and a little bit of trickery from the Bears spoiled the party.
The Bears defense would allow just 255 yards of total offense to Vikings, with Vikings quarterback Steve Dils taking 4 sacks, 2 from Richard Dent, and 1 Mike Singletary.
He was also intercepted by Gary Fencik (who also recovered a fumble in the game as well.)
The highlight of the game though came from the backfield duo, as running back Matt Suhey fielded a backwards pass from Jim McMahon, after faking up field, he pulls up and lofts a perfect pass to a wide open Walter Payton for a 74-yard touchdown.
The Bears never looked back from that point, going on to close out the Vikings 19-13, the win was part of 5-1 end of season finish to go 8-8. It was the first win in Minnesota since 1971.
The following season would kick off a run of NFC Central dominance that saw the Bears win the division 6 of the next 7 years, a run that the Bears went 79-32 in, for a very healthy 71.2% winning %.
