McMahon’s 3 Touchdown Passes Spark Bears Over Vikings, 33-24

Attacking ABC-TV this week, Bud Grant, the born-again coach of the Minnesota Vikings, said football telecasts should begin with the words and music of his favorite song, “The Star Spangled Banner.”

“ABC could be a little more American,” said Grant, who urged the network to quit blacking out the national anthem. “I think it’s the highlight of the game.”

Sometimes it is, perhaps, but not this time. The highlight Thursday night was the third-quarter performance of Jim McMahon, who threw for three touchdowns in seven minutes for the Chicago Bears--two of them with his first two passes of the game.

These shots made the Bears a sudden 33-24 winner over the Vikings, who had held a 17-9 lead when McMahon came out onto the field for the first time with only 7:30 remaining in the third quarter.

McMahon is Chicago’s first-string quarterback, but his coach, Mike Ditka, had benched him in Minneapolis and started No. 2 Steve Fuller after McMahon injured his back a week ago.

“I could have started. I wanted to start,” said McMahon, who spent Sunday and Monday nights in the hospital.

Others in the Bear organization said Ditka was upset when McMahon sat in the bleachers and visited with ABC commentator Joe Namath in Chicago Tuesday instead of practicing with the team on its only practice day of the week.

“My back was still bothering me Tuesday,” said McMahon, who first injured it in bed one night last week. As he turned over, he said, the first spasm hit.

He is a clean-living young man from Brigham Young University. Had he been out carousing around that night, the bed might not have attacked him.

“McMahon caught us by surprise,” Minnesota defensive end Doug Martin said.

“When he didn’t start the second half, we didn’t expect to see him.”

When they did see him--after the second of Tommy Kramer’s three touchdown passes had opened a 17-9 lead for Minnesota--McMahon threw a first-down pass to wide receiver Willie Gault for a 70-yard touchdown play the first time he touched the ball.

The next time he had it, after an interception by Chicago, McMahon threw a first-down strike to wide receiver Dennis McKinnon for 25 yards and a touchdown.

Five minutes later, McMahon’s seventh pass of the game, and fifth completion, went to McKinnon for 43 yards, a touchdown and a 30-17 lead.

There have been other performances as spectacular as that in pro football, no doubt, but not this year.

Grant, who returned to the Vikings this season after a one-year hunting and fishing sabbatical, seldom seems surprised by anything on or off the field and said he wasn’t surprised by McMahon’s dramatic comeback.

Noting that McMahon managed to play with his bad back, Grant said: “Beware of players who have small injuries.”

Pressed to evaluate McMahon, the Minnesota coach confided: “He made some good plays.”

Grant didn’t seem very happy to learn that for the first time in pro football history, ABC played the national anthem at halftime.

It was a taped version in which the Vikings were lined up like West Point cadets, holding their helmets as if they were shields.

“It (the halftime tape) is not the same thing, but it’s better than nothing,” Grant said.

The thing that stunned the players of both teams, who pride themselves on their defenses, was the passing yardage--796 yards on 88 passes, 436 for Minnesota by Kramer and 360 for Chicago.

Kramer completed 28 of 55, Fuller 13 of 18 and McMahon 8 of 15.

“I thought Fuller played well,” Ditka said. “I just can’t explain what McMahon did for us.”

To Grant, the lesson is that running the ball is getting to be a waste of time. Although Walter Payton averaged 4.1 yards per carry and netted 62 yards for Chicago, he carried it on only 15 plays. The Vikings gained only 34 yards rushing.

Explaining the air show, Grant said: “Their 46 defense, or whatever they call it, is set up to stop the run.”

It was McMahon’s first touchdown that woke up the crowd of 61,142, which had begun dreaming of a Viking upset.

“I had called a screen pass,” the Chicago quarterback said. “But they came with the blitz, and I saw they had man-to-man coverage. I looked up and saw Willie (Gault) going by somebody (cornerback Willie Teal) and I threw it.

Payton blocked the first blitzer, linebacker Dennis Johnson, but the second caught McMahon just as he delivered. He didn’t see the catch. It was a 38-yard throw followed by Gault’s swift 32-yard run.

This closed Minnesota’s lead to 17-16, after which Kramer delivered one of his few bad passes of the night, and Chicago linebacker Wilber Marshall intercepted to position McMahon for his next touchdown dart.

This also came on a broken play as McMahon scrambled far to his left and threw back to his right to reach McKinnon in the end zone 25 yards away.

Now Chicago had the lead, 23-17, and McMahon’s next touchdown throw to McKinnon put Minnesota away.

For Minnesota, Kramer threw two touchdown passes to Anthony Carter, the first of which gave the Vikings a 10-6 halftime lead--just before the national anthem.