Bears Drive Home a Point to 49ers, 26-10

Among the many things the Chicago Bears proved in their 26-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers here Sunday is that they have a very good memory.

Beating the 49ers wasn’t just an exercise in keeping pace with the Rams as one of only two teams in the National Football League with 6-0 records. Nor was it merely an attempt to convince their detractors, in a game against last season’s Super Bowl champions, that they are worthy of their unbeaten record.

No, this one was more than that. Much more.

Pick out your favorite cliche: Turnabout is fair play. The revenge factor. Don’t get even, get ahead. They all applied Sunday to the Bears’ desire to settle a score.

In last year’s NFC title game, right here in Candlestick Park, the 49ers beat the Bears, 23-0, en route to the Super Bowl. In the aftermath of Sunday’s return engagement, it became quite obvious that the Bears felt the 49ers not only wounded them in that one, but rubbed in some salt.

So while their actions spoke louder than their words, they didn’t miss a chance to verbalize a little, either.

“Unfortunately, when the 49ers beat us last year, they didn’t show us much courtesy or dignity,” said Walter Payton, Chicago’s star running back. “They said negative things about our offense after shutting us out. We thought about that all during the off-season and preseason.”

Jim McMahon, the Bears’ quarterback, said: “We wanted it a little more than they did. We wanted to show them that we have an offense.”

And Coach Mike Ditka, while doing his best to underplay the motivational factors involved in last season’s humiliation here, said: “Naturally that 23-0 thing sticks with you a little longer than others.”

Strong words, but so were the Bears’ actions.

With the Bears holding an easily surmountable 19-10 lead and more than 11 minutes left in the game, Ditka sent his team on the field to stuff it down the 49ers’ throats. “Old Bear football,” Ditka called it. Like in the good old days of the NFC Central’s Black and Blue Division.

Payton, held to 44 yards rushing in the first half, carried the ball on the first play from Chicago’s 34-yard line. He gained nine yards. Then he carried for four. Then seven, then two, then . . . you get the drift.

In the drive, Payton carried the first six plays, threw a block that helped Matt Suhey gain two yards, then carried the next two times before blocking again for a run by Suhey. That added up to 8 of 10 carries that ate up nearly six minutes of the clock and put the ball on the 49er 29.

Then, three plays later, on second and seven from the 17, Payton took a pitchout, bounced off two tacklers and powered past the final 49er defender into the left corner of the end zone.

With Kevin Butler’s kick, it was 26-10, and the 3 minutes 41 seconds the 49ers had left was hardly enough for the two touchdowns and a field goal they needed to avoid dropping to a 3-3 record and making the Rams look like a sure thing for the NFC West title.

But there was a tad more turnabout in Ditka’s repertorie. When the Bears got the ball back with 1:51 to go, Ditka sent in a rookie named William Perry to play running back. For those having trouble placing the face, shift your memory down towards the stomach and think about the nickname, “Refrigerator.”

Perry, the 6-foot-2 defensive tackle from Clemson, got the ice-box label because he weighs as much as one. Or, perhaps because he spends so much of his time pulling things out of one.

He was listed on Sunday’s program as 325 pounds, but a postgame interview with him, minus his shirt, prompts the thought that, even at an allegedly trimmed down 325, the Bears may need to change their mode of transportation from United Airlines to the Goodyear Blimp.

With the ball at their own 38, the Bears handed off to the Refrigerator. Not once, but twice. And the reason they did so, although nobody would admit for the record to such shenanigans in Pete Rozelle’s prim and proper NFL, was because, in the late stages of last year’s 23-0 whipping by the 49ers, Coach Bill Walsh of San Francisco inserted a guard, Guy McIntyre, at running back.

Ditka did Walsh one better. He actually gave the ball to the Refrigerator. And for trivia freaks, the record will show that William Perry, the NFL’s newly-found swivel hips, gained two yards on each carry.

The record won’t show that, with those two plays, Ditka figuratively placed his left hand in the crook of his right arm and raised it, fist clenched, in the direction of Bill Walsh.

When asked about it afterward, Ditka said, “I just wanted to see if he could run with the ball.” No malice aforethought, right?

“Heck, he told me beforehand that if things went right in the game, he just might give me the ball and let me run with it today,” The Refrigerator said. “Man, you shoulda seen the looks on the faces of those 49ers after they tackled me and saw it was me running the ball. It sure was sweet.”

The Bears had gotten into position for Payton’s final flurry and winning touchdown by dominating the first period and getting four field goals out of Butler. Payton scored his team’s other touchdown, with a three-yard run ending a 73-yard drive by the Bears the first time they touched the ball.

They led, 16-0, until midway through the second period, when McMahon, under heavy pressure, tried to throw a pass away by simply flinging it as far down the middle as he could. The problem with that was he hadn’t seen Carlton Williamson, 49er defensive back, who gathered in the errant toss like a center fielder grabbing a fly ball and ran 43 yards into the end zone.

That my have given the crowd of 60,523, and a television audience that included an estimated 80% of the U.S. markets, the thought that some 49er magic was about to be worked.

Instead, quarterback Joe Montana was sacked seven times, most in his career, and the 49ers failed to score an offensive touchdown for the first time since November of 1983, when they lost to the Bears, 13-3.