Bear Offense Puts One on Ice Without Refrigerator, McMahon

This was an easy one for the Chicago Bears. They didn’t need Jim McMahon’s passes or William Perry’s runs and catches to hammer the Detroit Lions on Sunday, 24-3.

Pro football’s only undefeated team, 10-0 and facing Dallas in Texas Stadium next week, overpowered the Detroit defense on the ground. There were 102 yards by Chicago fullback Matt Suhey and 107 by halfback Walter Payton.

Chicago quarterback Steve Fuller wasn’t tested as a fill-in for McMahon, throwing only 13 passes in a stiff, cold wind.

On the goal line, the Bears found a new role for Perry, the 308-pound defensive lineman they call The Refrigerator.

“First time I was ever a decoy on a touchdown,” Fridge said of his man-in-motion sprint in the first period, when Fuller was credited with six points on a quarterback sneak. The officials were among the few who thought he scored.

This was the only touchdown the Bears were going to need on a dark, rainy and cold afternoon, with the temperature in the 30s and a 17 m.p.h. wind pushing everyone around.

Perry, who has run the ball and caught it for touchdowns in previous games, was on offense two other times but only blocked.

“That’s all right with me,” he said, smiling through the hole where his two front teeth used to be. “You can’t run all the time. You have to block some.”

Of his second start as the Bears’ right tackle on defense, Perry said: “I had fun. Made a couple sacks and a couple tackles.”

Actually, Fridge was the mop-up man on both sacks, nailing Detroit quarterback Eric Hipple only after other Bears had called on him first, piling into Hipple and spinning him around. But no matter. They think Perry has a big future defensively, and so does he.

This game otherwise was a casebook example of the way a bright, well-manned offensive team takes advantage of a defense with some holes.

The Bears ran Payton and Suhey up the middle 37 times. And on this long parade of 10-to-12-yard gains, they were picking on Detroit nose tackle Doug English, who is tall enough, 6-5, but a bit light for a nose tackle, 258. Nor will he ever be 32 again.

Said Chicago tackle Keith Van Horne: “Our center (Jay Hilgenberg) let their nose guy commit himself, then blocked him whichever way he went. Then our running back, Payton or Suhey, went the other way--went around them. The rest was easy because Detroit plays their defensive ends real wide. Our running back was in the secondary before anybody was there to stop him.”

It looked that way precisely.

Detroit Coach Darryl Rogers, without going into the details, put it in coaches’ language: “We couldn’t control the line of scrimmage.”

That was obvious.

This is the first year for English at nose tackle. In former seasons he was a defensive tackle in Detroit’s former 4-3 alignment, and a good one, often making All-Pro or the Pro Bowl or both.

For the last three months, English has been protesting his conversion to nose tackle, a move orchestrated by Detroit’s new defensive coordinator, Wayne Fontes--also a good one. At Tampa Bay, Fontes helped John McKay put together one of the league’s best defenses.

But in a 3-4 alignment, the essential is a willing, capable nose tackle, and the Lions apparently don’t have one.

“Look it up,” said Van Horne. “This team (Detroit) is last in rushing defense in the league.”

English didn’t want to talk about it Sunday but may have something to say after he’s seen the movies.

Chicago’s Mike Ditka, who is in a gallop for National Football League Coach of the Year, used a winning tactic to get a satisfying game out of his backup quarterback, Fuller.

“Mike gave me a copy of the game plan Friday night and told me to circle the plays I wanted to use,” Fuller said. “That made a difference, made me more comfortable.”

As a result, the Bears didn’t throw a pass in the first quarter. They ran 29 times, in fact, before Fuller put one up.

Running the ball through the middle, they scored in every quarter, marching 63, 77 and 74 yards to their touchdowns and 17 yards to a field goal.

But the heart of the Bear team remains the defense, which held Detroit to 68 yards on the ground although Lion fullback James Jones ran as well as any back on the field.

Hipple, who was sacked four times, netted only 68 yards on Detroit passes.

Ditka said McMahon will be ready for Dallas Sunday.

Said Fuller: “The real plus today is that we rested McMahon and won.”