Chicago Capitalizes on Viking Mistakes in Fourth Quarter

While Jim McMahon passed for a career-high 389 yards for the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, his former employers, the Chicago Bears, were struggling to get their offense going.

Until the fourth quarter.

The Bears showed they hardly miss their former quarterback by exploding for four touchdowns in the fourth quarter to rout the Minnesota Vikings, 38-7.

The outburst tied a Bears record of 28 points in a fourth quarter set against Philadelphia on Nov. 30, 1941.

Running back Neal Anderson, who finished with 97 yards in 23 carries, scored two of his three touchdowns in the quarter.

Anderson, who has rushed for 243 yards in two games, said, “We did what we wanted to do on offense. If you plug away and plug away, sooner or later the touchdowns will come.”

The Bears led, 10-7, going into the final period when Shaun Gayle intercepted a pass by Wade Wilson that triggered the rout.

Wilson had three passes intercepted in the fourth quarter and all three led to touchdowns.

“I wasn’t very sharp throwing the ball,” Wilson said. “At first I thought I was throwing all right and then I went downhill.”

The Bears (2-0) avenged two losses last season to the Vikings (1-1).

“We did some good things, we did some poor things,” Bear Coach Mike Ditka said. “We caught them at the right time. We got handled pretty good last year. We wanted to be respectable. Today was our day; they’ll have their day.”

Bear quarterback Mike Tomczak completed 10 of 26 passes for 142 yards.

“When we can run the ball, we’re a good football team,” Tomczak said. “The offensive line saw to that.”

Tomczak put the Bears ahead, 7-0, with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Anderson and Wilson countered with a four-yard touchdown pass to Jim Gustafson.

Late in the first half, the Bears capitalized on a shanked punt by Bucky Scribner to set up a 40-yard field goal by Kevin Butler.

After a scoreless third quarter, Teddy Garcia missed a 33-yard field goal in the fourth period that would have tied the game.

“I think that was the turning point,” Ditka said. “I think that hurt them a lot. But anytime we get three turnovers, we figure to win the game.”

Gayle’s interception, set up a Anderson’s two-yard scoring run for a 17-7 lead.

Ron Rivera’s interception led to a 13-yard touchdown run by Anderson and Lemuel Stinson returned an interception 29 yards for another touchdown. Mark Green scored from on a 37-yard run to cap the outburst.