A Clear-Cut Win by Bears Over Eagles

No foggy excuses for the Philadelphia Eagles this time.

This time they weren’t weather-beaten. This time they could see their hands in front of their faces--but still couldn’t get out of their own way.

Outplayed by the unbeaten Chicago Bears most of the way, the Eagles were manhandled Monday night, 27-13, even though Randall Cunningham passed for an eye-popping 246 yards in the fourth quarter.

Altogether, Cunningham threw a club-record 62 passes for 401 yards, but he also had four passes intercepted and was sacked four times. He amassed 350 of his passing yards after halftime--and still only put one touchdown on the board.

On a clear night at Soldier Field before 66,625 fans with long memories who sarcastically chanted “Buddy, Buddy,” Buddy Ryan’s Eagles lost again to Mike Ditka’s Bears, as they have four times now since Ryan quit his job coaching Ditka’s defense after Chicago won Super Bowl XX.

In fact, Philadelphia hasn’t won a football game in this town in 53 years.

Bear quarterback Mike Tomczak had little trouble solving Ryan’s defense Monday, throwing three touchdown passes. Chicago remained one of the National Football League’s perfect teams, along with the Rams and New York Giants.

Philadelphia’s record fell to 2-2, and Cunningham had an experience nearly as forgettable as the National Football Conference playoff game here last New Year’s Eve, which was played in a fog as thick as pea soup. The Bears won that day, 20-12, to the consternation of the Eagles, who believed the officials should have halted play.

As recently as last week, Cunningham was still bemoaning that fact, saying: “If we’d had different refs, we would have won the game. We didn’t think it was a fair game.”

Well, this one was fair and fog-free, but Cunningham’s luck was no better. Besides his official interceptions and sacks, Cunningham had another interception and a fumble that were overturned by officials upon further review. His receivers also fumbled away two completed passes in the fourth quarter.

“The Bears are a better team than we expected,” Cunningham said.

It was like a Punt, Pass & Kick competition for Randall. He even punted for Philadelphia, taking over for the injured John Teltschik, and got one off that traveled 57 yards.

The Eagles trailed at halftime, 13-0--the first time in 40 games that they have failed to score in the first half.

After driving to Chicago’s 48 on their first possession, they didn’t convert another third-down play until late in the third quarter.

But after that, Cunningham limbered up his right arm. He found wide receiver Gregg Garrity for a 24-yard score with 12:06 left to make the score 20-10. A minute and a half later, after Chicago’s Neal Anderson fumbled, Cunningham went 37 yards to Cris Carter to the Chicago two, and suddenly this looked to be a ballgame.

However, typical of his wildly erratic evening, Cunningham tried three passes for the touchdown instead of handing off--and connected on none. The Eagles settled for Luis Zendejas’ second field goal, and never scored again.

Chicago struck back with a 37-yard touchdown pass from Tomczak to tight end James Thornton, who stumbled and bulled his way the final 20 yards. That one came with six minutes left.

There was one last threat from Cunningham, but Cris Carter coughed up a reception at the Bear 27, for Philadelphia’s sixth and final turnover.

Defensive standouts for the Bears were free safety Shaun Gayle, with two interceptions, and defensive end Richard Dent, with 2 1/2 sacks. Cunningham spent most of the game on the lam, Chicago rookie linebacker John Roper also sacking him twice.

This was the 56th victory in 67 regular-season games for Ditka’s Bears since 1985.

“Not many people thought we could be 4-0 starting out with games against the likes of Cincinnati, Minnesota and Philadelphia. But, it happened,” Ditka said. “We must be awfully lucky.”

Ditka was just trying to be cute with that last remark, as he was with his next one.

“Enjoy your hamburgers,” he said.

That one was a sly dig at Ryan, who was featured in a popular burger chain’s recent advertising campaign, offering discount burgers to customers if the Bears won, and discount french fries if the Eagles won.

“Hope y’all enjoy fries,” Ryan says at commercial’s end.

Ryan took the defeat hard, and not just because he was hungry.

“It was a disappointing loss,” Ryan said. “It was probably a more disappointing loss than the Fog Bowl.

“Instead of blocking a punt, we rough the kicker. Instead of intercepting a couple of balls, (the Bears) end up getting touchdowns off them when we broke the wrong way.

“I don’t like to lose anywhere, but the Eagles haven’t won here in 53 years. You don’t lose that many times to many people and stay in this business too long.”

Philadelphia finished with only 67 yards rushing. Anderson gained 85 by himself for Chicago, also scoring the game’s only rushing touchdown on a two-yard run.

The other Bear touchdowns came on Tomczak’s first-half passes of 14 yards to Dennis McKinnon and one yard to fullback Matt Suhey. Tomczak, who completed 24 of 38 passes for 266 yards, is 20-3 as a starting quarterback.