Lowery Gets His Kicks Against Bears, 21-10 : Pro football: Five field goals make difference in victory that keeps pressure on Raiders in AFC West.

Nick Lowery and Steve DeBerg had nagging injuries, but the Chicago Bears had their pride hurt Saturday.

Lowery overcame a strained knee to kick five field goals and DeBerg, favoring a cracked finger on his left hand, passed for 276 yards with his right arm Saturday as the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Chicago Bears, 21-10.

“I’m embarrassed to have an injury as a kicker,” said Lowery, who missed most of practice during the week because of the injury.

DeBerg’s sore finger was bumped in the fourth quarter, and he was replaced by Steve Pelluer as a precaution.

“There’s a lot of pain right now,” DeBerg said. “The coaches were kind enough to call a couple of running plays after I hurt it again.”

Both teams already had qualified for the playoffs, and the Chiefs (11-5) can still win the AFC West and get a first-round bye if the Raiders lose today to San Diego. If the Raiders win, the Chiefs will play Miami next week.

“That’s out of our hands,” Chief Coach Marty Schottenheimer said. “We didn’t plan on looking for help from anybody. That was true at the start of the season. It was true at the middle of the season. And it’s true now.”

Kansas City, which has won six of its last seven games, controlled the ball for 41 minutes.

“We got handled pretty well today. They came at us with hard-nosed football,” Chicago Coach Mike Ditka said. “We’re sitting on zero. We got to put some gas in the tank.”

The Bears (11-5), who lost at Soldier Field for the first time this season, will open the playoffs at home next weekend against the NFC’s No. 3 wild-card team, either Dallas or New Orleans.

“We didn’t get the yardage we needed on third down,” said Chicago quarterback Mike Tomczak, who completed only five of 23 passes for 85 yards.

Lowery’s five field goals gave him 21 in a row, breaking Jan Stenerud’s team record of 16. His 33 field goals and 139 points also broke single-season team records by Stenerud.

Kansas City’s touchdown came in the third quarter when Christian Okoye--sidelined the past two weeks because of a shoulder injury--scored from the three at the end of a 66-yard, 12-play drive to put the Chiefs ahead, 18-10. Lowery missed the extra point, which he kicked from the 20 after a penalty.

Lowery finished Kansas City’s scoring with a 38-yard field goal in the final quarter.

DeBerg completed 25 of 32 passes. He had no interceptions and finished the season with only four. Todd McNair caught nine DeBerg passes for 69 yards.

Chicago’s only lead came after Johnny Bailey raced untouched 95 yards up the middle with a punt return for the game’s first touchdown. That gave Chicago a 10-9 lead shortly before halftime.

Kansas City then drove 59 yards in the final two minutes for Lowery’s fourth field goal--a 32-yarder.

On the game’s first play, DeBerg found Stephone Paige with a 41-yard pass to the Bear 20. Seven plays later, Lowery kicked a 19-yard field goal.

Chicago came right back with a 24-yard field goal by Kevin Butler, set up by a 25-yard run by Neal Anderson to the Chief 12.

Lowery’s 30-yard field goal made it 6-3 at the end of the first quarter, and his 43-yarder made it 9-3 on the Chiefs’ next possession.