Bears Provide a Giant Step for Hostetler

The New York Giants’ first offensive play of the game was a good indication that this black-and-blue bowl, this battle of the backup quarterbacks that was supposed to end with a baseball score, was not going to live down to its billing.

Pinned on their six-yard line with reserve Jeff Hostetler lined up behind center, the Giants’ called a pass play. Now, with starter Phil Simms sidelined with a foot injury, Hostetler was supposed to hand the ball to a teammate. Or maybe run with it himself. But a pass ?

But then, not much about the Giants’ 31-3 victory over the Chicago Bears in Sunday’s NFC semifinal playoff game ran true to predicted form. Certainly not the final score.

“I would’ve thought we might have won with those numbers, just inverted (13),” Giants’ center Bart Oates said, smiling.

New York Coach Bill Parcells admitted that he would have been “very happy with 21.”

But the score was merely one item on a lengthy list in the Who-Woulda-Figured department, such as:

--Hostetler gained more yards rushing (43) than the entire Bear team (27).

--Bear backup Mike Tomczak threw 36 passes, but Chicago did not get a first down rushing.

--Chicago’s Pro Bowl-bound running back, Neal Anderson, had more yards receiving (23) than rushing (19).

--The Giants did not run the ball on first down in the first quarter.

--At the end of the first quarter, the two reserve quarterbacks were a combined 10 of 16 for 137 passing yards, and the two vaunted running attacks had a combined 13 yards.

--The Giants, with the second-best defense in the NFL during the regular season, scrapped their normal 3-4 alignment and opened the game in a 4-3 for the first time since 1982.

Clearly, this was not the type of game the 77,025 on hand in Giants Stadium thought they were coming to see. But they didn’t seem to mind. And New York fans may feel a bit better about their team’s chances Sunday in San Francisco when they play the 49ers with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake.

“We’re very predictable, but today we were a little less predictable,” Parcells said. “I think both teams were intent on loosening up the defense a little bit and making them think we were going to throw.

“If you go in there and just run the first three plays into the middle of the line, that’s the kind of thing that just feeds a defense’s ego. We mixed it up a little, and that seemed to get things going.”

The Bears came out throwing, too. But they soon were passing out of necessity.

“They forced us into a passing game,” Bears Coach Mike Ditka said. “I do not like that type of game.”

Well, at least some things never change. But Ditka’s postgame “admission” about his aversion to the forward pass was one of the few things that wasn’t surprising on this windy Sunday in New Jersey.

Hostetler might have been the biggest--and most pleasant--surprise for the Giants (14-3). He got the Giants’ out to an early 10-0 lead with a perfectly thrown 21-yard touchdown pass to Stephen Baker in the corner of the end zone after Matt Bahr’s 46-yard field goal. And Hostetler finished off an 11-play, 80-yard second-quarter drive with a five-yard scoring pass to tight end Howard Cross that put the Giants ahead, 17-3.

But his scrambling in key situations really buried the Bears (12-6).

On the first play of the 80-yard drive, he couldn’t find an open receiver but managed to escape the Bear rush and scamper for an 11-yard gain. Later on the same drive, the Giants had fourth and one at the Chicago 32, and Hostetler dashed around right end for 10 yards.

On fourth and six at the Bear 35 in the third quarter, he appeared trapped for a sack but managed to elude a diving William Perry and sprint along the sidelines for a nine-yard gain. Then he finished off the drive with a three-yard touchdown run that put the Giants ahead, 24-3.

“I’ve been feeling like David and Goliath, with what everyone’s been saying about me,” said Hostetler, who is 5-0 as a Giant starter but has played sparingly during his seven years with the team. “I had some jitters, but in the locker room before the game I could sense that the guys had confidence that I could get the job done, and that helped settle my nerves.”

If he ever was among the doubters, Parcells is now a believer.

“He didn’t make the big mistake,” Parcells said. “He got us out of some big third-down situations, and the one fourth-down play (in the third quarter) was a very, very big play.”

Hostetler, who completed 10 of 17 passes for 122 yards, didn’t have a monopoly on game-turning plays, however. If the Giants’ offense exceeded expectations, their defense clearly lived up to them.

Chicago had almost as many total yards (232) as New York (288), but the Giants’ revamped 4-3--”We just wanted to get some bigger guys up on the line to stop their run,” Parcells explained--came up with a couple of plays that were as important in scrambling the Bears’ plans as any of Hostetler’s improvised runs.

Early in the second quarter, with the Giants leading, 10-0, Chicago had a first down on the New York six-yard line. Two runs and an incomplete pass later, the Bears were still two feet short of the end zone. On fourth down, defensive end John Washington shot through a gap and stood up fullback Brad Muster at the one. The two seemed frozen in time for a fraction of second before a half-dozen Giants slammed Muster to the ground for a one-yard loss.

“(Bear tackle Jimbo Covert) was down low, so I thought they might be coming my way,” Washington said. “I just pushed him down and went over him. It was the biggest tackle of my life. And I don’t remember the next biggest.”

Late in the third quarter, the Giants’ defense was backed up against its end zone and stood its ground again.

The Bears, trailing, 24-3, drove to the New York five. On fourth and goal from the five, Tomczak passed to Jim Thornton over the middle, but linebackers Pepper Johnson and Gary Reasons brought the Bears’ tight end down inches short of the goal line.

“If we didn’t mess up those two plays, it would have been a different game,” Thornton said.

Maybe the final score would have been closer, but Hostetler and a giant of a defense ensured a victory. And now the Giants can set their sights on a Super Bowl bid.

“This was great,” Hostetler said, “but, hey, I’ve got plenty of wild dreams.”