Chicago Wins Bear of a Game : Pro football: After tying the score on the final play of regulation, Bears beat Jets in a wild finish in overtime, 19-13.

The Chicago Bears twice escaped almost certain defeat and beat the New York Jets, 19-13, Monday night on Jim Harbaugh’s touchdown dive from the six-inch line with 18 seconds to go in overtime.

The game seemingly ended a play earlier. Both teams had left the field and fans had starting filing out of Soldier Field.

But replay official Bill Fette ruled that Cap Boso had been stopped six inches from the goal line on a pass from Harbaugh that covered 23 yards.

So the players came back on the field, lined up and Harbaugh dived over on another play that was reviewed. But this time the touchdown stood.

Chicago, trailing 13-3 entering the fourth quarter, tied the score on the final play of regulation when Neal Anderson caught Harbaugh’s six-yard pass on fourth down.

That touchdown was set up when Steve McMichael stripped the ball from Blair Thomas as the Jets tried to run out the clock.

Then the Bears watched as Pat Leahy, one of the NFL’s most consistent kickers for the past 15 years, missed a 28-yard field-goal attempt with 3:50 left in overtime after the Jets elected to kick on first down from the Bears’ 11. The usually reliable Leahy, the league’s oldest player at 40, missed wide left.

Harbaugh, who set career highs with a 28-for-42 performance for 303 yards, then drove the Bears 80 yards to win it and give Mike Ditka his 100th victory as an NFL coach.

“We may be the luckiest team in the world,” Ditka said. “It may be luck, it may be divine intervention. It’s something. . . . I don’t know what. We got this one on luck. We’ll take another one on skill.”

The victory left Chicago as one of four unbeaten NFL teams, along with New Orleans, Washington and Buffalo. The Bills play host to the Bears on Sunday.

For the Jets (1-3), it was the second heartbreaking loss to an unbeaten team. Last week, they fell, 23-20, to Buffalo after leading, 20-16.

“I’m at a loss for words,” said Jeff Lageman, whose sack of Harbaugh just before the tying touchdown pass was one of many points where the Jets seemed to have won. “I’m so frustrated right now I don’t know what to feel.”

Jet safety Lonnie Young said: “We’re all stunned. This one will be hard to come back from.”

The victory increased Chicago’s record in September under Ditka to 23-2. The Bears have won their four games this season by a total of 14 points.

The Jets seemed to have put the game away when Brian Washington stopped Harbaugh a foot away from the tying touchdown with 3:30 left.

But Thomas, who rushed for 118 yards, had the ball stolen from him at the Jets’ 36 by McMichael. The Bears appeared stopped when Lageman sacked Harbaugh at the 12 and Washington stuffed him in bounds at the six as the seconds ticked off. Then Harbaugh tied it by hitting Anderson in the left corner of the end zone as time expired.

The Jets took their 13-3 lead on field goals of 19 and 34 yards by Leahy and a one-yard run by Brad Baxter that capped a 60-yard drive with 3:30 left in the third quarter.

Kevin Butler’s field goal at 2:09 of the final quarter, set up by a 28-yard pass interference call on James Hasty, cut it to 13-6.

The Bears never got close to the Jets’ end zone in the first three quarters as free safety Young roamed all over the field, making tackles and batting down passes.

New York took a 6-3 lead on Leahy’s 34-yard field goal as time expired in the first half, one in which both teams moved between the 20s but couldn’t sustain drives.

Leahy earlier kicked a 19-yarder after a 53-yard drive in which the Jets declined to go for it on fourth and one at the Chicago two.

Butler put Chicago up 3-0 with a 33-yarder on its first possession, a 72-yard drive marked by a 31-yard completion from Harbaugh to Tom Waddle and a 35-yard pass interference call.