Lions’ Strategy Backfires; Bears Win : NFC: Detroit abandons run-and-shoot, enabling Chicago to come back for a 20-10 victory.

The Chicago Bears, under Coach Mike Ditka, are tougher and smarter than most of the teams they play, especially in their own division, the NFC Central.

And their tough, smart quarterback fits right in. He’s Jim Harbaugh, who brought the Bears from behind again Sunday to steal one from the Detroit Lions, 20-10.

“Jim hung in against another big rush and made the throws we needed,” Ditka said of Harbaugh, who fired two touchdown passes through a wintry wind to pull it out in the last 20 minutes.

It was Harbaugh’s second game-winning rally in eight days. His catch-up passes helped the Bears edge the unbeaten New Orleans Saints last week.

On frozen Soldier Field in 20-degree weather, the Lions led late into the third quarter, 10-6, with an effective new run-and-shoot quarterback, Erik Kramer, who, starting his first NFL game, outplayed Harbaugh in the first half.

As Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes said: “Erik put the ball right on the money.”

Then for reasons that defy good football logic, Fontes abandoned the run-and-shoot that had been succeeding and set out to show the Bears that his nifty, 5-foot-7-inch open-field runner, Barry Sanders, is a power runner, too.

He isn’t. The Lions stalled immediately, and never scored again, even when resuming their run-and-shoot ways--for they had lost momentum and continuity.

It seemed the opposite of smart football, leaving a void that appealed to the Bears. Striking quickly when opportunity called, they took possession of first place in the old black-and-blue division with a 7-2 record, a game up on Detroit’s 6-3.

The division race isn’t, of course, quite over. The Lions have the talent to still out-finish Chicago, even minus injured starting quarterback Rodney Peete.

Kramer, a refugee from the Canadian Football League, owns a stronger passing arm than Peete’s. And, exhibiting poise and surprising confidence, he threw the ball at all ranges with commendable accuracy.

On Thanksgiving Day in the Silverdome, Kramer could get the Lions even with Chicago once more, conceivably--but only if they abandon their interest in power football.

Nobody is going to out-power Ditka. Nobody in his division, anyway. The Bears, with Neal Anderson and Brad Muster, outperformed Sanders’ team on the ground, 104 yards to 72. And in the end, Harbaugh nearly caught Kramer in gross air yardage on a day when the Bears passed for 205 yards and the Lions for 218.

“We aren’t a great team yet but we have a chance to get better,” Ditka said, pondering Harbaugh’s winning rally.

Four points down and the game waning, the Bears first moved 83 yards to take the lead on Harbaugh’s 22-yard pass into the end zone to wide receiver Wendell Davis. Next, the former Michigan quarterback hit Davis on an eight-yard touchdown pass play ending a 76-yard drive, and, for the Lions, it was all over.

“They were basically the same play,” Davis said. “I read it as a post--and so did Harbaugh.”

It might not have been enough, though, if, earlier, Fontes and his new offensive coordinator, Dave Levy, had stayed with quarterback Kramer and the four-wide receiver run-and-shoot offense.

In the only real chance Kramer got, he moved the Lions into a 10-3 halftime lead on run-and-shoot plays, driving out a touchdown and then a field goal. On the touchdown drive, the Lions gained 53 of their 80 yards on Kramer’s passes, the last going to Brett Perriman for an 11-yard scoring play.

In Detroit’s run-and-shoot formations, Perriman lined up as a left-side wide receiver near Herman Moore. The starting right-side receivers were Mike Farr and Willie Green. Each caught at least three passes.

But having proved that they could puncture the Bear defense with run-and-shoot plays, the Lions, in several second-half possessions, benched two of their wide receivers for tight ends.

“We want to at times get more blocking ahead of Barry Sanders,” Fontes said when he acquired the tight ends in the off-season.

It’s an experiment that has largely failed. Most of Sanders’ biggest plays this season have come on run-and-shoot draw or trap plays. He is a great broken-field runner--and it is the run and shoot that gives him that kind of field. In power formations, he lacks the size, at 203 pounds, to blast his way through.

This was proved once more in the turning-point series late in the third quarter. Given good field position at the Bear 46, the Lions, leading, 10-6, sent in their tight-end team and tried to put the Bears away with hammer plays by Sanders.

When in three plays he hammered out only six yards, leading to a Detroit punt, the Bears took heart, and the Lion defense seemed to lose heart.

Harbaugh’s winning drives followed instantly, sending 57,281 home happy. Cold, but happy.