Bears Have Someone on Their Side

Just when we finished watching every last frame of Walter Payton in the NFL Films library, the Chicago Bears produced a reel that must have come straight from DreamWorks.

The Bears capped off an emotional week that began with Payton’s death on Monday by blocking a last-second field-goal attempt Sunday to preserve a 14-13 victory over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.

“It was wonderful, it was magical,” Bear linebacker Barry Minter said. “I think the appropriate word would be ‘sweet.’ ”

As in Sweetness, Payton’s nickname.

It had to end like this. Not because Walter would have wanted it this way but because he deserved to be honored with a worthy effort.

That’s all his brother, Eddie, asked for after the Bears said they would dedicate the remainder of the season to Sweetness. That was a risky move for a team off to a 3-5 start, and Eddie wanted to make sure the “tribute” wouldn’t be lost amid a string of losses.

This victory wasn’t particularly artistic or impressive. It was simply a team getting the most out of what limited ability it had.

“I told you [Saturday] we would play for Walter for the rest of the season,” offensive tackle James “Big Cat” Williams said. “Walter’s in our hearts.”

And on their chests (in the form of a football-shaped patch with the number 34 sewn onto the uniforms) and who knows where else.

“You have to believe he had a hand in the final play,” Bear Coach Dick Jauron said.

Or both hands.

“I think Walter Payton actually picked me up a little and boosted me in the air,” said Bryan Robinson, the 295-pound defensive end who blocked Ryan Longwell’s kick. “I know he did, because I can’t jump that high.”

You’ll have to excuse the Bears for looking to the hereafter for explanations because, well, they’re the Bears and they don’t have much going for them.

How else are you going to explain them winning a game in which starting quarterback Cade McNown came out with a knee injury in the first quarter?

What’s the rationale behind backup Jim Miller matching Brett Favre drive for drive in the second half?

Why now, of all times, for the Bears to end a losing streak at 10 games to the Packers?

“We don’t want to use Walter Payton’s death in a cheap fashion,” Miller said. “But I’ll tell you what: If everyone on this team plays with the effort 34 did his whole career, we’ll win a lot of games.”

So add one more lesson learned from Payton and another tribute to him.

And now this young team can use its own examples of what it takes to win.

They can look at the way Miller bounced back from a first half in which he had as many interceptions as completions (three) to go 13 for 18 for 122 yards and a touchdown in the second half.

They can learn from Santa Monica High School’s Glyn Milburn, who rushed for only 31 yards through the first eight games but ran 49 yards for a touchdown Sunday.

They can learn from the way they didn’t give up even though Favre, the most clutch player in the NFL today, was driving on them and already pondering his postgame victory comments.

They hung in until the very end and blocked the field goal.

So now its the Packers who most sort through issues--albeit less profound--such as why they’re 4-4, why Favre has been so erratic, with 13 interceptions to 12 touchdowns.

The Bears can relax, savor and reflect.

“It’s been an emotional week all across the board for us,” Milburn said.

Usually the rivalry produces enough drama by itself. When the Packers play the Bears is when the strange, silly stuff happens, like an outburst of profanity by Mike Ditka during his weekly news conference before the Green Bay game in 1992.

The rivalry is so contentious that the Bears media guide still carries an asterisk by the Packers’ 14-13 victory on Nov. 5, 1989, to mark it as the “Instant Replay Game”, decided when a video judge overruled a field official’s call that Green Bay quarterback Don Majkowski had passed the line of scrimmage before throwing the winning touchdown pass.

Fortunately the partisan feelings were put aside temporarily as the locals paid the appropriate respects to Payton. There was a pause for a moment of silence before the game. The Lambeau Field video screen even showed a clip of Payton running through their beloved Packers before Sunday’s game.

When the University of Wisconsin marching band’s tuba players came out for their fourth quarter serenade, a tradition at Badgers games, their tubas had covers that spelled out “#34 SWEETNESS.”

The Packers just didn’t plan on giving Payton’s Bears a victory as well. “I was thinking about coming down here [to the interview room] and saying, ‘It was another great come from behind win,’ ” Favre said of his thoughts on the final drive. “It just wasn’t our day, I guess.”

We all know whose day it was.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com