Bears Post Another Win

Call them lucky if you dare. Just don’t forget to say the Chicago Bears also are in first place.

Jim Miller threw three touchdown passes to Marty Booker and the Bears held on to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27-24, when Martin Gramatica’s 48-yard field goal bounced off the right goal post as time expired Sunday.

“I don’t feel like we’re a charmed team in the least,” Coach Dick Jauron said after another thrilling finish left his team alone atop the NFC Central standings. “Our guys work awful hard. That’s why we’re 7-2.”

The Bears have won twice in overtime this season after wiping out double-digit deficits in the closing minutes of regulation. This time, they nearly let an 11-point lead slip away in the final seven minutes.

Tampa Bay pulled within three when Brad Johnson scored on a quarterback sneak and tossed a two-point conversion pass to Mike Alstott with 2:29 to go.

Johnson, who completed 40 of 56 passes for 399 yards, threw an interception after a Chicago punt, then got one more chance when the Bears were unable to run out the clock.

“I was going to take a knee four times and turn the game over to our defense. I felt good doing that,” Jauron said. “It was awfully close, but it worked out.”

Warrick Dunn got out of bounds on two receptions as Tampa Bay (4-5) moved into Bear territory. A 15-yard personal foul penalty against Chicago’s R.W. McQuarters pushed the Buccaneers into field-goal range.

Gramatica came on with six seconds remaining, but missed.

“There’s nothing worse for a kicker than your whole team depending on you, and you just don’t come through for them,” Gramatica said. “There’s no excuse. I just didn’t make the field goal.”

The victory, coupled with Green Bay’s 23-20 loss to Atlanta, gave the Bears sole possession of first place with their best record after nine games since 1991.

It was the fourth consecutive game that Chicago’s fate wasn’t determined until the final minute.

The Bears beat San Francisco and Cleveland after improbable comebacks forced those games into overtime. They saw a six-game winning streak end last week when a potential game-tying drive fell 15 yards short of the end zone against Green Bay.