By Jeremy Harris
In preparation for Monday evening’s game between the Chicago Bears and San Diego Chargers, we have been revisiting some of the most memorable moments in this interconference series. On Thursday, we featured three games between the two teams and discussed some interesting storylines connecting the franchises.
Today, we follow suit in highlighting three more.
1). Chargers at Bears on December 14, 1996 (“The Bears play spoilers”):
The Chargers (7-7) visited Chicago for this Saturday game with their playoff hopes in peril. Led by the efficient quarterbacking of Stan Humphries, the power running of Marion Butts and Natrone Means, the receiving excellence of Tony Martin, the bruising defense of Junior Seau and the coaching of Bobby Ross, the Chargers had reeled off three playoff appearances in the previous four seasons (1992-1995), including a Super Bowl berth following the 1994 season.
After a promising start to Bears head coach Dave Wannstedt’s tenure, including a playoff berth in his second season (1994) and a winning campaign the following year, the team regressed in 1996. The Bears started 1-3 and lost starting quarterback Erik Kramer to a season-ending neck injury in Week Four. Kramer was coming off a season in which he had established single-season franchise records for passing yards and touchdown passes (records which still stand) and took every offensive snap. Journeyman Dave Krieg filled in ably, starting the final 12 games of the season, but the Bears had already been eliminated from the playoff contention by the time they met the Chargers.
Instead nof mailing in the season, the Bears took out their frustrations on San Diego, belting the bolts 27-14. Krieg completed 24 of 38 passes for 237 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions and also scored on a one yard quarterback sneak. The once-vaunted Chargers’ running game was held to 66 yards on 23 carries.
While the Chargers left Chicago still mathematically alive for the post-season, for all intents and purposes, the Bears had ended the best run by the Chargers since the salad days of head coach Don Coryell and quarterback Dan Fouts in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Bobby Ross would depart for Detroit to coach the Lions at season’s end, and a streak of seven more seasons without making the playoffs would follow for San Diego.
The win also represented one of the last memorable victories of the Wannstedt regime. The Bears twin 4-12 seasons in 1997 and 1998 resulted in the firing of a coach whose regime started with so much promise.
2). Bears at Chargers on November 21, 1999 (”Don’t bite the hand that once fed you”):
The Bears entered with a 4-5 record en route to a 6-10 finish under first-year head coach Dick Jauron that would mark their fifth of six consectutive seasons without a playoff berth. The Chargers began play with a 4-5 record en route to an 8-8 season that represented their fourth of seven straight seasons without a playoff berth.
So why is this game so memorable?
It is memorable because of the number of former Bears who suited up for the Chargers that afternoon. Jim Harbaugh, who finished his seven-year stint with the Bears (1987-1993) second in franchise history in passing yards, started at QB for the Chargers. Erik Kramer, who, as mentioned previously, still holds the Bears’ single-season records for passing yards and touchdowns, was Harbaugh’s backup. The Chargers third QB that season was Moses Moreno, drafted by the Bears in 1998.
WR Jeff Graham, whose two-year run with the Bears (1994-1995) included a then-franchise single-season record of 1,301 receiving yards; and WR Chris Penn, who hauled in 78 passes for 1024 and six touchdowns during his two years with Chicago (1997-1998) were now running routes for the Chargers.
Finally, DL Albert Fontenot, who racked up 12 sacks in his four years with the Bears (1993-1996) was now tasked with trying to sack Bears’ starting QB Jim Miller.
Miller, who had passed for 422 yards in a loss the previous week to Minnesota, tacked on 357 more with a touchdown and no interceptions to help overcome an anemic Bears’ running game. However, late in the fourth quarter, with the Bears leading 20-17, Harbaugh led a drive from the Chargers’ 23 yard-line to the Bears’ 10, punctuated by a 47-yard reception by Chris Penn. But on third down, Jeff Graham dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the end zone with five seconds remaining that almost certainly would have clinched a Chargers’ victory. Instead, the Chargers were forced to settle for a field goal that sent the game to overtime.
In the first possesion of overtime, Bears’ kicker Jeff Jaeger ended the game with a short field goal, and the current Bears defeated the ertwhile ones 23-20.
Erik Kramer never saw the field that day. Kramer would wake up the next morning with neck pain, and when a medical examination revealed a serious injury, he was placed on season-ending injured reserve November 25, effectively ending his career. His last game in uniform came against the team for which he had played the majority of his career.
3).Chargers at Bears on November 20, 2011 (“What might have been”)
The Bears, following an appearance in the NFC championship game and division title the previous season, were 6-3. The Chargers, despite their 4-5 record, entered play having put together the best seven-year stretch in franchise history (76-36), including five playoff appearances.
The Bears defeated the Chargers to improve to 7-3, but perhaps not since Jim McMahon suffered a season-ending injury when he was body-lammed to the Soldier Field turf by Charles Martin in a 1986 Bears’ victory over Green Bay had a win come at such a tremendous cost. With less than ten minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the Bears leading by what would be the final score of 31-20, Cutler tossed an interception to CB Antoine Cason, during whose 64-yard return, Cutler broke his thumb trying to make the tackle.
Cutler remained in the game and even completed his final two pass attempts, but season-ending surgery would follow. Initial hope that the Bears could remain competitive behind backup QB Caleb Haine, who had acquitted himself decently in the Bears’ loss to Green Bay in the conference championship game, quickly faded.
The Bears suffered a five-game losing streak, during which Haine completed only 51 of 102 pass attempts and threw three times as many interceptions (9) as touchdowns (3).
The Bears finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs for the fourth time in five years. They would miss the postseason again in 2012, after which head coach Lovie Smith was fired.
While the 2011 Packers had a vice grip on the NFC North, finishing with a 15-1 record, there is a strong probability that had Cutler remained healthy, the Bears would have made the playoffs as a wildcard team.