By Jeremy Harris
Robbie Gould’s dramatic 49-yard field goal against the Oakland Raiders with two seconds remaining on Sunday propelled the Bears to their first victory of the season 22-20.
However, Gould was probably blissfully unaware that cardiac kicks are the rule, not the exception, when these teams meet. Make or miss, victory or defeat, jubilation or despair, most of the thirteen prior meetings between the teams, dating to their first battle in 1972, were decided by Bears placekickers, including four in the final seconds.
- December 17, 1972 at Oakland. The Bears lost their first clash with the Raiders in the final week of the regular season 28-21. In a playoff tune-up for the Raiders against a subpar Bears team, the Silver and Black led 28-14 at the 7:56 mark of the fourth quarter after running back Clarence Davis galloped 46 yards for a touchdown. The Bears then mounted a furious comeback.
Bears’ quarterback Bobby Douglass rumbled 43 yards to set up a one-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 28-21, after which the Bears recovered an onside kick and moved the ball to the Raiders’ 17 with three seconds remaining. An incomplete pass on the final play of the game sealed the Raiders victory.
However, Bears fans were left pondering whether the outcome would have been different had placekicker Mac Percival not missed two field goal attempts, including one of just 23 yards.
Incidentally, the Raiders’ good fortune would come to a crushing end just six days later when they lost to Franco Harris and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Raiders fans would argue the officiating crew, on the Immaculate Reception.
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2) November 7, 1976 at Chicago. If Bears’ fans were to create a list of the most heartbreaking regular season losses in franchise history, this clash with the Raiders would be at or near the top. Leading 27-21 early in the fourth quarter, it appeared the Bears had opened up a two score lead.
Bears lineman Wally Chambers sacked Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler and jarred the ball loose. Bear Roger Stilwell scooped up the ball and raced 39 yards untouched for an apparent touchdown. However, referee Chuck Heberling “inadvertently” blew his whistle, negating the would-be score.
The Raiders capitalized on the Bears misfortune, as Stabler connected with fleet footed WR Cliff Brach for a touchdown and a 28-27 lead with 4:33 remaining. The Bears responded with determination, driving to the Raiders’ fourteen with 20 seconds remaining.
However, kicker Bob Thomas broke the hearts of the Bears partisans when his potential game-winning kick clanked off the right upright, allowing the eventual Super Bowl champion Raiders to escape Solider Field like thieves in the night.
3) October 1, 1978 at Chicago. The Bears sought to avenge their 1976 defeat to the Raiders. With just 2:36 remaining in the 4th quarter, Bob Thomas drilled a 24-yard field goal to give the Bears a 19-16 lead. However, Stabler engineered one of his trademark drives, culminating in a Raiders’ field goal and sending the game into overtime.
Bears QB Bob Avellini threw an interception on the opening drive of overtime, and the Raiders scored a touchdown moments later, securing a 25-19 victory and wasting Walter Payton’s 123 rushing yards.
Similar to the 1972 clash, Bears’ fans were left wondering if the team could have secured a victory in regulation but for Bob Thomas’ missed extra point in the second quarter.
In Thomas’ defense, he is responsible for one of the greatest clutch field goals in franchise history. In the final week of the 1977 season at the New York Giants, playing on a ice-patched artificial surface, Thomas split the uprights with nine seconds remaining in overtime, defeating the Giants 12-9 and clinching the Bears’ first playoff berth since their 1963 championship win against the Giants.
4) December 28, 1987 at Los Angeles: In Walter Payton’s final regular season game, the Bears needed a win to secure home field advantage for their divisional round matchup with the Washington Redskins. In one of the lowest scoring contests of the post merger era, Kevin Butler broke a 3-3 tie late in the fourth quarter with a 30-yard field goal and the Bears held on for a 6-3 victory.
Sadly the home field playoff advantage was for naught as the Redskins ended Payton’s career two weeks later in Soldier Field with a 21-17 victory.
5) November 7, 1993 at Chicago. The ghosts of Bob Thomas paid a visit to Soldier Field exactly 17 years to the day that his potnetial game winning field goal bounded off the right upright. The Raiders led 16-7 late in the fourth quarter, when Jim Harbaugh engineered a comeback. He tossed a 13-yard touchdown pass to WR Terry Obee, cutting the deficit to 16-14 with 1:13 remaining.
After the Bears recovered an onside kick at midfield, Harbaugh rushed for 25 yards, and a late hit penalty on the Raiders pushed the ball to the Los Angeles 13. As time expired, Butler hooked what would have been the winning field goal just to the left of the upright. The Bears and their fans experienced opposite emotional extremes in a matter of seconds, but they dejectedly skulked out of Soldier Field.
Coincidentally, Raiders’ head coach Art Shell was an offensive lineman with Oakland when Thomas missed his kick in 1976.
6) September 29, 1996 at Chicago: Mercifully, the tide began to change in this series of cardiac kicks. One week after Bears’ QB Erik Kramer was lost for the season, backup Dave Krieg helped overcome a 17-3 third-quarter deficit. He connected on an 11-yard touchdown pass to RB Rashaan Salaam. Then kicker Jeff Jaeger, whom the Raiders had jettisoned in the offseason due to a contract dispute, converted three consecutive field goals, the last one from 30 yards and with 11 second remaining, to cap a 19-17 Bears’ victory.
7) October 5, 2003 at Chicago: The Bears again bested the Raiders with a cardiac kick. The defending AFC champion Raiders surged to an 18-3 third-quarter lead. The Bears stormed back to claim a 21-18 advantage.
After Raiders’ kicker Sebastian Janikowski tied the score at 21 with 3:30 remaining, Bears’ quarterback Kordell Stewart led a drive to the Raiders’ 30 with just five seconds remaining. Bears’ kicker Paul Edinger then drilled a 48-yard field goal as time expired, and the Bears celebrated a 24-21 victory.
The win represented the third time the Bears had defeated the Raiders when they were defending AFC champions, twice when they were reigning Super Bowl champions. The Bears crushed the Raiders 23-6 in Oakland in 1981, and in a game that represented the passing of the torch of being considered the most feared and physical team in the league, the Bears belted the Raiders 17-6 in Chicago in 1984.
Yesterday, Robbie Gould added yet another chapter to a series that shockingly has been defined by Bears’ placekickers, for better or worse, time and again.
