Orange Crush
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Oct 30, 2006 2:30PM
While the Bears had to come from way behind to steal their last victory against the Arizona Cardinals, the Bears win was never in doubt against the San Francisco 49ers this week as they took a 41-0 lead into the locker room at halftime en route to a 41-10 win.
The Bears scored a field goal on their opening possession and then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. A Thomas Jones TD run gave the Bears a 10-0 lead before Brian Urlacher and the defense even stepped on the field for the first time. And the defense didn't spend very much time on the field, but made the most of their time on the field, causing four first-half turnovers that helped the offense rack up 41 points by halftime. The 24 first-quarter points were the most ever, and the 41 first-half points tied the 1948 Bears for best in a half.
The Bears coasted through the second half, failing to score, while allowing the 49ers to score 10 points. But who cares, because the game was clearly over.
With such a commanding win, clearly all areas of the team performed nearly flawlessly. Grossman passed well, bouncing back from that sub-par Monday Night game in Arizona. Thomas Jones had his best game of the year, running for 111 yards on 23 carries and a TD. Desmond Clark had a great game, catching six passes for 86 yards and two TDs. Who said the Bears needed to draft a tight end in last April's draft?
The defense dominated once again. They forced four fumbles, and Brian Urlacher made an acrobatic interception that once again proves those haters wrong. Todd Johnson forced two of the fumbles in his first start, replacing the injured Mike Brown. Adewale Ogunleye returned from missing two games with an injury to record a sack, and rookie Mark Anderson added yet another sack and forced fumble.
The Bears are now 7-0. That's two games better than any other NFC team. With Miami coming to Chicago next weekend, there's no reason to think the Bears won't hit the midway point without a single blemish on their record. The rest of the November schedule gets tougher, but things continue to look very good for the Bears and their road to Miami. Even a loss or two shouldn't prevent them from locking up home field advantage throughout the playoffs. And who's going to bet against the Bears at Soldier Field come January?
Image via Yahoo! News