NFL Old School Game of the Week: McMahon Does It Again As He Comes Off Bench To Lead Bears To Comeback Win Over Bucs

 

Jim McMahon completed 17 of 24 passes for 195 yards and threw one TD in leading the Bears to a comeback victory against the Buccaneers.

In Week 3 of the 1985 season, Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon came off the bench to throw three touchdown passes to lead Chicago to a 33-24 victory over the Minnesota Vikings(To read about that game, click on the link highlighted here: https://oldschoolsportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/10/nfl-old-school-game-of-week-mcmahon.html).

Two years later, McMahon would accomplish a similar feat when the Bears traveled to Tampa Bay to take on the Buccaneers in Week 7 of the 1987 NFL season.

The Bears came into the game with the Buccaneers with a 4-1 record though it would be the first time since Week 2 that the regular players would be playing as a 24-day players strike during the season had the cancellation of one week of NFL games and led owners to use replacement players for three straight games.

The time off during the strike allowed for McMahon to get closer to game shape as he was healing from a torn rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder which was made worse after Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Charles Martin's infamous cheap shot on McMahon from the following season.

While McMahon was now healthy enough to play, head coach Mike Ditka decided to start Mike Tomczak for the Bears' game against the Bucs with McMahon in the backup role as many assumed Chicago would rely on their running game of second-year running back Neal Anderson and future Hall-of-Famer Walter Payton, who was set to retire after the season, to beat Tampa Bay.

The Buccaneers came into the game with something to prove as the team had a 3-2 record with two of those wins coming courtesy of the replacement players.

The Bucs were led by head coach Ray Perkins, who was in his first season in Tampa Bay after spending the previous four at the University of Alabama taking over for Bear Bryant.

Perkins was hired in hopes of turning the Bucs' fortunes around as the team had encountered four consecutive losing seasons, all with at least 10 losses.

A win against the Bears would go a long way in putting Tampa on the right track.

The Bucs got the ball to start the game as they drove from their 20-yard-line to the Chicago 46-yard-line until they were forced to punt when Tampa Bay got a reprieve as Bears linebacker Jim Morissey ran into punter Frank Garcia, drawing a running into the kicker penalty and give the Bucs a 1st down at the Bears' 41-yard-line.

From there, quarterback Steve DeBerg would complete four of his next five passes for 38 yards, with his last completion being a seven-yard touchdown pass to tight end Calvin McGee to give Tampa Bay a 7-0 lead with 9:13 left in the first quarter.

After forcing the Bears to punt on their opening possession, the Bucs got the ball back at their 27-yard-line as a false start penalty and an one-yard run by Wilder set up 2nd & 14 when DeBerg completed a 37-yard pass to McGee to give Tampa Bay a 1st down at the Chicago 40-yard-line.

Two plays later, the Bucs pulled out a trick play as DeBerg pitched the ball out to running back Jeff Smith, who then handed the ball off to wide receiver Gerald Carter on a reverse, only to have Carter toss it back to DeBerg who fired a pass down the left side for Smith, who made the catch for the 28-yard touchdown to increase the Bucs' lead to 14-0 with 4:47 to go in the opening period.

It looked like the Bears were going to have great field position for their next drive following Dennis Gentry's 59-yard kickoff return, but it was nullified by an illegal block penalty on Maurice Douglass, which forced the Bears to start their ensuing possession at their nine-yard-line.

Things would go from bad to worse for the Bears when Tomczak fumbled the football after a hit by Bucs defensive end Ron Holmes leading to a recovery by linebacker Winston Moss in the end zone for a Tampa touchdown to increase the Bucs' lead to 20-0 as Chicago defensive end Al Harris blocked the extra point.

Buccaneers quarterback Steve DeBerg threw for 249 yards and two touchdown passes.

The extra point block seemed to spark the Bears as running back Thomas Sanders returned the ensuing kickoff 31 yards to the Chicago 33-yard-line where the Bears would start their next possession as they drove to the Tampa Bay 43-yard-line as the first quarter came to an end.

But on the first play of the second quarter, the Bears turned it over again when Dennis McKinnon lost the football after he was hit by Bucs cornerback Ricky Reynolds leading to a recovery by fellow cornerback Rod Jones to give Tampa Bay the ball at its 48-yard-line.

The Bucs would go three-and-out as DeBerg threw three straight incomplete passes to force a punt by Garcia, which only traveled 13 yards as the Bears would begin its next possession at their 35-yard-line.

After an incomplete pass on 1st down, Tomczak connected with Willie Gault for 20 yards, then with Anderson for seven yards to set up 2nd & 3 when Anderson took a pitch from Tomczak around the left side for a 38-yard touchdown to put Chicago on the board as they cut the Tampa lead to 20-7 with 12:37 left in the second quarter.

The Bears would force the Bucs to punt on their next possession when McKinnon would atone for his fumble earlier in the quarter by returning the punt 65 yards for a touchdown to cut the Bucs' lead to 20-14 with 9:10 still to go in the second quarter.

The Bucs would turn to Wilder on their next possession as he carried the ball five times for 29 times on the Bucs' 12-play, 52-yard drive that took over seven minutes and ended with a 46-yard field goal by Donald Igwebuike which increased the Tampa lead to 23-14 with 1:56 left before halftime.

Tampa would be given a golden opportunity to increase their lead on the first play of the Bears' ensuing drive when Payton lost the football after a hit by Bucs defensive end John Cannon which was recovered by linebacker Scot Brantley at the Chicago 24-yard-line with 96 seconds left in the first half.

However, the Bucs could not capitalize as three quarterback sacks and a pair of holding penalties pushed the Bucs all the way back to their 48-yard-line as the first half ended with Tampa on top 23-14.

Mike Tomczak was benched after a first half where he threw for only 45 yards on 6-of-10 passing.

When the Bears' offense came onto the field to start the second half, they did so with McMahon at quarterback for the first time in 11 months as Ditka hoped McMahon could do what he did two years earlier in Minnesota.

After the first two plays picked up only two yards, McMahon scrambled for eight yards on 3rd & 8 to pick up a 1st down which got the Chicago offense going as passes of 12 yards to Gault and 25 yards Ron Morris put the Bears at the Tampa Bay 25-yard-line.

But the drive would stall and the Bears looked to Kevin Butler to put some points on the board with a 47-yard field goal, only for it to sail wide left and no good to keep the score 23-14 in favor of the Bucs.

The Bucs would take over at their 29-yard-line and proceed to drive to the Chicago 19-yard-line, with the biggest play on the drive being a 33-yard pass from DeBerg to McGee, to help set up a 37-yard field goal by Igwebuike which increased Tampa's lead to 26-14 with 6:01 to go in the third quarter.

The Bears would start their next possession at their 33-yard-line as it took Chicago four plays to drive to the Tampa Bay 45-yard-line when they started to go backwards as Anderson was dropped for a seven-yard loss on 1st down, which was followed by McMahon being sacked by Cannon to force 3rd & 24 when McMahon was intercepted by Bucs free safety Rick Woods to give Tampa the ball back at the Bears 47-yard-line.

The two teams would trade punts as the game moved into the fourth quarter with the Bucs still on top 26-14 when the Bears had the ball at their 15-yard-line with 9:50 left to play.

That is when the Bears put together a 10-play, 85-yard drive primarily on the right arm of McMahon who completed six of eight passes for 74 yards on the drive which culminated with McMahon punching it in for an one-yard touchdown to make it an one-posssession game.

However, Butler would miss the extra point to keep the score 26-20 with 5:31 left in the game.

The Bucs would begin its next possession at their 17-yard-line as Tampa hoped to pick up a few 1st downs and bleed the clock so they could escape with the victory.

The drive got off to a good start as DeBerg hit McGee for 17 yards to give Tampa a 1st down at its 34-yard-line as a four-yard run by Wilder and an incomplete pass set up 3rd & 6 when DeBerg threw another incomplete pass only to have Bears defensive end Richard Dent get called for an illegal hands to the face penalty which gave the Bucs an automatic 1st down at their 43-yard-line.

The Bucs would run three more plays which picked up eight yards before having to punt the ball back to the Bears who took over at their 29-yard-line with 2:44 left on the clock and needing a touchdown and extra point to take the lead.

Bears running back Neal Anderson would touch the ball 13 times for 97 yards and scored two TDs.

The drive would start with a 19-yard pass from McMahon to Gault to give the Bears a 1st down at their 48-yard-line as McMahon completed a six-yard screen pass to Anderson to put the Bears in Bucs territory at the Tampa Bay 46-yard-line.

McMahon would then hit Morris for 19 yards and then Gault again, this time for 16 yards to put the Bears at the Tampa Bay 11-yard-line as the two-minute warning struck.

McMahon would go back to Anderson for a five-yard screen pass to set up 2nd & 5 when the second-year running back caught another swing pass from McMahon at the six-yard-line, then jumped over two defenders to get into the end zone for the six-yard touchdown to tie the game at 26.

Butler would come on to make the extra point to give Chicago its first lead of the game at 27-26 with 1:28 remaining as the Bears had traveled 71 yards in six plays as McMahon had gone a perfect 6-of-6 on the drive to give the Bears the lead.

The Bucs would get the ball back at its 20-yard-line with a chance to drive down the field for a game-winning field goal but the Bears defense would not allow it as they did not allow a 1st down as Dent sacked DeBerg on 4th down to give Chicago the ball at the Tampa 12-yard-line as the Bears ran out the clock to come away with the 27-26 win.

Following the gut-wrenching loss to the Bears, the Bucs defeated the Green Bay Packers 23-17 the following week, then took on the St. Louis Cardinals where Tampa Bay blew a 28-3 fourth quarter lead to lose 31-28.

The collapse against the Cardinals would begin an eight-game losing streak as the Bucs would finish the season with a 4-11 record to earn Tampa its fifth straight losing season.

As for the Bears, they would go on to win the NFC Central division for the fourth straight year as they finished with a 11-4 record good enough to earn the #2 seed in the NFC and a home playoff game in the Divisional Round.

But for the second straight year the Bears would be eliminated by the Redskins, this time 21-17 ending the Bears' season and the career of Payton.

McMahon would remain with the Bears for one more season, helping them to the NFC Championship Game where they were defeated by the San Francisco 49ers 28-3, before a falling out with Ditka and the front office led to McMahon being traded to the San Diego Chargers.

McMahon would bounce around the league for eight more seasons, playing for five different teams until his retirement after the 1996 season where he served as the backup to Brett Favre on the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl championship team.