Bears Shuffle Into Super Bowl, Toppling Saints’ Dream Season

CHICAGO — Relax, Chicago. Rex Grossman and Da Bears are indeed good enough for this Super Bowl, and they’ve already made it a historic one.Few teams with such an impressive record have been as questioned, even maligned as the Bears. Yet after romping past the New Orleans Saints 39–14 yesterday, they are headed to their first NFL title game since the 1985 team overwhelmed the league and shuffled in under Mike Ditka and Jim McMahon.This time, Lovie Smith will lead them there, the first black head coach to make it to the title game in its 41 years.“I’ll feel even better to be the first black coach to hold up the world championship trophy,” he said.Smith’s team did it in true Bears fashion — big plays on defense and a steady running game in the sleet and snow, ending the Saints’ uplifting saga.For a moment, though, in the third quarter they seemed to be in trouble.Reggie Bush’s electrifying 88-yard touchdown catch and dash to the end zone pulled the Saints within two points, 16–14. But from then on, Urlacher and the Bears’ defense took over.Chicago, which has won nine NFL titles but has been an also-ran for much of the last two decades, later went 85 yards in five plays in the worst of the weather. Often-criticized Grossman had four completions, including a 33-yarder to a diving Bernard Berrian that clinched it, sending the bundled-up fans in Soldier Field into foot-stomping hysteria and chants of “Super Bowl, Super Bowl.”Jones had all 69 yards on an eight-play ground drive in the second quarter, scored twice and rushed for 123 yards. Gould nailed three field goals.The Bears, who led the league with 44 takeaways, forced four turnovers, and when NFC passing leader Drew Brees fumbled less than a minute after Berrian’s TD, whatever karma the Saints (11–7) carried this season disappeared.Cedric Benson scored on a 12-yard run, and from there it was a matter of searching for the sunscreen.“This is why we play the game, to get to the Super Bowl and win,” Urlacher said. “This overshadows everything.”Down 16–0 and throttled for 28 minutes, the Saints awakened late in the first half on a 29-yard thirddown completion to Marques Colston, who previously had several drops and several more slips. Brees threw a pair of sideline darts and Colston beat Charles Tillman for a 13-yard TD that temporarily changed the flow with 46 seconds remaining in the half.It took New Orleans only 2:40 into the third quarter to make it 16–14 on Bush’s spectacular 88-yard touchdown that ended with a couple of bush moves. The rookie beat Chris Harris off the line, ignored the sleet and extended for Brees’ looping pass. Then he sped down the left sideline and, at midfield, used one of those Heisman jukes past Danieal Manning.As Bush neared the end zone, he turned and pointed tauntingly at the hopelessly trailing Urlacher before somersaulting into the end zone.That hot-dogging wasn’t close to Brees’ heave in the end zone. Under pressure but still in the pocket, he threw the ball away, causing a safety.That erased any momentum for the Saints, and Chicago scored on Berrian’s brilliant catch at the 2; he was not tackled down and stood up to cross the goal line.

Bears Shuffle Into Super Bowl, Toppling Saints’ Dream Season

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