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Dolphins repeat history, ending Bears' unbeaten streak
Just like in '85, the Dolphins ended Chicago's pefection Sunday.
The Miami Dolphins still look out for their own.
It wasn't quite the drama of Dan Marino tossing easy touchdowns against the '85 Bears on "Monday Night Football," but once again, Miami pulled off an upset to spoil Chicago's bid for an undefeated season.
Ronnie Brown rushed for a career-high 157 yards and Jason Taylor forced a fumble and returned an interception 20 yards for a touchdown, helping Miami beat Chicago 31-13 on Sunday. Brown carried 29 times and eclipsed his previous career-high set last season against Carolina by 35 yards.
The defense constantly applied pressure as the Dolphins (2-6) snapped a four-game losing streak.
Besides losing their first game, the Bears (7-1) saw linebacker Brian Urlacher hurt his foot when he landed awkwardly in a pileup near the end of the game. The severity of the injury was not known.
Miami's win removes another potential challenger to the 1972 Dolphins, the only team with a perfect record in NFL history. The Indianapolis Colts went into Sunday night's game with the New England Patriots as the only undefeated team this season.
The 7-0 start was the Bears' best since the 1985 championship team won its first 12. The only loss that year, incidentally, was to Miami -- when Dan Marino threw three touchdowns and the Dolphins scored 38 points against one of the best defenses in NFL history.
This time, the Bears lost wide receiver Bernard Berrian, their main deep threat, to a rib injury on their first possession and were buried beneath a pile of turnovers. Tied with Baltimore for the league lead in takeaways (22) and differential (11) entering the game, Chicago committed four fumbles and lost three to go with Rex Grossman's three interceptions.
Grossman was under pressure all day and was just 18-of-42 for 210 yards and a touchdown. The running game never got going, either, with Thomas Jones carrying 20 times for 69 yards.
And the schedule doesn't get easier for Chicago the next three weeks, with games at the New York Giants, Jets and New England.
With the Dolphins leading 14-10, the Bears' Justin Gage fumbled the ball away after a 17-yard reception to start the second half. Miami's Andre Goodman recovered and returned it 33 yards to the Chicago 12, setting up Wes Welker's 6-yard touchdown catch.
After throwing a career-high five interceptions when Detroit visited Soldier Field last season, Harrington almost singlehandedly kept the Bears in the game.
He was 16-of-32 for 137 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions in his fourth start for the injured Daunte Culpepper. He overthrew -- and underthrew -- open receivers, and had his pass picked off by Nathan Vasher late in the third quarter, leading to a 38-yard field goal by Robbie Gould that made it an eight-point game.
But Grossman was no better.
He threw his third interception just under two minutes into the fourth quarter. And on the next play, Harrington connected with a leaping Chris Chambers for a 24-yard touchdown and a 28-13 lead.
One week after scoring the first 41 points in a 41-10 rout of San Francisco, the Bears were in danger of being blown out in the second quarter when Alex Brown intercepted Harrington.
With a 14-3 lead, the Dolphins had third down at the Chicago 5 when Brown leaped at the line and made a two-handed catch. The Bears then made it a four-point game when Muhsin Muhammad jumped up for a 30-yard touchdown reception along the left sideline after pushing Miami's Will Allen twice.
Otherwise, little went the Bears' way.
Bears coach Lovie Smith said he wasn't sure what was wrong with Urlacher, but that he hoped it wasn't serious.
"Brian Urlacher there at the end came off the field with a foot injury and we'll see exactly what it is," Smith said. "We'll evaluate him and go from there."
Source: AP
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