Bears Stayin' Alive

CHICAGO (WBBM/AP)  -- Despite some late tremors, Chicago’s Bears kept their  playoff hopes alive with a 27-24 overtime win over visiting New Orleans Thursday night.

HIGHLIGHTS

The 8-6 Bears will be scoreboard-watching on Sunday. They are a half-game back of Minnesota in a division which will only send one team to the playoffs.

"Bottom line for us, we're still in the hunt," Chicago linebacker Lance Briggs said.

A lack of luster on offense and some damaging turnovers almost did them in. The Bears were outscored, 17-3, in the second half.

But two crucial drives to close the game won it. Robbie Gould hit a field goal as time expired and another to end the only drive of overtime.

The Bears won the toss to start overtime. A 38-yard pass interference penalty set the Bears up at the 15. Gould hit the game-winner.

Chicago opened with a special teams bang as Danieal Manning took the opening kickoff and followed the great blocking scheme which used to spring Devin Hester. Eighty-one yards later and it was 7-0 Bears with the return. That was all the points in the first quarter

Kyle Orton allowed New Orleans to tie it. After a punt to the 1, Orton fumbled the first snap. Drew Brees hit Pierre Thomas with the scoring pass and it was 14-14.

But Chicago snapped back. Superlative rookie runner Matt Forte had been injured in his first run of the game. Sideline (and cable TV) speculation hyped everything from a snapped ankle to a stubbed toe. He went inside the tunnels of Soldier Field and got an X-Ray for precaution as the came back out as the second quarter began.

After the Saints scored, he capped a four-play, 41-yard drive with a one-yard TD run. A 39-yard pass interference helped set it up. Hester was the Bears player interfered with.

Then Chicago tacked on a game-breaker in the final drive of the half, Orton chased out of the pocket and into the end zone on a six-yard, third-down scramble. It was 21-7.

Before that drive, Chicago had 35 yards passing and 33 rushing. No one had more than 12 yards total rushing. Manning’s combined 135 yards on returns was more than the rushing and reception yards combined.

The lack of offense on both sides showed teams with good defenses. New Orleans’ Reggie Bush had been held to 30 yards on the ground.  Adewale Ogunleye led the Bears with five tackles, Brian Urlacher and Kevin Payne had four each. Mike Brown blunted one New Orleans drive with an interception.

The third quarter helped define the season. The Bears had two possessions. The Bears defense -- Adewale Ogunleye on an interception -- stopped one drive at his own 15.

But New Orleans answered thanks to another Chicago error. The Bears took the ball past midfield. Rashied David short-armed an eminently catchable pass from Orton, his four droop in three games. Except he tipped it skyward and it was picked off. New Orleans used two plays to score again, its second off a Bear turnover on a 42-yard run by . Davis had no catches on the night.

New Orleans had seized the momentum and likely ended the Bears’ playoff hopes on that Davis muff. The saints remained in control as the quarter closed at 21-14.

Opening the final quarter, the Saints completed a 14-play, 63-yard drive with a field-goal from the 12. A nine-yard first-down pass on third-down against a backpedaling Bears defense had kept the drive alive.

It was time for Orton to get the momentum back. He did not. The home team had two successive three-and-outs. Then he threw an interception at the Chicago 31.

Drew Brees and his Saints took the gift in for a score. With Three minutes left, the Saints led for the first time. It was all passing, the final 11 yards to Marques Colston, a touchdown on an 84-yard receiving night. 

Brees was 24-of-43 but had 243 yards and the two TD passes.

The Bears created some regulation-closing drama. Orton took them downfield from his own 30. A controversial no-call in the end zone when replays showed receiver Greg Olsen tackled in the end zone before a pass arrived left Chicago with no options. There were two seconds left when Robbie Gould tied it with a field goal from the 9.

Orton finished 24-of-40 with two interceptions. Hester had just  Forte had 34 of the 55 rushing yards. Urlacher finished with 10 tackles.

Safe for another week, the Bears will watch Minnesota at Arizona Sunday afternoon.  The Vikings are a game up on the Bears, with a 12-day rest, Chicago can bury Green Bay when it closes the Solider Field home season the night of Dec. 22. Green Bay, already two games behind Chicago,  is at Jacksonville Sunday.