Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26 Chicago Bears 27 Sunday 25 October 1987 at Tampa Stadium CBS COMMENTARY CREW Pat Summerall and John Madden
In the first game after the end of the players' strike, the Bucs gave the mighty Bears all they could handle in a game shown in the UK on Channel 4. Steve DeBerg drove the Bucs 80 and 73 yards on their first two drives of the game to put the home side 14-0 up, and then forced Mike Tomczak into an error that led to a third touchdown. The Chicago rally from 20-0 down, was led by Jim McMahon who finished the comeback with a short pass to Neal Anderson inside the final two minutes.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 72 R Taylor LDE 78 Cannon LG 79 Goode NT 94 Stensrud C 60 Grimes RDE 90 Holmes RG 68 Mallory LOLB 51 Washington RT 73 Heller LILB 58 Davis TE 86 Magee RILB 54 Randle WR 87 Carter ROLB 57 Moss WR 81 Freeman LCB 29 Reynolds FB 35 Smith RCB 22 Jones RB 32 Wilder SS 33 Kemp QB 17 DeBerg FS 20 Woods PLAYED 1 Igwebuike, 5 Garcia, 23 Anderson, 24 Tripoli, 25 Howard, 31 Gordon, 36 Futrell, 42 Bartalo, 50 Turk, 52 Brantley, 56 Walker, 59 Murphy, 75 Kellin, 77 Maarleveld, 80 S Holloway, 82 Hall, 83 Miller, 89 Carrier, 93 Sileo, 98 Keys DID NOT PLAY 11 Shula, 14 Testaverde, 61 Jordan INACTIVES 1 Tiffin, 8 Davis, 34 Wright, 39 Austin, 53 Graham, 66 Yarno, 70 Swayne, 74 Powell, 85 G.Taylor, 91 Gant
GAME SCORING TB 9:13-1Q Magee 7 pass from DeBerg (Igwebuike kick) TB 4:47-1Q Smith 28 pass from DeBerg (Igwebuike kick) TB 3:10-1Q Moss endzone fumble recovery (kick blocked) CHI 12:37-2Q Anderson 38 run (Butler kick) CHI 9:10-2Q McKinnon 65 punt return (Butler kick) TB 1:56-2Q Igwebuike FG46 TB 6:01-3Q Igwebuike FG37 CHI 5:31-4Q McMahon 1 run (kick failed) CHI 1:28-4Q Anderson 6 pass from McMahon (Butler kick)
GAME REPORTS Click here for how Rick Stroud saw the game Click here for Don Banks' morning-after column Click here for the gamebook and the play-by-play
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Wilder 19-75, Smith 6-26, DeBerg 1-0. BEARS: Anderson 6-52, Payton 6-30, McMahon 2-9. PASSING BUCS: DeBerg 38-23-249-0-2. BEARS: McMahon 24-17-195-1-1, Tomczak 10-6-45-0-0. RECEIVING BUCS: Magee 6-98, Hall 4-32, Wilder 4-7, Smith 3-47, Carrier 2-20, Carter 2-13, Miller 1-16, Freeman 1-16. BEARS: Anderson 7-45, Gault 4-67, Morris 3-55, McKinnon 3-25, Boso 2- 35, Moorehead 2-13, Payton 2-0. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Woods 1-21. BEARS: none. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Futrell 3-59. BEARS: Gentry 5-123, Sanders 1-31. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Futrell 2-11. BEARS: McKinnon 3-89. SACKS BUCS: Holmes 2.5-20.5, Cannon 1-7, Keys 0.5-3.5. BEARS: Dent 2-21, Wilson 1.5-12, Duerson 1-12, Hampton 1-8, Marshall 1-8, McMichael 0.5-5.
VIDEO CLIPS Trickery as Steve DeBerg executes a flea-flicker to hit Jeff Smith Despite being called a safety, Winston Moss recovered a fumble for a TD Ervin Randle’s hit on Neal Anderson was voted “NFL Hit of the Year”