The Chicago Bears just might have found their identity on a bright, sunny day in Kansas City.
The Bears recovered from a two-touchdown deficit to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 19-17 Sunday, taking advantage of a little bit of luck and pounding the proud Chiefs defense with a solid running game that helped them roll up 281 yards of offense."It's a tangible thing you can point to when you are on the offensive line," guard Jay Leeuwenburg said of the Bears' 190 yards rushing. "It's a special game."
Quarterback Jim Harbaugh ran for 61 yards on seven carries.
"We stuck with the running game. We kept grinding it out. The guys up front are really starting to gel. Now, we can make things interesting. We can make things happen in our division," Harbaugh said.
The victory over the Chiefs, the first time the Chiefs have been beaten in 11 games at home, got the Bears to the .500 mark at 5-5. They will have a quick turnaround with a game Thanksgiving Day against NFC Central rival Detroit.
"We've been down before and come back," Harbaugh said. "Guys are starting to really believe that we're good. It shouldn't surprise us that we can come back. It may surprise some people, but it shouldn't surprise us. We're good. You have a feeling even when you're 14 points down that you can come back.
"We're good. Every game, we'll be ready to play. We're well-schooled. We're well-taught. We can make it interesting. That's what playoff teams do. They get better each week. You've got to improve each week."
Kansas City fell to 7-3 with Dave Krieg at quarterback and Joe Montana declared inactive because of a strained hamstring. Krieg, gunning for his third straight win in relief of Montana, was precise in his passing, but the Kansas City offense was silent after Nick Lowery's field goal late in the third quarter.
The loss left the Chiefs with a one-game lead over the Los Angeles Raiders in the AFC West.
"I'll tell you, we're inviting people to run against us right now," said Chiefs free safety Kevin Ross, who made 11 tackles. "We haven't really stopped the run the last couple of weeks. We're getting down to the race of this division and if we don't do better than that, then we're in trouble."
Neal Anderson scored the winning touchdown on a 1-yard run with just about three minutes to play after Jeremy Lincoln plucked a bobbled pass by Chiefs tight end Jonathon Hayes.
The pass was thrown over the middle at Hayes' knees, and blooped up in the air as Lincoln came over from his right corner position.
Kansas City had a chance to win in the final seconds, but Krieg overthrew a wide-open J.J. Birden at the Chicago 35.