As legend has it, Jim Miller was asked during the 2001 offseason what he thought the Chicago Bears’ record would be that year.
Miller wrote down a prediction, and it was a sealed in an envelope and placed in the desk of Dean Pope, a longtime employee in charge of preparing film for coaches and the front office.
The Bears were coming off five consecutive losing seasons, and it looked as if it would be a year of transition in more ways than one.
Vice president of player personnel Mark Hatley departed in May in a “mutual” decision. Six weeks later, Jerry Angelo was hired as the team’s first general manager in 15 years. Surely, Angelo would be looking to hire his own head coach with Dick Jauron entering his fourth season. The team was preparing for its final training camp at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and plans to rebuild Soldier Field at the end of the season had been finalized.
In Las Vegas, the over/under for Bears wins was seven — lowest in the NFC Central behind the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and, yes, Detroit Lions.
“I knew even before we went into the season,” Miller said. “Dean Pope and Dave Hendrickson in the video department, they said, ‘Hey, will you write down what you think our record is going to be this year?’ Jeff Joniak always laughs about it because Jeff was in there too. I said, ‘You guys don’t realize how good this team is.’ ”
Pope and Hendrickson, through a team spokesman, had vague recollections of the event, but it’s as if it happened yesterday for Joniak, who was just beginning his now-21-year run as the team’s play-by-play voice on WBBM-AM 780.
“It was during the weightlifting portion of the offseason program,” Joniak said. “That’s the story I have perpetuated. I’ve talked about it almost every year with Jim, and we have a good chuckle. Whether they remember or not, it’s burned in my memory. Whether it’s theater of the mind or reality, it’s a good story. That was a great season. There were so many good things about that season.”
At the end of the season, the envelope was opened and Miller’s prediction was revealed.
13-3.
“Exactly what we finished,” Miller said.
As the 2021 Bears wrap up their bye week, returning to work Monday at 3-6 and on a four-game losing streak with an offseason of transition possibly ahead, here’s a look back 20 years at what remains one of the most unexpected seasons of success and excitement in Bears history.
April-June: Offseason change — in the front office
In an unusually timed moved, the Bears announced they and Hatley opted to part ways on April 30, eight days after the draft and after the heavy lifting of the offseason was complete.
“The Bears deserve to be well respected by people within the league and media and public and the fans,” Ted Phillips, who was promoted to CEO and president two years earlier, said the next day. “I sense that hasn’t been anywhere close. We don’t have the level of respect that we need, in my mind. To bring in a strong football person will help solve that.”
Phillips and Hatley, who was hired in 1997, agreed talent on the roster had been upgraded and both effectively said it was time to move on as Hatley wasn’t going to be considered for the GM role. The Bears were 4-12 in 1997 and 1998, improved to 6-10 in 1999 and slipped to 5-11 in 2000 when they started the season 1-7.
Less than three weeks later, the Packers hired Hatley.
“I really liked Mark and I thought I had a really good relationship with Mark,” Jauron said. “Tried to talk him into staying with us, at least I gave it my two cents’ worth. We both knew that the pieces were there and after the drafts and that offseason, it was right there. I can remember us having that conversation. He knew it. He thought it was there too and it was coming. I felt really badly when he left.”
Hatley’s final offseason was highlighted by the free-agent signings of defensive tackles Ted Washington and Keith Traylor, punter Brad Maynard and special teams ace Larry Whigham. That was before a draft that netted a pair of Michigan stars — wide receiver David Terrell and running back Anthony Thomas, in the first two rounds.
“I remember talking to Hat before the season,” defensive coordinator Greg Blache said. “(Cornerback) Walt (Harris, whom the Bears had drafted in the first round in 1996) wasn’t signed. I said, ‘Hat, if you get us Walt, we can win this division.’
“Hat said, ‘That’s a lot coming out of your mouth!’ That’s the one thing we were missing — another corner that could play Cover-2 and man — and that is what we did. We got Walt and all those guys, they just fit.”
“The ingredients were there. I don’t care what the meal is, when you’ve got all the ingredients there’s no excuse unless you are a bad cook.”
When Angelo was hired in June, it was with the mandate Jauron would be the coach for the season. He began restructuring the front office but the roster — all 22 starters were acquired under Hatley’s watch — was mostly set.
“I’ll keep my mouth shut this year,” Angelo said at his introductory news conference. “This is Dick’s year. We are entering a professional partnership. This whole organization is contingent on how the marriage works. If it does not work out, like any marriage, it’s going to be real messy. There will be a lot of victims.”
The mandate for Jauron and his staff didn’t need to be stated. It was win or else.
“Pressure?” Blache said. “There is always pressure. The most important pressure is self-imposed. I felt pressure because I had finally gotten what I wanted. Now, you got what you’ve been asking for, produce with it. If you go into coaching and you worry about getting fired, you’re in the wrong (expletive) profession. That’s the least of it.
“The ingredients were there. I don’t care what the meal is, when you’ve got all the ingredients there’s no excuse unless you are a bad cook.”
Said Brian Urlacher, who was coming off a rookie of the year season: “I thought in training camp we could be pretty good, but shoot, I didn’t know. I didn’t know what good was.”
Week 1: A season-opening loss to the Ravens — but signs of promise on defense
The plan was for Miller, coming off a torn left Achilles tendon in 2000, and Shane Matthews to battle for the stating quarterback role. But Miller was sidelined by a left hamstring injury at the outset of training camp, which basically allowed Matthews to claim the job heading into the Sept. 9 opener at the Baltimore Ravens — the reigning Super Bowl champions.
The Bears ran 41 offensive plays in the first half and had more than twice the time of possession but were locked in a 3-3 tie at halftime because they couldn’t convert in the red zone. A Paul Edinger field goal gave them a 6-3 lead midway through the third quarter, but the Bears couldn’t hold off the Ravens, who got a late touchdown following a Ray Lewis interception to win 17-6.
The Ravens, who had one of the best ground games in the league, ran 30 times for only 54 yards.
“When I saw those guys in preseason, you kind of knew you had something,” Blache said. “When Baltimore went on fourth down (and 1 with Obafemi Ayanbadejo) and we stopped them, I said, ‘OK, we can handle the meat.’ ”
The Bears had been inspired by seeing the record-setting Ravens defense lead the Super Bowl run with a massive defensive line that allowed Lewis to roam free and make plays. So the Bears bucked up in free agency, signing Washington and Traylor, immovable objects in the middle of the line that would keep offensive linemen off Urlacher and weak-side linebacker Warrick Holdman.
Washington had come from Buffalo, where he anchored a Bills run defense that was top six in the NFL the previous three seasons.
“Normally, I would go to a 3-4 (defense),” the 6-foot-5, 360-pound Washington said. “But they were looking for big guys to plug up the middle, and I was interested. Then I heard about the linebacker corps and if I’ve got a good linebacking corps, we’re going to have some fun.
“The big talk was about Urlacher. They were talking about him like he was a true veteran. I didn’t know (he was only entering his second year). I was excited about it because that was all everyone was talking about. He’s fast, he can come up and hit and there were comparisons to Ray Lewis.
“And I immediately got on him in one of my first practices. I got on two people — it was (center) Olin (Kreutz) because we had our battles when I was with other teams. With Urlacher it was like, ‘Hey, if I’m here to take on double teams, your ass better come up here and make the play.’ That was it. And then with Olin, ‘Hey, we’re on the same team now. You want to get down, we can get down.’ Everything was straight. Best of buddies from then on.”
Traylor was another key addition to complete a line that already had smart and versatile ends in Phillip Daniels and Bryan Robinson. Traylor was a linebacker at Central Oklahoma and converted to defensive tackle after being drafted by the Denver Broncos. He was 6-2, 340 pounds.
Long snapper Patrick Mannelly, who played more games (245) than any player in franchise history, remembers walking through the Walter Payton Center during the offseason program, shortly after Traylor’s arrival. Back then, there was a basketball court in the building.
“Keith walks over, picks up a ball, looks up at the hoop, takes one dribble and off two feet he tomahawk jams it,” Mannelly said. “I’ve never seen a man do that before. He was that athletic and that explosive. That’s when I was like, ‘Holy (cow), this league is amazing.’ What did he weigh? 330?”
With a remade defensive line, the Bears had four rugged linemen to stuff the run, so Blache rarely had to stack the box. The defense eventually led the league in scoring, allowing just 12.7 points per game. The 203 points allowed were only five more than the 1985 Bears defense gave up.
The 2001 run defense was second in the league, averaging only 82.1 yards per game, better than any defense during the Buddy Ryan era and surpassed in Bears history only by the 2018 defense under Vic Fangio.
It all started up front.
“You talked to Greg, right?” Washington said. “I’d been there a little while and he called me in the office and he said, ‘I don’t know what they’re talking about saying you are this and that. I just don’t see it. You ain’t the guy. I don’t know where it’s at.’
“I was like, ‘What?! Man, you got me in a 4-3 and I’m coming from a 3-4.’ That clicked in me and kind of pissed me off. I really didn’t talk to Greg. I got a lot better because then he called me back in again. Greg gets emotional and it was like a father-son talk but the father had so much pride he didn’t want to tell you that you did good. But there was a little crackle in the voice because, you know, Greg is a tough ass. But he finally said, ‘I understand now. I see your style of plays and it works.’ ”
NFL season halted by 9/11
The season was paused two days after kicking off because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Week 2 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars was pushed to January, so the Bears, eager to get back to work, were forced to wait.
“I’m an American, it affected all Americans,” said special teams coordinator Mike Sweatman, who served four years in the Marine Corps and retired as a lieutenant colonel after 26 years in the Corps Reserve. “I shy away from parallels (between football and war) because we’re playing a game and I’m coaching a game. We play ball. War, these are real-life things.”
Said Blache: “I think that helped tighten that team together. I can remember them talking, ‘There’s nothing we can do about that. We can control how hard we play, how smart we play.’ ”
Strong-side linebacker Rosevelt Colvin vividly recalls walking into Halas Hall on the morning of Sept. 11. Strength coach Russ Riederer was sitting in his office. Tim Bream and his staff were fixated on the television in the athletic training room. Colvin passed through into what doubled as a mail room and place where a player spread was set up. He turned the television on moments before the second World Trade Center tower was struck.
“I thought it was a movie,” Colvin said. “What movie is this? I went back in the training room and said, ‘Y’all watching what I’m watching in here?’ And that’s when I realized what was going on. Fast-forward and sports in America are what I would say typically brings the country together. One thing that I think changes all conversations, brings all races, genders and religion together is sports. The conversation with a lot of the guys was, ‘Do we still need to play for the mindset of the country?’ To pay homage and honor those individuals that lost their lives but to make sure that those that are trying to take away our freedoms are not getting to the point that they see they are bothering us that much?
“We went to Atlanta (for the third game Oct. 7) and I remember them prepping us, ‘We’re going to play. The government is doing certain things at that time.’ Right before we kicked off, the United States had retaliated. I’m like, ‘We’re out here playing football and they’re out there dropping bombs.’ I don’t know if this is where we needed to be or not, but at that moment is this a time to allow people in Chicago to decompress from what was going on? Just doing what we’re paid for, which is to play a game, but give the country, the fans, people who enjoy football an opportunity to have some sense of normalcy. That was the conversation we were having.”
Week 2: A come-from-behind victory against the Vikings
Searching for their first win in the home opener Sept. 23 against the Vikings, the Bears got off to a miserable start, punting on their first seven possessions.
They trailed only 10-0 midway through the third quarter in part because Carl Powell, a seldom-used defensive lineman, dragged quarterback Daunte Culpepper down from behind on third-and-goal from the 1 in the first quarter.
It was an early-season example of role players finding big moments to make plays, a theme that played out for the entire season.
Matthews was knocked out with bruised ribs early in the second quarter, and the offense finally got rolling as Miller threw touchdown passes to Marty Booker and Marcus Robinson in the fourth quarter for a 14-10 win.
“Everybody was running around and Ted was screaming at us,” Kreutz said. “We didn’t win the (expletive) Super Bowl. He was like, ‘Start acting like you expect to win!’ Ted kind of came in and taught everyone what winning actually looked like. He was a big leader for us that no one really talked about.”
“Damn right,” Washington said when asked about the postgame euphoria. “I said to the defensive guys. You get a sack, OK, throw your fist up, whatever you want to do, now get your ass back to the huddle. Act like you’ve been there. After that win over the Vikings, I’m like, ‘What? We’re underdogs?’ You need to act like we were expected to win.”
Weeks 4-6: Wins versus the Falcons and Cardinals before an offensive explosion against the Bengals
Matthews’ injury opened the door for Miller, who started five games in 1999 and 2000. The late rally to defeat the Vikings secured his spot before the Bears went to Atlanta and picked off Chris Chandler three times in the first half before knocking him out with a concussion. They then flummoxed Falcons rookie Michael Vick in the 31-3 victory to improve to 2-1.
“I was worried because I was coming off my torn Achilles but I just felt I should be the starter,” Miller said. “I felt I earned it the year prior and that I should have been starting the whole time. I had the setback with the hamstring in camp and I was really worried about that. Then Shane gets hurt and I’m in there. I didn’t get a lot of work in camp because I was so set back, so I was a little worried about that, but once I got in there I wasn’t going to give it up.”
The Bears returned home to defeat the Arizona Cardinals 20-13 on Oct. 14. They went to Cincinnati the following week and destroyed the Bengals 31-3 — but lost Robinson for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL in his left knee.
“That was an indicator,” Miller said of the win over the Bengals. “I was with (Bengals coach) Dick LeBeau in Pittsburgh, and he knows a thing or two about defense. We went in there and just dismantled them. I think everybody kind of knew, we’re dictating things here … we’re pushing them around and there is nothing they can do about it. From that point on, it was a determination, ‘Let’s play to our potential every week.’ I think everybody did that.”
The Bears rolled up a season-high 435 yards of offense with Miller throwing for two touchdowns. With the fourth straight win, he was cemented as the starter.
“Jimmy Miller, obviously any team that has success has got to have that guy, and he fit that team so well,” Jauron said. “At that critical position, not that any position is not, but the quarterback position just exemplified all those things. He was a tough guy and it really just fit our team and our history and the city of Chicago. Really good fit. Tremendous.”
Thomas, who was rotating with James Allen in the backfield, ran for 188 yards in the romp, leading to his promotion to the starting lineup. It was the early-season breakout game that propelled him to winning offensive rookie of the year honors.
“He was a big, physical back who was running behind a pretty good offensive line,” coordinator John Shoop said. “Our run game was pretty sophisticated, and Jim and Shane rarely made a bad run check, finding the right looks. ‘A-Train’ is one of those guys because he’s big, he’s strong. Dick used to always say to me, ‘We’ve got to build this team that all of a sudden, when it’s zero degrees here in Chicago, we’re still big and strong.’ Those are things that don’t matter with the weather conditions, if a guy tweaks his ankle, he’s still big and strong.
“The Train, I’m going to tell you, we knew if he got 3 yards in the first quarter, it was going to be 4 in the second, 5 in the third and he’d start having some 20-yard runs in the fourth quarter. We knew it. Our defense knew it. Coach Jauron knew it. That’s why sometimes we played it close to the vest and won a lot of games in the fourth quarter. A lot of them.”
As Shoop said, the offensive line had a lot to do with Thomas’ success and the fact the Bears allowed an NFL-low 17 sacks for the season with a couple of relatively immobile quarterbacks. Kreutz anchored the line with left tackle Blake Brockermeyer, signed as a free agent in 1999, left guard Rex Tucker, a fifth-round pick in 1999, right guard Chris Villarrial, a fifth-round pick in 1996, and James “Big Cat” Williams, a pillar in the locker room, at right tackle. All five started all 16 regular-season games.
Week 7: Mike Brown’s miraculous pick-six against the 49ers
A recounting of the 2001 odyssey is highlighted by back-to-back overtime victories at Soldier Field when the Bears beat the San Francisco 49ers 37-31 and Cleveland Browns 27-21, winning both on interception returns to the north end zone by free safety Mike Brown.
Both games required furious rallies in the fourth quarter led by Matthews after Miller left the Oct. 28 game against the 49ers with a hip pointer in the second quarter. The Bears trailed 31-16 midway through the fourth before mounting a 66-yard drive that culminated in a 13-yard pass to Terrell, his first touchdown of the season.
The Niners quickly punted, and the Bears took over with 2 minutes, 46 seconds remaining on their 33. Thomas ran for 12 yards on first down and Matthews completed 9 of 10 passes, the final being a 4-yard touchdown to Terrell. Thomas ran left and lunged into the end zone for a two-point conversion to tie the game with 26 seconds remaining.
The 49ers got the ball at their 20 to begin overtime, and Blache dialed up a five-man pressure with strong safety Tony Parrish blitzing on the first play and Robinson coming unblocked off the edge. Quarterback Jeff Garcia targeted Terrell Owens, who was running a slant from the slot on the left side of the formation.
The ball arrived at the 29 as Urlacher closed in on Owens, who a season before at Candlestick Park had torched the Bears for a then-NFL record 20 receptions for 283 yards. Owens pulled his arms in and the ball bounced off his hands into the air as Urlacher arrived to level him.
“I just remember when Terrell Owens had those alligator arms because he knew he was going to get lit up,” Miller said. “He short-armed on it thinking Urlacher was going to tag him.”
Said Urlacher: “I’ve seen the video. I don’t know. TO might have caught me out of his peripheral (vision). I’m not sure. He just didn’t catch it and Mike, Johnny on the spot as usual. How about him? Not just those two games but his whole damn career he was always in the right place at the right time. That wasn’t by coincidence either.”
Brown weaved his way into the end zone and the Bears won 16 seconds into overtime to improve 5-1, their best start in 11 years.
During the first quarter, Brown was accompanied by trainers to the locker room to examine his left knee. They ruled it a sprained medical collateral ligament and told Brown the decision to return was his.
Brown leave his teammates if he’s able to play but not at full strength? Never.
“This,” Brown said with a large bag of ice strapped to his knee in the locker room after the game, “is unbelievable. It’s hard to explain. It’s kind of surreal. Kind of like a dream.”
Week 8: Mike Brown does it again — this time against the Browns
With Miller still out, Matthews started the next week and the Bears got in a quick hole against the Browns, turning the ball over on their first three possessions. They trailed 21-7 late in the third quarter and turned the ball over on downs on their first two series in the fourth.
The Bears got the ball back on their 20 with 1:52 remaining, and the heroics of the previous week were a quickly fading memory.
Matthews’ 9-yard touchdown pass to Booker with 28 seconds remaining drew the Bears within a touchdown and left them needing a miracle.
Actually, a couple of miracles.
First, Edinger’s onside kick took the kind of big second bounce kickers seek. Underneath the pile Bobbie Howard — a reserve linebacker from Notre Dame who grew up in West Virginia playing with Randy Moss and future NBA star Jason Williams — recovered the ball.
It was another unsung hero making a big play at a critical moment.
“Right place at the right time,” Howard said. “I don’t really think about it too much unless someone brings it up. That is one of the biggest plays I made in my career, though. You never know how those onside kicks are going to turn out. It was a scrum under there. When I wrapped the ball up, there was a player’s leg in between the ball and me. So that made securing the ball a little more difficult, and when everyone piled on, everyone is clawing at the ball. That was a wild game and one I’m glad to have been a part of.”
Howard’s recovery put the Bears on the Browns’ 47 with 24 seconds remaining. Jauron had wisely kept one timeout in his pocket instead of burning it on the previous drive. Matthews hit Allen for a 4-yard gain and he ran out of bounds. Matthews then hit the running back for 9 yards with the Bears calling their final timeout with 8 seconds remaining at the Browns 34.
That set the stage for Flood Right 62 Flood Tip, a play the offense practiced every week in an effort to get a receiver in the middle of a diamond of four teammates for a Hail Mary.
“With Dick Jauron, there was no stone unturned,” Shoop said. “Every situation you can think of, we practiced. Shane did a great job, people don’t realize, he checked down to James Allen the play before to get himself closer. It’s the equivalent of an approach shot from 150 or one from 60 yards. And it’s because Shane knew the situation.”
The plan was for Terrell, the team’s tallest wide receiver at 6-3, to tip the ball if he couldn’t catch it.
“When I let it go, I thought I threw it out of the end zone,” Matthews said. “I barely threw it.”
Browns safety Percy Ellsworth elevated highest to deflect the pass and Allen, diving to the ground, snared the ball as he landed on Booker. Edinger’s extra point sent the game to overtime.
The Bears won the coin toss but punted after a three-play series.
The Browns got the ball on their 12 and Tim Couch hit Kevin Johnson for a 16-yard gain. Colvin sacked Couch on the next snap, setting up second-and-15. Couch dropped back and quickly fired right just before Daniels, who flattened left tackle Roman Oben, crushed him from behind.
Robinson jumped and batted the pass high into the air. Brown ran under the fluttering ball, returning it 16 yards to the same end zone as the week before and running straight through the northwest tunnel to the locker room with his second touchdown in two weeks and the third of what would be seven in his career.
“Mike Brown set records for being a running back in high school (in Arizona) and then he was like the No. 1 ranked cornerback coming out of high school and he was like that at Nebraska,” Kreutz said. “He has an awareness for where exactly to be on the field, and that is what made him great for so damn long.
“He was like Tom Brady at safety. He saw the play happening before it happened. He just knew, that matchup at D-line, ‘we’re going to win that so I don’t have to drop in coverage. I’m going to stay right here because the quarterback has to throw the ball in this area the way this defense is designed, so I am going to be right here. The only place to go with the ball is here so I might as well stand here.’
“It takes a special kind of guy to know every matchup on the field, everything every player is doing and take advantage of that. That is a very special player, and that is why in 2006 when we lost him it was so devastating.”
Said Colvin: “I don’t want to use the word ‘cocky.’ I used to think Tom Brady was cocky. He’s not cocky. He’s just confident because he puts so much work in to be as good as he is. I put Mike B in that same category. Those are moments in my life that every time I see them, every time I talk about them, just sends chills through my body.”
Washington’s recollection stretched far behind the playmaking aspect of Brown’s resume that included 20 interceptions, eight forced fumbles, eight fumble recoveries and 46 pass deflections in his career.
“Mike Brown was a headhunter,” Washington said. “What I mean by that, when I saw Mike Brown come up and level an offensive lineman, you’ve got my respect big time. That means you’re going to attack anything that comes your way. I ain’t going to mimic his (high-pitched) voice but he always used to say, ‘Ted! Hey, Ted! Did you see that? I’m going to bring it!’ You’re getting me hyped up, man, let me calm down.”
“The toughness, the athletic ability, an uncanny feel for the game ... you’re not going to find any that are more competitive or tougher than Mike. He was absolutely as good as it gets.”
An exuberant Brown, having made game-winning plays in consecutive weeks that some fans cherish as among their favorites in decades of following the team, was nearly speechless afterward.
“This defies imagination,” he said. “If a book was written about it, I don’t think anyone would believe it. It seems like it’s fiction. I don’t know how to explain it — higher power, luck, destiny, whatever you want to call it.”
The Bears knew long before, but by the midpoint of 2001 the rest of the league learned they had two young stars on defense — Urlacher and Brown, their first two picks in 2000.
“It came out in Mike’s college film,” Jauron said. “You watched the film and I was only a secondary coach (before becoming a coordinator) and as soon as you saw him play, you thought, ‘That’s how the position is supposed to be played.’ He had it all. The toughness, the athletic ability, an uncanny feel for the game and you will find NFL players as competitive and as tough, but you’re not going to find any that are more competitive or tougher than Mike. He was absolutely as good as it gets.”
Weeks 9-17: Division champions and Keith Traylor’s rumbling interception return
The Bears’ first six-game winning streak since 1990 set up a showdown with the Packers for first place in the division. The first meeting of the season between the rivals had an added storyline because the Packers had hired Hatley as the top personnel man under GM/coach Mike Sherman.
Hatley was criticized heavily for missing on first-round picks Curtis Enis and Cade McNown, but he hit on several others that emerged as front-line players for the Bears and had many extra-base hits with free-agent moves.
“Mike Brown was one of the best football players I’d ever seen in college,” Hatley told the Tribune’s Don Pierson in the days leading up to the game. “Two weeks in a row running back an interception in overtime. We’ll never see that again in the NFL. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do it three weeks in a row.”
Naturally, Hatley deflected the credit he was getting for the suddenly surging Bears.
“Dick gets all the credit, in my opinion,” Hatley said. “Like anything, the longer you have a head coach and the more the younger players get to play, they mature and believe they’re going to win every game.”
The Bears fell to the Packers 20-12 and would lose the rematch four weeks later at Lambeau Field, but they won the three games in between starting with a 27-24 road victory against the Buccaneers on Nov. 18. Booker caught seven passes for a season-high 165 yards and scored three touchdowns. It was his biggest game en route to a 100-catch season in an era when those were not as common.
“Marty was such a hard worker you knew he was going to continue to improve,” Shoop said. “He had a lot of talent, sure. The biggest hands you’ve ever seen in your life and great body control but he worked so hard at his craft. It was really a privilege to be around a guy like him.”
Allen rushed for 107 yards the following week in a 13-6 victory at Minnesota, the first time in a span of 99 regular-season games the Vikings were held without a touchdown. The defense sacked Lions quarterbacks Charlie Batch and Mike McMahon five times on Dec. 2 in a 13-10 win at Soldier Field.
After the second loss to the Packers, the Bears responded with a dominant 27-3 victory over the Buccaneers at Soldier Field, improving to 10-3 and clinching a playoff berth. Thomas rushed for 173 yards and R.W. McQuarters and Parrish had interceptions.
The next week, the Bears rallied late once again for a 20-15 victory over Washington at FedEx Field. The go-ahead touchdown came in the fourth quarter when Urlacher scored on a 27-yard pass from holder Brad Maynard on a fake field goal.
Sweatman dusted off a play he originally used when coaching for the New York Giants with star linebacker Lawrence Taylor. That was in 1989 and also against Washington at RFK Stadium.
“Lawrence was wide open, but he got mugged,” Sweatman said. “There was no flag. So we came back and tried to do it right this time.”
Said Urlacher: “Coach Sweatman put it in early in the week, and I was like, ‘There’s no frickin’ way they’re calling this play.’ I dropped one during the week and then he calls, ‘Ninja! Ninja!’ I was like, ‘Oh, shoot! We’re running it.’ I went in motion and no one ran with me. They all just watched me and then Brad throws a great little lollipop out there for me to catch. It was a great design, I’ll tell you that much.”
The defense recorded its second shutout on Dec. 30, a 24-0 trouncing of the Lions at the Silverdome. The defense had three takeaways in the fourth quarter with Harris returning an interception 39 yards for a touchdown, setting up the Bears with a chance to win the NFC Central the following week with a victory over the Jaguars at Soldier Field.
Thomas rushed for 160 yards to set what at the time was the franchise record for rushing by a rookie at 1,074. The highlight of the 33-13 victory, though, was a screen attempt by Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell that Traylor intercepted and returned 67 yards, accompanied by a convoy of teammates, to the Jaguars 9.
“Clinching the divisional championship was unbelievable,” Jauron said. “Because I had spent a good number of years in Jacksonville with Tom Coughlin and still have great respect for Tom, and the remarkable play when Keith intercepted the ball and rumbled down the field, I’ll absolutely never forget that moment.
“There were so many great moments that year, but to see a really tough guy and a guy that had performed really well for us, he ends up with that ball and he’s looking for some way to get it out of his hands. Clearly he didn’t think he was going to go the distance with it. What a great memory that is.”
With a 13-3 record, the Bears clinched the NFC Central for the first time since 1990 and made an eight-game improvement over the 2000 season.
NFC Divisional Round: A 33-19 loss to the Eagles
With the No. 2 seed in the NFC, the Bears drew a bye and hosted the Philadelphia Eagles on Jan. 19 at Soldier Field.
Miller was lost in the second quarter when safety Damon Moore intercepted a wayward pass intended for Dez White near the goal line. Miller, not really pursuing Moore, separated his right shoulder after he was slammed to the turf by defensive end Hugh Douglas.
“The shot that put Jim out was dirty,” Matthews said. “It was uncalled for and it’s a shame.”
The NFL agreed, fining Douglas $35,000 a week after he was fined for a helmet hit on Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson in the wild-card round.
The Bears hung close and took a 14-13 lead early in the third quarter on a 39-yard interception return by Jerry Azumah. But Matthews struggled, completing only 8 of 17 passes for 66 yards with two interceptions, and the Eagles pulled away for a 31-19 win.
“I love Jim Miller,” Blache said. “I think he’s one of the toughest guys. He didn’t have the strongest arm, but he had heart and he just put us on his back. We lost him in the Philadelphia game. I’m convinced if we had Jim, we’d have been at the game right until the end.”
Said Washington: “We had a great season and got knocked off. Then everything went to hell. I could go on for days.”
As it was, within 90 minutes of the Bears being eliminated in the dark of evening Jan. 19, wrecking balls were swinging as the transition to a new era began.
Optimism, the kind Miller had well before the 2001 season began, was shared by everyone — but the core of this team would never again achieve such heights.
Epilogue
Jauron, who was named coach of the year, received a contract extension a month after the playoff exit. The Bears stumbled badly to a 4-12 season the next season as they were forced to play home games in Champaign because of the Soldier Field renovations and were hit with a rash of injuries. Jauron was fired after a 7-9 finish in 2003.
But 2001 remains a highlight for every member of the organization that took part in it.
“Those guys took the field and really they never doubted themselves,” Jauron said. “People say, ‘Yeah, you won a lot of close games.’ (The Bears were 8-0 in games decided by seven points or less.) We could have been 16-0, right? We lost three close games too. If you are saying we should have had more losses, I don’t know. Maybe we should have had three more wins.”
Said Blache: “One thing I always knew when I walked over to the stadium in the morning, we were going to fight somebody. I knew that for a fact. I couldn’t promise you the score at the end of the ballgame but I never, ever worried about them competing. And as a coach that is huge because I had years since where you go to the stadium and you’re thinking, ‘Is this kid going to flake out on me today?’ or, ‘Is this guy going to pull up with the loser’s limp?’
“That crew, they pushed and governed each other but they had fun — they had fun at practice, they had fun in games, the offense and the defense complemented each other. That was by far the most fun I had coaching in the league. Without question. All of the personalities. It was such a collection that it was fun to watch them in action.”
Said Shoop: “Morale is the most underrated quality on a football team. So many teams nowadays are really divided into two teams —– an offensive team and a defensive team. Coach Blache and Coach Jauron and I really worked together. The defense really helped the offense. The offense really helped the defense, not just on game day and how we called the game but also in the way we practiced. We would compete like heck in practice but we could also really work together. Greg was great because I was a young coordinator and some coordinators get bullied by the defensive coaches, but Greg was great and, of course, Coach Jauron was so in charge of all aspects that we were able to practice and prepare just how teams should.
“And the other thing is we were good at things that mattered. There’s some teams today that are good at things that don’t matter. We were physical on offense, we really were. We had an offensive line that started all 16 games and they were led by Olin Kreutz, who was just young then. I’m going to tell you what, you were not going to play on Olin’s right or left and not be physical. When you’ve got guys like Olin and Big Cat, who buy into what you’re doing, you’ve got a chance to be really good. We were really physical.
“We could lengthen games when we were behind, which we showed, games like Cleveland and San Francisco that season when we came back. But we could really shorten games when we were ahead, and you saw that especially at the end of the season against the Buccaneers or Jaguars at Soldier Field. Those are things that matter in football and sometimes they’re not done as well as maybe they were 20 years ago.”
Said Washington: “The locker room fun was just outstanding. We played music and we weren’t selfish with it. We played gospel, country, rock, rap, R&B. We had all of that at different times so there wasn’t one group dominating the stereo which T-Med (equipment manager Tony Medlin) would control that anyway. You listened to everything, and that is how we all really came together and learned what to expect from one another. That was great just going to work, knowing you’re going to laugh and get your work done and go home.”
Said Kreutz: “It was crazy. The team just kept believing we were going to win somehow. We’re not that good but we’re just going to (expletive) win.”
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2001 Chicago Bears: An exciting — and unexpected — season - Chicago Tribune
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