CHICAGO — Still doubting the Bears?
Jay Cutler threw for 221 yards, Brian Urlacher forced a key fumble and Chicago took advantage of a team-record-tying 17 penalties by the Packers to beat Green Bay 20-17 on Monday night.
Robbie Gould won it with a 19-yard field goal with 4 seconds left. The Packers’ James Jones lost a fumble on a hit by Urlacher in the final minutes. Then Morgan Burnett was called for pass interference on Earl Bennett, setting up the winning kick.
Chicago is 3-0 and alone atop the NFC North. The Packers fell to 2-1.
“It’s fun, that is all you can ask for,” Cutler said. “The defense did a great job, we struggled the whole game, felt like we kind of were killing ourselves.”
The Bears kept insisting they were contenders through a sloppy preseason and less-than-inspiring opening win over Detroit. Since then, they turned heads with a win at Dallas last week, and stamped themselves as contenders by beating Green Bay — with lots of help from the Packers.
The Bears had tied it at 17 on a 25-yard field goal by Gould when Urlacher jarred the ball out of Jones’ hands after the receiver caught a pass from Aaron Rodgers near midfield. Tim Jennings recovered, giving Chicago the ball on the Packers 46 with 2:18 remaining.
Soon after, another penalty cost the Packers in a big way.
On second down at the 33, Cutler tried to hit Bennett deep along the right sideline and Burnett basically hammered him, wiping out an interception by Nick Collins and putting the ball at the 9.
Three plays later, Chicago walked away with a wild win and the only undefeated record in the NFC.
Devin Hester delivered his first touchdown return in three years when he ran back a punt 62 yards in the fourth quarter, giving the Bears a short-lived 14-10 lead.
Rodgers threw for 316 yards and a touchdown and also scored on a 3-yard run that gave the Packers a 17-14 lead in the fourth period. Jermichael Finley had nine catches for 115 yards, but the sloppiness simply caught up with the Packers in the end.
Cutler completed 16 of 27 passes with a touchdown and interception. Johnny Knox had four catches for 94 yards.
Chicago held its longtime rival to 63 yards rushing, but the Bears had only 77 themselves. That turned it into an air game for much of the night.
NFL NOTEBOOK: Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Charlie Weis had emergency gall bladder surgery Monday morning, according to a newspaper report. Weis’ agent, Bob LaMonte, told The Kansas City Star that Weis chose to delay surgery until after the Sunday’s home game against the San Francisco 49ers. Chiefs coach Todd Haley refused to talk about Weis’ condition Monday beyond saying that it was not a life-threatening situation. Radio station 810 WHB was the first to report that the 54-year-old Weis had undergone emergency treatment after the game. Another Kansas City station, 610 Sports Radio KCSP, later reported that it was gall bladder surgery. LaMonte told the newspaper that Weis had a painful infection but put off the surgery so he could coach in the game, a 31-10 Chiefs victory over the 49ers. Last week, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio was hospitalized after his team beat Notre Dame in overtime for what was described as a mild heart attack. He is recovering from surgery and his return for the Spartans is unknown. Weis, the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl teams, was hired by the Chiefs after he was fired last year as head coach at Notre Dame. He underwent a procedure on his knee in the offseason and spent most of training camp moving around on a motorized cart. He walked with difficulty while using a cane and wore a large knee brace. All he has said about that situation was that part of his knee “fell off” a few weeks before camp opened.
The Chiefs (3-0) are off this week.