Looking back at the last Bears-Packers game before Favre and Rodgers

It was December 8, 1991, it was an unseasonably warm day in Chicago, game-time temperature was 53 degrees. The 9-4 Chicago Bears, led by fiery head coach Mike Ditka were tied atop the division with the Detroit Lions, and getting ready to face a rudderless Green Bay Packers team led by Lindy Infante. Their record sat at 3-10.

The Packers had no answers at quarterback. In fact, they really hadn’t since Bart Starr retired. That’s probably why they took a shot after this season and traded for an unknown rookie on the Falcons named Brett Favre. You would want a good offensive mind to help mold that young QB, which is probably why they fired Infante and brought in Mike Holmgren to captain the ship.

But that’s neither here nor there on this day. On this day, the Bears were looking for a win against their rival in hopes of getting ahead of the Lions on the standings. The Bears were a strong 9.5 point favorite as kickoff approached at Soldier Field.

Ditka was looking for his 100th regular season win as head coach of the Bears, something that certainly would be sweet for Iron Mike against his hated rival.

Brad Muster got the scoring going, capping a 73-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown run. Kevin Butler added the extra point and the Bears jumped out to a 7-0 lead. But the Bears turned the ball over on their next two possessions and the Packers turned both those turnovers into points. First, a Chris Jacke field goal to cut it to 7-3, and they followed that up with a Mike Tomczak touchdown pass to give the Packers a 10-7 lead. The former Bears QB found tight end Jackie Harris in the end zone to give Green Bay the advantage.

But the Bears got things going on their next two possessions. Brad Muster capped off another scoring drive, this time finding pay dirt from 6 yards out to give the Bears a 14-10 lead. On the next offensive play, linebacker Jim Morrissey intercepted Tomczak and set up a Jim Harbaugh touchdown pass to Wendell Davis to extend the lead to 21 to 10. The Packers would add a field goal before the half cutting the lead to 21 to 13.

There wouldn’t be much scoring in the second half. Harbaugh would throw his second touchdown pass of the day to Wendell Davis in the third quarter to give Chicago a 27 to 13 lead. That score would hold up as the final horn sounded.

The Bears would pressure Tomczak all day, tallying three sacks by Trace Armstrong, Steve McMichael and Tim Ryan, but they had constant pressure on the Packers quarterback forcing him to throw plenty of errant passes.

The upstart wide receiver that had been turning heads all season long, Tom Waddle, was quiet in this game, grabbing just two passes for 12 yards.

The game had added fuel to the rivalry as it had always been reported that Tomczak and Harbaugh didn’t care much for each other when they were teammates, but Harbaugh got the best of Tomczak this time. After the game, Tomczak was asked about his relationship with Jim Harbaugh and responded, “Jim who?” So apparently the former Chicago quarterback remains salty.