Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 34

10 Section 3 Chicago Tribune, Monday, October 4, 1999 FOOTBALL INSIDE THE BEARS TENNIS ROUNDUP Serena tops sis for Cup From Tribune News Services Offense says defense deserves most of credit xv' I I i IS I Uu L4 r.K 1 1 t- Tribune photo by Bonnie Trafelet Referee Ron Blum wears a headset while viewing a third-quarter replay in Sunday's Bears victory over the Saints at Soldier Field. By John Mullin Tribune Staff Writer The Bears had five takeaways and lost to the Oakland Raiders. They gave away the ball five times and defeated the New Orleans Saints. The difference was only partly the two touchdowns by Curtis Con-: way in the final two minutes. Bears offensive players talked about the near-miraculous finish by Conway and the rest of the offense.

But they reserved their highest compliments for the defense, which allowed New Orleans only three points off the five turnovers and shut out the Saints the final 19 minutes. "I've got to give everything to the defense; our defense won that game for us," said guard Todd Perry. "That game would have been 40-0 the way we were turning the ball over in our territory." The Bears were allowing an average of 363 yards through three games; the Saints managed only 269. The Saints ranked No. 1 in sacks per pass play; it was the Bears who took down Saints quarterbacks four times.

Clyde Simmons picked up his team-leading fifth sack, Shane Burton his third in three weeks. Rookies Russell Davis and Warrick Holdman each had their second sacks. The defense survived a potentially game-changing pass-interference call in the fourth quarter against Walt Harris that one official called and one didn't. The officials conferred and decided there was no foul on the pass, but the Bears may have been in danger of another flag after tackle Blake Brockermeyer vehe-: mently objected to the call and had to be "pulled back by center Olin Kreutz. "I almost lost it there because you can't end a game like that," Brockermeyer said.

"You've got to let the players go out and play, especially in circumstances like that." The offense lost the ball on three con-secutive plays, four times in six plays, through one disastrous stretch of the third quarter. Three of the turnovers occurred in the Bears' end of the field but the defense prevented the damage from becoming total. "We didn't lose any confidence," said middle linebacker Sean Harris, credited with a game-high 12 tackles. "We just said we had to go out and win the game with a turnover or a strong defense." Added defensive coordinator Greg Blache: "We're like firemen; when a fire starts, we've got to go put it out. That's what I sell to the guys and they did that today.

They kept fighting and if you do that week in and week out, the prize will be there at the end." Kick in the pants: Jeff Jaeger is now 1 of 4 on field-goal attempts this season but none bothered him as much as the 32-yarder he hit short at 9:21 in the fourth quarter with the Bears trailing 10-0. "I hit a foot behind the ball," said Jaeger. "I take full and complete credit. It was a horrible kick. I'm just very thankful it didn't cost us the game." Before missing the first two games to a hip injury this season, Jaeger was one of the league's most consistent kickers over the last three years.

"It's such a frustrating thing because I wanted to get on a roll after last week and two misses," he said. Fright night: Defensive tackle Mike Wells showed off a bloody middle finger on his right hand after the game, the results of his nail being caught on Ricky Williams' thigh pad and ripped off on the first play of the game. "I thought I broke it or dislocated it," said Wells, "but then I looked and all I saw was a little piece of hamburger." The injury will require minor surgery to repair the nail, a procedure Wells discussed with an explanation not meant for the queasy. "They had to stick the nail back in," he said. "It's like a garage door.

You have to keep the old one so the new one can slide in. When the nail falls off, I'll have to put it in a jar." Captain Matchup: Not that the Mike Ditka-Chicago Bears thing is still a big deal, but tackle James Williams, the last Ditka Bear still with the team, and center Jerry Fontenot, a long-time Bear now with the Saints, were chosen by their respective coaches to be among the co-captains Sunday. Smooth oops: Referee Ron Blum deftly extricated himself from an erroneous call after the Bears had appealed a decision on the field and their appeal was upheld. Had the Bears' replay challenge failed, they would have been charged a timeout. "New Orleans is not charged a timeout," Blum announced on his field microphone, then drew laughs by smoothly correcting himself: "Chicago is not charged a timeout either." Sitting out: Former Northwestern receiver D'Wayne Bates and fellow rookie wideout Marty Booker spent their fourth week on the inactive list.

The Bears continue to go into games with four wide receivers and using Glyn Milburn as a fifth receiver instead when needed. Hobert OK: Saints quarterback Billy Joe Hobert suffered a "cervical stinger" when he collided with two Bears defenders while scoring a second-period touchdown. Play on the field was held up over 10 minutes while he was attended to by trainers before being carried off on a motorized cart. "It's just a little burning sensation now, but nothing major," Hobert said. "I am not going to tell you where the pain is right now because somebody is going to put a little target up there like they did to Ricky Williams last game.

That's just the way it goes, that's football. "I thought my arm was broken. It sort of scares you when you think you broke your throwing arm. But it's nothing big. Everything is fine.

I plan on playing next week." Mike Ditka said he feels Hobert will be OK. "He was lucid. I didn't think it was serious. Actually, I thought he had separated his shoulder very badly. To be numb out there.

But he was talking and moving his hands, so I knew he wasn't paralyzed." In reserve: Backup quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver completed seven of 15 passes for 102 yards in relief of Hobert. "We had an opportunity to put them away," Tolliver said of the Saints' 10-0 fourth-period lead. "You get the ball in a scoring area and you have to punch it in." 4th-quarter lightning: The Saints had the Bears right where they wanted them early in the fourth period, without any points. The last time the Bears had been shutout at home was in Ditka's first season coaching the Bears, 1982. Ironically, it was the Saints who handed the Bears a 10-0 setback on Sept.

19, 1982, in Soldier Field. The Bears' last shutout of any kind was in 1989 to the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park. "At the time in the fourth period, we had so much confidence that we didn't think that they could score," said Saints defensive back Ashley Ambrose. "We were playing well defensively and every time they got down there inside the 20, we made plays. Maybe we just thought these guys couldn't score on us.

We just made a few mistakes here and there and we paid for it." Fred Mitchell contributed to this report. With her mother in the stands and her sister on the opposite side of the court, Serena Williams took little delight in her victory Sunday at Munich, Germany. It didn't matter that she had just beaten big sister Venus for the first time. Or that she had won the Grand Slam Cup and an accompanying $900,000 payday. Or that she had extended her winning streak to 16 matches.

These family showdowns are draining. "I'd never actually beaten Venus; I didn't know how it feels," she said. "It's kind of tough to take this win." The U.S. Open champion won 6- 1, 3-6, 6-3 in a final in which the sisters showed little emotion during the match but embraced at the net when it was over. Venus, at 19 a year older than her sister, applauded at the finish, as did their mother, Oracene.

"It's a win-win situation," said Venus, the 1998 champion. "One daughter is going to win. What's the difference?" Earlier, Greg Rusedski used his big serve to overpower Tommy Haas and capture the richest prize in tennis, picking up $1.3 million as the men's champion. Rusedski had 29 aces in winning 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5). The match was the second sister-sister final in the pro tennis history.

In the first, Venus beat Serena in three sets in Key Bis-cayne, in March. She also won their two non-title matches in 1998. More muscular of the two, Serena won 12 of the first 13 points and held Venus to three points in the first five games. "I was cruising," Serena said. "I haven't played this well, especially in the first set Other than that I started going back to my regular game, making a lot of errors, being silly." Toulouse Open: Capping a week in which he beat three seeded players on the way to his first ATP final, Nicolas Escude defeated Daniel Vacek 7- 5, 6-1 to win the event in Toulouse, France.

Gelsor Open: Alberto Martin defeated Karim Alami 6-3, 6-2 in the final at Bucharest, Romania. Florida must pull great recovery shot out of its bag to earn national title By Andrew Bagnato Tribune College Football Writer Florida coach Steve Spurrier UTreached for a golf term Sunday to describe Alabama's 40-39 upset of Gators the previous day in Gainesville, Fla. "They got a mulligan shot at it," Spurrier said on his weekly tele-It conference. 1 Spurrier, an avid golfer, was referring to the Crimson Tide's extra extra-point attempt in over- time. Florida's Jeff Chandler had blown his conversion kick after Florida opened the overtime with a touchdown.

Alabama's Chris Kemp did the same thing following 'Bama's touchdown, but the Gators were ruled offsides and Kemp converted on his second try to snap Florida's 30-game home winning streak. Now Florida needs a mulligan to contend for the national title. The Gators no longer control their own destiny. But they are hardly out of the national title picture. Their schedule and the strength of the Southeastern Conference could conspire to keep them in contention.

"We're still not in terrible shape if we can play well the rest of the way through," said Spurrier, whose teams have lost back-to-back games only twice in 10 years. "Hopefully, our minds or our brains are not bruised up too much. "If we had to lose to these guys or Tennessee, we'd definitely prefer losing to these guys," said Spurrier, who is reviled by Volunteers fans. "We're still in a position to contend if we can get any better." Florida, which had been ranked third in both major polls, dropped to seventh in Sunday's ESPNUSA Today coaches poll and eighth in the AP media rankings. In a curious bit of logic, voters in both polls ranked the Gators below Tennessee, which Florida defeated two weeks ago.

The two major polls are one component in the Bowl Championship Series formula that will set the Sugar Bowl matchup to determine a national champ. The BCS, which also factors in eight computer ratings as well as schedule strength and won-lost record, will release its first standings at the end of this month. Until then, Florida won't know quite how much damage it sustained in the loss to Alabama, which has defeated consecutive ranked opponents (Arkansas was the other) after falling to Louisiana Tech two weeks ago in Birmingham, Ala. If the Gators sweep their remaining games, they would build a strong case for a Sugar Bowl berth. A perfect finish would leave them 11-1, with a victory over top-ranked Florida State in Tallahassee and a victory in the SEC title game in Atlanta possibly over Alabama, which leads the SEC West.

Florida would love to have another shot at the Tide, which forced the Gators to relive some sickening memories. A year ago, Florida sustained a 20-17 loss at Tennessee after place-kicker Collins Cooper missed a 32-yard field goal in overtime. Cooper lost his job to Chandler. "I let a lot of guys down," Chandler said. "I tried to let my teammates forget about what happened last year.

But this is worse than last year." While Florida sifted the debris of its first home loss in five years, Michigan began to gear up for a showdown with Michigan State in East Lansing. Michigan (5-0) moved into the No. 3 spot vacated by Florida in both polls. Michigan State (5-0) rose to 11th. It's the first time since 1961 that the Wolverines and Spartans have brought perfect records into their game.

Michigan's victory over then-No. 11 Purdue provided a stark contrast to Florida's loss. When the Tide rolled out a spread offense, the Gators couldn't mount pressure on quarterback Andrew Zow, who threw for 336 yards and two touchdowns. Facing a similar attack, the Wolverines limited Purdue quarterback Drew Brees to 20 completions in 49 attempts, sacked him twice and intercepted him once. "If you can't defend that, you.

can't play defense these days in college football," Spurrier said. SOCCER 2nd-half rally affords some consolation yo Who's Paying Top Dollar and Providing Top Benefits? 1 lr Only Air Hatml $189.95 Vegas $215.95 $249.95 Cancun $249.95 $219.95 Vallarta $329.95 $329.95 Jamaica $459.95 $359.95 Ixtapa $459.95 $359.95 Dom. Rep. $529.95 LowMtAvalkabl Tw Own Sunday 11 The UPS Earn Learn Program How Andrew Bagnato voted in AP poll 17. Wisconsin 1.

Florida State 9. Syracuse is. Purdue 2. Michigan 10. Texas 19.

Mississippi St. 3. Penn State 11. Alabama 20. Brigham Young 4.

Nebraska 12. East Carolina 21. Marshall 5. Florida 13. Virginia Tech 22.

Minnesota 6. Tennessee 14. Georgia 23! Virginia 7. Georgia Tech 15. Kansas State 24.

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D.C. United 2 Pnetd in that predicament Sunday, playing for third place in the CONCACAF Champions Cup before Necaxa of Mexico defeated Alajuela of Costa Rica for the title. Fittingly, the Fire and United played to a 2-2 draw. The game ended in a tie without penalty kicks, sparing the Fire the chance of losing two matches within 72 hours to penalties. One plus was that the Fire rallied with two second-half goals to force the tie.

"This was a tough game to play," Fire forward Frank Klo-pas said. "But when you step on the field you have to be a professional. It was good that we fought back. That is very positive to take into the MLS playoffs." Both teams fielded lineups of second-team players. A.J.

Wood put United on top in the second minute and Antonio Otero made it 2-0 after capitalizing on a mixup between Paul Dougherty and goalkeeper Greg Sutton. The Fire's Ante Razov, who came on the 64th minute, cut it to 2-1 with a well-struck free kick and Jesse Marsch tied the match in the 80th minute. In the championship match, Sergio Vazquez scored the eventual game-winning goal in the 66th minute as Necaxa won 2-1 despite playing a man short. Mil? ADDISON (Army Trail Lombard Roads) Call between 8am and 8pm, Mon-Fri at: 630-628-3737 PALATINE (Hicks Rand Roads) Call between 8am-6pm, Mon-Fri at: 847-705-6025 HODGKINS (South Suburbs 1-55 1-294) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: 1-888-4UPS-JOB, Access Code: 4444 NORTHBROOK (Shermer Willow Roads) $2,000 in College Education Assistance for the Northbrook Sunrise Shift Call between 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri at: 847-480-6714 Rank, team rec pts prv 1. Florida State (64) 5-0 1,744 1 2.

Penn State (5) 5-0 1,672 2 3. Michigan 5-0 1 ,606 4 4. Nebraska 5-0 1,537 6 5. Virginia Tech (1) 4-0 1.427 8 6. Tennessee 3-1 1,346 7 7.

Georgia Tech 3-1 1,294 9 8. Flonda 4-1 1,211 3 9. Kansas State 4-0 1,151 13 10. Georgia 4-0 1,145 10 11. Michigan State 5-0 1,111 14 12.

Alabama 4-1 858 21 13. Texas 3-1 855 5 14. Mississippi State 5-0 851 16 15. Marshall 5-0 692 17 16. East Carolina 5-0 690 19 17.

Purdue 4-1 649 11 18. Syracuse 4-1 586 22 19. Miami 2-2 487 18 20. Wisconsin 3-2 425 21. Ohio State 3-2 313 12 22.

Southern Cal 3-1 281 23. Texas 4-2 218 15 24. Brtgnam Young 3-1 121 25. Minnesota 4-0 102 USA TodayESPN Top 25 First-place votes In parentheses Rank, team rec pts prv 1. Florida State (53) 5-0 1,469 1 2.

Penn State (6) 5-0 1,409 2 3. Michigan 5-0 1,351 4 4. Nebraska 5-0 1 ,308 5 5. Virginia Tech 4-0 1,218 7 6. Tennessee 3-1 1,129 8 7.

Florida 4-1 1,015 3 8. Georgia Tech 3-1 1,012 12 9. Georgia 4-0 1,002 11 10. Kansas State 4-0 983 13 lL Michigan State 5-0 928 14 12. Texas 3-1 775 6 13.

Mississippi State 5-0 771 16 14. Alabama 4-1 605 22 15. Marshall 5-0 561 17 tie. Purdue 4-1 561 10 17. Syracuse 4-1 543 19 18.

East Carolina 5-0 503 2 1 19. Ohio State 3-2 415 9 20. Wisconsin 3-2 313 21. Miami 2-2 308 20 22. Southern Cal 3-1 305 23 23.

Texas 4 2 207 15 24. Brigham Young 3-1 119 25. Mississippi 4-1 69 Others receiving votes: Arkansas 51, Boston College 40, Minnesota 32, Virginia 22, Air Force 19, Missouri 18, Colorado State 16. Oklahoma 16, Stanford 15, Oregon 13, Maryland 10, Wyoming 9, Texas Tech 8, Kentucky 6. Notre Dame 6, Southern Mississippi 6, North Carolina State 3, Wake Forest 3, Arizona 2, Washington 1 Call bur jobline, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: 1-888-4UPS-JOB Access Code: 4444 3E uns GET TO UPS BY PACE! To Hodgkins take any of the following: 390 391 395 397 890 833 To Addison from Aurora take bus 536 To Northbrook take bus 212 To Palatine from Elgin take bus 556 Others receiving votes: Mississippi 95, Wyoming 48, Oklahoma 43, Air Force 30, Pittsburgh 21, Arkansas 19, Boston College 17.

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