Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 14

4B PACKERS 14, BEARS 13 Wisconsin State Journal, Monday, November 6, 1989 Majkowski calm, confident with game on line By Tom Oates Assistant sports editor GREEN BAY He was facing a fourth-and-goal at the 14 with the game on the line, but Don Majkowski had seen it all before. Several times. This season. So the Green Bay Packers quarterback did what he does best, scrambling to buy time before firing a bullet to Sterling Sharpe in the end zone with 32 seconds left. After a 5-minute delay while the instant-replay official determined whether Majkowski had crossed the line of scrimmage before he threw, the score stood, giving the Packers a 14-13 victory over the Chicago Bears.

Majkowski said the Packers' many comebacks this season prepared him for the moment. "I think it definitely helped us," he said. "You have to find a way to come out and win the close ballgames. We didn't do that earlier during the year a couple of times, and we did it a couple of times earlier during the year. "Today was just another routine win." That last line was delivered with a chuckle, which is about as much emotion as the unflappable Majkowski ever shows.

But Majkowski was as talkative as he's ever been Sunday after making perhaps the biggest play of his three-year National Football League career. The play completed the Packers' third drive into scoring position in the final period. On the first play of the quarter, Majkowski's fumble on a first down at the 20 was recovered by Bears linebacker Ron Rivera. The Packers drove to the 12 on their next series, but Majkowski's errant pass, which was aimed for Sharpe but was closer to guard Ron Hallstrom, was picked off by Rivera. Two drives, two mistakes, no points.

Majkowski was used to that situation, too. "I've been in that position this year a couple of times," he said. "I've been in a position where I've thrown some interceptions, but I'm not a guy to get down. I think people are realizing that by now. "I'm not one to dwell on (a mistake) and kick the dirt and pout.

I want to get back in there and prove myself better the next time and redeem myself. It gets me really angry when I do something not up to my standards, like the interceptions and so forth. I think I'm just a competitor, like a lot of the guys on this team." However, the supremely confident Majkowski clearly is the ringleader on a football team that, if it has proved nothing else, has demonstrated an ability to bounce back from almost anything. On the touchdown, Majkowski was given a play by Coach Lindy Infante that anticipated the Bears playing man-to-man coverage. Instead, they were in a zone.

Seeing his initial option cut off, Majkowski scrambled to the right, away from the rush. As he neared the sideline (and the line of scrimmage), he spotted Sharpe angling across the field from the back side, about 3 yards deep in the end zone. He fired the ball into the midsection of the wide-open Sharpe. "(That) was not the way it was designed," Infante said. "We had a pattern that, quite frankly, was not a great call based on the coverage they played.

"When you've got an athletic quarterback like Don, he's got to make some great plays for you, and he did." Like his quarterback, Infante was not deterred by Rivera's interception. "I said, 'Don, you mark my word. You're going to be the hero before the game is Infante said. "I guess I turned out to be a little bit of a prophet." After big TD catch, Sharpe takes role of low-key hero PACKERS NOTES i ft 1 if 'r-ifx -ftsv tf By John Aehl and Tom Oates Sports reporters GREEN BAY For a guy who just won a game by catching a controversial touchdown pass, Sterling Sharpe was remarkably low-key afterward. "We played terribly on offense today, did a lot of things we weren't accustomed to doing," the second-year wide receiver said after the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears, 14-13, on Sharpe's 14-yard touchdown catch.

It was the 47th catch, seventh touchdown reception and second game-winner of the season for Sharpe, who has emerged as the Packers' big-play man on offense. He caught a 3-yard pass to beat New Orleans, 35-34, in the second game of the National Football League season. "You just don't think about it when it's coming," Sharpe said of the game-winning reception. "You just catch it. I knew I was in the end zone, so I wasn't going to try anything pretty.

It was a pass you dry years, so many dry games against the Bears. "Hopefully, this one will relieve all those Packer fans living out there in Bear country that I get mail from saying how terrible it is to be out there when they don't have anything to cheer about." Packers injuries: Safety Mark Murphy suffered a mild concussion on a hard tackle in the first quarter and did not play the rest of the game. Fullback Brent Fullwood and linebacker Mike Weddington suffered hamstring injuries. Fullwood said he thought he will be ready to play next Sunday. Sack man returns: Packers linebacker Tim Harris had two sacks, raising his season total to 9Vi, and hurried Harbaugh into bad passes at least five times.

"I had a good time playing," said Harris, who is noted for talking to opponents. "And I didn't talk that much out there. The fans were loud and the team liked that." could handle. Don (Majkowski) threw it in my midsection and I just looked it in." Sharpe, who had two catches for 19 yards in the game, indirectly brought up the possibility of Green Bay getting into the playoffs. "(The victory) means a lot in terms of our division," he said.

"We don't want somebody else picking and choosing where we're going to be in late December or early January (playoff time)." For the fans: "This one is for the fans as well as the football team," Packers Coach Lindy Infante said after the game. "(It) means an awful lot to me, but I think it means an awful lot more to our fans, who have suffered down through the years. Certainly it has great meaning for all of us in the organization, but I think more than me, individually, the fans out there deserve this one because they've hung in there for so many State Journal photo SCOTT SEID Bears' Steve McMichael (76) and Trace Armstrong combine on a sack of Packers' Don Majkowski in third quarter. Packers overcome mistakes to end drought against Bears STRQNG'AS'S TEBU i I i SAVE NOW ON KELLY l3 STEEL-BELTED RADIALS! Continued from IB sideline, buying time, hesitated, then threw across his body as he was- running slightly forward at about the 15-yard line and the ball hit dead into the midsection of wide receiver Sterling Sharpe in the end zone. A broken play, a touchdown, and pandemonium.

The stadium rocked. But wait. A yellow flag on the turf, and a hush as referee Tom Dooley signaled that Majkowski had made an illegal pass by running past the line of scrimmage. The penalty is 5 yards and loss of down, meaning the Bears would have the ball. From the height of elation, Packers fans and players plummeted to the depths of despair.

But wait. And wait. And wait. Not-so-instant replay was at work, and more than 56,000 fans waited about 5 minutes as the videotape was reviewed. Finally, after getting the ruling from replay official Bill Parkinson, Dooley spoke: "After further review, we have a reversal.

Touch- down." And after the crowd had quieted to merely unbearably noisy, Chris Jacke kicked the extra point to win the game: Oh, sure, there were still 32 seconds left, and the Bears managed five plays, but nothing came of them. "It was the kind of football game I really expected it to be," Bears Coach Mike Ditka said. "It was going to be close. It was going to come right down to the end. They won this one and we didn't.

More credit to them." And the Packers and Bears are tied with 5-4 records, a game behind Minnesota in the Central Division of the National Football Conference. The Packers ended an eight-game losing streak to the Bears, the longest in the history of the series, which the Bears still lead, 76-56, with six ties. "We had many opportunities to say we couldn't do it," Infante said, referring to several mistakes the Packers made in the fourth quarter. "But we had the opportunity to say we could do it, and we did." The explosiveness of the Packers' offense was again demonstrated in the second half, when three times the Packers moved swiftly downfield, only to be turned away the first two times by Majkowski's mistakes. The third time, of course, was the charm.

Starting at his 27, Majkowski passed on 12 of the 14 plays in the drive. The Packers got lucky twice. On the third play of the drive, a deflected pass came down in the hands of Chicago's Steve McMichael, but was taken away by Green Bay's Ed West at the line of scrimmage. And when the Packers got to the Chicago 7, first down with 1:26 left, Majkowski fumbled and the ball lay on the ground an agonizing couple of seconds before it was recovered by Green Bay center Blair Bush. Then came the biggest play of the season, at least so far.

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Key plays Bears' Richard Dent penalized 15 yards for roughing the passer on first play; Majkowski scrambled around left end for 14 yards on third-and-8. Packers 7, Bears 0. Bears: Field goal Kevin Butler kicked a 25-yarder with 3:32 left. Drive 13 plays, 60 yards, 7:58. Key plays Tiger Greene penalized 5 yards for pass-interference penalty on third-and-6; Nea) Anderson ran 18 yards on draw play on third-and-9.

Packers 7, Bears 3. Third quarter Bears: FG Butler kicked a 37-yarder with 9:32 left. Dnve 5 plays. 15 yards, :56. Key plays Don Bracken's low, 37-yard punt returned 9 yards by Dennis McKinnon to Packers 34.

Robert Brown penalized 15 yards for blow to Jim Harbaugh's head after 5-yard run. Packers 7, Bears 6. Bears: TD Brad Muster ran 2 yards up middle. PAT Butler, kick with 3:03 left. Drive 8 plays, 80 yards.

5:17. Key plays Harbaugh passed 22 yards to James Thornton and 46 yards to Dennis Gentry on successive plays. Bears 13, Packers 7. Fourth quarter Packers: TD Majkowski passed 14 yards to Sterling Sharpe. PAT Jacke, kick with :32 left.

Drive 14 plays. 73 yards. 412. Key plays Majkowski completed 6 of 12 passes, including 26-yarder to Perry Kemp and 1 7-yarder to Ed West. Vmce Workman gained 3 yards on fourth-and-1 at the Chicago 10.

Packers 14, Bears 13. Div 4-1-0 2-3-0 2-2-0 2-3-0 2-3-0 2- 2-0 3- 0-0 1-1-0 1- 4-0 4- 0-0 2- 3-0 3- 3-0 3-3-0 1-4-0 Cleveland Cincinnati Houston Pittsburgh Central .667 233 143 .556 211 168 .556 246 229 .444 123 220 West .778 218 140 .556 206 155 .444 174 192 .444 153 175 .333 152 173 4- 1-0 3-2-0 3- 1-0 2- 2-0 5- 1-0 4- 1-0 3- 1-0 1- 3-0 2- 3-0 2-2-0 2-2-0 2-3-0 2-3-0 2- 1-0 1-3-0 1-4-0 3- 2-0 1-3-0 4-3-0 4-3-0 3- 3-0 2- 5-0 7-1-0 4- 3-0 3- 5-0 4- 3-0 1-5-0 2-0-0 1- 1-0 2- 1-0 2-0-0 0- 1-0 1- 1-0 1- 0-0 0-2-0 2- 1-0 Denver Los Angeles Raiders Konsos City Seattle San Diego Gary's Service 1302 Center Ave. 897-4030 Wayne's Amoco 331 High St 987-2710 Seversln's 76 East 3074 E. Washington 241-3934 i asm Sunday's results Green Bay 14, Chicago 13 Atlanta 30. Buffalo 28 Cleveland 42, Tampa Bay 31 Houston 35.

Detroit 31 Miami 19, Indianapolis 13 Minnesota 23, LA. Rams 21 (ot) Y. Jets 27, New England 26 Kansas City 20, Seattle 10 L.A. Raiders 28. Cincinnati 7 New York Giants 20.

Phoenix 13 San Diego 20, Philadelphia 17 Denver 34. Pittsburgh 7 Dallas 13. Washington 3 Tonight's game New Orleans at San 8 p.m. Next Sunday's games Green Bay at Detroit, noon Chicago at Pittsburgh, noon Denver at Kansas City, noon Indianapolis at Buffalo, noon Miami at New York Jets, noon Minnesota at Tampa Bay, noon New Orleans at New noon Washington at Philadelphia, noon Atlanta at San Francisco, 3 p.m. Cleveland at Seattle, 3 p.m.

Dallas at Phoenix. 3 p.m. N.Y. Giants at L.A. Rams, 3 p.m.

L.A. Raiders at San Diego. 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 13 Cincinnati at Houston.

8 p.m. Maple Grove Auto Gary WllleAuto Service 704 N. Main 835-7339 Pomp's Tire 2301 Kilgust 222-6763 Hwy23 297-2677 I Polnow's Amoco 311 W.Conant 724-6050 Denny's Shell 277 W. Main 873-3566.