With the Bears in Detroit this weekend, we’re going to hop into the Wayback machine here in the Bears Rewind. It’s been a little while since we turned the clock back here, but with the Lions in the hunt for their first playoff berth since 2016, we’re going to kick it back to November 1991, the same year the Lions won their last playoff game.
In this late-November matchup between the Bears and Lions, both teams entered the week looking for a spot in the playoffs on Thanksgiving at the old Pontiac Dome in Detroit.
The Lions and Bears traded punches in the first half with an Eddie Murray field goal and an Erik Kramer touchdown pass (yes, that Erik Kramer), giving the Lions a 10-0 lead after the first quarter. After watching their eventual starting quarterback Erik Kramer throw a touchdown pass against them, the Bears got a pair of field goals from Kevin Butler to trim the Detroit lead to 10-6 at the half.
That Erik Kramer touchdown in the first quarter would be the only touchdown of the game as the Lions picked up two more field goals in the third and fourth quarters and went on to win 16-6 in a turnover-filled contest.
Bears quarterback Jim Harbaugh threw four interceptions, and future Bears quarterback Erik Kramer threw one of his own. Even Barry Sanders had a down game by his standards, rushing for just 62 yards on 19 carries.
The best individual offensive performance of the day came via Chicago’s favorite wide receiver turned radio show host Tom Waddle who caught eight of the passes that Harbaugh didn’t throw to the other team for 85 yards.
Harbaugh finished the game with a dreadful 36.1 passer rating, completing 27-of-47 passes for 244 yards and four interceptions. Kramer wasn’t much better, finishing with a 43.4 passer rating on nine completions in 27 attempts for 108 yards, a touchdown, and an interception.
Check out the game here; you might find the analyst’s voice in this one familiar!