SportsDirect Inc. staff
Dec 9, 2013
Bears 45, Cowboys 28: Josh McCown passed for 348 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for another score as host Chicago crushed Dallas to bolster its playoff hopes.
Matt Forte rushed for 102 yards - going over 1,000 yards for the fourth time in his career - and caught seven passes for 73 yards and a score for the Bears (7-6), who moved into a tie with Detroit atop the NFC North but lost both head-to-head meetings with the Lions. Brandon Marshall caught six passes for 100 yards and Alshon Jeffery added five catches for 84 yards and a touchdown for Chicago.
DeMarco Murray gashed the Bears' league-worst run defense for 146 yards on 18 carries but the Cowboys (7-6) couldn't produce a passing game to complement him. Tony Romo threw three touchdown passes but finished 11-of-20 for just 104 yards while dropping to 11-16 as a starter in December, and Dallas fell a game behind Philadelphia in the NFC East.
The Bears rolled up 490 total yards and produced points on their first eight offensive series before kneeling to run out the clock on their final possession. The offenses traded early punches with McCown's 4-yard scoring toss to Earl Bennett and 7-yard touchdown scramble sandwiched between Romo's touchdown passes to Dez Bryant and Jason Witten.
Chicago's defense produced a couple crucial stops while the offense kept rolling as Jeffery's acrobatic 25-yard TD catch gave the Bears a 24-14 halftime lead and McCown hit Forte and Michael Bush out of the backfield for touchdowns to extend it to 42-14. McCown finished 27-of-36 with a career-best 141.9 rating and has thrown 13 touchdowns passes and one interception this season.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Bears K Robbie Gould (1,010) made three field goals and four extra points to become the 52nd player in NFL history to score 1,000 points. … Marshall and Jeffery are the second Bears duo to each go over 1,000 yards receiving in the same season, joining Curtis Conway and Jeff Graham in 1995. … The Bears are the third team this season to play an entire game without punting, and two of those games have come against the Cowboys.