GREEN BAY -- If the Chicago Bears manage to escape the jinx that has struck most of the recent Super Bowl losers, they will know exactly where and when they got away from it.
Lambeau Field. Sunday night.
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The Bears could have been dead and buried, four games behind in the NFC North, with a loss to the Green Bay Packers. Instead, they got a gift victory, 27-20, and no matter how much they wanted to credit their own stick-to-it-iveness, deep down they knew there was much more to it than that.
"We squeaked out. We stole one," said linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer.
He will get no argument on that.
Green Bay lost five turnovers, was penalized 12 times, went into a shell on offense in the second half and squandered time snapping the ball in a two-minute drill at the end of the fourth quarter.
"They don't need any help, but when we helped them out -- put the ball on the ground, make bad decisions, stupid penalties -- you're going to get beat," said Brett Favre, the Packers' quarterback.
The question is whether this will prove to be an aberration in a difficult season or a turning point for a team well aware of the troubles faced by a series of Super Bowl losers. Seattle, in 2006, was the first Super Bowl loser in six years to avoid a losing season the following year.
"When you win a game like this, they're special," said Chicago cornerback Charles Tillman, who forced two fumbles in the first quarter to keep the Bears in the game. "And it creates something. What it creates is energy, enthusiasm. You have to bounce off that. You have to feed off that."
For sure, the Bears needed a spark. They have been bedeviled by injuries, particularly on defense, where they have started four different lineups in five games, and a week ago they changed quarterbacks, benching Rex Grossman for Brian Griese. Until the second half against the Packers, they looked nothing at all like the team that roared to the NFC Championship a year ago -- and then, suddenly, they did.
Trailing 17-7 -- and it should have been much more lopsided -- they tightened up their defense by going exclusively to a two-deep zone, and suddenly Favre couldn't find the room to complete the slant passes he threw with impunity against a mix of man coverage in the first half. They attacked the line of scrimmage and shut down a Green Bay running game, which had been surprisingly effective earlier in the game. And on offense, Griese got into a rhythm, effectively using tight ends Desmond Clark and Greg Olsen.
The winning touchdown was a 34-yard, third-and-2 pass to Clark with 2:05 remaining and the Packers crowding the line, expecting a running play. Clark wasn't even the primary receiver on the play, which was designed for a short pass to the fullback. But he got behind Green Bay's defense, and Griese hit him in stride.
"We didn't play well in the first half. It's as simple as that," said Lovie Smith, the Bears' coach. "We couldn't play the run or the pass. ... The second half was a totally different story."
"I don't think I've ever looked up at the scoreboard and seen 340 yards and a score like that," Hillenmeyer said. "We were lucky to be down by (only) 10. It could have been 28 or 35."
A significant reason it was not was Tillman, back in the lineup after missing a game due to a sprained ankle. Twice, 4 minutes apart in the first quarter, Tillman punched the ball away from Packers rookie receiver James Jones after pass completions, causing two fumbles the Bears recovered -- one inside their own 10-yard line.
Tillman is proficient at the arcane art of forcing fumbles; in fact, Smith said he's the best he ever has seen at that. Teammates say he works at it. "It's not something he just started today," said teammate Nathan Vasher. But don't look for a how-to from Tillman.
"There's no explanation for it," he said.
Chicago also got four gift points from a Green Bay alignment penalty while the Bears' Robbie Gould was kicking a field goal. It gave the Bears a first down, and they wound up with seven points instead of three.
Then, in the third quarter, two more turnovers -- Green Bay had five in the game -- led to 10 more Chicago points. One of those turnovers was a wretched interception thrown by Favre deep in his own territory, a pass he later admitted he should have thrown away.
"It is very important," said Bears' tackle Fred Miller. "Not that we would have given up if we were 1-4, but ... I think it is definitely a jumping off point for the season."
Veteran NFL writer Ira Miller is a regular contributor to NFL.com
