Bears 51, Titans 20
NASHVILLE -- Winning doesn't get any easier than this.
Setting a new franchise record for points scored in the first quarter, the Chicago Bears surged to a 28-2 lead and breezed to a 51-20 victory Sunday over struggling Tennessee.
In improving to 7-1 and maintaining a 1 1/2-game lead in the NFC North, the Bears became the first team in NFL history to score on a blocked punt, touchdown run, interception return and touchdown pass in the same quarter.
The onslaught started when Sherrick McManis raced around the right side of a bad protection scheme to smother Brett Kern's punt. Corey Wootton picked up the bouncing ball at the 5 and rumbled into the end zone at the 6:44 mark.
After the Titans got two points back because left tackle J'Marcus Webb was flagged for hands to the face in the end zone, Chicago scored three touchdowns in a two-minute, seven-second span.
Devin Hester's 44-yard punt return to the Tennessee 8 set up Matt Forte's scoring run on the next play with 3:40 remaining. Two plays into the Titans' next possession, Brian Urlacher picked off Matt Hasselbeck's pass over the middle, eluded the quarterback's tackle attempt and lumbered 46 yards for a 21-2 lead.
On its first play after Urlacher's score, Tennessee gave it up again. Cornerback Charles Tillman stripped Chris Johnson -- the first of four fumbles Tillman forced -- and Chris Conte recovered at the Titans' 16.
Three plays later, Jay Cutler cashed it in with the first of three scoring strikes to Brandon Marshall, making it 28-2 with 1:33 left in the quarter.
It never got closer than 31-12 after that and a large crowd of Bears fans went wild when Cutler zinged a 5-yard touchdown pass to Marshall with 10:20 remaining in the game, pushing Chicago over the half-hundred mark.
Johnson supplied Tennessee and his fantasy owners with a highlight, peeling off an 80-yard scoring run with 10:09 left in the game. He finished with 141 yards on 16 carries.
Otherwise, it was a disastrous day for the Titans (3-6), which allowed their most points in any game at 13-year old LP Field.
Notes: Urlacher's pick-six was the Bears' seventh of the season, three short of the single-season pro football record set by the 1961 San Diego Chargers of the American Football League. ... Chicago's 10 non-offensive TDs match the total number of TDs Jacksonville's tallied this season ... Titans LG Leroy Harris (knee) was among the inactives and was replaced by veteran Deuce Lutui, seeing his first action of the season.
