1970 Chicago Bears season

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox NFL team season The 1970 Chicago Bears season was their 51st regular season completed in the National Football League. The team finished with a 6–8 record, a significant improvement over the 1–13 record of the previous season, the worst in franchise history.

After losing the coin flip for the number one pick in the 1970 NFL draft (which Pittsburgh used to select quarterback Terry Bradshaw), the Bears traded the second pick to the Green Bay Packers for linebacker Lee Roy Caffey, running back Elijah Pitts, and center Bob Hyland.

Offseason

• June 16, 1970 – After a seven-month battle with cancer, running back Brian Piccolo died at age 26.

Regular season

As an experiment, the Bears hosted their first home game of the season at Northwestern University's Dyche Stadium in Evanston. The Bears' Wrigley Field landlord, the Chicago Cubs, were in a pennant race and might play in the National League Championship Series and World Series, and that Wrigley Field would be unavailable (at least for installation of temporary seating in right and center field) until well into October. (The Cubs were in contention in the National League East until the final week of the 1970 season, thus rendering the anticipation moot.)

In addition, the NFL was pressuring the Bears to move out of Wrigley Field, because it had no lights (installed in 1988) and its seating capacity was under 50,000 (even with additional seating in right field for football games), stipulations of the AFL–NFL merger agreement. The Bears planned to move to Evanston for the 1971 season, but Evanston residents petitioned city officials to block the move, and the Big Ten Conference ultimately barred the Bears from using Dyche Stadium; the Bears moved to Chicago's Soldier Field.

Schedule

style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Week	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Date	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Opponent	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Result	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Record	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Venue	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Attendance
1	Template:Dow tooltip	at New York Giants	W 24–16	1–0	Yankee Stadium	62,936
2	September 27	Philadelphia Eagles	W 20–16	2–0	Dyche Stadium	53,463
3	Template:Dow tooltip	at Detroit Lions	L 14–28	2–1	Tiger Stadium	58,210
4	October 11	Minnesota Vikings	L 0–24	2–2	Wrigley Field	45,485
5	October 18	San Diego Chargers	L 7–20	2–3	Wrigley Field	45,278
6	October 25	Detroit Lions	L 10–16	2–4	Wrigley Field	45,632
7	November 1	at Atlanta Falcons	W 23–14	3–4	Atlanta Stadium	58,850
8	November 8	San Francisco 49ers	L 16–37	3–5	Wrigley Field	45,607
9	November 15	at Green Bay Packers	L 19–20	3–6	Lambeau Field	56,263
10	November 22	Buffalo Bills	W 31–13	4–6	Wrigley Field	41,015
11	November 29	at Baltimore Colts	L 20–21	4–7	Memorial Stadium	60,240
12	Template:Dow tooltip	at Minnesota Vikings	L 13–16	4–8	Metropolitan Stadium	47,900
13	December 13	Green Bay Packers	W 35–17	5–8	Wrigley Field	44,957
14	December 20	at New Orleans Saints	W 24–3	6–8	Tulane Stadium	63,518
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Season summary

Week 1 at Giants

Week One: Chicago Bears (0–0) at New York Giants (0–0)

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	7	3	7	7	24
Giants	10	3	0	3	16

at Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

• Date: September 19
• Game time: 8:00 p.m. EDT
• Game weather: Clear,
• Referee: Fred Silva
• TV announcers (WBBM): Brent Musburger and Jerry Kramer
• Box Score

Game information

First quarter NYG – Pete Gogolak 25-yard field goal. Giants 3–0. CHI – Cecil Turner 95-yard kickoff return (Mac Percival kick). Bears 7–3. NYG – Ron Johnson 12-yard pass from Fran Tarkenton (Pete Gogolak kick). Giants 10–7. Second quarter NYG – Pete Gogolak 20-yard field goal. Giants 13–7. CHI – Mac Percival 28-yard field goal. Giants 13–10. Third quarter CHI – Jack Concannon 1-yard run (Mac Percival kick). Bears 17–13. Fourth quarter NYG – Pete Gogolak 45-yard field goal. Bears 17–16. CHI – Dick Gordon 19-yard pass from Jack Concannon (Mac Percival kick). Bears 24–16. Top passers CHI – Jack Concannon – 15/29, 148 yards, TD, INT NYG – Fran Tarkenton – 23/39, 277 yards, TD, 2 INT Top rushers CHI – Gale Sayers – 17 rushes, 43 yards NYG – Ron Johnson – 13 rushes, 24 yards, TD Top receivers CHI – Bob Wallace – 6 receptions, 82 yards NYG – Ron Johnson – 8 receptions, 85 yards, TD

Week 2

1 2 3 4 Total Eagles 6 3 0 7 16 • Bears 7 10 0 3 20 Date: September 27 Location: Dyche Stadium • Evanston, Illinois Game start: 1:00 p.m. CST Game weather: • Wind Referee: Fred Swearingen TV announcers (CBS): Jack Whitaker and Tom Brookshier Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry

Week 7

1 2 3 4 Total • Bears 10 3 7 3 23 Falcons 0 7 7 0 14 Date: November 1 Location: Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta Game start: 1:00 p.m. Game weather: ; wind Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry

Week 10

1 2 3 4 Total Bills 6 0 0 7 13 • Bears 0 14 7 10 31 Date: November 22 Location: Wrigley Field • Chicago Game start: 1:00 p.m. CST Game weather: • Wind Referee: John McDonough Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry

Week 13

Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears

1 2 3 4 Total Packers 3 0 0 14 17 • Bears 14 7 7 7 35 Date: Sunday, December 13 Location: Wrigley Field, Chicago Game start: 1:00 p.m. CST Game weather: , wind Referee: Fred Silva Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry

Week 14

1 2 3 4 Total • Bears 0 7 3 14 24 Saints 0 3 0 0 3 Date: December 20 Location: Tulane Stadium, New Orleans Game start: 1:00 p.m. CST Game weather: ; wind Referee: Jack Reader TV announcers (CBS): Jack Drees and Eddie LeBaron Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry Template:AFB Game Box Scoring Entry

• Jack Concannon 26/50, 280 Yds
• Dick Gordon 9 Rec, 119 Yds