# 1970 Chicago Bears 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 draft Terry Bradshaw), the Bears traded the 2nd pick to the Green Bay Packers for Lee Roy Caffey, Elijah Pitts, and Bob Hyland.

## Offseason

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

### NFL Draft

1970 Chicago Bears draft :
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | College |
| 3 | 58 | George Farmer | Wide receiver | UCLA |
| 4 | 79 | Lynn Larson | Tackle | Kansas State |
| 4 | 100 | Ross Brupbacher | Linebacker | Texas A&M |
| 6 | 133 | Bob Cutburth | Quarterback | Oklahoma State |
| 6 | 139 | Jeff Curchin | Tackle | Florida State |
| 8 | 183 | Dana Stephenson | Defensive back | Nebraska |
| 9 | 210 | Linzy Cole | Wide receiver | TCU |
| 10 | 235 | Glen Holloway | Guard | North Texas State |
| 11 | 262 | Ted Rose | Tight end | Northern Michigan |
| 12 | 287 | Butch Davis | Defensive back | Missouri |
| 13 | 314 | Jimmy Gunn | Defensive back | USC |
| 14 | 339 | Jim Morgan | Wide receiver | Henderson State |
| 15 | 366 | Phil Abraira | Defensive back | Florida State |
| 16 | 391 | Robert Helterbran | Guard | North Texas State |
| 17 | 418 | Joe Brunson | Defensive tackle | Furman |
| Made roster ||||||

## 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 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

| Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Record | Venue | Attendance |
| 1 | September 19 | 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 | October 5 | 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 | December 5 | 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

| 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, 71 °F (22 °C)
* 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 |

#### Week 7

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| • Bears | 10 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 23 |
| Falcons | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 14 |

#### Week 10

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Bills | 6 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 13 |
| • Bears | 0 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 31 |

#### Week 13

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Packers | 3 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 17 |
| • Bears | 14 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 35 |

#### Week 14

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| • Bears | 0 | 7 | 3 | 14 | 24 |
| Saints | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
* Jack Concannon 26/50, 280 Yds
* Dick Gordon 9 Rec, 119 Yds

### Standings

NFC Central :
| viewtalkedit | W | L | T | PCT | DIV | CONF | PF | PA | STK |
| Minnesota Vikings | 12 | 2 | 0 | .857 | 5–1 | 10–1 | 335 | 143 | W3 |
| Detroit Lions | 10 | 4 | 0 | .714 | 4–2 | 7–4 | 347 | 202 | W5 |
| Green Bay Packers | 6 | 8 | 0 | .429 | 2–4 | 4–7 | 196 | 293 | L2 |
| Chicago Bears | 6 | 8 | 0 | .429 | 1–5 | 5–6 | 256 | 261 | W2 |
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.