The 10 Most Shocking Chicago Bears Single-Game Performances Ever

#10:  Harlon Hill catches 4 TDs passes vs. 49ers (1954)

The greatest Chicago Bears single-game performances starts old school. For a couple years there was no wide receiver in football better than Harlon Hill. He was a small town boy with a world of athletic ability that showcased it as a rookie in 1954. Defenses hadn't seen somebody like him before. He averaged a whopping 25 yards per catch that season. Their inability to stop was never clearer than on Halloween when he torched the San Francisco 49ers for 214 yards and four touchdowns. At the time he was just the sixth man in NFL history to accomplish that feat. Nobody would duplicate again for another nine years when a young tight end name Mike Ditka pulled it off.

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#9:  Brian Urlacher makes 19 tackles vs. Cardinals (2006)

 Every great player needs that signature game that puts them into the annals of NFL lore. For superstar middle linebacker Brian Urlacher that day came on a Monday Night in October of 2006. His Bears faced a daunting 23-3 halftime deficit against the Arizona Cardinals. Rather than pack it in and move to next week, Urlacher went insane instead. He was quite literally all over the field during that second half. According to official NFL.com records he posted 19 tackles that night, though some legends say it was 25. He also posted the forced fumble that led to a touchdown, cutting the lead to 23-17, and fueling the eventual kill shot a few minutes later by Devin Hester.

#8:  Richard Dent has 4.5 sacks vs. Raiders (1984)

During his Hall of Fame career, defensive end Richard Dent really seemed to delight in torturing the Los Angeles Raiders. Why? Impossible to know for sure. Apparently he just didn't like them. In five total games playing them, he produced 10 sacks. Two times he produced 4.5 sacks in a single performance. Twice. That is mental. Either could've made the list but the far more enjoyable one to watch was the 1984 version. Partly because it was involved with a total team effort of nine sacks on Raiders quarterbacks in a 17-6 victory. It was the latest and biggest sign of what the Bears defense was becoming in the mid-1980s.

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#7:  Alshon Jeffery posts 249 yards receiving vs. Vikings (2013)

It's games like this that made losing Alshon Jeffery to free agency so hard to stomach for the Bears. There were times where he could take over games almost out of nowhere and this was his pièce de résistance. Understand the backdrop of this. Chicago was on the road in a hostile stadium. They also had a backup in Josh McCown at quarterback. None of it mattered. Jeffery ran up and down the field against the Vikings for 249 yards. Considering the fact Jeffery was in just his second year, that only enhances the prestige of this game.

#6:  Bobby Douglass rushes for 4 TDs vs. Packers (1973)

He always a bit of an odd duck. So it shouldn't have been a surprise that quarterback Bobby Douglass would produce some odd games. Despite having one of the strongest arms ever in the NFL, he set records in the early 1970s for his rushing ability. Most remember his 1972 season when he fell just 14 shy of 1,000 yards. That makes it easy to forget his almost as impressive 1973 encore, which featured 525 yards for the season. Not to mention this slicing and dicing of the rival Packers with four touchdown runs. It was the high point of the year for the Bears, resulting in their third and final win of the season.

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#5:  Devin Hester scores 2 kick return TDs vs. Rams (2006)

 He's the greatest return man in NFL history. That's not the opinion of a casual fan. That's just simple fact. Devin Hester holds all the records and is responsible for some of the most incredible and exciting highlights Bears fans will ever see. There were many memorable games he had during his time in Chicago. Most ridiculous among them though had to be this gem in his rookie season of 2006. By this point people knew about him, having seen his big return seven weeks prior to cap the comeback over Arizona. However, it was posting two kick return touchdowns on the road in St. Louis that launched him into the stratosphere.

In fact this was the game where Bears play-by-play announcer Jeff Joniak famously started calling him "ridiculous."

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#4:  Walter Payton rushes for 275 yards vs. Vikings (1977)

They didn't call him "Sweetness" because it sounded cool. It was quite simply what Walter Payton was. The relentless, never-say-die style he played with on every single play endeared him to millions of football fans. Even ones who never actually got to see him play. Maybe it's because of games like this. In 1977 Payton and the Bears were embarking on their first playoff push since 1963. A win over Minnesota at Soldier Field was critical to that. The running back, despite having the flu, responded with a then-record 275 rushing yards. A mark that stood for 23 years. That was the day Payton transformed from a good football player into Superman.

#3:  Sid Luckman throws 7 TD passes vs. Dodgers (1943)

To date in NFL history there have been eight quarterbacks to record seven touchdown passes in a single game. Three men alone have done it since 2013. However, Sid Luckman did it 11 years before anybody else. That should put perspective on just how special the performance was when he threw seven touchdowns against the Brooklyn Dodgers (eventually became the Indianapolis Colts). What made it all the more shocking was he did it at the height of World War II when many of the Bears' best players had been absorbed by the armed forces to fight against Germany and Japan.

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#2:  Charles Tillman forces 4 fumbles vs. Titans (2012)

Charles Tillman, or the artist formerly known as "Peanut", was always known for being able to force fumbles with his trademark punching style. However it was this day in November of 2012 that he painted his masterpiece. It didn't seem to matter what Tennessee Titans offensive players tried to do. If they ever got near Tillman, he was knocking the ball out of their hands. By the time he was done he'd done it four times. Never mind the fact that it's likely still an NFL record. That he did it as a cornerback, of all positions? That makes it truly special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTRv-CfAsMU

#1:  Gale Sayers scores 6 TDs vs. 49ers (1965)

To this day football historians are trying to make sense of this game. If ever there was a singular performance that gave birth to a legend, it was that day at Wrigley Field. Rookie running back Gale Sayers, battling rain-soaked conditions and a fairly decent San Francisco 49ers team, proceeded to put on the single greatest individual game in NFL history. It didn't matter what anybody did. Every time Sayers touched the football he was a threat to score. That's proven by the fact he scored four of the six touchdowns rushing, one receiving and one on a punt return. Mike Ditka famously said years later, "Everybody was playing on a muddy field except him."