Bears' victory looked familiar to Mike Tirico, who called similar Bears game in 2006

In the TV booth at Ford Field before the Rams-Lions game Sunday night, Mike Tirico had a flashback to calling football on Monday nights.

He saw how the Bears rallied to beat the Titans earlier in the day, with touchdowns on special teams and defense and only three field goals on offense. It brought him back to Oct. 16, 2006, when he called a Bears-Cardinals game for ESPN.

“I made that comment to somebody: It felt like the ‘They are who we thought they were’ game, to quote Dennis Green’s famous line,” Tirico said.

In that game, the Bears scored twice on defense and once on special teams — all in the last 16 minutes — to overcome a horrendous offense and rally to win. Tirico was in his first year calling “Monday Night Football,” alongside Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser, and the game still sticks with him.

It also prompted Green, then the Cardinals’ coach, to blow his top and shout his line.

“It always has resonated with me because Dennis Green, God rest his soul, gave us that line in our production meeting on that Saturday,” Tirico said. “He felt those Bears were not who people thought they were. . . . And then I’m watching [Sunday] going, I’ve seen this movie before.”

Chances are he won’t see it again this week when he calls the Bears-Texans game in Houston on “Sunday Night Football” with analyst Cris Collinsworth and reporter Melissa Stark (7:20 p.m., NBC 5, Peacock, 1000-AM). Coverage begins with “Football Night in America” at 6 p.m.

Tirico is looking forward to seeing Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’s growth from Week 1 to Week 2. He’s keenly aware of the franchise’s decadeslong problem filling the position, but he believes the Bears finally have their guy.

“I’ve been going on Chicago radio [ESPN 1000] with my friends Waddle and Silvy for many years and talking about Jay Cutler and who’s the guy,” Tirico said. “It’s just become this anvil on the franchise of finding the right guy. I think they did. I hope it works out because, and I’ve said this many times, the league is so much better when the Bears are good.”

Tirico is back in the swing of calling football after the Olympics dominated his summer. He essentially worked double duty as NBC’s lead studio host, working during live events in the daytime and returning for a repackaged show in prime time. It made for a unique workday on Paris time.

“I would say the days were long, but really the nights were long,” said Tirico, who anchored nearly 100 hours. “We were going pretty much from noon time or so, and most nights we’d be leaving the studio around 5 a.m. To be the prime-time host of the Olympics is a thrill of a lifetime. So I pinch myself and try to make myself as available as possible for everything we need.”

NBC’s coverage was widely praised for its quality and accessibility. NBCUniversal’s platforms drew 30.4 million viewers, an increase of 82% from the Tokyo Games in 2021. The time difference with Paris was much more manageable, and the picturesque city was a main character in the production.

“The Olympics needed a boost,” Tirico said. “I think a lot of things helped. If you had to bullet-point them, it’s the location, the success of team USA and the choices we made in how to present it. We really gave you everything and let you decide what you wanted to watch and when you wanted to watch it. And on top of all of it, fans in the stands. Fans matter so much.”

Tirico took some peeks at NFL news during the Olympics. He checked out the Bears-Texans Hall of Fame Game between segments of the prime-time show to see what the new kickoff looked like. Tirico said when he and the “SNF” crew reconvened in Week 1, it was like they had never left.

“That Ravens-Chiefs game, they went right down the field for opening drives and scored, and we were in midseason form,” he said. “We were just humming along. Love that. It’s like muscle memory. I love our team, and hopefully that comes out on the air that we are seamless-sounding in times when it matters.”

Tirico isn’t scheduled to call another Bears game this season. But he hopes that changes.

“I want to be cold and miserable in that booth in Chicago in December and January again,” he said. “If any fan base deserves a great quarterback who can lead a franchise, it’s Chicago.”

Remote patrol

WGN-TV morning sports anchor Pat Tomasulo is hosting the 10th anniversary of his “Laugh Your Face Off” comedy fundraiser Sept. 21 at Park West. Proceeds go to research for trigeminal neuralgia, a rare, debilitating facial condition from which his wife, Amy, suffers. Purchase tickets and bid in a silent auction at laughyourfaceoff.org.

† Jac Collinsworth and Michael Robinson will call Central Michigan-Illinois at 11 a.m. Saturday on Peacock. Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson have Notre Dame-Purdue at 2:30 p.m. on CBS. Jason Ross Jr. and Matt Millen will call Eastern Illinois-Northwestern at 6:30 on BTN.

† NFL games scheduled to air Sunday in the Chicago market: 49ers at Vikings, noon, CBS 2 (Kevin Harlan, Trent Green); Colts at Packers, noon, Fox 32 (Joe Davis, Greg Olsen); Bengals at Chiefs, 3:25 p.m., CBS 2 (Jim Nantz, Tony Romo).