CHICAGO -- They grew accustomed during their shared seasons in Ann Arbor, Mich., to hearing a more familiar football anthem, "Hail to the Victors," after most games.

But as the Chicago rookie tandem of first-round draft choice wide receiver David Terrell and second-rounder tailback Anthony Thomas walked off the field Sunday afternoon, linked not just by their brilliant pasts but also the promising future, the strains of "Fight on, Chicago Bears," were starting to sound pretty good to the pair of former Wolverines stars.

	David Terrell caught three passes for 19 yards and two touchdowns Sunday.

"Yeah, not bad, you know?" said Terrell, whose rough beginning to the game, with two dropped passes in the opening quarter, was overshadowed by the initial two touchdown catches of his young NFL career. "It could grow on you, I guess."

Certainly a cardiac-threatening 37-31 overtime victory against the San Francisco 49ers provided yet the latest opportunity for Terrell and Thomas to grow on Bears offensive coordinator John Shoop. After their contributions on the 67-yard drive that knotted the game at 31-31 with just 26 seconds remaining in regulation, the former Michigan stars might be in full blossom.

The eighth player selected overall in the draft this year, Terrell scored on a 4-yard pass from backup quarterback Shane Matthews to move the Bears to being down 31-29. Thomas, a second-round choice some franchises had rated even lower than that, then bulled over left guard, on a play reviewed by officials, for the tying two-point conversion.

It was, to be sure, a clutch sequence for a 5-1 Bears team that still seems surprised by its own success to this juncture of the 2001 campaign. But in helping to dig the Bears from a hole that at one point stood at 28-9 midway through the third quarter, Thomas and Terrell said they just did what comes naturally to them.

"They pay you to make the plays," said Thomas, who earned his first start at tailback, but whose early-game malaise seemed to mirror that of the entire Chicago offense. "And me and 'DT, we're used to making the big plays with things on the line. As the season goes on, I think we'll both keep coming up big."

For a Chicago offense that rarely attempts to stretch the field, and which doesn't seem to take nearly enough advantage of the vertical dimension its wide receiver corps provides, Terrell and Thomas figure to be significant additions. They could help snap the offense into taking a few more chances, of breaking out of a conservative bent, and of striking for the big play on occasion.

"Let's just say we're happy to have those two young guys," said Dick Jauron, the once embattled head coach who seems to further secure his return for 2002 with each victory.

Nicknamed the "A-Train" for his inside power, Thomas is quicker to the outside than a lot of NFL scouts felt he was this spring. In fact, then-Chicago personnel director Mark Hatley had two players rated much higher on the draft board, Wisconsin wide receiver Chris Chambers and linebacker Kendrell Bell of Georgia, when the Bears were on the clock in the second round.

Neither of those players, however, fit a Bears need. Despite pedestrian 40-yard clockings, Thomas looked to be a potential upgrade over incumbent tailback James Allen. Sunday there were times when Allen, a former practice squad player who rushed for 1,120 yards in 2000, looked like a better fit. He had a 15-yard run and three catches for 23 yards as he helped nudge Chicago to a late second-quarter score.

But at crunch time, with the Bears staging a mind-boggling comeback, it was Thomas who Shoop turned to as a human battering ram. And he crunched his way to 127 yards on 27 carries, a solid performance after his 188-yard outing of a week ago.

	“	We're winners, me and (Thomas), and we're going to keep doing this kind of stuff. Get us the ball and we're going to do a tune on defenses. ”
		— David Terrell on himself and Anthony Thomas

"There are times," said Matthews, "when he doesn't seem like he's getting anywhere. But then (the referees) mark the ball and you're kind of surprised where they spot it. He has a way of just bleeding out the yards."

It was 2 yards that won't show up in the statistics, though, that counted the most on the Thomas resumé Sunday. From a spread formation, Matthews slipped the ball to Thomas on an inside handoff, rather than throwing for the two-point conversion. It was a terrific call and the left side of the Bears line, tackle Blake Brockermeyer and guard Rex Tucker, gave Thomas just enough room to bulldoze into the end zone.

After reviewing the play, referee Dick Hantak correctly ruled that Thomas' knee had hit the turf at the same time he crossed the plane of the goal line.

Ironically, just a minute earlier, Hantak had to review Terrell's touchdown catch to assure he got both feet down inbounds. To Terrell, there was never a question.

"It wasn't even close," said Terrell, who finished with three catches for 19 yards. "I can do that play in my sleep."

There have been some concerns that Terrell, a flashy longstrider who definitely can talk the talk, might be hibernating in his debut season. But last week, with Marcus Robinson sustaining what eventually was diagnosed as a season-ending knee injury, Terrell caught seven passes for 91 yards. While his numbers weren't nearly as good Sunday, his scores -- he also had a 13-yard touchdown catch during Chicago's fourth-quarter rally -- were huge for the Good News Bears.

Jauron and Shoop reiterated last week's promise, that Terrell will become a much larger component in the Chicago offense as the season rolls on, and the time may have come for his role to be expanded. At least Terrell feels that way.

"We're winners, me and (Thomas), and we're going to keep doing this kind of stuff," he said. "Get us the ball and we're going to do a tune on defenses."

On Sunday evening, with the Bears fight song serenading this city's newest heroes, the tune may have been a different one than Thomas and Terrell have learned well. Chances are good, though, that they will hear the new one enough times over the coming years to learn all the words.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.