As the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots prepare to clash in Super Bowl XLIX, it only seems fitting that The St. Louis American’s first installment of “A Look Back” focus on, what may very well be, the greatest Super Bowl champion in the game’s storied history, the 1985 Chicago Bears.
Recently, defensive comparisons have been bandied about matching the current Seattle Seahawks defense with some of the great teams of the past including, Ray Lewis’ 2000 Baltimore Ravens, Lawrence Taylor’s 1986 New York Giants and the aforementioned 1985 Chicago Bears led by Hall of Famer Mike Singletary.
Granted, the Seahawks “D” is quite good, however, it doesn’t belong in the same conversation with the great defenses of the past. At the top of that list sits none other than the 1985 Bears with their vaunted 4-6 defense – the brainchild of defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan.
Three members from that great defense are enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame, Singletary, Dan Hampton and Richard Dent and since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule, the ‘85 and ‘86 Bears are the only teams to record back-to-back seasons allowing fewer than 200 points (198 in 1985 and 187 in 1986).
The Bears finished the ‘85 regular season at 15-1 winning the NFC’s Central Division by a whopping seven games over the second-place Green Bay Packers. They then preceded to become the first team in NFL history to record back-to-back shutouts in the post-season winning 21-0 over the New York Giants and 24-0 in the NFC championship over the Los Angeles Rams.
That set the stage for Super Bowl XX in which the Bears dismantled the overmatched New England Patriots 46-10. However, the score was 44-3 when Head Coach Mike Ditka called off the dogs and pulled his first-team defense.
Excluding the last touchdown in the Super Bowl off the Bears second-team defense, the aggregate score of that post-season had the Bears outscoring its opponents 91-3. That’s about as one-sided as it gets and that is why the 1985 Chicago Bears are the greatest defensive team in NFL history.
