I don't know if I've ever seen a list of the greatest teams in NFL history that didn't have the 85 Bears number one. I don't think I've seen a list of the greatest teams in any sport that didn't have them in the top 3. So why did they only win 1 Super Bowl?
I don't have much first-hand memories of many players from that team. I do remember the later careers of those that played into the early 90s with the team (Singletary, Dent, Hampton, McMichael, Butler, various offensive linemen.) I know we got it done with one of the best defenses ever to play football, and Walter Payton. My understanding was that our passing attack was competent but not relied on, and I know from playing sporcle quizzes that the Bears' leader in 300 yard passing performances is someone named Billy Wade with 9, so McMahon couldn't have been asked to air it out too much. Also, I know that the biggest excuse given for the 86 Bears is McMahon being injured, which is a little confusing to me. Was McMahon critical to this team's success or not?
My first stop was here. This site has season synopsis for pretty much every season since '79, and recaps of each decade before. I'm not going to spend a lot of time recapping what happened each season, you can go there and read it if interested.
I started with '84, not knowing that McMahon was injured for the last 6 games of that season as well. The short version of '84 is this: the defense was already there (1st overall), the Bears led the league in rushing yards, but were 26th in passing yards. The Bears won their first playoff game over the Redskins, but without McMahon they couldn't make the 49ers pay for stacking the box against Payton, and Montana vs. Steve Fuller wasn't a matchup we were going to win.
So '84 is off the hook. They were a good young team that couldn't afford to be at less than full strength against Montana and co. Let's look at '86.
So, a little like '84, it looks like the Bears were rolling along until McMahon was out for the year with an injury, and they couldn't win in the playoffs without him. The season recap calls the hit that ended McMahon's season that year as a cheap shot, but I'd never seen it before, so I looked it up on YouTube.
Ho. Ly. Shit. What do you think Roger Goodell would do to Charles Martin if that hit happened today? I'm thinking he goes straight to public execution, forget suspensions and fines. I first thought I was watching the wrong clip, since when you watch that in real time, McMahon gets the pass off and takes a few steps off screen. Martin is following him, but it's clear he'll have time to stop. Before I saw the replay, I figured Martin must have just taken another step and launched himself at McMahon, which would still be a late hit even by 1986 standards, but would at least be understandable.
But no, this guy takes about 4 more steps before even putting a hand on McMahon, and even looks upfield and sees the play is over before tackling him. The announcers say it must be 1-2 seconds before he got hit, but when they showed it in real time, I timed it from when the ball left McMahon's hand and when the tackle started. I got 3.2 seconds. The only modern comparison I can think of for this play is Albert Haynesworth's face stomp. Just no way to even make the justification that you were trying to make a football play, you were just straight-up trying to hurt the guy. Haynesworth was suspended for 5 games. Martin was suspended for 2. If James Harrison did something like that to Tom Brady today, he would probably be banned from football, and Goodell might just put out a contract on him.
Sorry for the rant, it's just shocking how different the NFL was back then (Whenever there's a bunch of hand-wringing about how coddled athletes are today, remember that play.) But the strength of the Bears wasn't the passing game. They still had the best defense in the league and the best running back ever. Couldn't Doug Flutie quarterback them to victory against the Redskins?
I looked at the box score (after searching for play-by-play to no avail.) The three numbers that immediately jumped out at me were the 4 turnovers for the Bears, only 14 rushing attempts for Payton, and the Redskins rushing for 138 yards.
Someone was nice enough to upload video of all the Flutie pass attempts (or scrambles). Flutie only had 2 interceptions, but it could have been a lot more. It seemed that every throw that came out of his hand besides the TD to Willie Gault was wobbly or inaccurate. I have to say, though, he was not given a lot of time, either. I always thought of the Bears O-line as a strength, but the video seems to say otherwise. I was also looking to see if there were a lot of 8-man boxes, which would explain the lack of rushing attempts for Walter, but I wasn't seeing it. It really seems like he could have got the ball more.
Even though I couldn't see any of the defensive plays, I feel like they've got to take a lot of the fall for this one. The Redskins scored 27 points, then were shut out by the Giants the next week in the NFC Championship Game. They came into the game ranked 17th in the league in rushing, but gained 138 yards on the ground. Not having McMahon can't explain that one.
I came into this article expecting to come to the conclusion that McMahon was a little overrated. Looks like the opposite might be true, they really needed McMahon to keep the pressure off Payton. And the defense, for whatever reason, clearly didn't show up in the playoffs.
Payton retired after '87, and the window was pretty much closed. There was just no way to compete with the 49ers after that, and the Bears became a good-but-not-great team. So who's to blame? I feel like I have to take a shot at God here, but it looks like Ditka. Why the strange run-to-pass ratio? Why didn't the defense show up? This is the softest speculation possible, considering I wasn't able to watch the actual game, but if this was the case in 2010, I would be killing Lovie for it.
Thoughts from anyone with more insight than me is always appreciated. The Bulls post (would they have won in 93-94 or 94-95 against the Rockets with MJ?) should be up by Saturday. Cubs and Hawks coming next week. I plan on watching the last 30-for-30 tomorrow, too, so that may be up by tomorrow night, but I might also have Christmas shopping to do, so we'll see.
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