SUPER BOWL RETROSPECTIVE:
Super Bowl XX --
85 Bears maul Pats in romp of ages
If it had been a prize fight they would have stopped it in the second (Originally published in the Daily News on Monday, Jan. 27, 1986)
BY Michael Katz
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, January 6, 2014, 10:00 AM
| Super Bowl XX | |
 | Jan. 26, 1986 Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana |
| MVP: Richard Dent, DE, Chicago | |
 |  Chicago Bears | 46 |
 | New England Patriots | 10 |
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| Program says "AFC vs NFC for the NFL Championship and the Vince Lombardi Trophy" |
Yes, Walter Payton got his Super Bowl ring in his 11th NFL season. Yes, William (The Refrigerator) Perry scored a touchdown, Willie Gault caught four passes for 129 yards and Jim McMahon had an exceptional game after a zany week of sore buttocks, acupuncture, mooning and women protesters. Yes, even the zebras helped by blowing a call at the end of the first half that gave the Bears an extra three points that were not needed by them or their supporters, who gave 10 1/2 points.
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| Ticket calls it "AFC/NFC World Championship Game." Kick is 4:00pm Central in the Big Easy. Program features a photo-realistic graphic of the Lombardi Trophy while the ticket has black rendering of the trophy. |
However, it was Buddy Ryan's gang of hard-charging defenders who inscribed the Patriots' offensive statistics in red ink and gave Chicago its first title since the Bears beat the Giants for the crown in 1963, when the Bears' current coach, Mike Ditka, was a star tight end for George Halas.
"It was like a nightmare out there," summed up Mosi Tatupu, a Patriot reserve, after 73,818 spectators at the Superdome and an estimated 85 million TV viewers had watched his team suffer the worst loss in 20 of these national celebrations. The worst previous beating was the 38-9 pasting inflicted by the Los Angeles Raiders on the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII.
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| Fridge ran wild on the Pack on an October Monday night game. |
At halftime, the Bears had a 23-3 lead and the outcome, for all intents and purposes, had been decided. Consider these telling statistics:
- The Pats were held to one first down, which came after 25 minutes.
- The Pats did not complete their first pass until after 25 minutes were gone and were held to -14 yards passing.
- Usually a powerful rushing team, the Pats were held to -5 yards running.
- On their first 16 plays from scrimmage, the Pats gained yardage only once - a three-yard run - and they gained yardage on only four of 21 plays prior to intermission.
"They played a great football game," said Patriots' coach Raymond Berry in a perfect example of understatement. "They are one of the greatest teams in history."
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| The 85 Bear were easily the most charismatic Super Bowl Champs of our collective youth. They had a huge influence on me as I changed my football number to 72 because I loved "The Fridge;" I wore headbands like "The Punky QB Jim McMahon; and I got a Mohawk like Boz who was on the over of the SI football preview issue below. |
Dent honored as MVP
Richard Dent, the perfect defensive end, was voted the Most Valuable Player in a game he threatened to boycott because of a contract dispute. Dent forced two fumbles, registered 1 1/2 sacks, made two other tackles, assisted on a third stop, batted down one pass and helped drive Tony Eason, the Patriots' starting quarterback, to the sidelines in the second quarter. Eason had completed none of six passes and had been sacked three times, fumbling once.
"All the pressure Richard was under, now it's time for the Bears to reward him for his play," said Ditka, who called Dent "the best defensive end in the National Football League."
Dent was not alone in terrorizing the Patriots and holding New England to seven yards rushing for the game. Dent received six of the 10 MVP votes, McMahon three and linebacker Mike Singletary, who recovered two fumbles, the other. But votes could have gone to Otis Wilson, who had predicted a third straight playoff shutout and lived up to his Brownsville, Brooklyn, bragging with two sacks; or cornerback Mike Richardson, who batted away three passes; or reserve cornerback Reggie Phillips, who had seven tackles and returned an interception 28 yards for a touchdown.
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| I was a junior in high school and watched the game at my Dad's house in Suttons Bay. |
But as good as the Bears were this season - they went 15-1 in regular-season play and then outscored their three playoff opponents, 91-10, to match last season's San Francisco 49ers for most victories in a season at 18-1 - they were also fun.
Yesterday, McMahon changed headbands about as often as the Bears scored. There were no commercials, except for charities, starting with "JDF-CURE" for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, moving on to "POW-MIA" and finishing with "PLUTO," the nickname of a friend, Danny Plater, who suffered a brain tumor three years ago.
McMahon, who left the game in the third quarter with a slightly sprained left wrist, completed 12 of 20 passes for 256 yards and ran five times for 14 yards, including twice for touchdowns. He became the sixth player in Super Bowl history to run for two touchdowns, but the first to do it with a sore backside.
McMahon then capped off his day by complaining the Bears were unfair to their greatest star. Payton, who had only 125 yards rushing in the Bears' first two playoff games, was held to 61 yards on 22 carries, an average of 2.8 yards per carry. his longest gain was seven yards.
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| It caused quite a stir at the time that D-Coordinator Buddy Ryan go a victory ride in addition to Head Coach Ditka. Ryan would become head coach of the Eagles the next season. |
McMahon and Payton both objected to Ditka not using "Sweetness" in goal-line situations. The Bears' coach opted for McMahon twice and Perry once.
"It took him 11 years to get to this spot and, not to score a touchdown, I know he's feeling terrible," said McMahon. "We didn't run him enough, but that was not my decision."
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| Take my breath away |
Payton agreed. "Yes, I was upset. Yes, I was disappointed."
Perry agreed. "I thought I was going in to block for Walter ... Walter deserves all the credit. This win is for him."
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| The Punky QB came off the bench to throw 3 TD's in a Thursday Night Thriller against the Vikes. |
Ditka deferred. "I am disappointed Walter didn't score, but our plays on the goal-line were not designed for him to score."
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| I struggle to think of another pro football team in our lifetime that captured the national imagination the way the 85 Bears did. |
Before snarling among themselves, The Super Bowl Shufflers took care of the Patriots, an AFC wild-card team that finished 14-6 after three postseason victories.
Super Bowl XX was supposed to by Payton's crowning glory. But it was defensive coodinator Ryan's unit - which sometimes featured nine men on the line of scrimmage - that made this game such a mismatch that, if it had been a prize fight, it would've been stopped in the second quarter.
However, the Patriots landed the first punch.
It took only 79 seconds for Wilson's prediction of a third straight Bear playoff shutout to go by the board as the Patriots got the quickest score in Super Bowl history. But it wasn't the fault of the Bear defense, which did not yield a yard. Blame Payton and McMahon.
On the first play from scrimmage, history's premier running back gained seven yards. On the next play, Payton fumbled.
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