Another response to a friend:
You are 100% correct. 99.99% think the ’85 bears were one of the greatest teams ever, and were completely dominant. And, you know what, I agree with this if you decide you are only going to look at what happened. For example, I could play you one-on-one in basketball, you shoot nothing but half-court shots, I win by a lot, and everyone will say I dominated. If you played a smart game, you’d destroy me, but no one would ever know that.
The reason the bears looked so dominant to 99.99% of the people is that 99.99% of the NFL opposing coaches had terrible gameplans. That was during the era of “you have to establish the run,” and everyone ran on first and second down. Of course the bears are going to look dominant when you play to their strengths. As I pointed out, almost every time a team threw a quick pass or to the tight end during the season, it worked. The only problem was, teams rarely did it. Marino got out of the pocket, and they scored a lot of points. Even the first two plays in the Super Bowl were wide open, but then Raymond Berry decided to run like all the other coaches, and that turned the game into a disaster.
10 years after the Super Bowl, I read John Feinstein’s book on Bobby Knight. In the book, someone asked Knight who would win, and his response was, “New England. They’ll kill the bears with short passes.” As I pointed out, Buddy Ryan understood this, so when he played the bears, he had Cunningham throw on every play. The Eagles marched through the bear defense, rarely punted, and showed how easy it was to beat. Within 2 years, many articles came out saying no one plays the 46 anymore since coaches figured out how easy it was to beat with quick, short passes. Since I said this at least since 1983, it’s not hindsight, and other coaches should have understood this. You can’t run against a defense with 8 great athletes in the box, and you can’t sit in the pocket. Since they are all on the line of scrimmage, the middle area is wide open. Seems simple to me. If other teams played the bears smartly, the bears would have looked far less dominant.
It’s great that after 40 years of trying to get people to understand the importance of the pass, that some teams finally get it. Don’t forget the two undefeated teams this year (Packers, Patriots) pass all the time. The Packers had NO RUNNING GAME for the first quarter or third of the season, yet still won. The ’85 bears played in that ridiculous “establish the run” era. As I also told you, a high-school friend told me during the height of the Bill Walsh era that I had been telling everyone to run that offense for many years prior to him becoming a head coach.
Let’s revisit the postseason. If the Giants don’t drop the easy TD pass and whiff on a punt, the 21-0 game is vastly different. Perhaps the bears still win, but it’s not dominating, as those plays resulted in a 14-point turnaround, not to mention changing the momentum. The Rams with Dieter Brock weren’t going to score, and everyone knew it. If you can’t pass, you can’t beat the bears, and he can’t pass. You can look at a 46-10 Super Bowl score and see domination like the 99.99% you refer to. I see two things–one is that the quick short passes worked and N.E. stopped doing them after their first series and ran, and two, the refs gave the bears about 35 points, which the tape will show. So, I look at these things, which means I’m looking deeper than most people.
The Patriots were not the best AFC team at the end of that season. The Raiders and Dolphins were a lot better, regardless of the records (who knows who played who), and it was obvious before the playoffs those teams had a great chance to beat the bears. Perhaps the Jets did, too, as I thought there was a third team. Even if they don’t beat the bears (I say they do), the game is a lot closer, and no one talks domination. The bears did not “destroy” N.E. if you take away the points scored on bad calls.
Let’s look at 1996. The Packers were far superior to Denver in both 1996 and 1997. In 1997, when they did play, the Packers were prohibitive favorites. It’s only the 30-point differential the refs made to get Elway his title that makes people think the Packers lost. If you saw the tape, you’d agree with me without question, as another bear fan did that I showed the tape to. The Packers led the NFL in points scored and fewest allowed, and I don’t think they gave up a TD pass after the first few games. If not for the refs, they would have completely dominated and people would be talking about that.
99.99% of the people don’t think the Packers dominated the 90s (even though they had the best record of any team in the 4 major sports for a decade) because the refs prevented them from winning 8 more Super Bowls. That’s why 99.99% of the people don’t understand how great Brett Favre is. With 9 Super Bowl wins, they’d know. 99.99% of the people don’t realize that Brett had his hands tied for years with idiotic gameplans, or he’d have double the stats he has now. All people look at is the surface–I don’t.
Only one NFL team has ever won 3 straight championships, and that is the Packers. They did it in the 30s, they did it in the 60s, and they did it in the 90s. I hope I don’t have to wait another 30 years for 3 straight!
Once again, let’s discuss the Charles Martin play. As I previously mentioned, I would have been fine if he had been suspended for a year. However, again, people just look at that, while I look deeper. That’s why I’ll never be one of the 99.99%. Here are the facts, and friend was with me at this game and is my witness even though he’s a huge bear fan. The game before, which was the second game of the previous year, the bears started this. After a Lynn Dickey interception, well after the play, on the sidelines, Dent picked up Dickey, turned him over, and slammed him down. It was horrible, but so far after the play, no one saw it. My friend and I did. When I went home and checked the tape, as they were going to commercial, you could hear, O.J., I believe, say, “Did you see what Dent did to Dickey?” After the game, the Packers said the bears started things, and they intended to respond and finish them. Thus, the next game. As bad as Martin’s play was, it paled in comparison and danger to what Dent did to Dickey. And, the Packers claimed the bears did a lot of other things. That’s what started that stuff under Forrest Gregg. So again, I look deeper than just the Martin play as to why things are the way they are–I don’t just look at what is.
Let me give you two more examples of why I’ll never be in the 99.99%, and why the 99.99% is frequently wrong.
Mike Singletary: I said throughout his entire career, and constantly debated this with bear fans, that he was completely overrated and that if he didn’t have Dan Hampton in front of him, he’d be far less effective. Everyone responded (and the masses believed) that he’s one of the best middle linebackers in history. I always pointed out he couldn’t start at the beginning of his career because he was too slow, among other things, and he couldn’t cover receivers. I did say he was a great team leader and very good against the run, but that was it. For years, I said to people, watch what happens when Hampton retires. Hampton did retire and Singletary had a bad year (the falloff was great), but because it was toward the end of his career, it was attributed to that. Again, one of those things I can’t prove (like what would have happened had teams attacked the ’85 bears intelligently), because it was at the end of his career. However, I maintain that it would have happened earlier had Hampton retired then, and always said so during Singletary’s career.
So, how am I proven right? A few years ago, the bears had a reunion or something, and Singetary decided to watch tape of those bear teams. He was shocked at what he saw, and he called up Hampton and said that for his entire career, he thought his success was due to himself and his ability, and he was shocked to see these tapes and realize it was largely due to Hampton. You know what Hampton told him? Hampton said to Singletary, “You mean you’re just realizing that now?” Singletary basically said he owed his success to Hampton, which I said during his ENTIRE career. Again, ask 99.99% of the people, and they think Singletary was great on his own, and all my friends argued this with me his entire career. As I said, I look deeper. It wasn’t me talking badly about a bear, because at the same time, I was saying that Dan Hampton might be one of the most underrated guys ever, despite the honors he was getting. Hampton was incredible.
Brian Urlacher: During Urlacher’s first few years, everyone talked about how great he was and how he was at Ray Lewis’ level or above. I told everyone during those years that he was very overrated. When he’d make an interception, the tight end would be wide open behind him, but the ball was underthrown. He wasn’t in Ray Lewis’ class at that point. However, I always said this doesn’t mean Urlacher wouldn’t be great–I was just saying he wasn’t great then. It turned out he did become great up until this year when he got hurt and when the tackle play in front of him wasn’t what it was. During that early time, a poll came out calling him the most overrated player in the league, and people acknowledged that I had been saying that all along. To be clear, this was before he did become a great player.
These are two more examples of the 99.99% who look at things one way, but they are wrong. I was proven right over time, and I believe the fact that the 46 was so quickly abandoned proves me right in that case. If we could get the game tapes of 1985, you’d see the few times teams did throw quick passes and to the tight end, it worked.
People argued with me about how effective Randy Moss would be this year, and I said during the summer he’s still probably one of the two best receivers in history. People argued with me and said Favre should retire 4 years ago, and I said he hadn’t lost any ability–he was just not playing as well as he could due to idiotic gameplans. It’s great when a debate can be proven right or wrong, but unfortunately, with the ’85 bears, there is no way to replay the games with smart gameplans. As I’ve told you, though, the next year the Redskins had Jay Schroeder throw quick passes, and they beat a 14-2, I believe, bear team in the bears’ first playoff game, in Chicago. Interesting that finally using a smart gameplan beat a defense that was statistically better than the ’85 bears. Had I told you quick short passes would beat the bears that day, I imagine you would have debated this with me, as my other friends did. I had no doubts.