The ’76 Steeler defense had no weakness–none. They were dominant almost every game. There was no way to attack them. They were great against the run and the pass. The 1985 bear defense, on the other hand, was great against the run and great against the pass when QBs would sit in the pocket due to the rush, but was very vulnerable to the quick, short pass and passes to tight ends. The few times during the year teams would do this, it would work. Just because teams didn’t exploit this weakness doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. The Steelers, as I said, had no weakness. Many articles came out around 1987 showing why no one played the 46 anymore, including Buddy Ryan, as coaches had figured out it was vulnerable to these plays. I’ve never seen any articles showing how the Steeler or Raven defense could be attacked. And, as I said before, the Raven defense played in a more high-scoring, wide-open-offense era, and they played with Trent Dilfer at QB, meaning they could never ease up.
bear Defense/Seahawks-bears/Broncos-bears
The Seahawks had one lengthy drive in the second half. The fact it that they stopped themselves on some drives by running on first down, but EVERY time they threw on first down, they got a first down. So, it wasn’t the bears stopping them, it was the Seahawks running on first down. If they passed on the first downs they ran on, they would have had more lengthy drives. And, my point really is, had they done this all game, they would have had lengthy scoring drives in the first half and put the game away then.
It was said the Seahawks started passing in the second half after the bears lost their starting safety. When the Seahawks threw on first down in the first half, they also got first downs. It had nothing to do with either safety, as first-down passes worked all game, as they always do against the bears. The fact of the matter is that Seattle realized that running on first downs got them nowhere in the first half, so they immediately adjusted to start the second half, throwing on first downs, and marched to an easy TD. It wasn’t the safety change, it was the adjustment away from a very unsuccessful strategy.
It was said the altitude, time of game (at the end), lack of offense, etc. all contributed to the bears losing the game at Denver. It’s funny that all these factors just happened to affect the bears at exactly the point in the game the Broncos started throwing! The altitude, lack of an offense, etc. didn’t seem to stop the defense at all for the first 55-1/2 minutes. It was just at the exact point the Broncos started throwing that all these factors started affecting them. It doesn’t matter what time of game teams throw on first down against the bears–it works every time. The Packers always throw on the first two drives, score on both drives, then run and get shut down. Seattle ran in the first half, got shut down, threw starting the second half, and scored. Denver ran for 55-1/2 minutes and didn’t score, then passed on 3 series and scored on each one. So, whether a team throws early in the game (Packers), in the middle of the game (Seahawks), or at the end of the game (Denver), they score on the bears, and when they run at any point in the game, they don’t.