Read The '85 Bears: We Were the Greatest Online
Authors: Mike Ditka,Rick Telander
The '85 Bears: We Were the Greatest (11 page)
Make no mistake about it—we were a talented team. Hell, we had 10 first-round draft picks on the club—a lot of them from Jim Finks and some from Jerry Vainisi and me. In the entire league, only the Packers had more first-round guys with 11.
One of our first-round guys, Mike Singletary, had a hell of a game, too. He had three sacks and an interception. What a competitor he was. What a student of the game. Another first-rounder, William Perry, our rookie 315-pound or 300-whatever-pound defensive tackle from Clemson, didn’t get in much. But before the game the Patriots’ center, Pete Brock, was asked about him. “That’s an all-day sucker!” he said. But Buddy wasn’t using Perry much. Big Bill already had his nickname, “The Refrigerator,” and I felt we ought to plug that appliance in somewhere. Things were going through my mind. I was daydreaming and thinking and calculating.
Mostly, I was happy we got out of this one pretty easily. McMahon’s back was a little stiff, so we rested him at the end and put in Fuller.
But there was no time to sit around and feel good about being 2–0. The NFL schedule was all about entertainment and not about sanity or what was good for us.
We had the badass Vikings in four days.
Picked Up by a Pickoff
O
nce again the Bears struggled to get on track in a game they expected to win easily. In a near-replay of the season opener against Tampa Bay, the Bears trailed 12–3 at half-time and would have been shut out at intermission but for a 30-yard field goal by Kevin Butler as time expired in the second quarter.
It was not what the Bears had anticipated, certainly not against the winless Bucs. But there they were, looking up at the perennial doormats of the division. But just as they had in Game 1, the Bears used an interception to turn the momentum.
The first time it had been Leslie Frazier’s pick. This time it was Dave Duerson breaking quickly on a ball intended for tight end Jimmy Giles, intercepting it and setting up a touchdown pass from Jim McMahon to Dennis McKinnon covering 21 yards and pulling the Bears within 12–10.
The Bears then turned up the defensive pressure, and Tampa Bay quarterback Steve DeBerg pulled out from behind center too soon, leaving the ball on the ground. Defensive tackle Steve McMichael fell on it to set up another 30-yard Butler field goal to give the Bears their first lead.
They built the margin to 20–12 when Walter Payton, held under 100 yards rushing for the fourth straight game, scored on a four-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Tampa Bay answered with a 25-yard touchdown pass by DeBerg, his second of the game, and suddenly it was 20–19 with five minutes to go.
Tampa Bay receiver Gerald Carter pays the price for a reception as Mike Singletary gets a closer look.
McMahon twice talked coach Mike Ditka out of calling safe plays when it appeared that the easy way would be to punt and turn the game over to the defense. Instead McMahon converted a third-and-3 at the Bears’ 24 with an 8-yard completion to Emery Moorehead to keep the ball and the drive alive.
Walter Payton and the Bears narrowly escaped with a win in the fifth game of their historic 1985 campaign.
With two minutes left, McMahon anticipated a Bucs blitz and went deep to Willie Gault for 48 yards to the Tampa Bay 11. Payton scored two plays later to clinch the game with his second touchdown, this from nine yards.
The Bears were gaining confidence in their ability to rally using a variety of weapons, and Ditka was learning to let McMahon be McMahon. They were believing in their abilities, believing in their talent and, above all, believing in each other.
Chicago 27, Tampa Bay 19
OCT. 6, 1985, AT TAMPA STADIUM
Duerson’s big play ignites turnaround
Emery Moorehead’s 8-yard reception on third-and-3 with the Bears up by one late in the fourth quarter. It led to Walter Payton’s victory-clinching touchdown run.
Moorehead’s eight receptions for 114 yards represented the best day by a Bears tight end since Mike Ditka.
Jim McMahon eludes Bucs defensive end John Cannon on a day when the quarterback rushed for 46 yards.
DAN HAMPTON
No. 99, defensive end
“O
ur Super Bowl was played against the Giants and then the Rams, because we knew once we got to the Super Bowl, it was an avalanche. No one was going to stop us.”
“It was an amazing anticipation of all the expectations. Boom. It’s done. It’s over. We’ve done it.”
“A lot of times people become overwhelmed and intimidated by something that explodes, and the next thing you know, it’s on national TV. It was like Ditka took it in stride, saying, ‘OK, that’s great.’ It’s almost a Machiavellian way of using the Fridge on the
Monday Night Football
game. It’s almost like he orchestrated it.
Buddy fostered an us-against-the-world mentality.”
“The moment of truth was the Miami game, and you know about them grabbing each other in the shower and starting fisticuffs.”
“Actually, Ditka was right. Ditka was right in saying, ‘Hey, whatever you thought, it ain’t working. You’ve got to change.’”
“When I played, everybody talked about the ‘Steel Curtain’ and the ‘Doomsday Defense.’ Now, 25 years later, they talk about the Bears’ defense.”
“You’re not going to run it on us. When you try to throw it on us, it’s just a matter of time before we start tearing your quarterback down.”
“You have to give a lot of credit to Jim Finks in that he was able to build a roster of talent that Ditka was able to utilize.”
“I had five operations on each leg when I played, and when I finished, I had both of them done again, so that’s 12. I’ll need some type of artificial joint when I’m 55 or 60. I couldn’t run out of the house if it was on fire, but at the end of the day, I’m glad I was able to do what I was supposed to do.”
“When I was in sixth grade, I’d fallen out of a tree and fractured both of my legs. I had played football, and I was obviously pretty gifted at it. But after I fell, they had to put pins and plates in my ankles. The doctor said I needed to do something else. I started playing saxophone in the band.”
“I was very goal-driven, and the goal, obviously, is to go to the Super Bowl and win it. We
had it within our grasp, but we didn’t close the deal, especially in ’86 and ’87.”
“It’s too simple to say, ‘Oh, well, our quarterback was never healthy,’ but I find it hard to believe that New England would’ve won three of four without Tom Brady.”
