The '85 Bears: We Were the Greatest (17 page)
Read The '85 Bears: We Were the Greatest Online
Authors: Mike Ditka,Rick Telander
Some press guy told Darryl Rogers, the Detroit Lions head coach, what I’d done, and Darryl said, “I guess I’d probably do that, too.”
Darryl doesn’t drink. And the press guy reminded him he didn’t drink, in case he’d forgotten.
“But I would if we were 6–0,” said Darryl.
Yes, we were still undefeated. And it was Packer week. And nobody who calls himself a Chicago Bear can relax during Packer week. I know I didn’t.
Refrigerator in the Living Room
W
hat had begun as an in-your-face gesture from Mike Ditka to Bill Walsh in Game 6 reached international proportions eight days later when William Perry, in front of a
Monday Night Football
audience, obliterated a Green Bay linebacker while blocking on two Walter Payton touchdowns and scored one of his own.
The Bears again trailed initially as Green Bay scored on a 27-yard pass from Lynn Dickey to James Lofton. But in the second quarter, the Bears exploded on the Packers, scoring 21 of the more memorable points in an absolutely memorable year.
With a first-and-goal situation at the Green Bay 2-yard line, Perry ran onto the field and lined up behind right tackle Keith Van Horne, with Payton behind Jim McMahon in the backfield. Perry then led Payton into the hole and met Green Bay linebacker George Cumby, who was at a 100-pound disadvantage. Perry bent Cumby backward, and Payton scored easily.
Several minutes later the Bears drove to the Green Bay 1-yard line, and Ditka again sent in Perry. But this time Perry was not blocking for Payton. Instead McMahon handed the ball to Perry, who rumbled into the end zone and then spiked the ball.
He was not finished. The Bears pushed the Packers backward one more time in the second quarter and again stood at the Green Bay 1. Ditka motioned to Perry, and the big rookie lumbered onto the field for a third time. Perry lined up behind the left guard and tackle and again found Cumby in the way, but not for long. Another crunching hit and Payton eased in for his second touchdown and one of his 112 rushing yards.
After William Perry’s crushing block, Walter Payton flies over the goal line in the second quarter.
Randy Scott, who led the ’85 Packers in tackles, separates Emery Moorehead from a second-quarter pass.
That was the end of the scoring by either offense, though Otis Wilson added the game’s final points with a sack of backup quarterback Jim Zorn in the fourth quarter. The Bears fumbled seven times, losing four, but still outgained Green Bay 342-319. They held the Packers to 96 rushing yards while pounding the Packers for 175 of their own. McMahon completed only 12 of 26 passes for 144 yards, but the Bears intercepted four Green Bay passes to take away any offensive consistency from their guests.
But the night had belonged to Perry.
Chicago 23, Green Bay 7
OCT. 21, 1985, AT SOLDIER FIELD
Perry phenomenon too much for Packers
William Perry’s one-yard plunge in the second quarter, breaking a 7–7 tie. He also twice opened gargantuan holes for Walter Payton to score.
The Bears intercepted Green Bay quarterbacks Lynn Dickey and Randy Wright four times and knocked both out of the game.
William “Refrigerator” Perry (72) helps an unidentified teammate to his feet in the second quarter of the Monday night game in Chicago on October 21, 1985.
EMERY MOOREHEAD
No. 87, tight end
“O
ur team, everybody knew we were going to the Super Bowl. After we lost to the 49ers the year before in the NFC Championship, Mike Ditka made a point of saying, ‘Remember this. We’re going to be back.’ [Dan] Hampton I remember saying, ‘We’re going to win the damn thing next year.’ Everybody came back with a purpose.”
“I remember being in the locker room and everybody being ecstatic. But it was a situation where we knew we were going to win. We expected to win. We really did.”
“Ditka, I think, was a pretty good coach. He was a great motivator. Not a great tactician, but certainly a great motivator of men. He got the best out of everybody.”
“We led the league in rushing. We led the league in time of possession. We were underrated as an offense because the defense was just phenomenal.”
“Walter Payton was an iron man out there. He played with pain. Throwing up in the huddle. The guy loved to play football and loved to play every down.”
“Our line, we always had a lot of good surges, trying to get out of the Fridge’s way.”
“Bears fans, most of them still think you play. It’s crazy. They think you’re still 30 years old or whatever. The comment most often is ‘You should be playing’ and ‘They haven’t had a tight end since you left.’”
“Having been born and raised in Evanston, I certainly could appreciate it a little bit more than some of the other players winning the Super Bowl and how long it had been since the city had won a championship. My father was a garbage man for Evanston. My mother worked at the post office for years. Just a typical family from Evanston. Blue-collar family that worked. Every kid wanted to be Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers.”
“Myself, always being a die-hard Cubs fan, Ernie Banks was No. 1 over everything. I was at a dinner, and Ernie was in the back telling stories and signing autographs. I waited until everybody had talked to him, and then I went up and introduced myself. It was like I was a little kid again. I was in my 30s.”
