1985 Chicago Bears

The 1985 Chicago Bears: a 15–1 season, a dominant defense, and a Super Bowl championship that remains their most recent title.

The 1985 season was the Chicago Bears' 66th in the National Football League (NFL) and their fourth under head coach Mike Ditka. The Bears entered 1985 looking to improve on their 10–6 record from 1984 and advance further than the NFC Championship Game, where they lost to the 15–1 San Francisco 49ers. The Bears not only improved on that record, they put together what would be considered by many football historians the greatest season in NFL history.

Quick Facts

Team: Chicago Bears
Record: 15–1
Division place: 1st NFC Central
Coach: Mike Ditka
General manager: Jerry Vainisi
Owner: The McCaskey Family
Stadium: Soldier Field

Facts from the source article.

Background

The Bears won their first twelve games of the season before losing to the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football. The loss to the Dolphins would be the only loss the Bears would suffer that season, as they finished with a 15–1 record. This matched the 49ers' mark from the year before and tied the then-record for most wins in a regular season. The Bears' defense was ranked first in the league and only allowed 198 total points (an average of 12.4 points per game).

The Bears won the NFC Central Division by seven games over the second-place Green Bay Packers and earned home-field advantage throughout the playoffs as the NFC’s top seed at Soldier Field. In their two playoff games against the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams, the Bears outscored their opponents 45–0 and became the first team to record back-to-back playoff shutouts. Then, in Super Bowl XX at the Louisiana Superdome against the New England Patriots, the Bears set several more records.

First, their 46 points broke the previous record of 38 that had been scored by the Los Angeles Raiders in Super Bowl XVIII and again by the 49ers in Super Bowl XIX. Their 36-point margin of victory also topped the 29-point margin of victory that the Raiders recorded over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII. Both of those records would stand until Super Bowl XXIV in New Orleans four years later, when the 49ers defeated the Denver Broncos by 45 points, 55–10. This was the Bears' first championship since 1963 and is their most recent title.