In honor of the 30th anniversary of the 1985 team - "Raymond Berry's Pats"

[Off The Grid]

What a wonderful Ride. Sure we got slaughtered, but it's not as if any Team was expected to match up with the best single season Team of All Time, and my God, was it awesome to smoke the Jets on the Road, Beat Down the Raiders, and yes, above all, to break the Orange Bowl Curse and Squish The Fish!!

Sure we got slaughtered, but hey...Worth it?

Absofreakinglutely.

 

[FCB02062]

I got Fred Marion's autograph on a football at a signing event at Paperama in Norwood that season!

 

[scott99]

What???

Eason was the biggest ***** who ever wore a Uniform.

You have my Permission to delete your Post.

I get what he's saying. Pure talent wise, Eason was probably the 3rd most talented QB the Pats ever had (behind Brady & Bledsoe). Pocket passer with a good arm, pretty good at reading defenses. Don't let the SB blowout blind your memory, Eason was a huge underachiever who had a lot of talent. Just didn't have that drive or determination.

 

[italian pat patriot]

It was the year in which for the first time I felt a huge happiness as a fan ... here it was still no possible to see the games of the play-offs as now ... so I went to the newsstand to buy the newspapers and read comments and the results ... i was happy after the w against Jets and Raiders ... i would have been still satisfied if it ended there... I thought we could not have beat Miami ... instead... i was so happy ... I remember perfetctly still those emotions... personally i am forever grateful to that great team ... even Tony Eason had a huge talent ... a pair of great seasons he made with us...what a great team ... too bad it ended in that way at the Super Bowl but imho that Chicago Bears team was simply unbeatable ...

GREAT GREAT 1985 NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS !!!

 

[RobertWeathers]

85 was my first real year in watching football won that team will always be special to me.

That LB group was awesome


Tippett
Nelson
Rembert
Blackmon
McGrew

And the secondary at was pretty damn good

Clayborn
Marion
Roland James
Lippett

Only the 03 group was better.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I get what he's saying. Pure talent wise, Eason was probably the 3rd most talented QB the Pats ever had (behind Brady & Bledsoe). Pocket passer with a good arm, pretty good at reading defenses. Don't let the SB blowout blind your memory, Eason was a huge underachiever who had a lot of talent. Just didn't have that drive or determination.

I was accurately reporting my feeling at the time that "Hey this kid really got us somewhere!" right up to the ahem last game. Never mind that his stats weren't unbelievable... I mean, where's Dan Marino's ring, right? I was so sure that there was something special going on that year, something that could maybe, possibly result in a win the next year... and like any football fan, I put the positive outcomes on the QB, and figured we had our franchise guy.

Then we drafted this guy a few years later and I figured he was our franchise guy.

Then we struggled and struggled and struggled... for the right to a less-lopsided SB loss.

By the time we got the ultimate franchise QB of anywhere evah, I was sort of burned out on getting "our Joe Montana" (or your favorite "all time best" name here). I just wanted to win one any way, any how.

And if the Tuna, Curtis Martin, Terry Glenn, and Drew couldn't get it done, I was like "I don't know what this takes."

Then along comes a shlub in a sweatshirt saying it's not about collecting talent, it's about building a team. The Pats seem over the moon about the guy. We lose Martin. I'm thinking "somebody needs to explain why the hell we're crazy about not a QB, not a running back, but a freaking marginally successful coach, who only had the top job in, get this, Cleveland.

Turns out that management pretty much nailed that call

God it's been a great 15 years.... and I ain't going to pine for the ups and downs of the pre-BB/Brady era. May I never see their return, although I am sure I will.

 

[Froob]

Wish I was alive for this run lol. Need to bring back those jerseys.

 

[Deus Irae]

I ripped my Berry the Bears T-shirt in half during that game...

But oh, how beautiful, after the Bears allowed 0 points during the whole playoffs... when the scoreboard read 3-0 Pats.

Am I remembering that right? I think so. I was convinced, OMG we have a chance.

Brady is what Eason seemed like maybe sorta he might be.

Having seen how the Dolphins attacked the Bears and won, I thought Lin Dawson was going to have a huge game and maybe even give the Patriots a shot at winning the game.




And then the Patriots first play from scrimmage happened...

 

[Patsrock]

Having seen how the Dolphins attacked the Bears and won, I thought Lin Dawson was going to have a huge game and maybe even give the Patriots a shot at winning the game.




And then the Patriots first play from scrimmage happened...

And yet they were still 2 dropped balls from being up anywhere from 7-0 to 14-0 in first 5 mins.

Stanley Morgan drop over the middle that would have be a TD

And on the next Bears possession a dropped INT by Don Blackmon that had nothing but end zone if he catches the INT.

But....

 

[upstater1]

I was 16 back then but I entertained crazy thoughts like, "If only Stanley Morgan had caught that TD over the middle to start off the game. If only Lin Dawson didn't get hurt on that long sideline pass. If only they started Grogan...."

The fact is, it didn't matter.

What I didn't realize is that our All-Pro line were being tossed around like rag dolls.

The best guard ever John Hannah was handled by a rookie who never lived up to the refrigerator billing. All-Pros Holloway and Pete Brock.

That running game though that year was pretty hard to stop. Craig James, Tony Collins, and Mosi Tatupu. Speaking of Tony Collins, he had his coke incident a few days after the SB. Was not found to be "out of it" before the games.

The Bears second-leading sacker on the best defense of all time was a 3rd round draft choice of the Patriots four or five years earlier, Steve McMichael. He had trouble breaking in with the Patriots, apparently.

 

[turkeyneck]

Dawson getting his knee shredded was the turning point in that game. The life just went out of the team at that point. I think that's when fear took hold of Eason.

 

[Off The Grid]

I get what he's saying. Pure talent wise, Eason was probably the 3rd most talented QB the Pats ever had (behind Brady & Bledsoe). Pocket passer with a good arm, pretty good at reading defenses. Don't let the SB blowout blind your memory, Eason was a huge underachiever who had a lot of talent. Just didn't have that drive or determination.

Don't let the BlowOut blind your memory. I'll worry about mine.

Eason was quite demonstrably not fit for the Job well before the Super Bowl, my friend. You and I disagree on that ~ fine. But do not presume to assume that I base my Assessment of'm on one Game.

 

[Off The Grid]

I was accurately reporting my feeling at the time that "Hey this kid really got us somewhere!" right up to the ahem last game. Never mind that his stats weren't unbelievable... I mean, where's Dan Marino's ring, right?

Tremendous Post, but I take issue only with this part of it.

As I see it, we got to the Super Bowl with an amazing Defense and an awesome Running Game.

We got to the Super Bowl despite Tony Eason.

And when we got there...well...everybody got to see what some'f us'd been seeing all along.

He got exposed like you read about.

 

[SalemPats]

I was just a young kid, but despite having the Bruins and Celtics who were pretty good at that time my favorite athletes were Fryar, Tippett and Tatupu. It was an average team, but they were fun. They had characters. The Bruins and Celts were all business going to Foxborough as a kid was a party.

Off note, anyone remember the guy at Bruins game who when you exited would repeat the box score.

 

[scott99]

I was accurately reporting my feeling at the time that "Hey this kid really got us somewhere!" right up to the ahem last game. Never mind that his stats weren't unbelievable... I mean, where's Dan Marino's ring, right? I was so sure that there was something special going on that year, something that could maybe, possibly result in a win the next year... and like any football fan, I put the positive outcomes on the QB, and figured we had our franchise guy.

Then we drafted this guy a few years later and I figured he was our franchise guy.

Then we struggled and struggled and struggled... for the right to a less-lopsided SB loss.

By the time we got the ultimate franchise QB of anywhere evah, I was sort of burned out on getting "our Joe Montana" (or your favorite "all time best" name here). I just wanted to win one any way, any how.

And if the Tuna, Curtis Martin, Terry Glenn, and Drew couldn't get it done, I was like "I don't know what this takes."

Then along comes a shlub in a sweatshirt saying it's not about collecting talent, it's about building a team. The Pats seem over the moon about the guy. We lose Martin. I'm thinking "somebody needs to explain why the hell we're crazy about not a QB, not a running back, but a freaking marginally successful coach, who only had the top job in, get this, Cleveland.

Turns out that management pretty much nailed that call

God it's been a great 15 years.... and I ain't going to pine for the ups and downs of the pre-BB/Brady era. May I never see their return, although I am sure I will.

I'm with ya buddy. I hung my hopes with QBs from Plunket to Grogan to Cavanaugh, etc. During the 49ers dynasty of 5 championships in 14 years, I could only dream of having a QB as good as Montana and then Young in the last championship and a team as good as those teams. Imagine, 5 championships in 14 years ? Good god.

But along comes Brady and Belichick, and they give us great Pat's fans 4 championships in 13 years, unbelievable !

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Yeah Scott and I'd add, in the Super Bowl 6 times, and in the AFCCG I dunno eight times? 9 or more wins every year Brady started at QB and one where Cassel was the main man? In the salary cap/free agent era - without cheating on the cap like the 9ers? Now to be fair, when SF fell to a .333 winning percentage after their first SB, it was a strike year (1982).

 

[RayClay]

I get what he's saying. Pure talent wise, Eason was probably the 3rd most talented QB the Pats ever had (behind Brady & Bledsoe). Pocket passer with a good arm, pretty good at reading defenses. Don't let the SB blowout blind your memory, Eason was a huge underachiever who had a lot of talent. Just didn't have that drive or determination.

He had fantastic touch. His passes dropped on receivers hands like snowflakes.

Don't know if it was the Chi superbowl, but he lost his guts and became useless.

 

[RayClay]

I was just a young kid, but despite having the Bruins and Celtics who were pretty good at that time my favorite athletes were Fryar, Tippett and Tatupu. It was an average team, but they were fun. They had characters. The Bruins and Celts were all business going to Foxborough as a kid was a party.

Off note, anyone remember the guy at Bruins game who when you exited would repeat the box score.

Not average at all, the defense and running game were exceptional