First play when Lin Dawson tore up his knee on that crap Superdome turf you could sense the ball was over and the pumpkin had come for our boys.
I always cut Berry some slack for the discombobulated game plan, Dawson's blocking was a big factor in their run game. What I'll never cut him any slack for was starting Champagne Tony. He peed down his leg so bad in the regular season game vs Chicago, hung the Pats D out to dry with 3 or 4 picks, and just went deer in the headlights against their pass rush. IIRC he took at least half a dozen sacks, what I do remember very clearly is all but one of them was his fault. He actually turtled and took a sack with no rush on. It wasn't some 'yeah but the '85 F'n Bears' kinda thing either, that regular season game was the second or third game of the season, they were not at that point what they became as the season went on.
How the hell could Berry let Champagne Tony start that Superbowl? smdh
Being a head coach is an overwhelming responsibility. You're responsible for everything. It was Berry's values, commitment and determination which got them there in '85. He set the goal in training camp to go to the Super Bowl.
But he needed a Mo Lewis break, and he got it in the Bills game here. Grogan creaked out there after Eason thankfully, mercifully got himself hurt and I had goosebumps and the entire energy in the stands and for us watching at home shot up drastically. People are beginning to look and see the qualities that make Tom Brady great, like awareness, acumen, getting all his teammates involved, discipline and unselfishness, and Grogan was loaded with them. He called his own plays, committed to the run, made plays when he had to with the game on the line, distributed the ball. Grogan led the win streak and it took the Jets breaking his leg to stop it.
The Bears were an historically dominant team in 1985. Playing in any Super Bowl is not an ordinary environment to begin with, but against a very deservedly favored team requires sacrifice and rising to the occasion. I hoped Raymond would reach back for some of that from his heyday with the Colts.
Alas, Raymond really - really - loved Tony Eason. That the kid was an overpaid first round draft pick made it easier on paper for him to do what he did. And Tom Brady is old, right? He's washed up, right? Even if we did win the turnover battle by 6 we were not winning with Eason.
Finally, Raymond didn't come here to coach our wide receivers until 1978. He wasn't with us in 1976. Anyone with any awareness knows Grogan had at least one Super Bowl ring belonging on his finger, earned by him as the starter. You want to beat an excellent but arrogant, immature, over hyped and beatable opponent loaded with assh*les who will crumble when faced with enough adversity against an opponent who won't back down? You better use every second of those two weeks and get your mind wrapped around football and playing sixty minutes, not goofing around and hoping for the best.
I watched the ESPN preview of the Tyson fight in Tokyo, and the little one minute blurb covering the Douglas camp was enough for me to see that regardless of the hype, I did not want to be Mike Tyson stepping into that ring.
Berry announcing Grogan as the starter would have planted the first seeds of doubt in the Bears' minds. And they would have been right to be scared.
