To look at the Bears and Ravens, it was fear because it didn't matter what you did they'd find you and hurt you and take away the ball and punch you in the ovaries and make you like it.

This team .... this was like they were getting the call from Manning. It didn't even look like they were better, it was like they were 2 seconds in the future every time, like they knew what the Broncos' players were going to do before they did themselves. It was weird ... entertainingly weird. Like if next month it came out that somehow they had the feed to Manning's helmet by mistake, it would totally make sense.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Top 5

Yes. You read a lot of stupid shit about pro athletes being "intimidated", for example how hitters were afraid of Bob Gibson. They weren't. Professional athletes by their very nature aren't afraid. That's how they got to be professional athletes. In all my time watching sports, the pass rush that that '85 Bears team had is an exception. You could see the quarterbacks looking around and flinching before the ball was even snapped. It was fucking ferocious. There's never been anything else like it.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

That is true Jorr. They had no idea where it was coming from and also had to stare at Marshall and Wilson lined up to one side Dent the other and Hampton and McMichael gone push the middle. Geez. I guess the answer is personnel but I am really surprised that 46 doesn't work anymore.

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Elections have consequences.

Everybody figured out its vulnerabilities. It was never the same after '85. Some people might argue that the '86 team was actually better defensively. They allowed less yardage. But that wildness was gone. They weren't as savage the next year.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Did they start wearing suits on airplanes?

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I don't think it was people figuring them out. I just think Tobin was more conservative than Ryan.

I just remember that '85 team that in the game when Payton fumbled, it was disappointing that Walter fumbled it, but I was more disappointed that the Bears gave up a cheap 3. I was hoping the defense would go the entire playoffs without giving up a point.

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You know me like that.

Ditka did. He had that contract with Bigsby & Kruthers.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Yeah, but if you remember, they still played that defense. Ditka wouldn't allow it to be called the "46" anymore. He made everyone call it the "Bear". And all kinds of other teams adopted versions of it. But it had vulnerabilities and, as pittmike points out, without the exact right personnel, you could easily get burned with it.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Pete Carroll won me over during the 2010 season when I went to the regular season Bears/Seahawks game, which some of you might remember as "The Mike Williams Game" where he went off for 10/123 against the beloved. In that game Pete found a few plays that worked and kept ramming them down the bears' throat until the bears proved they could stop them.... which they couldn't on that afternoon (but they would in the first round of the playoffs).

you know, shades of what chip kelly and the eagles did to the bears on SNF near the end of the season, however in 2010 the bears were the 4th ranked scoring defense averaging 17.9 points per game, and this year they were 30th with ~29ppg.

so with the superbowl it was no surprise to see pete carroll find something that worked and keep on doing it until the broncos proved they could stop it.... which they couldn't. and if not for that one late F-U-SEATTLE!!!! TD we would have seen the first well deserved superbowl shutout in history.

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oh yeah, and to answer the OP's question.... hell no this isn't the greatest defense of all time. not even close. this super bowl was more about a one dimensional denver broncos team (that dimension being peyton manning) shitting the bed and having its one dimension taken away, which meant that the team was just about as bad/useless as the colts proved to be during their #Suck4Luck season.

without the threat of peyton manning chucking the ball all over the field to his wideouts/TEs, who's really afraid of knowshon moreno and montee ball? wasn't knowshon pretty much a bust and beaten out by willis mcgahee when he was drafted with a ~top10 pick? yeah, once peyton comes to town and you're up against montee ball and that other dude they have at RB..... (edit: Ronnie freakin' Hillman!) its not hard to look great and get a bucketload of touchdowns and ~4.5ypc or whatever. but in that any given sunday scenario when a defense manages to rattle the great 37-38 year old peyton manning, yeah, the team was exposed as being exceedingly mediocre when peyton manning isn't out there leading them on long time consuming drives to keep that defense off of the field.

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I might agree with you if the rolling out offense they used was done by someone else, but even at Marinos height of mobility, I cant picture him as a threat if they are prepared for it.

Designed roll outs way or another gets more time for the qb. That is a coach that isnt stubborn and just admits they cant stop the pressure. Very few would ever admit this.

Last night the coach and Qb should have admitted they couldnt stop the pressure.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

They tried rolling Manning out a few times in the second half. It looked awful.

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It wasn't just this game. They've did this all season and they've pretty much done this for the last 3 seasons.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I think the Bears defense in both '84 and '86 was as good as the Seahawk "D" but no SB Rings to prove it.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

have to include the Giants in that discussion

The best ever is pretty subjective but they are there

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

They are different defenses but SF is just as good. Remember, Aldon Smith took a vacation for most of the year.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Bears fans might have wanted tight end Martellus Bennett to help recruit brother Michael to Chicago this offseason, but now the Seahawks defensive lineman might not be so popular in these parts.

"We're the best defense since the '85 Bears," Bennett said after the Seahawks' win in the Super Bowl on Sunday night.

But there's more, as the younger Bennett replied he believes the 2013 Seahawks would beat the 1985 Shufflin' Crew.

That won't win him any popularity contests in the Windy City, as that group coached by Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan claim the franchise's lone Super Bowl title, but it raises an interesting question of which defense is better.

[MORE: Super Bowl: Seahawks defense 'legend' doesn’t work]

Ditka himself was asked that question prior to Seattle's impressive showing Sunday, and Da Coach responded that those Bears had a better front seven while the Seahawks likely have a better secondary. It's a strong point, as Seattle's "Legion of Boom" secondary wreaked havoc on opposing offenses this season while the 1985 front seven for the Monsters in the Midway featured three Hall of Famers in Mike Singletary, Richard Dent and Dan Hampton.

So, in a hypothetical battle between two great defenses, who wins?

That Bears offensive line is better than any O-line currently in the NFL. The Bears would beat the Seahawks by 20, just like they did the NY Giants that year which is also a better team than this current Seahawk team.

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You know me like that.

I'm not old enough to really appreciate man of those teams in the early 80's, but from what I'm reading being a "dirty" and intimidating defense is what elevates those defenses above a defense like Seattle's. I don't think you should overlook the way the game has changed today. How good would those teams be with the rules we have today?

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I never considered any of those teams dirty. They were just loaded with talented guys.

The game is different, sure. You can't hit quite the way you used to. But, those teams were crazy talented defensively. They'd thrive under any set of rules. The Bears front 7 of Perry, Hamp, Mongo, Dent, Marshall, Wilson, and Singletary - I'll bet each of them went to multiple Pro-Bowls, I'm sure of it except for Perry possibly. Plus the secondary was above-average with a couple other guys that were top 5 at their position. It was a ridiculous collection of talent.

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You know me like that.

I'd put them on par with the '02 Buccaneers defense. They're one of the best ever but you'll forget about them in five years.

I think their window is bigger. They have a lot of young talent and they draft well. There was also a poll that showed most of the players in the league want to play for Cheatin Pete.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I think the salary cap and free agency will take care of that.


They're not gonna keep finding pro bowlers in the 4th and 5th rds. If they do, good for them, but I dont think its likely.

I think they look for system players. IIRC they don't have to pay Russell for 2 more years.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!