Banner Graphic, Volume 16, Number 142, Greencastle, Putnam County, 27 January 1986 — Page 7

Bears, like totally awesome Super Bowl champs

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The Chicago Bears lived up to their history, and by halftime at the Super Bowl the New England Patriots were history. The Bears, every bit as monstrous as anything that ever roamed the midway when George Halas was their Papa, grabbed New England on Sunday the way they had grabbed everything else this season in the NFL by the throat. When they let go, after 60 of the most devastating minutes this extravaganza has seen in its 20 years, the Bears were 4610 winners and convincingly, emphatically, unquestionably masters of their universe. They had scored more points than any Super Bowl team and had won by a bigger margin than any other. “They came after what they thought was theirs and they walked off the field with it,” New England cornerback Raymond Clayborn said. “They were clearly the better team.” They have won but one Super Bowl and they are being called a dynasty. A 15-1 season, two playoff shutouts and a Super Bowl like this will do that. But Coach Mike Ditka doesn’t look at it quite that way. “It’s one thing to get here, but it’s very, very hard to repeat,” he said. “You see teams like the Raiders, the Redskins, the 49ers, and you find out how hard it is.” Hard times could await the Bears next year, but even if they do, it will be even harder to match the ease of this postseason. The playoff shutouts of the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rame were merely a prelude to this laugher. No Super shutout, but by the end of the first quarter the Bears led 13-3, stuffed what little running the Patriots had tried and buried Tony Eason’s passing game. By halftime it was 23-3, Eason was out of the game and even referee Red Cashion seemed awed by the Bears, giving them a gift field goal. By the end of the third quarter it was an embarrassing 44-3 and Chicago had outgained the Patriots 369 yards to 58. All that remained was New England’s only touchdown, an 8-yard pass from Steve

Bock’s Score

Payton deprived of shot at TD

By HAL BOCK AP Sports Writer NEW ORLEANS (AP) - You be the coach. You’ve got the ball on the other team’s doorstep, first and goal from the 1yard line. You’re leading 37-3 in a nocontest Super Bowl. Lined up in the backfield, you’ve got the greatest ground-gainer in National Football League history, a man who was your team’s trademark long before smartalecky headbands and the “Super Bowl Shuffle” became fashionable. Alongside him, you have the NFL’s newest cult hero, a 308-pound rookie defensive linemen who has made fat fashionable again. OK, coach, so who gets the ball, Walter Payton or Refrigerator Perry? Mike Ditka went with his eating machine. Perry barrelled into the end zone, ballooning the score against New England to 44-3. Payton went home with 22 carries and 61 yards, but no touchdowns in a game in which he sorely wanted to score one. Even the Fridge was surprised at the play selection. “Coach Ditka called it and I was overwhelmed,” he said. “I thought I was going in to block for Walter.” Yeah, and so did a few other people.

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Grogan to Irving Fryar cut hand and all and the Bears’ exclamation point on defense, a safety when they flattened Grogan in his end zone. “We got our butts handed to us,” Fryar said, and he wasn’t referring to Bears quarterback Jim McMahon’s acupunctured rump. It was Buddy Ryan’s “46” defense played to perfection, helping produce a “46” offense. The difference in total net yardage was 408-123, the time of possession 39*4 minutes to 20%.

But Perry has become the darling of America’s new team and Ditka apparently couldn’t resist the temptation to send him rolling into the end zone for one more TD. On a first-quarter drive near the goal line with the score 3-3, he even had the Fridge looking to pass on a play in which Perry if you can picture this got his ample self sacked by a gang of Patriots. Chicago settled for a field goal. The Bears had room for all this Refrigerator gimmickry but couldn’t find a close-in carry in their playbook that might have gotten a touchdown for Payton. Everytime the Bears moved in for the kill, they found somebody else to hand the ball to. This was like having the Chicago Cubs reach the World Series and then pin-ch-hit for Ernie Banks. You just don’t do that.

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“We’ve got great ballplayers on defense,” Richard Dent, the Most Valuable Player, said, “and with a guy like Buddy Ryan setting up the game plan, there’s no reason we can’t have a lot more great days like today.” “I knew they were going to have a hard time when I saw our defense perform early,” Ditka said. “We turned the ball over on the second play of the game and they were lucky to get three points. That’s great defense.” That set the tone for the game. Walter

“I’m disappointed Walter didn’t score,” Ditka said, “but our plays on the goal line were not designed for him to score.” Maybe they ought to be. Payton has, after all, managed to locate the end zone 98 times before on running plays some long, some short in 11 brilliant seasons. “He complements our offense,” Ditka continued. “You can’t hand it to him every time.” Maybe not, but in a blow-out situation like this one, compassion might have dictated calling Payton’s number. After all, if Payton only complements the offense now hundred-yard games, is a nice complement he was virtually the entire Bears offense for years. He has contributed to this team and this league, and he deserved to have his name in the scoring column when the Bears reached the world championship.

Payton’s fumble was covered by linebacker Larry McGrew on the Chicago 19-yard line. The Patriots, who had eaten the postseason opposition alive with forced turnovers, were salivating. But they were left with an empty feeling. Three passes fell incomplete and they settled for Tony Franklin’s 36-yard field goal. The Patriots ran the ball only 11 times at the Chicago defense all game, and didn’t even try until they had discovered they couldn’t pass against it, either. “They can’t say they stopped our running game

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... because we didn’t run it,” said a frustrated Craig James, who gained one yard on five carries. Dent led the charge that sacked Eason and Grogan a record-tying seven times and forced fumbles by Eason and James, two of the Patriots’ six turnovers. McMahon, who finished with completions on 12 of 20 passs for 256 yards before suffering a slightly sprained left wrist late in the third quarter, cranked up the Chicago offense on its second possession, a 43-yard pass to sprinter Willie Gault that paved the way to the first of Kevin Butler’s three field goals, a 28yarder that tied it 3-3. Later in the quarter, Dent separated Eason from the ball and Dan Hampton recovered at the Patriots’ 13. The Bears tried everything to get into the end zone including a William Perry pass (the Refrigerator was sacked for a 1-yard loss) and Butler untied it with a 24-yard field goal. Back came the Patriots for one play. Dent caused James to fumble, Mike Singletary recovered on the New England 13, and on second down Matt Suhey took a pitchout and sliced through the left side of the strung-out defense for the touchdown. The rout was on. McMahon, in between switching headbands, made it 20-3 midway in the second quarter with a 2-yard dive to cap a 59-yard drive, 24 of them on his pass to Suhey. And in the final three minutes of the half, McMahon showed how hard he can throw and how fast he can think. He guided the Bears from their 20 to the New England 3-yard line, passing 14 yards to Dennis Gentry and 29 to Ken Margerum along the way. He had no timeouts left when, with about 10 seconds, he was stopped 2 yards shy of the goal line. Players on both teams were scuffling. Clearly the Bears would not get another play off. So McMahon just grabbed the ball and flung it out of bounds. Flags flew. Illegal procedure. Five-yard penalty. And with the final three seconds ticking, Butler’s second 24-yard field goal.

January 27,1986, The Putnam County Banner Graphic

Cashion, the referee, and the rest of the officials had blown it. In the final two minutes, when a team out of time-outs deliberately tries to grab extra time by such ploys, the ref is supposed to run off 10 seconds. With three seconds left, Cashion was supposed to wave the first half over. Was McMahon aware Cashion had erred? “That’s his problem,” McMahon snorted. And New England’s. Once points are on the board, an official’s error cannot take them off.

Patriots dug their own grave NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The one thing you don’t want to do to the Chicago Bears’ defensive unit is to make them mad. They’re tough enough when they’re playing placid. On the second play from scrimmage, Patriot linebacker Don Blackmon stripped the ball from Walter Payton and Larry McGrew covered the fumble at the Bears’ 19-yard line. Ordinarily, this would seem to be an advantage for New England. In this case, however, it turned into trouble because it brought the Bear defenders on the field. And they arrived in ill humor. “We were looking for something,” middle linebacker Mike Singletary said. “We always need something to motivate us. The fumble would have been a negative for a lot of teams. It was a positive for us. It put us in a crucial situation, so we could see what we could do early.” Linebacker Otis Wilson, who had predicted a shutout, which would have been the first in Super Bowl history, thought that first series was a turning point. “No question,” he said. “When we’re put in a situation with our backs to the wall, we come out fighting. That’s what we had to do.”