The Games That Changed the Game

by Ron Jaworski

  On third-and-21, the Bears were quite content to give up a pass over the middle to Newsome that fell short of the first down. It was the last play of the quarter, but just the start of Chicago’s defensive dominance. Danny White admitted, “We needed to stop the game at the end of the first quarter, go take a week off, prepare for what we’d just seen, then come back, and play the remaining three quarters. You’re always looking to find a solution, and we never did find it. We didn’t have a clue.”

  Cowboys Series No. 6

  2nd Quarter, 9:37 remaining: Chicago 10, Dallas 0

  The Bears’ offense was finally able to get on track at the beginning of the second quarter, and although its scoring drive resulted in only a field goal, it did eat up more than five minutes of game clock, giving the defense a badly needed rest. Chicago’s defenders returned to action refreshed and just as ferocious. White began with a screen pass to Newsome that picked up 6 yards but came at a cost. As soon as the quarterback released, he was clobbered by Perry. Danny managed to get to his feet and return to the huddle, but moments later he probably wished he hadn’t. On second-and-4, the Bears went back to a 46 front. This time both Wilson and Marshall blitzed, but only Marshall got picked up. Once again Wilson came barreling in and drilled White in the back as he fired, incomplete, toward Cosbie. The Cowboys tight end was actually wide open and could have gone a long way if White had gotten the ball to him in time, but Danny never had a chance because the pressure was on him too quickly. Dallas had given Wilson an easy path also known as a “short corner,” since it had no tight end or back on Wilson’s and Marshall’s side when Chicago was in the 46. This was a disastrous offensive design and a flawed pass protection concept to use against a team like the Bears.

  In a postgame interview, Wilson told reporters, “When we shifted into our ‘over-under’ defense, their line could see who they needed to block. But then we would change our fronts while they were calling blitz protection, so now they’ve got to change their blocking scheme all over again. That’s when them boys have to think. You know, linemen don’t think a lot.”

  After the play ended, it was clear that White had been hurt by Wilson’s hit, and he had to be helped to the sidelines. “Our multiple protection packages worked fine against conventional defenses but not against the 46,” the quarterback confessed. “We needed a simpler blocking scheme in 1985, and we just didn’t have it. Otis Wilson was in the right place at the right time that day. When we slid right, he was coming from the left. He never seemed to have anyone blocking him. We made him an All-Pro that day for sure. I still have knots on my body today from all those hits.” Wilson was indeed named an All-Pro in 1985, for the only time in his nine-year career.

  With White on the bench, the Cowboys handed the controls to backup Gary Hogeboom, who was rushed into the game with no time to get loose. Small wonder, then, that his first play was a poorly thrown third-down pass that Duerson nearly picked off. Dallas punted but would be back on the field just a few minutes later after another Bears offensive series went nowhere. Although the quick drive had given Hogeboom time to throw some warm-up tosses on the bench, they didn’t help.

  Cowboys Series No. 7

  2nd Quarter, 5:49 remaining: Chicago 10, Dallas 0

  Hogeboom had watched most of the first half from the bench and seen the Bears’ stunning variety of looks and schemes. But on his first and only play of this possession he found himself staring at yet another different front—a 3–4—with Dent standing up as a linebacker on the weak side. This time Buddy sent five rushers, with Wilson blitzing from Dent’s side, and again Dallas did not account for Otis. Under normal circumstances, the right tackle Cooper would have tried to block the Bears linebacker, but he was aligned across from Hampton and followed Dan as he went inside. Both Cosbie and Newsome took off on pass routes, so they weren’t available to block Wilson either. Dorsett couldn’t help because he was on the other side of the formation. So here comes an unblocked Wilson—again! Hogeboom saw that now familiar number 55 heading his way and quickly got rid of the ball, thinking that the intended target, Renfro, would be breaking inside. Unfortunately for Dallas, Renfro broke the other way, and the pass went right into the hands of Mike Richardson. Not a Cowboy was in sight as Richardson chugged 36 yards for the touchdown, the second defensive score of the half.

  Cowboys Series No. 8

  2nd Quarter, 5:31 remaining: Chicago 17, Dallas 0

  Poor Gary Hogeboom. The guy gets thrown ice-cold into the game, nearly gets his first pass picked off, then has his next pass intercepted for a touchdown. Things couldn’t get much worse, could they?

  On the first play of his next series, Hogeboom threw a deep post route pass to Tony Hill. But Leslie Frazier was right there with Hill and intercepted the overthrow, returning it 33 yards. The injured Jim McMahon saw the play unfold from the bench and wasn’t the least bit surprised. “I thought Leslie Frazier was the best corner I’d ever seen,” he said. “I played against him every day in practice and watched him in games. He was just incredibly smooth, could run, and had really long arms to snatch the ball away from receivers.” CBS analyst John Madden was equally impressed. Watching the tape of the TV broadcast, I heard John say, “To make the 46 work, you need two corners who can be out there on an island and cover the receiver. The Bears have that with Frazier and Richardson. Because they play man-to-man so well, it allows Buddy Ryan to send more guys in to rush the quarterback.”

  From midfield, it took the Bears only five plays to score against a now dispirited Dallas defense. A Steve Fuller quarterback sneak from the 1 earned Chicago’s offense its first touchdown of the game.

  Cowboys Series No. 9

  2nd Quarter, 2:52 remaining: Chicago 24, Dallas 0

  Hogeboom finally executed a positive play on the first snap of this series, rolling to his right to avoid McMichael, then hitting reserve tight end Fred Cornwell for a 32-yard completion. On the following play, however, the Bears’ pressure forced Hogeboom to throw into double coverage, and the pass went incomplete. It was confusion, not pressure, that ruined Hogeboom’s next pass. The Cowboys’ backup quarterback, obviously still shell-shocked from the Bears’ blitzes, dropped back frantically, expecting quick pressure. But Buddy was playing mind games once again, and this one probably gave him a good chuckle. After the snap, there was virtually no pressure, as most of Chicago’s defenders dropped off into coverage. But Hogeboom was so psyched out at this point that he hurried needlessly, then threw off balance and incomplete to rookie wide receiver Leon Gonzalez. After a nervous Newsome juggled and dropped a third-down pass that would have been good enough to sustain the drive, Dallas punted away.

  Cowboys Series No. 10

  2nd Quarter, 0:29 remaining: Chicago 24, Dallas 0

  Chicago took over with little more than two minutes remaining, but following two solid gains that got them into Dallas territory, Fuller was intercepted, and the Cowboys were granted one final possession with a half minute to play. After Richardson broke up a throw to Gonzalez, Hogeboom completed a screen pass to Dorsett for 16 yards. On the CBS telecast, John Madden was appalled. “It’s really bad heading into halftime and the only thing Dallas has going is a screen pass. You need a bigger grocery list than this.” The half finally ended with a McMichael sack on Hogeboom and a harmless Hail Mary pass that, like the Dallas offense, went nowhere.

  The embarrassed Cowboys left the field knowing they were finished, even though an entire half remained to be played. “We were a ball-control, move-the-chains kind of team—and when they knocked us out of that mode, we were done,” admitted White. “We kept trying to go with the short stuff, and that wasn’t going to work. We would have been better off throwing jump balls downfield, hoping to hit one out of every three. We couldn’t have done any worse than what we actually tried that game.”

  The man with the best seat in the house to witness Chicago’s carnage was Gary Fencik. “As the free safety that day, I didn’t have a whole lot to do,” he recalled. “Ne
ither Duerson nor myself had to roll up, because the rest of our defense had nullified their inside running attack. I watched a good game and had a great view of everything. Gaps were opening wide, and it wasn’t like we were always knocking people down to create them. The Cowboys’ whole protection scheme just collapsed. Usually teams can say, ‘Wait until halftime, and we’ll correct things with blocking adjustments.’ They never did. And then the fun really began in the second half. I’d never been on a Bears team that had beaten Dallas, and we wanted to let them know, ‘You’re not America’s Team anymore—at least not this year.’ ”

  Cowboys Series No. 1

  3rd Quarter, 14:52 remaining: Chicago 24, Dallas 0

  For the first time since early in the first quarter, Cowboys fans let out a hearty roar—but it had nothing to do with any action on the field. Gary Hogeboom had performed so poorly that Dallas fans cheered when Danny White trotted onto the field to start the second half, despite his injury. Unfortunately, his return would be short—and painful.

  After running the ball only six times the entire first half, the Cowboys handed off to Dorsett on their first three plays and picked up good yardage. Dallas was trying anything to slow down Chicago’s overpowering pass rush, but the Bears could afford to be patient. With their sizeable lead, they knew that White would have to put it up eventually, and when he finally did, the demolition derby picked up right where it left off. On the fourth play of the drive, White ran a play-fake to Dorsett. Tony was so focused on executing the fake that he ignored his blitz-pickup responsibilities, allowing the ever-present Otis Wilson to charge in untouched. White had the presence of mind to get rid of the ball, but it landed well behind the intended receiver.

  The next play was a clear-cut example of the blocking blind spots in the Cowboys’ system against the Bears’ defense. Chicago’s linemen completely tied up the left side of the Dallas offensive line, leaving only Dorsett in the backfield to protect. Everyone else had run out into the pattern. The Bears called a BTF that sent both Duerson and Singletary on inside blitzes. Dorsett now faced the football equivalent of choosing death by hanging or firing squad. He could block one of the blitzers, but not both. Hoping for a miracle, Tony tied up Singletary. However, White could not escape Duerson, who leveled the Dallas quarterback for a 14-yard loss. The Cowboys punted but quickly returned to action after their defense held on three downs. Any hint of satisfaction quickly evaporated after another coffin-corner punt from Buford wedged Dallas inside its own 5-yard line. Master sergeant Buddy Ryan smelled blood and sent his shock troops in for the kill.

  Cowboys Series No. 2

  3rd Quarter, 11:40 remaining: Chicago 24, Dallas 0

  Dorsett opened with a run that barely avoided disaster. Singletary shot the gap between two Dallas linemen, nearly tackling the running back in the end zone. Somehow Dorsett escaped to pick up 3 yards, and then another run put White in a manageable third-and-short situation. Danny completed a quick toss to Renfro to earn a fresh set of downs, but White’s next play would be his last.

  The Bears once again came out in the 46, with Duerson aligned in the gap between center Tom Rafferty and left guard Titensor. Following the snap, Titensor was forced to react to Duerson, whose pre-snap proximity put him closer to White than tackle William Perry. The Refrigerator rushed directly at White, forcing Danny to step up in the pocket. The good news for Dallas was that the motion receiver, Ren-fro, inadvertently found himself in position to block Otis Wilson, a rare event in this game. The bad news was that Renfro’s block did little to slow Wilson down. Otis quickly got to his feet and found himself in perfect position to sack White from the blind side for an 8-yard loss.

  Danny was on the turf, and it would be a while before he got up. A cart was brought onto the field, but White refused to get on it, eventually rising on his own and limping to the sideline. “On that play, I thought Wilson had broken my neck,” White recalled painfully. In a way, he must have been relieved that his day was finally over. “I hate to admit this, but this was the only time in my career where my thought process was to get rid of the ball as quickly as I could. I wasn’t even trying to read anything by that point. I was just looking for someplace to throw. When you can get a quarterback to watch the rush and not look at the secondary, then you’ve got him. I knew on virtually every play someone was going to be unblocked, but I never knew where he was, and my linemen didn’t know where he was either. The Bears just completely destroyed the rhythm of our offense.”

  In 1985 Rex Ryan was in his senior year at Southwestern Oklahoma State, and had made the four-hour-plus drive from college to watch his father’s team play in Dallas. “I got back to campus the next day, and one of the comments I overheard was, ‘From now on, whenever Danny White drives down the highway, he’ll be flinching, because every time he sees that number 55, he’ll be thinking it’s Otis Wilson instead of the speed limit sign.’ Once Danny was gone, Dad’s defense was gonna be just as rough on Hogeboom.”

  I’m sure Hogeboom was nervous when he came back on the field and was probably looking for help anywhere he could find it. Early in the drive, it turned out that his best offensive weapon was a penalty flag. On a deep throw, Richardson drew a questionable 44-yard pass interference call, putting Dallas in Chicago territory. But even that failed to spark the Cowboys’ attack. The Bears continued to apply pressure, while also preventing Dallas backs from releasing cleanly into their receiving routes. During those rare moments when a Cowboys play was properly executed, it still ended disastrously, thanks to Chicago’s superior talent.

  A perfect example came on the last play of the drive, a deep third-and-10 throw from Hogeboom to Hill. The pass, well timed down the left sideline, was within Hill’s reach, and he had Frazier one-on-one. But Frazier blanketed his man perfectly, and the pass fell incomplete. All game long, both Bears cornerbacks were outstanding in single coverage. At the time, neither Frazier nor Richardson was viewed as a shut-down corner. But the nature of the 46 dictated that both of these guys would be put on an island, and against Dallas they won virtually every battle.

  By early in the final quarter, the Bears had tacked on two field goals, extending their lead to 30–0. At this point, all the numbers were bad for Dallas, and they were only getting worse: The Cowboys ran fifteen plays during the third quarter for a grand total of 9 yards. Their futility extended into the final fifteen minutes, with their last three possessions netting a mere 24 yards. And in the remaining twenty minutes of the second half, the Cowboys made just one first down.

  “Over by our bench, I was standing next to Dave Duerson,” recalled Otis Wilson. “I told Dave that we were like a pack of wild dogs, killing each other to be the first guy to the football. Then I began barking, and Dave did the same. Before you knew it, some of the other guys picked it up, and the fans started doing it at the rest of our home games.” For the balance of the season, the chorus of dog barks became the signature battle cry of the Bears’ defense.

  wo reserve running backs scored Chicago’s last two touchdowns, swelling the final score to 44–0. By early in the fourth quarter, Ditka had removed his offensive starters out of respect for his coaching mentor Landry. Buddy Ryan did not. His regulars remained on the field until late in the game, and whoever did line up on defense was still blitzing to the end. Leslie Frazier was not surprised, saying, “Buddy realized they had no answer for what we were doing and was the kind of guy who’d sense this and ramp up the pressure even more—show no mercy.” Singletary said later, “There are lots of words to describe the ‘85 Bears. Bullies is one word I hate to use, because I’ve never liked bullies. But I guess when you look back at us, that’s what we were.”

  Mike Ditka was deeply embarrassed for his former team. “I never felt worse at the end of a game than I did that day in Dallas,” he revealed. “I tried to tell Buddy to call off the dogs, because you come to a point where the thing’s out of hand and you should just pull back. We had broken their spirit—their offense could do nothing against ou
r defense. Nothing. But our guys wanted to have their fun. Maybe if the shoe had been on the other foot, they’d have done the same to us.” Rex Ryan had watched his father’s teams lose to the Cowboys many times and understood what was going on. “Dad never could stand Dallas. He wanted a beat-down. He wanted to kick their ass.”

  Years later, Cowboys defensive back Dennis Thurman still couldn’t believe what had happened. “I played eight seasons there, and I have never seen a Dallas team get taken apart the way we were that day.” The 44–0 wipeout marked the beginning of the end of the Landry era. The Cowboys staggered through their remaining games, barely making the playoffs. They were easily dispatched in the opening round and did not have another winning season until 1991, two years after Landry had been replaced by Jimmy Johnson—only the second head coach since the franchise’s inception in 1960.

  he destruction continued for another week as the Bears skunked Atlanta, 36–0. During this stretch of their schedule, the defense actually scored more points than it allowed! At this point many believed the 12–0 Bears were on their way to a perfect season. Leave it to my former coach Don Shula to figure out a way to beat the 46. I played for Don in 1987 and ‘88 and learned first-hand why he has won more games than any coach in league history. His ‘72 Dolphins remain the only NFL team to complete a perfect season, and his ‘85 Miami team made sure that Chicago didn’t duplicate that accomplishment. In front of the biggest TV audience in the history of Monday Night Football, quarterback Dan Marino and the Dolphins did what nobody else could do that year: They moved the ball at will and beat Chicago decisively.