Windy City Gridiron
An old adversary came to town on January 14th, 2007.
Mike Holmgren, the former head coach of the Green Bay Packers of the 90’s who combined with Brett Favre to torment the Bears so, came back to Chicago, this time in the NFC Divisional playoffs.
The Bears exorcised some demons against the Seahawks in week 4, blowing them out 37-6, that was a Seahawks team that entered that game 3-0.
They would go on to win the weak NFC West with a 9-7 season, dispatching the Dallas Cowboys in the wildcard round, 21-20 in the infamous fumbled snap of a field goal attempt late in the 4th quarter.
Fueled by that, the Seahawks gave the NFC’s #1 seed all they could handle.
In a back and forth affair, which saw both teams trade scores essentially throughout the contest, the Bears either held the lead or were tied for the majority of the game.
Until Shaun Alexander rumbled in for a 13-yard touchdown, giving the Seahawks a 24-21 lead with 4:57 to play in the 3rd quarter. Teams would trade possessions until late in the 4th quarter where the Bears put together a 11 play 58-yard drive to kick a 41-yard field goal to tie it up.
Both teams traded possessions, and headed into overtime. The Seahawks won the toss and elected to receiver, this was an era of sudden death overtime, as a reminder, they would drive to their own 48 but the Bears defense stiffened and forced a put.
With the ball on their own 34, a run for no gain and a incompletion, the Bears were facing a 3rd and 10, and that’s when Rex Grossman hit depth receiver Rashied Davis for 30-yards down the seam.
Cedric Benson would pick up 4 yards on 2 carries, setting up a 49-yard field goal attempt by Robbie Gould to send the Bears to the NFC Championship.
And like his name, well, he was good as Gould.
The Bears defense in the mid to late 80’s was, well, we really don’t need to do much diving, most of us here know very well about how good those squads were.
But the ‘84 defense stands out specifically for 1 reason: It’s ability to sack the quarterback, and on the year they did it a lot. NFL record a lot. 72 sacks in a season a lot. 4.5 sacks a game a lot.
But one of their toughest tests came in the Divisional round, in Joe Theismann and his #3 ranked offense with the Washington Redskins.
The defense was as tenacious as advertised, getting to the quarterback 7 times, including 3 sacks from Richard Dent, and 3 from Dan Hampton.
But it was a lesser known...
