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the record setting defense that made the '85 Bears champions
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00:00Hello, I'm Chris Fowler, and welcome to SportsCentury.
00:03The Chicago Bears once carried the flame of their big-shouldered, blue-collar town in the form of a welder's
00:09torch.
00:10They came straight at you, wrote Jim Murray, and crippled you and sent flowers later.
00:16Then, after winning their eighth NFL title in 1963, the Bears slipped deep into mediocrity.
00:22Enter Buddy Ryan in 1978, a defensive coordinator as brilliant as a diamond and just as hard.
00:28Armored with a secret weapon that came to be called the 46 defense.
00:36And look at these fans at Toker Field. They're on their feet for the defense.
00:42Our whole deal was to attack, attack, attack, and that's the way everybody had it.
00:47You didn't stop, though. You want to win a football game, but you got a chance to eliminate him.
00:52You're thinking, I can hit a harder. In fact, the last guy he hit, he should have gotten up.
00:57Now, it was those type of feelings that Buddy was able to bring to this team.
01:02Mark Wilson, still down on the turf, has not moved.
01:06He didn't ever try to hurt anybody, but he wanted you to take players out.
01:10If you could take them out clean, yeah, I'll take them out.
01:12That was the thing about Buddy Ryan. He not only wanted to beat you, he wanted to punish you.
01:16Then he wanted to laugh at you.
01:17Todd Bell, Washington playoff game, 1984. First play of the second quarter, he almost killed Joe Washington.
01:23Guys hit again, big rush on it. Gets it away, Washington!
01:27Calvin Muhammad was so scared that he caught a ball and ran a few steps and dropped it before somebody
01:33could even hit him.
01:34One thing about the 46, it definitely created an intimidation factor.
01:48Doug Plank. Plank is another name. You say Plank of Wood, and yeah, he laid the wood.
01:57Used in third down situations. But after eight future Pro Bowlers were acquired between 1979 and 1984,
02:05Ryan's 46 evolved into the Bears' basic weapon.
02:09The 46 defense, its main purpose was to get the quarterback. And let's see how good the second team quarterback
02:17is.
02:17The general philosophy of the 46 defense was 11 men on offense, 11 men on defense.
02:24When you count the quarterback, someone's going to come freely.
02:27It messes with your blocking scheme as far as, you know, okay, who do you pick up?
02:31Which way do you slide? Is this guy the rush guy? Is that guy the rush guy?
02:34Here's what it is. See, they put the three linemen right in here, cover both guards in the center.
02:41Then they have their middle linebacker, 50 Singletary, here, who's free to go up and down.
02:47They bring their strong safety, play him here as a weak backer. They put two backers over the tight end.
02:54What this defense caused you to do was almost every time you saw it, you had to get out of
02:59certain plays and get into other plays.
03:01The three guys in the middle, it started with them. They had to apply pressure.
03:06You can't apply pressure, and you can't play the 46 defense.
03:09The biggest factor is you just weren't going to be able to run against it.
03:12Oh, this is the toughest team in the NFL against the run.
03:15You had to throw, because they had too many people right at the line of scrimmage.
03:20Guess what?
03:20Then they beat the crap out of your quarterback.
03:23We have literally seven great pass rushers.
03:28I'm in trouble.
03:29So it was very difficult to pass protect them and still put enough receivers out into their coverage.
03:35The 46 defense was unique in that regard in that it puts a lot of pressure on the secondary.
03:40The corners are typically going to be the men on the island.
03:44You'd like to think that the corners were the ones that you could expose, but there's only one problem with
03:49that.
03:50It's really tough to throw in corners when you're on your back.
03:5320 sacks in two weeks, that's great.
03:55I mean, a lot of quarterbacks are sitting home wondering, oh, man.
03:59I'm next.
04:02People would spend hours preparing for the 46, and yet Buddy might not play the 46 for about 10 times
04:09a game and be just as effective.
04:11Buddy's true genius is the offensive side of the game as well, if not better than the defensive side.
04:19We got a sheet every week with what we called AFC, automatic front and coverage.
04:24If the call came in, we didn't know what the defense was until that offense lined up.
04:28Every time they lined up, it could be a blitzer, it could be a zone, it could be they could
04:31play man.
04:31They got very sophisticated on what they could do with that basic front, and it really was tough to read.
04:36I saw a bunch of guys on the other side of the ball, they didn't know what was going on
04:41and everything.
04:42When they were shifting, we were shifting.
04:43When they moved, we moved.
04:45We could go from a normal four-man front on blitz into a 46 look.
04:51Looks like a Chinese fire drill.
04:53You had to have some real veteran ballplayers who were smart and working together.
04:57You have to have defensive ends that can drop into the zone, cover like Richard did.
05:02You got to have linebackers that can play the run, they can play the pass, they can drop back in
05:06the zone,
05:07which we had that luxury with Senator and Wilbur and myself.
05:10Mike Singletary was a player coach on the field.
05:13Right when you would think you got him cleared out, he would yell shift, and then you would make an
05:17audible on Mike Lerado.
05:18It's really disheartening as an offense to walk up to the line of scrimmage, and he's yelling out the flag.
05:24If you're an offensive lineman and a running back, and you're getting the ball, you're like, man, what do we
05:29have to do against these guys?
05:30You thought they were going to put pressure on you, and all of a sudden they drop seven or eight
05:35into coverage.
05:36Now you're rushing like crazy to get back, and you're standing there, but there's nowhere to go.
05:41I had to use every bit of knowledge and experience and wisdom I had to come up with game plans
05:47to attack this defense.
05:48It's really the most singular innovation in defensive football in the last 20 years.
05:55What is a different kind of individual?
05:56A genius when it comes to defense.
05:58There's no question about that, and he gets the most out of his players, but he crosses the line with
06:04some players.
06:12After playing guard at Oklahoma State, Buddy Ryan rose through the high school and college coaching ranks until he was
06:18hired in 1968 as a defensive line coach for the Jets, with whom he won a Super Bowl ring in
06:23his first season.
06:25After seven more years with New York, Ryan spent two campaigns with the Vikings, helping to win the 1976 NFC
06:32title.
06:33Then he brought his attack mentality to Chicago.
06:37He was a sergeant in the Korean War in 1819, so he was a leader of men, and guess what?
06:45We all realized that the common good was better than, you know, a singular good.
06:51It was duty.
06:52It was boot camp.
06:54It wasn't going to be his fault that the team lost because somebody was tired, or somebody didn't know what
07:00they were doing.
07:00He was a teacher, motivator, technician.
07:03He has the ability to do it all.
07:06A lot of people understand the X's and the O's, but he also understands people.
07:11I always went for two things, intelligence and toughness, because the dumb guy will get you beat, and the guy
07:18that's a coward will get you beat.
07:20So I eliminated all those things.
07:22The first thing he told me is, rookies get you beat me.
07:25I do not play with rookies.
07:27So I had to sit there and sit there and sit there.
07:31Even future Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary wasn't exempt from Ryan's law.
07:38This is my first start.
07:39I was all excited about the game.
07:41I called my mom, I called my sister, and said, hey, you guys got to come.
07:45He had bone his family all in from Houston, same play.
07:49And we go out on the field, and they run a low huddle, and he calls timeout.
07:55Wasted timeout in the first place.
07:57I met him.
07:58Go over there and sit down.
08:00Don't get up until I talk.
08:02Sit down the rest of the game.
08:04It was the most humiliating I've been in my life at the plate.
08:09Once you've got the system down, you know, he'd back away.
08:12But until that point, man, it can be brutal at times.
08:15I went to Oklahoma State to watch the basketball team with Henry Iver, who was one of the great coaches.
08:22And, you know, he'd get on them for mistakes and all that, and then bring them right back with praise.
08:27And that's kind of the way I did it.
08:29With Buddy Ryan, there were those guys that he loved like sons.
08:33And then there were those that he loved.
08:36He had to let Lenny Walterscheid go to make a ring for me, who was one of his sons.
08:41Buddy walked into the room and walked right up to do it and said, I had to cut a hell
08:46of a kid to keep your ass on this team.
08:49I didn't want to, and I hope you prove me wrong.
08:52But I'll tell you this.
08:53If you don't, I'll be one sad son of a bitch for keeping you.
08:59Anybody who ever knew or worked with Buddy Ryan had a love-hate relationship with him.
09:04He doesn't care what you think about him.
09:06It doesn't matter.
09:06Buddy is focused on doing what Buddy wants to do, and he'll say or do anything at a given time.
09:11When we would draft a player, Buddy would have a complaint about him to his sources.
09:17And they would get in the paper, the bridge was too fast, the singletary's too short, Otis Wilson was too
09:23dumb.
09:24At times, I wanted to beat him up.
09:25But after sitting down with him, understanding his philosophy, knowing what kind of impact I could make in that defense,
09:34if I knew my responsibilities, made me work harder and made me appreciate his defensive genius.
09:43We had just lost the game, and Buddy began to go around the room.
09:48And he went down the line, and there was not one guy, including myself, that stepped up to say,
09:55you know what, Coach, that was my fight.
09:58Buddy cut off the projector, and he said, you know what, we have a lot of great talent in this
10:02room,
10:03but it's going to go away.
10:05Until we can own our mistakes, until we can talk about them, we've got nothing.
10:10Next week, he began to ask the same people, the same questions.
10:15The guys were saying, oh, that was me, Coach.
10:18I just did a stupid thing.
10:20And I could see a smile on somebody's face.
10:24I knew that for the first time, he realized something special was about to happen.
10:33Going down the hill, and we realized something was going to happen at the end of the season.
10:38That we were giving as much effort as we could, and playing pretty well for our defensive coaches,
10:43specifically Buddy Ryan as a coordinator.
10:45I was pretty sure that we were going to have a coaching change.
10:48And I went to Alan Page and said we should write a letter to George Howell.
10:52It wasn't going to benefit the organization to get rid of the entire coaching staff.
11:00The defense was performing well, so the letter got written.
11:05Basically said that we thought that our defensive coaching staff had done a great job.
11:09Like he goes to bat for us, we went to bat for him.
11:11I mean, we got together and said, we can't lose this guy.
11:15George Howell showed up at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center on a very snowy day.
11:20And said, I've been here in Chicago, worried about this football team for 60 years.
11:27And I have never heard or seen a witness, a group of people that so loved and cared about their
11:36coaches.
11:37It was Christmas Eve.
11:39They called a press conference and said that Buddy Ryan was going to stay.
11:43And that made it difficult for whoever was going to be the head coach right off the bat.
11:49Four weeks later, George Howell hired former Bears tight end Mike Ditka as his new head coach.
11:55I wouldn't have took the job the way he took it.
11:57But, you know, he wanted the job bad, so he took it.
12:00Probably a little animosity when I came in there because I think Buddy thought he was the next heir apparent.
12:05And I don't blame him.
12:07But, you know, I think things happen for reasons.
12:10This is very intentional by George Howell.
12:12He used to promote friction among his staff.
12:15So to hire Ryan and then bring in Ditka was just a continuation of what Halis grew up doing.
12:23Buddy knew what he wanted.
12:25The sign that said above his desk said, if you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.
12:29And Buddy wanted to be that lead dog.
12:31Really the first year, we were off to see Buddy.
12:34Another future head coach, Jeff Fisher.
12:38It paid off that they hired Ditka.
12:43Halis just didn't live to see it.
12:45And I said, what's wrong?
12:46He goes, Ditka, he wants me to run the flex defense like he did down in Dallas.
12:50I said, what'd you tell him?
12:51Because I told him that he's the head coach.
12:53He can run whatever defense he wants.
12:55Because I'll be down on my farm in Kentucky.
12:57Generally, if head coach speak, everybody kind of moves.
13:00In this case, it wasn't like that.
13:02Here it coach spoke.
13:04The defense coach had time to say.
13:07As a defensive player, you get caught in the middle.
13:09My rookie year, 84.
13:11Mike wanted me to go in and cover a certain receiver from the Vikings.
13:16And Buddy wanted to change things.
13:19Mike would send me in.
13:20Next play, Buddy would pull me out.
13:22Next play, Mike would send me back in.
13:24And Buddy would send me back out.
13:26The next day at the meeting, Buddy turns her film off.
13:29And he says, son, I don't care if Jesus Christ himself sent you in the game.
13:34I tell you to sit.
13:35I tell you to play, you follow what I do.
13:37Buddy kind of had a divide and conquer attitude.
13:40It was us against our opponent.
13:41Us against the offense.
13:43Us against the head coach.
13:44We were going to win the Super Bowl in spite of Coach Ditka.
13:48I used to tell Jim Finks, the general manager, he could charge to watch practice.
13:53It was that good.
13:53It's always the job of the defense to give the offense a picture and vice versa of teams
13:58that are coming up.
13:59Well, you know, the Bears would play defense against the Bears offense.
14:04They would jump into the 46.
14:06We had to explain to the defense and the Buddy that we weren't playing the Bears that year.
14:11We had no idea.
14:11I looked at the schedule.
14:13They weren't on the schedule.
14:14So, therefore, let's play against Detroit and Green Bay.
14:17During many of the practices, if there was some penetration on the defense into the backfield,
14:23Mike Vicken might say something like, the next time that guy comes through the line, cut his ass.
14:28Which basically means dive at his knees.
14:32As soon as Buddy would hear that, he would say, okay, we're sending everybody on the next play.
14:40Despite the feud, the Bears won their first 12 games in 1985.
14:44But when their celebrated defense faltered during a Monday night game in Miami, giving up 31 points by halftime,
14:52the antagonism between Ryan and Ditka reached a new height.
14:56Mike told him to put in a nickel package right before half.
15:00He stayed at the 4-3.
15:02And Marino took him right down the field and scored.
15:05He just ripped those strings.
15:06And did the chase into the locker room and the players had to separate him.
15:09Mike didn't agree with the way we were covering some of their receivers.
15:12He told Buddy so.
15:13And Buddy basically told him to mind his own business and pretty graphic terms.
15:17And Mike wasn't going to take any of that.
15:19Buddy and I had a few words.
15:21Buddy's his own man.
15:22I don't think he goes to anybody else who's drama.
15:25He wouldn't start to go to mine.
15:26We didn't have any relationship.
15:28But, I mean, I coached defense.
15:30That's what George Alvarez hired me to do.
15:33And I did it my way.
15:35In an abstract way, we spent on it.
15:37Because we realized that if we're giving up 30 points a game, Buddy can't walk tall.
15:42And we didn't want that to happen.
15:43We wanted Buddy to walk 6'8".
15:45The part that hurt Ditka the most was that a lot of those defensive players
15:49almost looked at Buddy Ryan as the head coach.
15:52Knowing how thick-skinned Coach Ditka was,
15:55knowing how thick-skinned Buddy was,
15:57just didn't think about it.
15:59Sometimes their opinions get in the way.
16:01But, we're talented enough.
16:03And we can continue to go forward.
16:13Mike told us,
16:14look, I want my offense to win four or five games for me.
16:16My defense has to win this season.
16:18I'm not a fool.
16:19I know the Shethlap Football Team was our defense.
16:23Operating with the seek-and-destroy intensity of a Delta Force,
16:27the 46th was the scourge of the NFL in 1985.
16:31Ryan's troops created 54 turnovers,
16:34made 64 sacks,
16:36and scored five touchdowns on their own.
16:39The turnovers were really the heart of the Chicago Bears' defense.
16:43I mean, that was their intent,
16:44not only with their scheme,
16:46but also with their physical play.
16:48The number one they would detail is turnovers,
16:51get the ball back for the offense so they can score.
16:54The signature moment for me personally was the Dallas Cowboys.
16:57We were pissed off for the fact that
16:58who named them the America's team?
17:00I'm like, where did that come from?
17:02So we wanted to show people that we were America's team.
17:06What?
17:09That came from them having an extended period of success
17:13during the 60s and 70s.
17:19They came to Texas Stadium, man,
17:21and they handed it to us.
17:23It was the only time in my career
17:27when I could say my objective coming away from the center
17:31was to get rid of the ball as quickly as I could.
17:34But when you have that,
17:35you have a great environment for turnovers.
17:37And the score now is the Chicago defense,
17:4014, the Cowboys nothing.
17:45That defense really catered to our personalities.
17:48The defense would challenge each other in the locker room.
17:51You'd hear somebody go,
17:53okay, I got $100 for a fumble recovery.
17:55All of a sudden, there's pretty good dinners,
17:58I would put it, being awarded for players
18:00that didn't make it through a game.
18:01There's a bounty on there for $6,000.
18:04The stakes was pretty high.
18:06I said, if it was any higher,
18:07I'd go to the hotel and get them myself.
18:09He won't even make it to the stadium.
18:11Otis and Wilbert start barking like dogs.
18:14They got our friends doing it
18:15before they caught on at the dog pound in Cleveland.
18:18The Chicago media went nuts.
18:20All of Chicago went nuts.
18:21But they also became a national story.
18:23And to me, that's the more interesting piece.
18:24And I think a lot of that,
18:25it gets back to that defense.
18:27The Junkyard Dogs are here.
18:35With excitement, floating around Chicago
18:39and everybody was talking about the Super Bowl.
18:42We went out on a limb.
18:42We do the Super Bowl shuffle.
18:44Fence, if he was, you know,
18:46going out with hot girls
18:47and had hairspray commercials
18:50and all that other stuff.
18:51And everybody knows what Fridge became that year.
18:53You've got to keep a lot of coke in the refrigerator.
18:56The defense loved him being in the goal line offense.
18:59It was just part of the action.
19:03We are watching.
19:04Even guys who weren't stars
19:06got treated like stars.
19:08Being a folk hero, being made.
19:10My notoriety was on offense.
19:12And I took to it.
19:13We enjoyed it.
19:14And it was fun.
19:15But I had more fun on defense.
19:20The 15-1 Bears rolled through the playoffs
19:23without yielding a point.
19:25But prior to meeting the Patriots in Super Bowl XX,
19:28rumors swirled about Ryan's future.
19:31He pulled me over the first day
19:34that we were down in New Orleans
19:35and told me he had accepted a job with Philadelphia.
19:37It was the night before the Super Bowl.
19:41We're in our meeting room
19:42and Buddy starts crying.
19:44I told him they'd always be my heroes
19:46and I met them.
19:47I was too immature,
19:49too receiving.
19:50Buddy at that time
19:51was the love of my life.
19:53So to me,
19:54it was like betrayal.
19:55You'll leave it.
19:56Buddy walked out of the room
19:58and really there wasn't a dry eye in the place.
20:00And McMichael didn't really care about Buddy
20:02like I do.
20:04But McMichael stood up
20:05and threw a chair
20:06and then paddled him to the chalkboard.
20:09After seeing that,
20:10Dan Hampton got the old projector,
20:11jumps up and smashes it
20:13with one hammer blow.
20:15Boom!
20:16Well, the meeting's over.
20:17It really was a profound moment
20:18in the sense that
20:19we've only got one more chance
20:20to play for this guy.
20:22Let's make it right.
20:24Raymond Berry and Mike Ditka's teams
20:26are on the field
20:27for Super Bowl XX.
20:30The first play,
20:31they come out of the huddle
20:32and Tony Eason
20:33walks up to the line of scrimmage.
20:35I've got to take my glasses off of this.
20:36His eyes are like this,
20:38looking at us
20:39at the line of scrimmage.
20:40And it's going to be a pass.
20:41So he should be looking
20:42in the downfield
20:43in the second day.
20:44But he's looking at us
20:45with wide eyes
20:46like a deer caught in the headlights.
20:47I knew we won the game right there.
20:50Dominance,
20:50they put the fear of God
20:52into Tony Eason
20:53and that was the end of the game.
20:55Led by Richard Dent,
20:57it was a war.
20:57It wasn't a contest.
20:59Tony Eason was no quarterback
21:01to be beating the Bears team
21:04of this era.
21:05...ported the game's MVP.
21:07The Bears won 46-10.
21:10They forced six turnovers
21:12and held New England
21:13to the second lowest offensive output
21:15in Super Bowl history,
21:16123 yards.
21:18The defensive players
21:20paid their respects
21:21in a time-honored way.
21:25How often do you see
21:27the defensive coordinator
21:28and head coach
21:29both being carried off the field
21:31after a win?
21:32It was never a problem.
21:33I really didn't know it
21:34until I saw the pictures
21:36after the fact.
21:37Ditka knew what he had
21:38working for him.
21:39So with all of those clashes
21:41and those egos
21:42going at each other,
21:42there was a grudging respect
21:43to, I think,
21:44more so Ditka for Buddy
21:46than Buddy for Mike.
21:47It was a symbiotic relationship.
21:48They really needed each other.
21:50They didn't win before
21:51and they didn't win afterwards.
21:53Although in 1986,
21:55the Bears defense
21:56under Vince Tobin
21:57established a record
21:58for stinginess
21:59in a 16-game season,
22:00allowing an average
22:01of less than 12 points,
22:03the players missed the heat
22:05generated by their former leader.
22:08Buddy Ryan has an attack defense.
22:10Vince Tobin's defense
22:12was totally the opposite.
22:14He wasn't allowing us to,
22:16you know,
22:17really be ourselves.
22:18A lot of guys
22:19wouldn't say nothing,
22:20but I'm saying it now.
22:22We didn't like it.
22:24Once you've had a taste
22:26of something like
22:27the 46 defense
22:28that's so out of the box,
22:30so non-traditional,
22:31so creative,
22:34nothing else
22:36ever measures
22:37after that again
22:38because you know
22:39that it's something
22:40very difficult to do
22:42and you had the personnel
22:44to make it work
22:45and you had the coach
22:46to lead it.
22:47It was a very unique time
22:49in all of our lives
22:50and something I think
22:51we'll all cherish
22:51for the rest of our lives.
22:58Despite adjustments made
23:00by opposing offenses,
23:01Buddy Ryan continued
23:03to effectively run
23:04the 46 defense
23:05in Philadelphia,
23:06Houston,
23:07and Arizona.
23:08But after seven seasons
23:10as a head coach,
23:11his record hovered
23:12at 500
23:13and he never won
23:14another postseason game.
23:16But 46 lived on
23:18at Tennessee
23:18where Jeff Fisher,
23:20one of Ryan's disciples,
23:21ran variations
23:22of the strategy
23:23his mentor
23:24had made famous.
23:26For SportsCentury,
23:27I'm Chris Fowler.
23:28He had some success
23:29with that too.
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