1985 Bears vs. 2000 Ravens: A Mind-Blowing Simulation by Chicago Sports Stuff & Strat-O-Matic
Who dominated an epic battle between the two greatest defenses in NFL history? Spoiler alert: The game wasn't even close.
BEFORE WE DIVE INTO this imaginary rumble between a pair of NFL defenses for the ages, I must admit that it’s unfortunate the fine folks at Strat-O-Matic can’t game out a match between my two favorite teams ever: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. But inter-sports stuff isn’t a thing at SOM. Yet.
That who’s-better-the-’85-Bears-or-the-’00-Ravens discussion, however, is a thing. Few will disagree that these two teams sported among the most frightening — if not the most frightening — defenses in the 104-year history of the NFL.
But who was the scariest of the scary? Since football is a numbers game, let’s see who the stats favor:
Points Allowed:
1985 Chicago Bears: 198
2000 Baltimore Ravens: 165
EDGE: Ravens
Yards Allowed:
1985 Chicago Bears: 4,135
2000 Baltimore Ravens: 3,967
EDGE: Ravens
Turnovers Forced:
1985 Chicago Bears: 54
2000 Baltimore Ravens: 49
EDGE: Ravens
Rushing Defense:
1985 Chicago Bears: 1,319
2000 Baltimore Ravens: 970
EDGE: Ravens
Passing Defense:
1985 Chicago Bears: 2,816
2000 Baltimore Ravens: 2,997
EDGE: Bears
Sacks:
1985 Chicago Bears: 64
2000 Baltimore Ravens: 35
EDGE: Bears
Baltimore wins four of the six categories, but the fact that Chicago out-sacked them by 29 is telling.
But how telling? Doth more sacks mean a victory for thou? That’s the question Chicago Sports Stuff posed to Strat-O-Matc, and SOM had a gripping answer.
WALTER PAYTON didn’t score a touchdown in his only Super Bowl appearance.
Quarterback Jim McMahon punched in a tuddie. So did fullback Matt Suhey. And so did D-lineman William “Refrigerator” Perry. But not the team’s heart and soul.
And the hyper-competitive Payton was bummed.
After the game — despite the fact that his Bears culminated arguably the greatest season in NFL history with a 46-10 beatdown of the New England Patriots — the legendary running back went to a quiet part of the locker room and bawled.
Admittedly, that particular aspect of the Super Bowl did, indeed, suck, but Strat-O-Matic, bless their hearts, helped rewrite Payton’s (imaginary) history. In SOM’s Bears/Ravens sim, Sweetness went off, racking up 137 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns. How’s that for redemption?
It’s fortunate for Chicago that Payton was so on point, because the Ravens’ passing defense was en fuego, holding McMahon to 100 yards on 7-of-15 passing attempts while sacking the Punky QB six times, a total that would’ve amounted to the second-highest sack total of his Bears tenure.
Harassing McMahon was all fine and good, but what Ray Lewis and company did Chicago can’t hold a candle to what the Bears’ D did to the Ravens’ O:
Richard Dent sacked Trent Dilfer in the end zone for a Bears safety.
The Bears threw down Dilfer seven times, two of which came courtesy of Dan Hampton
Chicago held Balto’s stellar RB combo of Jamal Lewis and Priest Holmes to a combined total of 143 yards and zero touchdowns.
The Ravens managed an average of just 3.9 yards per pass completion.
Domination. Utter and total domination. In a wire-to-wire win, the Bears took down the Ravens 26-14, a game wasn’t as close as the score would indicate.
Now let’s see what those ‘85 Bears do against the ‘96 Bulls…
