drgondog
Major
Bears mid 80's defense gets my vote
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TO,I think a good case can be made for the Bear's season of 1985 as a dominant defense and your point is well made about the playoffs in 1985 versus 1976. The Bears, from 1984-1988 had good defenses, but their playoff record during that stretch does not stand up to the playoff record of the Steel Curtain in the 70s. Pittsburg won four Super Bowls in the seventies when the Steel Curtain was in its prime. Chicago won one during the eighties when their's was at it's best.
TO, you make a great point about the rules favoring passing and when John U was playing, they did not protect the QB like he was the crown jewels. The 85 Bears were impressive but in the first five games of that year, the Bears allowed 88 points, 52 points in two games including 28 points in the first game, when the defense is supposed to be ahead of the offense, to Tampa Bay, that wound up ranked 21st in scoring offense. During the last four games, they weren't much better and gave up 38 to Miami. In 1976, the Steelers, over the last nine games of the season allowed an average of 3.1 points per game and had five shutouts. At one point they went 23 straight quarters without allowing a TD. Compare personnel- L C Greenwood V Dan Hampton (slight edge Hampton), Joe Greene V Steve McMicheal(Huge edge Greene), Ernie Holmes V The Fridge Perry (Holmes edge), Dwight White V Richard Dent(edge Dent), Jack Ham V Otis Wilson( edge Ham), Jack Lambert V Mike Singletary (Tie), Andy Russell V Wilbur Marshall (tie), J T Thomas V Mike Richardson ( edge to Richardson) Mel Blount V Leslie Frazer( Huge edge to Blount) Mike Wagner/ Donnie Shell V Dave Duerson (Edge to Wagner/Shell) Glen Edwards V Gary Fencik (edge to Fencik). That adds up to 5-4 for Steelers with the huge edges all in favor of the Steelers. Greene and Blount were special players.