Tito wrote:He made the Pro Bowl that year and was the 7 highest rated QB that year. 3 Hall of Famers were ahead of him. He was a great leader. The Thursday night Minnesota game is still legendary. I believe the Bears were second in offense that year as well, which was overlooked.
Let me give you some advice, Tito...If you're going to go toe-to-toe with me on sports, at least have some ammo in your weapon of choice! McMahaon ranked 20th in passing yards in 1985! A couple of points here...there were only 28 teams in the NFL 23 years ago, so being ranked 20th is horrendous! Also, the likes of Eric Hipple (whoever the hell he is), Neil Lomax and Tommy Kramer were all ranked ahead of McMahon in passing yards, in 1985! McMahon was ranked 18th in TD passes in the 1985 season, which means 17 guys threw more TD's than he did, during that historic (DEFENSIVELY) season! If you're a QB ranking guy (which I am not and never have been), then he was the 7th best guy that season (which is still nothing that's putting him anywhere near Canton)! McMahon was only ranked 21st in number of attempts (which should tell you that all of that Bears offense was Payton running with the rock).
To back up my point that McMahon wasn't remotely responsible for the 1985 Bears' success, I will cite some team statistics that are readily available for you to verify. As far as where the 1985 Bears ranked, as a team...They were ranked a whopping 20th in the passing game, which means there were only 8 teams worse than they were in the passing attack, that season! The Bears were ranked number one in rushing offense in 1985, with an awesome 172.6 yard a game average! The 1985 Bears team was ranked first in rush defense and 3rd in pass defense, making them the number one ranked defense in the league that season! I vivdly remember the 1985 season, and teams simply couldn't score against that defense! There wasn't a single defensive coordinator in the NFL in 1985 who was game-planning to stop Jim McMahon. It was all about Payton, and the Bears D line!
Again, if you actually were watching football in 1985, you would never come onto any message board and cite Jim McMahon for the reason the Bears team was remotely good. To this day, it's the
GREATEST DEFENSE, EVER, in the history of the NFL! The Bears would have won the Super Bowl in 1985 with me playing QB, and I was all of 15! Giving McMahon the credit for the Bears success in 1985 is like saying Trent Dilfer was the reason the Ravens won it all in 2001. Apparently, not even the Ravens believed that, considering they actually cut Dilfer as soon as that season was over!
John from Boston