The Shufflers Do the Stomp, 46-10 : Bears Waltz to Easy Win Over Patriots

Here’s to the Bears, the best in football.

Let ‘em have their Super Bowl Shuffle, make way for The Refrigerator, give Richard Dent his due and let Jim McMahon wear any kind of headband he likes.

Might as well let ‘em have it all, because they’ll take whatever they want, anyway.

Any doubts of their dominance of the National Football League this season disintegrated in Super Bowl XX Sunday when they grabbed the New England Patriots by the throat and throttled them, 46-10, before 73,818 in the Superdome.

They took the football away from the Patriots six times and turned those turnovers into 24 points. They held the AFC champions to a Super Bowl record low of 7 net yards rushing and only 123 total net yards--4 more than the record low.

McMahon, an outrageously uninhibited quarterback, got most of the attention all week but, appropriately, Dent was voted the game’s Most Valuable Player as a leading force of the defense that distinguishes this team from all others in the league.

It was the worst defeat in Super Bowl history, but many good teams played their worst games against the Bears this season.

Mike Singletary, the Bears’ All-Pro middle linebacker, said he sensed early what was in store as he studied New England’s young quarterback, Tony Eason, across the line of scrimmage.

“When I looked into his eyes,” Singletary said, “I saw the same thing I saw when we played ‘em early in the season: ‘Hey it’s gonna be a long day.’ ”

Not for Eason. New England Coach Raymond Berry yanked him early in the second quarter after six futile series with the Bears leading, 20-3. Eason had failed to complete any of six passes, had been sacked three times and had produced minus 34 yards of net offense.

But it was already too late for the Patriots. Veteran quarterback Steve Grogan fared a little better but paid for every pass--even the incomplete ones--with a hit from one of the hard-charging Bear defenders.

Grogan was sacked four times--the last time by tackle Henry Waechter for a safety and the game’s final points and indignity.

McMahon climaxed his controversial week by scoring two touchdowns on short runs, then departed with a sprained left wrist after three quarters with the Bears leading, 44-3.

The Bears’ other touchdowns were scored by fullback Matt Suhey on an 11-yard run, cornerback Reggie Phillips on a 28-yard return of one of Grogan’s two interceptions and a 1-yard charge by William (The Refrigerator) Perry, who knocked Patriot linebacker Larry McGrew into next season.

Rookie Kevin Butler kicked field goals from 28, 24 and 24 yards.

The Bears’ biggest disappointment was that Walter Payton did not score, although he had his share of opportunities. Pro football’s career rushing leader waited 11 years to play in the Super Bowl but fumbled the ball away once and was held to 61 yards in 22 carries, a 2.8 average.

The thousands of boisterous Bear fans who migrated south for the game were well into their celebration when Grogan passed eight yards to Irving Fryar early in the last quarter for the only touchdown scored against the Bears in the playoffs.

Earlier, the Patriots quickly dashed the Bears’ hopes of a third consecutive shutout, after those against the Giants and Rams, by cashing in a turnover for a 36-yard field goal by Tony Franklin and a 3-0 lead after only 1:19.

Linebacker Don Blackmon knocked the ball loose from Payton and McGrew recovered on the second play of the day, giving the Patriots possession at the Bears’ 19-yard line.

But the Patriots couldn’t hold onto the ball, either. Eason, sandwiched by Dent and Steve McMichael, fumbled the ball for Dan Hampton to recover at the New England 13, setting up Butler’s second field goal for a 6-3 lead.

On the Patriots’ next play, Dent jolted the ball loose from Craig James, Singletary recovering again at the Patriots’ 13. Two plays later, Suhey was in the end zone, and the stampede was on.

Berry seemed stunned by the enormity of the defeat.

“If you’re around long enough, every once in a while you’ll get your rear end handed to you,” he said. “That’s what happened today.”

It happened to a lot of people against the Bears this season. Singletary’s most serious setback was when the 300-pound-plus Perry accidentally flattened him in the second quarter, putting him out of the game for one play.

“It was kind of embarrassing lying there hurt,” Singletary said. “I saw him coming. I saw the shadow. I thought, ‘Well, here it is.’ But I told him later, ‘Don’t stop coming to the football.’ ”

The Bears never did.

During the day a story broke that Berry, the Patriots’ head coach for only a season and a half, was planning to announce his retirement at a team meeting Sunday night. He denied it after the game.

“Whoever started that story must have been drunk last night,” Berry said. “I go day to day. I have no long-range plans.”

And he probably realizes that if he resigns because of what the Bears did to his team, there should be a lot of openings in the NFL. His team did well to fight its way to the Super Bowl as a wild-card team by winning three games on the road to claim the AFC title.

The Bears were simply too physical. Finesse had little to do with it. During the first half there were several after-the-play scuffles as the Patriots tried to slug toe-to-toe with the Bears.

“I saw some cheap and petty things,” Singletary said. “I didn’t think they (the Patriots) would do that. I think it really hurt them.”

The Bears played their standard “46” defense, with few variations. Grogan didn’t think it was very complicated up close.

“They’re not that difficult to read,” he said. “You know what they’re doing all the time. They just have a lot of good players.”

Grogan said he had little warning when Berry decided to switch quarterbacks after Blackmon forced Suhey to fumble and cornerback Raymond Clayborn recovered.

“All of a sudden he (Berry) told me to go into the ballgame,” Grogan said. “I didn’t have a chance to warm up.”

His first pass was batted down by Dent, but he completed his next two to net the Patriots’ first first down of the game.

But that promise of a Patriot comeback died when Hampton and Otis Wilson rushed Grogan into wild throws on successive plays, forcing a punt.

Perry, a celebrated rookie from Clemson, made his first appearance on offense since Nov. 10 in the first quarter when Bear Coach Mike Ditka sent him in to--were the Patriots’ ready for this?--throw a pass.

Yes, they were. He took a pitch from McMahon and rolled out to his right, which is really rolling. He looked for tight end Emery Moorehead in the end zone and started to cock his arm but was knocked down by tackle Dennis Owens, who hit him at the knees for a one-yard sack.

The Bears led by 13-3 at the end of the first quarter after Suhey’s scoring run, and McMahon’s 24-yard pass to Suhey on a blown coverage led them to the Patriots’ two-yard line midway into the second quarter.

Ditka sent in Perry again, but New England countered with 280-pound Ben Thomas at nose tackle, so McMahon called time and went to the bench to talk with Ditka.

When McMahon returned, he faked a handoff to Perry at left tackle and kept the ball himself, slicing outside tackle behind tight end Tim Wrightman’s block on McGrew for a touchdown.

McMahon’s quick thinking also got the Bears an illegal field goal at the end of the half. Time was running out at the end of a 73-yard drive, and the Bears had not timeouts left after McMahon scrambled seven yards to the three.

There was a shoving match between Patriot safety Fred Marion and Bear lineman Keith Van Horne, but McMahon was more concerned with getting the ball snapped and the clock stopped.

Center Jay Hilgenberg said: “The official (umpire Ron Botchan) was standing over the ball. I don’t know if I grabbed it or not, but he really didn’t want me to have it. Jim was yelling to get the ball snapped, so I grabbed it.”

As players scrambled to line up, McMahon took the snap and threw into the ground in the right flat to stop the clock at :03. After the Bears were penalized for illegal procedure, Butler came in and kicked a field goal to make it 23-3.

Later, it was announced that referee Red Cashion should have ordered the remaining time--up to 10 seconds, according to Rule 4, Section 3, Article 20--run off the clock because the Bears forced the action.

Anyone who thought the Bears would sit on their 20-point lead didn’t understand the team’s killer mentality. On the Bears’ first play of the second half, McMahon, backed up to his own four-yard line, dropped into the end zone on fakes to Suhey and Payton, then straightened up and threw long to Willie Gault for a 60-yard gain.

An eight-yard pass to Ken Margerum reached the one-foot line, from where McMahon capped the 96-yard drive by diving over the middle.

A minute later, Grogan passed into the left flat to tight end Derrick Ramsey, who deflected the ball into the hands of Phillips for an easy return down the sideline that made it 37-3.

Phillips had replaced Leslie Frazier, who sprained a knee in the second quarter.

Less than a minute after that, Grogan completed a pass to wide receiver Cedric Jones, who fumbled when hit by safety Gary Fencik. Wilber Marshall picked it up, ran in circles and lateralled to Wilson, who was tackled at the Patriots’ 37.

Five plays later, McMahon sidestepped a rush and passed 27 yards to Dennis Gentry at the one. On the next play, Perry crashed through McGrew at left tackle.

From there it was mop-up time. Steve Fuller finished the game for McMahon, and even third-string rookie Mike Tomczak got to play the final series, although Ditka didn’t let him pass.

Enough, after all, was enough. The Bears’ only loss in 19 games was to the Miami Dolphins, and the NFC champions could be difficult to keep out of Super Bowl XXI at Pasadena next year.

“It always is difficult to repeat,” Ditka said, “but we’ll be ready.”