The Super Bowl is less than a week away, and the Chicago Bears aren’t participating in the game yet again, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t take significant strides this year towards appearing in one in the near future.
The Bears won their 11th playoff game of the Super Bowl era this year against the Green Bay Packers. But it made me start to think about where the Bears’ victory over the Packers ranks in terms of the greatest playoff victories the Bears have ever had.
Let’s keep it to the Super
Bowl Era, and let’s take a look at these games. I can tell you, coming in at 11 was the Bears’ 16-6 win over the New Orleans Saints in 1991. Neither team played particularly great football; the Bears won a snowy game in Chicago. It was Mike Ditka’s final playoff victory, but there’s not much beyond that. So let’s kick off the countdown with a win over a division rival.
What went into ranking these games? I think what team they beat matters. I think how they won matters. I think individual performances within the game matter. Was it dramatic? Did they blow the opponent out? What made the game interesting or compelling from a Bears perspective? All of these factors went into determining how these games should be ranked.
In 1994, it was an NFC Central party on Wild Card weekend. Of the 6 teams that made the playoffs, the 13-3 49ers and 12-4 Dallas Cowboys won their divisions, and the rest of the playoff teams came from the NFC Central, and all four of those teams played in Wild Card weekend.
The 9-7 Chicago Bears headed to Minneapolis to take on the 10-6 Minnesota Vikings in Dave Wannstedt’s second year with the team. The Vikings were nearly a touchdown favorite in the game, and most fans expected future Hall of Famer Warren Moon to handle the Bears pretty easily. The Bears had lost to Minnesota twice in the regular season, including a 42-14 drubbing in Chicago, so that wasn’t exactly a leap that Minnesota would keep things rolling against their division rival.
The lone scoring in the first quarter came on a Vikings field goal off a Lewis Tillman fumble. Steve Walsh would throw an interception on the next drive, and it seemed like the Bears were marching towards another loss, but the Bears recovered nicely, forcing a punt after the Walsh interception and scoring touchdowns on back-to-back drives. The Bears had a 14-9 halftime lead.
The Bears continued to pull away in the second half with 2 more touchdowns in the second half that put them up 28-18. But Warren Moon and the Vikings were driving late in the fourth quarter to try to cut the game to a field goal, but Warren Moon completed a pass over the middle to Amp Lee. He is sandwiched by Mo Douglass and John Mangum, Kevin Minnfield scoops it up and takes it to the house, and the Chicago Bears defeat the Minnesota Vikings 35 to 18.
The Bears would get crushed the following week by the eventual Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers, 44 to 15. The win would be the only playoff victory for Dave Wannstedt.
