By Jeremy Harris
The Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears series has produced a long line of memorable moments, and we anticipate more this Sunday.
Previously, we reminisced about the Bears’ shellacking of the Broncos in the final week of the 1981 regular season, leaving Denver’s playoff hopes on Lake Michigan’s thinnest ice. We also revisited the Bears’ demolition of Denver and a young John Elway in the 1983 and 1984 seasons.
However, when the Bears next saw Elway, the overmatched youngster had evolved into a cold-blooded gridiron assassin, and the outcome would be very different.
1). Bears at Denver on November 16, 1987 (“Elway strikes back, ends McMahon’s winning streak”):
Following the second week of the 1987 season, the NFL Players Association went on strike, wiping out the following week’s games. The NFL owners and league quickly assembled squads comprised of replacement players to play in the regulars’ stead. The replacements played the following three weeks, after which the NFLPA called off the strike. The regular players returned for Week Seven, but the replacement games counted and the season was shortened to fifteen regular season games.
The Bears marched into Denver for their Monday Night Football clash with the swagger of a team with a 7-1 record, their only loss coming in a replacement game against the New Orleans Saints, of a team that had won an NFL record 36 regular season games in a 40-game stretch and of a team that had ripped off 25 consecutive wins in games started by QB Jim McMahon.
The defending AFC champion Broncos entered play with a 4-3-1 record, trailed the first-place San Diego Chargers (8-1) and were in desperate need of a season-changing victory.
They were led by Elway and his “Three Amigos” receiving trio of Vance Johnson, Mark Jackson and Ricky Nattiel.
The stage was set for one of the greatest games in the history of Monday Night Football.
The Bears jumped on the Broncos early, scoring on two McMahon touchdown passes, including a 51-yard strike to WR Willie Gault, for a 14-0 lead. The Broncos cut the lead to 14-7 when Elway connected with Johnson on a 22-yard touchdown throw. Then came the defining moment of the game, and arguably, the Bears’ season.
The Bears had driven 89-yards to Denver’s one-yard-line midway through the second quarter. DL, and occasional RB, William Perry and Walter Payton were in the backfield together, and McMahon, who later admitted to calling the wrong play, handed the ball to Perry, who fumbled the pigskin away to Denver. Bears coach Mike Ditka was incensed.
Denver responded with a 76-yard drive, culminating in a touchdown pass to Jackson. When the Bears scuffled in their last posession of the half, Elway pushed the pedal to the metal and connected with Nattiel for a 35-yard touchdown, giving Denver its first lead, 21-14.
In a seesaw affair, the Bears then scored fifteen unanswered points on a field goal and two touchdowns (the Bears failed to convert both extra points) to take a 29-21 lead into the fourth quarter.
A Denver field goal cut the deficit to 29-24 before McMahon committed his second major blunder of the evening, overshadowing his three touchdown passes and one rushing score. He tossed an interception deep in Denver territory, a gift Elway parlayed into an eight-play 61-yard, game-winning drive, RB Steve Sewell plowing in for the go-ahead touchdown from four yards out.
The Bears still had a chance to get into field goal range, but three Denver sacks, the last of which forced McMahon to the sidelines with an ankle injury, clinched Denver’s dramatic 31-29 comeback victory.
Denver would win six of its final seven games to overtake the Chargers for the NFC West title and make their second consecutive Super Bowl appearance, and Elway would claim the season’s MVP award. The Bears would still finish with an 11-4 record, but for the second consecutive season, their Super Bowl dreams were crushed in Soldier Field by Washington.
2). Bears at Denver on November 10, 1996 (“The final yard is the hardest”):
The Broncos entered play with an 8-1 record in head coach Mike Shanahan’s second season at the controls. The Bears, whose season was derailed when they fell to 1-3 and lost starting QB Erik Kramer for the seasoon with a neck injury, had clawed their way to a 4-5 record behind the venerable Dave Krieg. 10.5 point underdogs, the Bears faced a daunting task against Denver’s top-ranked offense and fourth-ranked defense.
Krieg and Elway, both natives of the state of Washington, had faced each other on numerous occasions when Krieg was with division rivals Seattle (1980-1991) and Kansas City (1992-1993). This game would mark their final meeting.
Elway was a highly-efficient 19 of 32 for 198 yards passing, and his 15-yard touchdown strike to TE Shannon Sharpe gave the Broncos a 7-3 first quarter lead. Elway then drove the Broncos on a 13-play, almost seven-minute touchdown drive in the second quarter, RB Terrell Davis smashing the ball in from one yard out, for a 14-3 halftime lead.
After a Krieg touchdown strike to Curtis Conway (the two-point conversion failed) and the teams traded field goals, the Broncos maintained a 17-12 fourth-quarter lead. But the Bears and Krieg were positioned to lead an Elway-like drive with the master of the comeback watching helplessly on the sidelines.
With 2:56 remaining, Krieg drove the Bears from their 20 to Denver’s one-yard-line. There, the Broncos’ defense stiffened. RB Raymont Harris, who amassed 112 yards rushing, was thrown for losses of one and two yards on the Bears first two plays. Tackle-eligible Jim Flannigan, who had caught two touchdown passes for the Bears the previous season, then dropped a perfectly thrown pass from Krieg in the end zone, recalling defensive lineman William Perry’s goal-line muff nine years earlier at the Broncos’ goal line. Krieg’s fourth-down pass, intended for Conway, fell incomplete, and the Broncos’ defense had wrested a victory away from the plucky Bears.
The Broncos would finish the regular season 13-3 but were defeated in the divisional round of the playoffs by the Jacksonville Jaguars in one of the greatest upsets in league history. John Elway’s indefatigable champiopnship pursuit would pay off with Super Bowl titles after the 1997 and 1998 seasons.
The Bears would finish 7-9 and were likely left pondering if their playoff fortunes would have been different had they matriculated that final yard at Denver.
Check back for one more round of Bears-Broncos memories.