Chicago Bears Top Ten Playoff Wins of Super Bowl Era: 8. Bears freeze out Giants

As we continue our march to number one in the Chicago Bears’ greatest playoff victories of the Super Bowl era, we reach one of the most famous playoff games they played, and that is the romp of the New York Giants on the way to Super Bowl 20.

What went into ranking these games? I think what team they beat matters. I think how they won matters. I believe 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.

Let’s talk about a classic game that features an unbreakable record.

When the Chicago Bears entered the playoffs as the calendar flipped to 1986, nobody quite knew what was about to transpire. Sure, everybody was expecting the Bears to win football games and for the defense to shine brightly, but I don’t think anybody expected the level of dominance this defense showed in the playoffs.

The Bears were a nine-point favorite entering the Divisional Round as they would face Bill Parcells and the New York Giants. Keep in mind, this Giants team, with largely the same roster, would go on to win the Super Bowl a year later and be considered one of the great teams in NFL history.

The day was frigid. Temperatures were in the teens with wind chills pushing down around zero. Jim McMahon hooked up with Dennis McKinnon for two second-half touchdowns in this one, but there were two big stories in this game, and McMahon and McKinnon’s chemistry was not one of them.

The first came in the first quarter of the game. The Giants were stopped deep in their own territory and forced to punt. Punter Sean Landeta was standing near his goal line when he received the snap. Was it the cold? Was it fear of the Chicago Bears? Who knows? But Landeta drops the ball towards his foot to punt it away, and he simply misses the football.

The ball glanced off the side of his foot and rolled a few yards to the side. Shaun Gayle scooped it up and ran 5 yards for a touchdown. The ball did hit Landeta’s foot and was not blocked by an opponent, and therefore goes down as a 5-yard punt return for a touchdown, the shortest punt return for a TD in NFL Playoff history.

The other story in this game was the defense led by Richard Dent. The Bears shutout the Giants and absolutely pulverized QB Phil Simms. The Bears sacked Simms 6 times, including 3.5 by Richard Dent, who also forced two fumbles. He was a one-man wrecking crew.

The Giants mustered just 181 yards of total offense in the game. The Giants didn’t have a drive that crossed into Chicago Bears territory until the fourth quarter, when they were already down three scores. In fact, the Giants mustered just 67 yards of offense for the first three quarters.

The Bears announced to the world that they were about to put on a show for the next three weeks, and their game against the Giants was just the opening act.