The 1985 Bears: 15-1 and Nearly Perfect

If dominance alone guaranteed a perfect season, the 1985 Chicago Bears would own the record. They were, by most measures, one of the most overwhelming teams in NFL history — and they still finished 15-1, undone by a single Monday night on the road.

The best defense of its era

The 1985 Bears were built around Buddy Ryan’s 46 defense, a scheme named for the jersey number of safety Doug Plank that crowded the line of scrimmage and dared quarterbacks to survive it. They allowed the fewest points in the league and turned games into ambushes. Mike Singletary directed traffic at middle linebacker; Richard Dent and Dan Hampton wrecked the edges; William “The Refrigerator” Perry became a national curiosity in the middle of it all.

On offense, Walter Payton ran behind an improving line and Jim McMahon quarterbacked with a headband and a chip on his shoulder. But it was the defense that defined them, and the defense that carried them within a whisker of history.

The one that got away

Chicago started 12-0. On December 2, 1985, they carried that perfect record into the Orange Bowl for a Monday-night meeting with the Miami Dolphins — the very franchise whose 1972 perfection they were threatening to join. Miami won 38-24. Dan Marino carved up the vaunted defense, and the only unbeaten team left in football took its only loss of the year to the guardians of the record it was chasing.

It is one of the great what-ifs. Had the Bears won that night, they would have carried a 16-game perfect bid deep into December. Instead they finished 15-1 — flawless except for one Monday in Miami.

The most dominant January ever

The loss did nothing to the Bears’ postseason. They shut out the New York Giants 21-0 and the Los Angeles Rams 24-0 to reach the Super Bowl without allowing a point in two games. Then they buried the New England Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX, with Richard Dent named MVP. Across three playoff games they outscored their opponents 91-10.

That is the paradox of 1985: a team good enough to shut out playoff opponents and win a Super Bowl by 36 points, and still not good enough — for one night — to finish the regular season unbeaten.

What 15-1 teaches

The Bears are Exhibit A in why 16-0 is so rare. Being the best team in football, having the best defense of a generation, and steamrolling the playoffs still leaves you exposed to a single bad night that a perfect season cannot absorb. A 15-1 record wins championships. It just doesn’t win the argument about perfection.

For the whole roll call of teams that finished one game short, see the closest teams to a perfect regular season. For why that last game is so hard to guarantee, read why 16-0 is so rare, and for the only team that actually finished a 16-game slate clean, see the 2007 Patriots. Then draft your own roster and try to dodge the one loss that caught even the ‘85 Bears.