September 19, 1985: Bears Come Back to Beat Vikings 33-24
This season marks the 25th anniversary of the 1985 Super Bowl Bears. We’ll look back at all of the games leading up to the last Lombardi Trophy being hoisted at Halas Hall. To take the full trip down memory lane, check out Run The Ball for a complete DVD series of every game of the histiric 1985 Bears season. Tell them Bear Goggles On sent you! You can also get your ticket to join the ’85 Bears in their Glory Days Reunion here.
The Bears headed to Minnesota to face the division rival Vikings for a Thursday night matchup. Starting quarterback Jim McMahon had spent a couple of nights on this short game in a Lake Forest hospital due to back spasms up near his neck. He didn’t practice and wasn’t expected to play, so things didn’t look good for the 2-0 Bears in their first road game of the season.
Steve Fuller filled in for Jimmy Mac and the Bears actually got off to a 3-0 lead and ended up the first quarter 3-3 as Kevin Butler and Jan Stenerud matched field goals.
The Bears continued to struggle on offense and headed to the halftime locker room down 10-6. The start of the third quarter wasn’t much better and the Vikings lead swelled to 17-9 before Bears coach Mike Ditka caved in and allowed McMahon, who had been chirping in his ear that he was good to go, to come into the game. McMahon connected on touchdowns on his first two passes, going for 70 and 25 yards respectively to bring the Bears back.
The Bears put up 24 third quarter points and pulled away from the Vikings to take home a 33-24 victory. It was one of those games that let you know that this was a special team that was meant to do special things.
Check out the McMahon TD passes, leading to a big come-from-behind victory over their division rivals to move to 3-0:
Jim McMahon ended the day 8 out of 15 for 236 and 3 TD’s while Walter Payton chipped in 62 rushing yards. Kevin Butler added 4 field goals. On the defensive side, Steve McMichael had 2 of the Bears’ 4 sacks and linebackers Otis Wilson and Wilber Marshall each added an interception.
For the complete box score and game stats, check out Pro-Football Reference and tune in each week as we chronicle each game of the historic 1985 season. You can find the game summaries filed under the Flashback category.