Super Bowl XX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1985 season. The Bears defeated the Patriots by the score of 46–10. The game was played on January 26, 1986 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
To date, it is the most recent Super Bowl where both teams were making their Super Bowl debuts. The Bears entered the game after becoming the second team in NFL history to win 15 regular season games. With their then-revolutionary 46 defense, Chicago led the league in several defensive categories, outscored their opponents with a staggering margin of 456-198, and recorded two postseason shutouts. The Patriots were considered a cinderella team during the 1985 season, and posted an 11-5 regular season record, but entered the playoffs as a wild card because of tiebreakers. But defying the odds, New England posted three road playoff wins to advance to Super Bowl XX.
In their victory over the Patriots, the Bears set Super Bowl records for sacks (seven), fewest rushing yards allowed (seven), and margin of victory (36 points). New England took the quickest lead in Super Bowl history with Tony Franklin's 36-yard field goal 1:19 into the first quarter after a Chicago fumble. But the Patriots were eventually held to negative yardage (-19) throughout the entire first half, and finished with just 123 total yards from scrimmage, the second lowest total yards in Super Bowl history, behind the Minnesota Vikings (119 total yards) in Super Bowl IX. Bears defensive end Richard Dent, who had 1.5 quarterback sacks, forced two fumbles, and blocked a pass, was named the game's Most Valuable Player.
The telecast of the game on NBC was watched by an estimated 92.57 million viewers. To commemorate the 20th Super Bowl, all previous Super Bowl MVPs were honored during the pregame ceremonies.
The Bears' Super Bowl triumph came 22 years after Chicago last tasted a professional sports championship when the 1963 Bears won the NFL championship, three years prior to the birth of the Super Bowl.
Read more about Super Bowl XX: Background, Television and Entertainment, Game Summary, Starting Lineups, Officials
Famous quotes containing the word bowl:
“It seemed a long way from 143rd Street. Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus going into downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. Dancing with the Duke of Devonshire was a long way from not being allowed to bowl in Jefferson City, Missouri, because the white customers complained about it.”
—Althea Gibson (b. 1927)