Thanks to the Bengals winning on Jan.15 / 22, the longest drought without a playoff victory. The Lions were still playing in the Pontiac Silverdome when they last won a playoff game! All said by a Packers fan who has doubts of seeing them in a Super Bowl again.
In the late 80s, teams started to use a pop up onside kick hoping it would land between the up front players and the deep returner. That kick was hit too hard and pulled OB never giving the team a chance to recover. The person standing next to the kicker was to help prevent the kicking team from being offside.
After the 49ers-Cowboys game, I took off my Cowboys hat and jersey, went to wash dishes, and within five minutes, said "Talk about a Dumb Decision". A QB run up the middle of the field with less than 15 seconds on the clock and no timeouts. You could not have possibly called a worst play.
@@dentonyoung4314 At least a QB kneel is an explicit surrender. A run gives the illusion that you want to win with literally none of the brain or finesse.
Not a bad decision. Just bad execution. It was supposed to be a pop-up kick about 30 yds down field along the right side. What actually lost the game for the Bears was the FOUR turnovers.
I remember this play and that’s exactly what happened. Ditka wasn’t the only Bear to address it in the media. The kicker tried to boot it high enough to get the first wave of Bears to block out the Cowboys, while a second wave tried to catch it. But the kicker botched the kick. Seems like a really difficult kick to execute correctly off a stand, though.
We better, it was one of the worst playcalls I have ever seen, potentially even worse than the infamous one Carroll made in the SB to pass on 1st and Goal.
I was thinking about that this morning. I had a feeling that Mike McCarthy would be part of the Cowboys' undoing. There was just too much stupid on that final play to cover in just one reply.
Funny enough, he also did a much-panned QB keeper with Hasselbeck and the clock running down/no timeouts against the Chargers in 2010. ET and Leon Washington bailed him out that day
Thanks goodness this was 1991! Can you imagine this happening in 2021-22? And Ditka would be butchered with SO CALLED experts, & memes would be brutal!
Counterpoint: the best-case in the kick deep scenario isn’t the same as the failed onside, because Dallas is inside their own 30 rather than sitting at the Chicago 40. The Bears are getting the ball in much better field position, potentially even in Dallas territory if the kick is shanked or you get a good return, vs. maybe being stuck 90 or more yards away with 1:15 or so remaining. And if you force a turnover, you have the ball in much better position as well. Plus - those Soldier Field winds are wicked. Remember Sean Landeta actually whiffed on a punt in the ‘85 playoffs because the wind blew the ball away on his drop.
I think the point JG9 was trying to make is Dallas would have followed the same strategy regardless if the Bears did an onside kick, kicked it deep, or went square dancing. By doing the onside kick the Bears would have given themselves an immediate opportunity to get the ball back and score.
I know this is almost 2 years old, but the two worst case scenarios are the same while the best case scenario of the onside kick gives you a better chance of winning than kicking a normal kickoff. In both, the worst case is Dallas gets a first down and runs the clock out to win the game. In the best case on an onside kick, you recover the ball with one timeout and have a chance to mount a game-winning drive while the best case scenario of a normal kick is Dallas goes three and out and punts. In the best case with a normal kick, you get the ball back with no timeouts needing a TD to win. The field position doesn't really matter for Dallas as one first down ices the game. For the Bears, the trade off that makes it worth it to go for the onside kick is the extra timeout. This late in the game, field position is slightly less a threat than the clock. You can compensate for field position with meticulous, calculated plays. You can't combat the clock (especially with no timeouts) except by heavily limiting your playbook.
This was a tremendous video--Love the analysis once again that you provide all of us. Great video, especially the passion that you bring to every video. Best way to start my day
He is great. I look forward to his videos everyday. I love the nostalgia. Plus, it is awesome when he gets exasperated. Very entertaining. I was an Oilers fan from 78 until they moved to Tennessee. I totally get exasperation. Buffalo in 1993. Need I say more? 🤣
And here I thought the biggest thing that happened on this day was the NYC blizzard that resulted in a smaller crowd at MSG for Hogan/Flair II and had a hand in changing the booking for Wrestlemania VIII Either that or the fallout from the stampede at the Diddy-promoted show the previous night
He was hoping for the ball to get pooched with the ball having enough backspin to go back towards the Bears. The inside kick has to go 10 yards before anybody from Chicago can touch it. That is harder than you think. This would guarantee with it popped up on the air it guarantees the 10 yard distance. So Ditka yes the kicker didn't execute the kickoff properly. But Sitka also didn't want to risk an extra 5 yards of penalty because the Cowboys would have counted on another onside kick situation or the Bears risking a long return because the Bears kicking team would have been tired from running down the field from the first attempt. So Sitka knew what he was doing. His players didn't do their job. In this case his kicker failed at doing his job.
The Bears blew some chances in that game to say the least. When they were inside the 10 on one occasion, Ditka called a play they hadn’t run in three years.
Bears fans would say that the Bears won despite of Ditka because of their defense and Jim McMahon just being healthy enough in 1985 in the playoffs along with the great play of Walter Payton. There were stories of Jim McMahon audibling out many times that Ditka plays that he sent in. That Dikta wanted to use the flex defense when he first got to Chicago and Buddy Ryan shut that down quickly. It's amazing how the Bears were so talented and yet only went one Super Bowl. One big reason is that of course the defense and Walter Payton. Their big downfall is that McMahon just couldn't stay healthy. Got injured in 1984, got injured in 1986 (because of a Charles Martin body slam cheapshot). The Redskins had their number after 1985. The Redskins would beat the Bears in the playoffs in 1986,87 (after being down 14-0). A carousel of quarterbacks because again McMahon was always hurt. I say Jim McMahon was important because he had a high winning percentage the games that he started.
mcmahon was too small and fragile to last in the nfl. Remember he was taken by bears no. 5 in '82 draft a pick after the top qb schlister went to colts in a very bad draft for qb's.
@@matthewdaley746 He also had a hatred towards doug flutie and made snark comments about his size when mcmahon himself wasn't a big qb by nfl standards. Total hypocrite and jerk.
@UCTlO3MgUhv0pZ0pSb2Vzhrw I believe flutie is in the college football hall of fame too. Could have been that charles martin body slam sack. bradshaw has a screw lose thanks to ed turkey jones reverse body slam sack.
Ditka's ego became outsized after '85, not that he was a genius beforehand. Completely outcoached by Joe Gibbs and Bill Walsh in the playoffs from 86-88. Along with McMcMahon's health, the #1 reason that team won only 1 SB. The defense from 84-88 (particularly 84-86) was the best of all time and deserving of more.
The 1991 Bears were a shadow of what they once were. They were aging, their key players on the decline, Neal Anderson was injury-prone, and it's actually a wonder they won 11 that year. They probably should have been 8-8 and Ditka fired at the end of that year.
@@DolFan316 I remember that game now. Thanks for reminding me, as when the the Bears lost that game, I thought to myself, "Well, that's just about that for Chicago." A win their would have given the Bears an overall record of 12-4 and a second-round home game. It's likely they still lose, but at least it would have looked a bit better. Lol
@@DolFan316 Then they lose to the Lions just four days later on Thanksgiving, and then get embarrassed by the 49ers the last game of the regular season on Monday Night Football.
9:08 I was wondering that myself watching this the first time. I don't remember ever seeing any player on any onsides kick just standing by the kicker with his back turned like that. It looked so funky that I'm surprised it wasn't flagged for being an illegal formation.
Reminds me of Super Bowl VII-the Skins had just scored on the Garo Gaffe and were trailing 14-7 with under 2 mins left. The Dolphins think an onside kick is coming, but George Allen decides not to do that and kicks it deep. Miami takes about 40 seconds off the clock on their drive, forcing Washington to burn their time outs and when they do get the ball back, can't do anything with the No Name Defense and the game ends 14-7 in favor of the Dolphins. If Allen onsides it, maybe Washington recovers, scores and wins in OT to spoil the perfect record.
I remember reading that the 2-point conversion was introduced in the AFL before the merger. I just assumed they brought it over with the merger. Live and learn!
We had a similar kickoff play in HS in Chicago but it worked. The safety would come up to the tee as the kicker started forward, yelling to each side to switch. They would start, but only one side kept moving, and the kicker would pooch it (ideally) just over the heads of the front guys, into the "non-hands" crowd, with our entire team bearing down on them. Front line turned their backs to follow the ball, and got erased. I would love to know whether that was inspired by this clusterfuck.
A pop-up kick has some merit. But the execution.. You can tell they'd never practiced it. Here you want the ball to just clear the first line and drop (maximize confusion, prevent a fair catch, and hope it bounces a bit). Trying a sideline fade version in Chicago in winter, (shakes head)..
That’s Cowboys DB Bill Bates (40) consoling Ditka at the end of the game as they walked off the field. Bates probably knew that that was the last playoff game for the legendary coach.
I was hoping for a Dumb Decisions/In Defense Of for a Wild Card Round game. Thanks for coming through! Anything similar coming for the remaining rounds? At least in 1984 Mike Ditka had somewhat of an excuse, as Tom Landry was on the opposite sideline. Ditka loved Landry, and felt bad about the 44-0 beatdown his Bears gave to the Cowboys the next year at Texas Stadium. The irony is Landry would have been happy to see Walter Payton set the rushing record and happy for the role his former player and assistant played in it, even if it was against his team. This decision didn’t have the same excuse behind it, since Jimmy Johnson was on the Cowboys sideline that day. Of course the execution was bad as well. Sometimes those tweener kickoffs work, but only if you have members of the kicking team nearby. I don’t think I saw that there. I’m guessing the Bears didn’t practice that kickoff much. This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made a video about another legen…wait for it, and I hope you’re not lactose intolerant, because the next part is…dary coach, and his lack of attention to Special Teams. That coach, Chuck Noll, got called out publicly by his own kicker, Gary Anderson.
@@matthewdaley746 Yeah, Ryan HATED Dallas. On a side note, during the 44-0 beatdown, Bears defensive linebacker Mike Singletary noticed the crowd leaving Texas Stadium (who could blame them at this point?) and said "Where are you going? We need witnesses!"
@@matthewdaley746 So you’re saying Buddy Ryan hated the Bears, and wanted to get revenge on them when he coached the Eagles? I don’t have the foggiest idea of what you’re talking about.
@@matthewdaley746 buddy ryan-0 playoff wins as head coach with a loaded eagles defense. Just an egotistical big mouth who knew defense is all he was. I'm glad he fanned out miserably as card coach. even bringing in all those old eagles like clyde simmons did no good for ryan.
Missed one thing in favor of kicking it deep vs onside kick. After a failed onside kick, the Cowboys are much more likely to go for it on fourth down inside the Bears 40 than outside their own 30. Basically, with a failed Onside kick, Dallas has 4 downs to make a game clinching first down whereas they only have 3 downs to do it following a deep kick. I think the chance of recovering an onside kick makes that a worthwhile trade.
I think Ditka was trying to avoid a time-consuming return. He wanted to force a fair catch or to cover the kick as soon as it was caught. To save a few seconds, he gave up either a lot of field position or a chance to get the ball back immediately. Just insane. (I really do not think that was a pop-up kick meant to be recovered by the Bears)
These were two franchises going in opposite directions. The Bears were an aging team with an eviscerated front office (which is STILL dysfunctional). The next season, they would go 5-11 and Ditka would be fired. They have only made the playoffs seven times since then. The Cowboys were an up-and-coming team with Jimmy Johnson as their coach. The next year, they would win the Super Bowl (then repeat this performance the next year).
This isn't a bad coaching decision. It's poor execution by the players. This play IS an onsides kick. The idea was to kick it a little higher and a little shorter. The cowshit players are rushing forwards to cover a squib onsides and the Bears intend to run behind them and catch the kick. It didn't work but that's because the kick sucked, not because the bears were trying to give up possession of the football.
The '85 Bears were so revered that even six years later everyone regarded them as elite Super Bowl contenders despite just two playoff wins in that span coming in to this game.
Ditka was always an overrated coach. Had one of the most talented teams in history and only reached 1 Super Bowl. meanwhile his NFC contemporaries; Walsh, Gibbs, Parcells, Jimmy Johnson all won multiple Super Bowls with lesser talent and even backup QB's on occasion.
What do you expect from a guy who trades away all the Saint's draft choices for one guy. I can see trading away the 2nd rounder and the future picks, but all of them that year? Ditka either really had that much faith in his O-line or he got caught up in Ricky's second hand smoke. I think it's the second choice. If Ditka thought he caught lightning twice, he should have utilized his potential better, because Ricky didn't have his breakout season until he was traded to Miami. But even then he felt the call of the ganja was too strong and messed up a sure fire HOF career.
I totally forgot the Cowboys had to use Steve Beuerlein in this game! Not that he was a *bad* QB, in fact he was a solid player, but Troy Aikman he ain't.
Great drafting in the 70s and early 80s had Ditka coaching 5 future hall of famers. At the moment this game took place, 1 was retired and the others aging and when you could no longer physically bully other teams, decision making had to play more of a part and on more than one occasion, that failed Ditka. He was more personality than substance, more sizzle than steak. He had the same amount of future hall of famers as Bill Walsh, and more than Parcels and Gibbs and these 3 coaches won more rings than him and outside of 85 outcoached Ditka in big games.
I feel you're going to do a deep dive into the decision to call a QB draw up the middle with 14 seconds left and no timeouts while being down by a touchdown
The dumbest kickoff in all of football now belongs to the Bills for not squib kicking with 13 secs left when the opposing quarterback is Patrick Mahomes 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You kick off and it doesn’t go out / hold the team inside they own 20. Get the punt and start at your own 40. That was about the plan. Just didn’t execute
Yep exactly vs an onside kick and starting at your own 10 or 15 yard line assuming they get a stop. All in all kicking it deep wouldn't have been a bad decision in my opinion.
I'm wondering how many more Dumb Decisions videos you could commission about Mike Ditka. I don't know what he was thinking by having Chris Gardocki kick the ball out of bounds. Ditka would've been better off having Gardocki kick the ball deep than having him do what he did.
Ditka was on borrowed time by '91. That s b win too long ago by then. Or perhaps that was karma for the all out slaughter game, the 45-0 beat down/apology game bears put on boys in '85. Lions destroyed jimmy's boys in their next game, the divisional round playoff.
Then The Cowboys came back with Charles Haley and destroyed the Lions the next year. The Lions just were too good but again couldn't overcome the Redskins since they never ever won at RFK. The Cowboys went out and drafted well with Kevin Smith, Darren Woodson, Robert Jones, and Jimmy Smith (who would be great for Jacksonville). Then they got Charles Haley in a trade and Thomas Everett in free agency. They upgraded their defense.
@@redmustangredmustang You mean the charles haley who 'urinated' his way out of sf? That's how he ended up on boys. And lions ran into some tragic misfortune after '91 title game losing one o lineman to paralysis and another o lineman dropped dead and they were never quite the same scratching out one more division title in '93 (their last one) before farve rolled left and threw back to his right to sharpe and that was it for them.
@@matthewdaley746 Outside of bears pack, lions, buccs, and even some grant/steckel vikes teams nfc central totally sucked in those days. Couldn't match up against g men, skins, or niners. And buddy ryan totally raised the white flag and threw up his arms in defeat during that '90 w c game as gibbs totally outcoached him.
It seems like a big lapse in judgement. Ditka probably had the brain of an 80 year old here after his historic football career. Remember what he did with the ‘aints? 😂
@@vinnymac7565 You're another one of these guys that actually believes the myth that Ditka intentionally kept Payton from scoring in the Super Bowl. I've been a Bears fan all my life, and lived through that season. The truth is that Payton, who I loved, and I cried convulsively when when he died, acted like a spoiled child during that situation, and many of his teammates were put off by how he acted, though they knew they couldn't speak about it publicly. In reality, absolutely nobody had any problem with Perry getting the ball for that score AT THE TIME. There was still almost 4 minutes to go 3rd quarter. Payton started pouting about then, and if you watch the rest of the game, the Bears actively tried to get him a score, but the Pats stiffened up on defense everytime. In truth, a touchdown in a blowout Super Bowl isn't something that anyone ever thought Payton needed to validate his greatness. His mere presence on the field allowed the Bears to go wild offensively in that game. Also, earlier that very season, Ditka publicly stated many times that he wanted Walter to have the [since broken] NFL record for most consecutive 100-yd rushing games, and if you watch several of the games in that streak [wk6 - wk14], Ditka made a special effort to make sure Walter got his hundred yards. He didn't have to do that. He did it because he loved and respected him. In 1987, when McCaskey sent orders from on high that Neal Anderson had to start or Ditka would be fired, Ditka made Anderson the starting fullback and sat Matt Suhey because Ditka flat-out refused to bench Walter Payton. Ditka wept openly when Walter died and called him the greatest Bear of all, yet you, and bunch of people like you, say that he HATED Walter Payton just because he didn't get him a touchdown in blowout Super Bowl. Absolutely disgusting.
Fun Fact: The following week the Cowboys lost to the Lions which to this day is the last Lions playoff win
Thanks to the Bengals winning on Jan.15 / 22, the longest drought without a playoff victory. The Lions were still playing in the Pontiac Silverdome when they last won a playoff game! All said by a Packers fan who has doubts of seeing them in a Super Bowl again.
The Lions beat the Cowboys as if they stole something. However, that setback drove the Cowboys as they started their revival.
The Lions should have won the playoff game against the Cowboys in 2014 if not for the worst refball I’ve ever seen
a streak that finally ended this year. Then came another "dumb decision" to stop the Lions from finally getting to the Super Bowl
In the late 80s, teams started to use a pop up onside kick hoping it would land between the up front players and the deep returner. That kick was hit too hard and pulled OB never giving the team a chance to recover.
The person standing next to the kicker was to help prevent the kicking team from being offside.
After the 49ers-Cowboys game, I took off my Cowboys hat and jersey, went to wash dishes, and within five minutes, said "Talk about a Dumb Decision". A QB run up the middle of the field with less than 15 seconds on the clock and no timeouts. You could not have possibly called a worst play.
Yeah, you could -- a QB kneel. :)
@@dentonyoung4314 At least a QB kneel is an explicit surrender. A run gives the illusion that you want to win with literally none of the brain or finesse.
Not a bad decision. Just bad execution.
It was supposed to be a pop-up kick about 30 yds down field along the right side.
What actually lost the game for the Bears was the FOUR turnovers.
I remember this play and that’s exactly what happened. Ditka wasn’t the only Bear to address it in the media. The kicker tried to boot it high enough to get the first wave of Bears to block out the Cowboys, while a second wave tried to catch it. But the kicker botched the kick. Seems like a really difficult kick to execute correctly off a stand, though.
Looks like we’re gonna need a dumb decisions on however the heck that Cowboys game just ended
We better, it was one of the worst playcalls I have ever seen, potentially even worse than the infamous one Carroll made in the SB to pass on 1st and Goal.
I was thinking about that this morning. I had a feeling that Mike McCarthy would be part of the Cowboys' undoing. There was just too much stupid on that final play to cover in just one reply.
Funny enough, he also did a much-panned QB keeper with Hasselbeck and the clock running down/no timeouts against the Chargers in 2010. ET and Leon Washington bailed him out that day
...and what do you know? The Cowboys had TWO more Dumb Decisions the very next year against....(GASP!)....the 49ers!
A trick play usually means tricking the 'other' team.
Or at least trying to trick the other team lol
Wait wait....the Lions were not just in the playoffs but had a BYE?!
Thanks goodness this was 1991! Can you imagine this happening in 2021-22? And Ditka would be butchered with SO CALLED experts, & memes would be brutal!
As someone who turned 18 in '91, I don't remember any of this at all except the Cowboys winning.
Counterpoint: the best-case in the kick deep scenario isn’t the same as the failed onside, because Dallas is inside their own 30 rather than sitting at the Chicago 40. The Bears are getting the ball in much better field position, potentially even in Dallas territory if the kick is shanked or you get a good return, vs. maybe being stuck 90 or more yards away with 1:15 or so remaining. And if you force a turnover, you have the ball in much better position as well.
Plus - those Soldier Field winds are wicked. Remember Sean Landeta actually whiffed on a punt in the ‘85 playoffs because the wind blew the ball away on his drop.
I think the point JG9 was trying to make is Dallas would have followed the same strategy regardless if the Bears did an onside kick, kicked it deep, or went square dancing. By doing the onside kick the Bears would have given themselves an immediate opportunity to get the ball back and score.
I know this is almost 2 years old, but the two worst case scenarios are the same while the best case scenario of the onside kick gives you a better chance of winning than kicking a normal kickoff. In both, the worst case is Dallas gets a first down and runs the clock out to win the game. In the best case on an onside kick, you recover the ball with one timeout and have a chance to mount a game-winning drive while the best case scenario of a normal kick is Dallas goes three and out and punts. In the best case with a normal kick, you get the ball back with no timeouts needing a TD to win. The field position doesn't really matter for Dallas as one first down ices the game. For the Bears, the trade off that makes it worth it to go for the onside kick is the extra timeout. This late in the game, field position is slightly less a threat than the clock. You can compensate for field position with meticulous, calculated plays. You can't combat the clock (especially with no timeouts) except by heavily limiting your playbook.
This was a tremendous video--Love the analysis once again that you provide all of us. Great video, especially the passion that you bring to every video. Best way to start my day
He is great. I look forward to his videos everyday. I love the nostalgia. Plus, it is awesome when he gets exasperated. Very entertaining. I was an Oilers fan from 78 until they moved to Tennessee. I totally get exasperation. Buffalo in 1993. Need I say more? 🤣
JG9, you have the best NFL history Channel on RUclips. Keep up the good work.
And here I thought the biggest thing that happened on this day was the NYC blizzard that resulted in a smaller crowd at MSG for Hogan/Flair II and had a hand in changing the booking for Wrestlemania VIII
Either that or the fallout from the stampede at the Diddy-promoted show the previous night
There’s gonna be a Dumb Decisions for that last play of the 49ers Cowboys game I have a feeling
Would Dallas really have punted it if they got it to 4th and inches? Especially with Emmitt Smith in the backfield.
It's obvious they were trying a pooch kick, but he shanked it out of bounds. You get crazy emotional over weird stuff.
He was hoping for the ball to get pooched with the ball having enough backspin to go back towards the Bears. The inside kick has to go 10 yards before anybody from Chicago can touch it. That is harder than you think. This would guarantee with it popped up on the air it guarantees the 10 yard distance. So Ditka yes the kicker didn't execute the kickoff properly. But Sitka also didn't want to risk an extra 5 yards of penalty because the Cowboys would have counted on another onside kick situation or the Bears risking a long return because the Bears kicking team would have been tired from running down the field from the first attempt. So Sitka knew what he was doing. His players didn't do their job. In this case his kicker failed at doing his job.
How gorgeous did Soldier Field look before the renovation? This is from a Packers fan... albeit, one who lives off Lake Shore Drive.
The Bears blew some chances in that game to say the least. When they were inside the 10 on one occasion, Ditka called a play they hadn’t run in three years.
Why isn't there a Dumb Decisions playlist on this channel? I could watch stuff like this for hours.
Bears fans would say that the Bears won despite of Ditka because of their defense and Jim McMahon just being healthy enough in 1985 in the playoffs along with the great play of Walter Payton. There were stories of Jim McMahon audibling out many times that Ditka plays that he sent in. That Dikta wanted to use the flex defense when he first got to Chicago and Buddy Ryan shut that down quickly. It's amazing how the Bears were so talented and yet only went one Super Bowl. One big reason is that of course the defense and Walter Payton. Their big downfall is that McMahon just couldn't stay healthy. Got injured in 1984, got injured in 1986 (because of a Charles Martin body slam cheapshot). The Redskins had their number after 1985. The Redskins would beat the Bears in the playoffs in 1986,87 (after being down 14-0). A carousel of quarterbacks because again McMahon was always hurt. I say Jim McMahon was important because he had a high winning percentage the games that he started.
mcmahon was too small and fragile to last in the nfl. Remember he was taken by bears no. 5 in '82 draft a pick after the top qb schlister went to colts in a very bad draft for qb's.
@@matthewdaley746 He also had a hatred towards doug flutie and made snark comments about his size when mcmahon himself wasn't a big qb by nfl standards. Total hypocrite and jerk.
@UCTlO3MgUhv0pZ0pSb2Vzhrw I believe flutie is in the college football hall of fame too. Could have been that charles martin body slam sack. bradshaw has a screw lose thanks to ed turkey jones reverse body slam sack.
Ditka's ego became outsized after '85, not that he was a genius beforehand. Completely outcoached by Joe Gibbs and Bill Walsh in the playoffs from 86-88. Along with McMcMahon's health, the #1 reason that team won only 1 SB. The defense from 84-88 (particularly 84-86) was the best of all time and deserving of more.
The 1991 Bears were a shadow of what they once were. They were aging, their key players on the decline, Neal Anderson was injury-prone, and it's actually a wonder they won 11 that year. They probably should have been 8-8 and Ditka fired at the end of that year.
They actually lost to the DOLPHINS that season...at home! So yeah, they weren't going any further even if they had won this game.
@@DolFan316 In the snow!
@@CTubeMan The game is on YT, I watched it just last week.
@@DolFan316 I remember that game now. Thanks for reminding me, as when the the Bears lost that game, I thought to myself, "Well, that's just about that for Chicago."
A win their would have given the Bears an overall record of 12-4 and a second-round home game. It's likely they still lose, but at least it would have looked a bit better. Lol
@@DolFan316 Then they lose to the Lions just four days later on Thanksgiving, and then get embarrassed by the 49ers the last game of the regular season on Monday Night Football.
9:08 I was wondering that myself watching this the first time. I don't remember ever seeing any player on any onsides kick just standing by the kicker with his back turned like that. It looked so funky that I'm surprised it wasn't flagged for being an illegal formation.
Why do I see a bit of deja vu involving the Cowboys in the near future?
I expect a video shortly on that incredibly stupid last playcall by the Cowboys today
Reminds me of Super Bowl VII-the Skins had just scored on the Garo Gaffe and were trailing 14-7 with under 2 mins left. The Dolphins think an onside kick is coming, but George Allen decides not to do that and kicks it deep. Miami takes about 40 seconds off the clock on their drive, forcing Washington to burn their time outs and when they do get the ball back, can't do anything with the No Name Defense and the game ends 14-7 in favor of the Dolphins. If Allen onsides it, maybe Washington recovers, scores and wins in OT to spoil the perfect record.
When even Madden is perplexed, that's not a good move.
I remember reading that the 2-point conversion was introduced in the AFL before the merger. I just assumed they brought it over with the merger. Live and learn!
I was thinking the same about the Colts question at the beginning...except with the Seahawks vs the Rams.
The rams new uniforms, is one of the worst decisions in nfl history.
From the best uniforms to the worst.
Imo of course
We had a similar kickoff play in HS in Chicago but it worked. The safety would come up to the tee as the kicker started forward, yelling to each side to switch. They would start, but only one side kept moving, and the kicker would pooch it (ideally) just over the heads of the front guys, into the "non-hands" crowd, with our entire team bearing down on them. Front line turned their backs to follow the ball, and got erased. I would love to know whether that was inspired by this clusterfuck.
Chicago's success during his tenure was in spite of him, not because of him. His entire tenure.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
Yeah ol' Ken Willis, his magic range was 47yds or less. On turf in good conditions.
Willis was the only kicker to struggle with 47-yard field goals on grass.
Well you will be making a video later on the qb sneak my Cowboys did today
The ironic thing was the 1973 fake punt was in fact Ditka on the Cowboys making the tackle.
A pop-up kick has some merit. But the execution.. You can tell they'd never practiced it. Here you want the ball to just clear the first line and drop (maximize confusion, prevent a fair catch, and hope it bounces a bit). Trying a sideline fade version in Chicago in winter, (shakes head)..
That’s Cowboys DB Bill Bates (40) consoling Ditka at the end of the game as they walked off the field. Bates probably knew that that was the last playoff game for the legendary coach.
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I was hoping for a Dumb Decisions/In Defense Of for a Wild Card Round game. Thanks for coming through! Anything similar coming for the remaining rounds?
At least in 1984 Mike Ditka had somewhat of an excuse, as Tom Landry was on the opposite sideline. Ditka loved Landry, and felt bad about the 44-0 beatdown his Bears gave to the Cowboys the next year at Texas Stadium. The irony is Landry would have been happy to see Walter Payton set the rushing record and happy for the role his former player and assistant played in it, even if it was against his team. This decision didn’t have the same excuse behind it, since Jimmy Johnson was on the Cowboys sideline that day.
Of course the execution was bad as well. Sometimes those tweener kickoffs work, but only if you have members of the kicking team nearby. I don’t think I saw that there. I’m guessing the Bears didn’t practice that kickoff much.
This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made a video about another legen…wait for it, and I hope you’re not lactose intolerant, because the next part is…dary coach, and his lack of attention to Special Teams. That coach, Chuck Noll, got called out publicly by his own kicker, Gary Anderson.
@@matthewdaley746 Yeah, Ryan HATED Dallas. On a side note, during the 44-0 beatdown, Bears defensive linebacker Mike Singletary noticed the crowd leaving Texas Stadium (who could blame them at this point?) and said "Where are you going? We need witnesses!"
@@matthewdaley746 So you’re saying Buddy Ryan hated the Bears, and wanted to get revenge on them when he coached the Eagles? I don’t have the foggiest idea of what you’re talking about.
@@matthewdaley746 buddy ryan-0 playoff wins as head coach with a loaded eagles defense. Just an egotistical big mouth who knew defense is all he was. I'm glad he fanned out miserably as card coach. even bringing in all those old eagles like clyde simmons did no good for ryan.
WR scores TD at 3:34 - no flag for celebration or taunting ;-)
I know Ditka won a Super Bowl, but he always struck me as a bad coach. He was really just a bully most of the time.
Missed one thing in favor of kicking it deep vs onside kick. After a failed onside kick, the Cowboys are much more likely to go for it on fourth down inside the Bears 40 than outside their own 30. Basically, with a failed Onside kick, Dallas has 4 downs to make a game clinching first down whereas they only have 3 downs to do it following a deep kick. I think the chance of recovering an onside kick makes that a worthwhile trade.
I think Ditka was trying to avoid a time-consuming return. He wanted to force a fair catch or to cover the kick as soon as it was caught. To save a few seconds, he gave up either a lot of field position or a chance to get the ball back immediately. Just insane. (I really do not think that was a pop-up kick meant to be recovered by the Bears)
These were two franchises going in opposite directions. The Bears were an aging team with an eviscerated front office (which is STILL dysfunctional). The next season, they would go 5-11 and Ditka would be fired. They have only made the playoffs seven times since then. The Cowboys were an up-and-coming team with Jimmy Johnson as their coach. The next year, they would win the Super Bowl (then repeat this performance the next year).
Man, I remember this vividly. Was it Ditka or Kazor’s call? I was 11 when it happened. And even when it happened, I yelled at the TV
Please please please do a Dumb Decisions on the final play of the Cowboys/49ers game. WTF was that?!?
This isn't a bad coaching decision. It's poor execution by the players. This play IS an onsides kick. The idea was to kick it a little higher and a little shorter. The cowshit players are rushing forwards to cover a squib onsides and the Bears intend to run behind them and catch the kick.
It didn't work but that's because the kick sucked, not because the bears were trying to give up possession of the football.
Neither wanted this Lions team smoke that year!! 🤣🤣🤣
Poor JG9 sounds like he's gonna lose his voice from this video lmao
The '85 Bears were so revered that even six years later everyone regarded them as elite Super Bowl contenders despite just two playoff wins in that span coming in to this game.
You're incorrect. Nobody viewed the 1991 Bears as "elite Super Bowl contenders." That team was not very talented and limped into the playoffs.
the 1991 team was not "Elite contenders." in fact they were +1800 to make the Super Bowl before the season started and their over/under for wins was 8
@@stevep8445 Exactly. That team was a second or third-tier playoff team.
31 Years Ago
Win in the playoffs for the right to face Detroit... wow that just sounds like a weird sentence nowadays.
Ditka was always an overrated coach. Had one of the most talented teams in history and only reached 1 Super Bowl. meanwhile his NFC contemporaries; Walsh, Gibbs, Parcells, Jimmy Johnson all won multiple Super Bowls with lesser talent and even backup QB's on occasion.
What do you expect from a guy who trades away all the Saint's draft choices for one guy. I can see trading away the 2nd rounder and the future picks, but all of them that year? Ditka either really had that much faith in his O-line or he got caught up in Ricky's second hand smoke. I think it's the second choice. If Ditka thought he caught lightning twice, he should have utilized his potential better, because Ricky didn't have his breakout season until he was traded to Miami. But even then he felt the call of the ganja was too strong and messed up a sure fire HOF career.
@@Crunkboy415 lol facts
I totally forgot the Cowboys had to use Steve Beuerlein in this game! Not that he was a *bad* QB, in fact he was a solid player, but Troy Aikman he ain't.
Great drafting in the 70s and early 80s had Ditka coaching 5 future hall of famers. At the moment this game took place, 1 was retired and the others aging and when you could no longer physically bully other teams, decision making had to play more of a part and on more than one occasion, that failed Ditka. He was more personality than substance, more sizzle than steak. He had the same amount of future hall of famers as Bill Walsh, and more than Parcels and Gibbs and these 3 coaches won more rings than him and outside of 85 outcoached Ditka in big games.
Please do a dumb decisions video on that Cowboys play in the Wild Card
I feel you're going to do a deep dive into the decision to call a QB draw up the middle with 14 seconds left and no timeouts while being down by a touchdown
There is no such thing as momentum. Fucking hell
That is definitely a dumb decision!!!!!
Hey genius, ever consider the kicker screwed up? I know, a player makes a mistake, whodathunkit!
7:33 this was a rant
I see even the Jags upsetting the Colts hasn't done anything to lower OBJ9's blood pressure. I'm REALLY worried about him now...
The dumbest kickoff in all of football now belongs to the Bills for not squib kicking with 13 secs left when the opposing quarterback is Patrick Mahomes 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You kick off and it doesn’t go out / hold the team inside they own 20. Get the punt and start at your own 40. That was about the plan. Just didn’t execute
Yep exactly vs an onside kick and starting at your own 10 or 15 yard line assuming they get a stop. All in all kicking it deep wouldn't have been a bad decision in my opinion.
I'm wondering how many more Dumb Decisions videos you could commission about Mike Ditka. I don't know what he was thinking by having Chris Gardocki kick the ball out of bounds. Ditka would've been better off having Gardocki kick the ball deep than having him do what he did.
I risked my life savings because they had momentum.....said every billionaire ever
Haha. The prolonged shots of Ditka on the sidelines makes him look even MORE dumb and isolated..
I am probably the first person to view this video.... and it’s only because it’s in the playlist for the Dallas Cowboys
You beat me by 3 minutes :)
@@nasetvideos nice :)
Beat me by about an hour.
I remember when he did that. It was head scratching.
Cowboys video soon
Like the video and analysis, but the Bears’ QB#4 was Jim Harbaugh.
That was the SECOND dumbest decision in Mike Ditka's life.
Not running for the Senate in 2004 is the dumbest
I thought you were going to say the Ricky Williams debacle was the dumbest.
@@palaceofwisdom9448 Yeah...the Ricky Williams debacle was the weirdest draft decision I've ever seen.
Madden said it all
Ditka was on borrowed time by '91. That s b win too long ago by then. Or perhaps that was karma for the all out slaughter game, the 45-0 beat down/apology game bears put on boys in '85. Lions destroyed jimmy's boys in their next game, the divisional round playoff.
Then The Cowboys came back with Charles Haley and destroyed the Lions the next year. The Lions just were too good but again couldn't overcome the Redskins since they never ever won at RFK. The Cowboys went out and drafted well with Kevin Smith, Darren Woodson, Robert Jones, and Jimmy Smith (who would be great for Jacksonville). Then they got Charles Haley in a trade and Thomas Everett in free agency. They upgraded their defense.
@@redmustangredmustang You mean the charles haley who 'urinated' his way out of sf? That's how he ended up on boys. And lions ran into some tragic misfortune after '91 title game losing one o lineman to paralysis and another o lineman dropped dead and they were never quite the same scratching out one more division title in '93 (their last one) before farve rolled left and threw back to his right to sharpe and that was it for them.
@@matthewdaley746No because lions played skins at rfk every year during the gibbs reign as they met skins something like 18 straight times at rfk.
@@matthewdaley746 Outside of bears pack, lions, buccs, and even some grant/steckel vikes teams nfc central totally sucked in those days. Couldn't match up against g men, skins, or niners. And buddy ryan totally raised the white flag and threw up his arms in defeat during that '90 w c game as gibbs totally outcoached him.
It seems like a big lapse in judgement. Ditka probably had the brain of an 80 year old here after his historic football career. Remember what he did with the ‘aints? 😂
as someone from Chicago I can say Ditka is the most overrated coach in NFL history
The play was a bad call because it did not work.
Is that Jeff Fisher at 11:18 ?
I can’t tell if you just don’t like the cowboys or really hated Ditka for the dumb play.
You don’t need the clickbait titles. Your content is good.
F da rams WHODAT
5:06 Just six years after winning a Super Bowl, Ditka's face looks much fatter here and he seems to have aged a decade and a half.
Ditka hated Walter Payton.
That's completely ridiculous and shameful.
Evidence?
@@CTubeMan Super Bowl XX
@@vinnymac7565 You're another one of these guys that actually believes the myth that Ditka intentionally kept Payton from scoring in the Super Bowl. I've been a Bears fan all my life, and lived through that season. The truth is that Payton, who I loved, and I cried convulsively when when he died, acted like a spoiled child during that situation, and many of his teammates were put off by how he acted, though they knew they couldn't speak about it publicly.
In reality, absolutely nobody had any problem with Perry getting the ball for that score AT THE TIME. There was still almost 4 minutes to go 3rd quarter. Payton started pouting about then, and if you watch the rest of the game, the Bears actively tried to get him a score, but the Pats stiffened up on defense everytime.
In truth, a touchdown in a blowout Super Bowl isn't something that anyone ever thought Payton needed to validate his greatness. His mere presence on the field allowed the Bears to go wild offensively in that game.
Also, earlier that very season, Ditka publicly stated many times that he wanted Walter to have the [since broken] NFL record for most consecutive 100-yd rushing games, and if you watch several of the games in that streak [wk6 - wk14], Ditka made a special effort to make sure Walter got his hundred yards. He didn't have to do that. He did it because he loved and respected him. In 1987, when McCaskey sent orders from on high that Neal Anderson had to start or Ditka would be fired, Ditka made Anderson the starting fullback and sat Matt Suhey because Ditka flat-out refused to bench Walter Payton. Ditka wept openly when Walter died and called him the greatest Bear of all, yet you, and bunch of people like you, say that he HATED Walter Payton just because he didn't get him a touchdown in blowout Super Bowl. Absolutely disgusting.