Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I'm sorry if this was already a topic.

Of course this was both Sayers and Butkus's rookie seasons. The last significant Bears contender under HC, Halas. Winning the World Championship two seasons prior, their first three games picked up where that previous letdown year took off; they start off 0-3. But then they win 9 of their next 10 games - splitting with both Green Bay & Baltimore in that span!

And going into their finale at Wrigley, hosting the 6-7 Vikings, they were a half-game behind the 2nd-place Colts, and a full game behind the Pack for 1st. Packers just beat the Colts on the road to place them in that very top-spot. GB was off to SF, and Baltimore was off to LA. Bears end up losing to Minny but would have come up just short regardless, for Packers would tie their game and the Colts would win thus forcing that tie-breaker for the conference between both 10-3-1 teams.

Quite a shame that this would be the best it'd ever get for both those heralded rookies in Chi-town. Just one more winning season each would experience (7-6-1 in '67, Halas's last as a HC) en route to that '69 disaster. Placing that bad start out the way, how close would you place the Bears with GB & Balt in '65? Points-wise they finished #2 in both offense and defense, but at #3 & #8 respectively in yardage.

PS - it's also a shame we never got to see Jim Brown play against Sayers/Butkus!

The thing that (at least IMO) is most overlooked bout the Bears of that time is that they lost Willie Gallimore and Bo Farrington in a horrible car accident. Gallimore and Sayers in the same backfield - they would have been an incredible duo for a few years before Gallimore would have retired.

The other thing that's overlooked is that Butkus took over for Bill George at MLB. So, while Butkus is all-time great, he was taking over for a top player - the upgrade in defense wasn't like he was filling a weak link with a legend.

The more obvious problem facing the Bears at that time was at quarterback. The Colts and Packers were much stronger in that category. That said, it's difficult to say how the Bears might have fared under an expanded playoff in 65 because Unitas was out and Starr ended up injured early in the 65 playoff.

Chicago played its first three games in a row - lost to the Rams by only 2 points - Terry Baker scoring the game-winning touchdown for the Rams to top off a 21-0 fourth quarter for LA. The Bears also gave up 24 points in one quarter and 21 points in another against SF. The last game they gave up 21 to Minn in the 4th quarter. Their defense improved over the season, but they would have had to not give up those type of quarters and likely get their best quarterback play of the year to win in the playoffs. They would have made the playoffs under the current system, but I don't see them defeating the Colts/Packers, and Cleveland in consecutive games to win a title. IMHO, those three teams were a class above the Bears.