Prior to the 1985 NFL Season Andre Tippett Jerseys 2019 , the New England Patriots have never won a playoff game in the Super Bowl era. The last time the team won a postseason game in any league was the AFL’s Divisional Game against the Buffalo Bills in January 1964. The Patriots won 26-8; Lyndon B. Johnson was President of the United States and the Beatles have not yet played a show on American soil.Fast forward 21 years. It was the first full season of Raymond Berry’s head coaching career and his team, after starting its 1985 campaign 2-3, entered the playoffs as an 11-5 wild card team. If the Patriots wanted to advance to the Super Bowl, they had to do so without playing a single game in Foxboro’s Sullivan Stadium. And they did, becoming the first team in league history to reach the title game without having hosted a playoff contest.The team that has not won a playoff game in the Super Bowl era would have to square off against a team that has not allowed a single point in its two 1985 postseason games: the Chicago Bears.Super Bowl XX: New England Patriots vs. Chicago BearsDate: January 26, 1986Stadium: Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans LAFinal Score: New England Patriots 10 White John Hannah Jerseys , Chicago Bears 46Super Bowl XX started well for the Patriots. On the Bears’ second offensive play, star running back Walter Payton fumbled the ball and the Patriots’ Larry McGrew recovered. After three incomplete Tony Eason passes, Tony Franklin kicked a 36-yard field goal to give New England a 3-0 lead. The fastest score in Super Bowl history at that time was also the first points Chicago’s mighty defense surrendered during the 1985 playoffs.The game, however, would only go downhill from that point on — at least from the Patriots’ perspective. Before the first quarter ended, the team surrendered two field goals and a touchdown, while turning the ball over twice (one fumble apiece by Eason and running back Craig James). The Patriots ended the quarter with -19 yards of offense; the first positive play being a 3-yard run by James with 12 seconds left in the first period.Chicago would score another touchdown early in the second quarter to extend their lead to 17 points (20-3). Berry decided to become active and benched Eason John Hannah Jerseys 2019 , who went 0-for-6 and was sacked three times. In his place he inserted veteran Steve Grogan, who took over an offense that had amassed -36 yards at that point in the game.The Patriots entered halftime down 23-3 and the third quarter did not go any better. The team continued to struggle on offense and was unable to stop the Bears on defense. New England gave up three more touchdowns — among them a 28-yard interception return and William “Refrigerator” Perry’s famous 1-yard touchdown run — and was down 44-3 before scoring on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Grogan to wide receiver Irving Fryar early in the fourth quarter.The final points of Super Bowl XX were — surprise, surprise — scored by the Bears. This time, however, it was the defense which recorded a safety after Grogan was sacked in the endzone; the fourth time Grogan was sacked that day.Overall, the Patriots were out-gained 123 to 408 in their first Super Bowl appearance, turned the ball over six times and surrendered seven sacks. The Bears’ 46-10 win was the most lopsided Super Bowl to that point (it has since been surpassed by the San Francisco 49ers’ 55-10 victory over the Denver Broncos in 1989).The Patriots’ 1985 season may have ended in defeat White Irving Fryar Jerseys , but it was still a success. Prior to opening day, few people believed that New England would be capable of reaching the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl. The team came up short on the game’s biggest stage, but put itself on the map for the first time — if only for one year. The Giants played well last night, despite the final score. But coach Pat Shurmur apparently wanted the final score to more accurately reveal how well they’d played.That’s the only way to understand Shurmur’s decision to punt on fourth and two from the New York 33 with 7:08 left in the game.Down 28-14, the Giants needed two scores. Punting the ball would make it extremely hard to generate two more possessions, especially in light of Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s mastery of situational football.Going for it Irving Fryar Jerseys 2019 , however, carried with it the risk of giving the Patriots a short field and an opportunity to extend the lead to 21, creating a final score that looked worse for the Giants. And that’s the only logical explanation for Shurmur’s decision to not give his rookie quarterback a chance to build some self-confidence in himself (Simmsism) by converting a key fourth-down play.Think of how Jones may have grown as a player if he’d parlayed a fresh set of downs into a touchdown. And what if something screwy had happened (like an ill-advised option play on third and short) to give the Giants another crack at the ball?We’ll never know whether that would have happened, because Shurmur wanted a final score that would look good to the people who scan the headlines while flipping through the New York newspapers on Friday morning.Shurmur won’t admit the motivation; he said simply that “I felt like it was the right thing to do” when asked about the situation after the game. But it’s the only motivation that makes sense: Shurmur thought 28-14 looked better than 35-14.Of course, he ended up with 35-14 anyway because the punt into the wind traveled only 30 yards, and then the Patriots went 63 yards in seven plays to create an outcome that will prompt the headline scanners to conclude that the Giants got blown out.