1985 Denver Broncos season

1985 Denver Broncos season
Owner	Pat Bowlen (Since 1984)
General manager	John Beake (Since 1984)
Head coach	Dan Reeves (5th season)
Home field	Mile High Stadium
Results
Record	11–5
Division place	2nd AFC West
Playoff finish	did not qualify

A ticket for a December 1985 game between the Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The 1985 Denver Broncos season was the team's 26th year in professional football and its 16th with the National Football League (NFL). Despite finishing with an impressive record of eleven wins and five losses, the Broncos failed to make the playoffs. The Broncos were coming off a loss to the Steelers in the divisional round, and were picked by many to make the Super Bowl at the end of the 1985 season. The Broncos would start out well, as they started 6-2 and 8-3. However, two losses in overtime to arch rival Los Angeles resulted in the Broncos needing to win their final two games of the season to try to sneak into the playoffs. They did just that, beating Kansas City 14-13 and Seattle 27-24. However, even though the Broncos finished 11-5, they failed to reach the playoffs by virtue of a tiebreaker with the New England Patriots. The tiebreaker was based on the teams' common opponents record; and the Patriots beat the Broncos in that category by finishing 4-2 against the Raiders, Seahawks, Dolphins, and Colts, while the Broncos finished just 3-3 against the same four teams. The 1985 Broncos are one of two teams in NFL history since the 1970 merger to end the season with eleven or more wins and not qualify for the playoffs - the other is the 2008 Patriots.

Personnel

Staff

1985 Denver Broncos staff

Front office President and Chief Executive Officer – Pat Bowlen General Manager – John Beake Coordinator of College Scouting – Reed Johnson Head coaches Head Coach – Dan Reeves Assistant Head Coach/Defense – Joe Collier Special Assistant – Marvin Bass Offensive coaches Offensive Coordinator – Mike Shanahan Running Backs – Nick Nicolau Tight Ends/Assistant Offensive Line – Doc Urich Offensive Line – Alex Gibbs

Defensive coaches Defensive Line – Stan Jones Linebackers – Myrel Moore Defensive Backs/Secondary – Charlie West Special teams coaches Special Teams/Tight Ends – Chan Gailey Strength and conditioning Strength and Conditioning – Al Miller

Roster

1985 Denver Broncos roster

Quarterbacks (QB)  7 John Elway  8 Gary Kubiak Running backs (RB) 33 Gene Lang FB 30 Steve Sewell 47 Gerald Willhite 23 Sammy Winder Wide receivers (WR) 82 Vance Johnson 84 Clint Sampson 81 Steve Watson Tight ends (TE) 88 Clarence Kay

Offensive linemen (OL) 54 Keith Bishop G 64 Billy Bryan C 63 Mark Cooper G 78 Winford Hood G 60 Paul Howard G 76 Ken Lanier T Defensive linemen (DL) 79 Barney Chavous DE 68 Rubin Carter DT 75 Rulon Jones DE 71 Greg Kragen NT 61 Andre Townsend DE

Linebackers (LB) 57 Tom Jackson OLB 77 Karl Mecklenburg ILB 50 Jim Ryan OLB Defensive backs (DB) 43 Steve Foley FS 31 Mike Harden CB 22 Tony Lilly FS 48 Randy Robbins SS 49 Dennis Smith SS 45 Steve Wilson CB 20 Louis Wright CB Special teams  3 Rich Karlis K  4 Chris Norman P

Rookies in italics

Regular season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Game site	Record	Attendance
1	September 8	at Los Angeles Rams	L 16–20	Anaheim Stadium	0–1	52,522
2	September 15	New Orleans Saints	W 34–23	Mile High Stadium	1–1	74,488
3	September 22	at Atlanta Falcons	W 44–28	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	2–1	37,903
4	September 29	Miami Dolphins	L 26–30	Mile High Stadium	2–2	73,614
5	October 6	Houston Oilers	W 31–20	Mile High Stadium	3–2	74,699
6	October 13	at Indianapolis Colts	W 15–10	Hoosier Dome	4–2	60,128
7	October 20	Seattle Seahawks	W 13–10 (OT)	Mile High Stadium	5–2	74,899
8	October 27	at Kansas City Chiefs	W 30–10	Arrowhead Stadium	6–2	68,246
9	November 3	at San Diego Chargers	L 10–30	Jack Murphy Stadium	6–3	57,312
10	November 11	San Francisco 49ers	W 17–16	Mile High Stadium	7–3	73,173
11	November 17	San Diego Chargers	W 30–24 (OT)	Mile High Stadium	8–3	74,376
12	November 24	at Los Angeles Raiders	L 28–31 (OT)	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	8–4	63,181
13	December 1	at Pittsburgh Steelers	W 31–23	Three Rivers Stadium	9–4	56,797
14	December 8	Los Angeles Raiders	L 14–17 (OT)	Mile High Stadium	9–5	75,042
15	December 14	Kansas City Chiefs	W 14–13	Mile High Stadium	10–5	69,209
16	December 20	at Seattle Seahawks	W 27–24	Kingdome	11–5	56,283

Season summary

Week 11

1 2 3 4 OT Total Chargers 7 7 0 10 0 24 • Broncos 7 0 0 17 6 30 Date: November 17 Location: Mile High Stadium

Scoring summary Q1 14:43 SD Anderson 98 yard kickoff return (Thomas kick) SD 7–0 Q1 3:10 DEN Watson 4 yard pass from Elway (Karlis kick) Tie 7–7 Q2 13:36 SD James 6 yard pass from Fouts (Thomas kick) SD 14–7 Q4 14:07 DEN Lang 2 yard run (Karlis kick) Tie 14–14 Q4 13:45 DEN Lang 4 yard run (Karlis kick) DEN 21–14 Q4 10:09 SD Thomas 36 yard field goal DEN 21–17 Q4 1:18 SD Spencer 2 yard run (Thomas kick) SD 24–21 Q4 0:05 DEN Karlis 34 yard field goal Tie 24–24 OT 10:15 DEN Wright 60 yard blocked field goal return DEN 30–24

Standings

AFC West
	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
Los Angeles Raiders(1)	12	4	0	.750	5–3	9–3	354	308	W6
Denver Broncos	11	5	0	.688	5–3	8–4	380	329	W2
Seattle Seahawks	8	8	0	.500	4–4	6–6	349	303	L2
San Diego Chargers	8	8	0	.500	3–5	7–7	467	435	L1
Kansas City Chiefs	6	10	0	.375	3–5	4–8	317	360	W1

External links

• 1985 Denver Broncos at Pro-Football-Reference.com