1985–86 NFL playoffs
The Chicago Bears making a rushing play in the end zone against the New England Patriots during Super Bowl XX
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| Dates | December 28, 1985–January 26, 1986 | ||||
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| Season | 1985 | ||||
| Teams | 10 | ||||
| Games played | 9 | ||||
| Defending champions | San Francisco 49ers | ||||
| Champions | Chicago Bears | ||||
| Runners-up | New England Patriots | ||||
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The National Football League playoffs for the 1985 season began on December 28, 1985. The postseason tournament concluded with the Chicago Bears defeating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX, 46–10, on January 26, 1986, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Because the Jets and Giants both used Giants Stadium as their home field, the two wild card playoff games were held on different days.
Within each conference, the three division winners and the two wild card teams (the top two non-division winners with the best overall regular season records) qualified for the playoffs. The three division winners were seeded 1 through 3 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams were seeded 4 and 5. The NFL did not use a fixed bracket playoff system. In the first round, dubbed the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend, the fourth seed wild card hosted the fifth seed. All three division winners from each conference then received a bye in the first round. The second round, the divisional playoffs, had a restriction where two teams from the same division could not meet: the surviving wild card team visited the division champion outside its own division that had the higher seed, and the remaining two teams from that conference played each other. The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games then meet in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl, the fourth and final round of the playoffs, was played at a neutral site, the designated home team was based on an annual rotation by conference.
In the NFL's first ever playoff game at Giants Stadium, the Patriots dominated the Jets by forcing four turnovers and five sacks. This was New England's first playoff win since 1963.
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