80s jet fan I was to young to know what qb they should have taken. I like obrien thought he was above avg. 1986 the jets stared 10/1 the looked legit. Then crumbled.
I never hear anyone talk about the Russell Carter play, but to me he was every bit as guilty as Gastineau. The freakin' ball was thrown right to him! If you threw that same ball to ME 1,000 times I'd probably catch it 999. Just unreal. The Gastineau hit wasn't on fourth down. I think it was 3rd and a mile, but even without the penalty the Browns were still going to line up for another play. If Carter catches the damn ball, game over.
This may be a defense mechanism, but I have virtually no memory of the 1986 Jets-Browns playoff game. This is odd because I remember seven of the other eight playoff games of that season. (The Rams-Redskins game is the other one that I do not recall.)
The Gastineau hit was on the previous drive. The Jets were up 20-10 at the time and the late hit allowed the Browns to continue their drive to make it 20-17. After the Jets were forced to punt (first punt downed on the 8 yard line called back by penalty) Howard was hit with the PI with about 40 seconds left. Then the bomb to Brenan ( which the Browns nearly ruined by jumping around and celebrating with the clock running ) and the dropped INT by Carter......a really sickening game
It must be a mental block or defense mechanism because you of all people should remember it....I know you have a great recall of other Jets games from the past
Without the penalty, the Browns were looking at a third an 24 with less than 3 minutes to go. They were down and demoralized. Kosar was not clicking at all, and he had not been all game. He even missed the next play, once he got the first down, as you point out. But what the penalty did was give the Browns life. The Browns really weren't ready to win that game. Even with a completely dead Jets team, it took them almost two quarters into overtime to win, which included one or two easy missed FGs (IIRC). However, rather than allow the demoralized Browns to play out the string(which would have been two incomplete passes, as everyone in the Stadium, and certainly those watching on TV were expecting) they got a chance.
I was 11 and that game forged my deep hatred for the Dolphins franchise and their fans...... to this day.
I remember watching the pre-game show and have some memory of the game-winning kick. The rest of the game? Nope.
I've been a Jets fan since the night of SB III, which happened when I was not yet nine. I'll answer the questions going backward in decades. Starting with the 90s, when my fanhood was at its most intense. After making the playoffs in 91 what were the expectations in 92? were they legit threats to win the division? Dr. Z actually did predict a division win for them in SI. Expectations were high, as they had gone 5-0 in the preseason. They actually won more games in the preseason than in the regular season that year. I was stoked about Browning Nagle because he came from Howard Schnellenberger (as did Kelly, Kosar, Testaverde at the U, and even Joe Namath at Alabama before). By week 3, I was a bit less stoked. At one point did you feel like it was time to move on from O'Brien? I remember thinking that we had a good team in '91 with Rob Moore and Al Toon and even Blair Thomas before he busted, but we lacked an adequate trigger man under center. I personally felt O'Brien never recovered from the five-game swoon of late '86 and was happy to see Nagle drafted in 91 (I saw him throw for 400 yards at the Fiesta Bowl that January and wanted to see him in green -- good thing I'm not a draftnik). Coslet may have thought O'Brien sucked, but he treated him better than Joe Walton. More on Joe in the next installment. When Boomer came to town what were the expectations? I thought this was the solution to the QB problem. Coslet was Boomer's OC when the Bengals went to the Super Bowl in '88. Unfortunately for some reason Coslet never ran the no-huddle on the Jets like he did in Cincinnati, and he had Boomer under center for all the snaps with no shotgun. Got him killed in the finale at Houston (only Kevin Gilbride got beat up worse that night). Bigger disappointment Nagle or Foley? Nagle. Foley should have been kept in 1999 as a backup. What were your thoughts on the hiring of Kotite? I tried to be optimistic. I was actually afraid he was going to be a tyrant like his old boss Joe Walton was, but I had nothing to fear on that end. Instead he ended up making Coslet and Carroll look like Vince Lombardi. I never thought Coslet should have been fired after '93. The QB coach, Walt Harris (later to be HC at Pitt) could have stepped in as OC. Coslet said he was willing to relinquish being the OC. But Dick Steinberg decided to fire Coslet anyway, for reasons we'll never know, since he died less than two years later. Steinberg should have allowed Carroll to promote Harris to OC. Instead, he has Carroll bring in Ray Sherman from SF to install the West Coast Offense with underwhelming results.
I think it would have been 3rd and long had the penalty not been called. Cle still had a long way to go and had to score 10 pts. It was a team collapse.
The Jets can easily win the popularity contest in NY, we saw it in 2010 and that was without a Super Bowl. If the Jets won a Super Bowl things would change.
This. In the late 80s, Mike & the Mad Dog used to rail on and on about how NY was a "Mets town" and the Yankees simply couldn't draw the same attention. The truth is, whoever wins will garner attention.
a bit surprised there is not too much mention about the 81 WC game against the bills. one of the few "home" playoff games in history..... i tell u folks - i was at the game - 1st one as a 15 year old. it was absolutely insane - from the hours prior to the game leading up to kickoff. when harper fumbled the opening kickoff - which was returned for a TD by the bills - every ounce of air temporarily left shea. it was like 55,000 people, in those 3-4 seconds of time, didn't know what to do. they just froze in place. shocked. and the bills just kept making play after play. frank lewis torched the jets that day as well as ferguson and cribbs. waltons play calling early on against a tough bills 3-4 D was non-sense. i remember hearing people bitch about it in the stands. geez they didn't realize we would have 9 more years with him. think the bills had leads of 17-0 or 24-7. everytime u thought the jets could make a move nothing would materialize. finally the jets made a few plays with mickey shuler beasting it at TE. believe at one point they were down 31-13 in the 4th Q. then one thing led to another and todd is moving them up and down the field, mostly thru the air...... then at the end i think most of the stadium really expected the jets to pull it out and score the winning TD. dont think they had any timeouts so they were really against the clock. it was absolute chaos in the stands. people were already slapping fives and hugging. parts of the stands were shaking from people jumping up and down... and the final play was todd throwing the INT on the 3 yard line on a pass intended for derrick gaffney. once again people were shocked and in disbelief. it turned real quiet and stayed that way while leaving the stadium. i was hooked as a fan from then on - of course only to be equally dissapointed a year later in miami.
sure does, i love those unis btw. and hey we may be second banana but at least our helmets match the rest of our uniforms.
81 hurt too but 82 was worse b/c they were so close to a seemingly winnable Super Bowl and had already knocked off Bengals and Raiders on the road. Plus in retrospect I have a hard time imagining the 1981 Jets going on to knock off the 81 Bengals and then the 81 vintage Coryell Chargers (both on the road) if they had completed the comeback vs. Buffalo. Also hard to imagine them beating the 1981 49ers in the Super Bowl (esp. with Joe W calling the plays). By contrast, I'll go to my grave thinking that the Jets would have beaten the Fish in non-ridiculous, Shula-made field conditions in 1982 and could have taken the 1982 Skins. Sigh . . . . .
Jets, Jets Anniversary of SB3. That was a great day to be a Jet fan. The only talk radio was Bill Mazur. The next day he had Gerry Philbin on. I still remember that. In '70 they lost a playoff game to KC. Had 1st. and goal inside the five and couldn't punch it in. Lost it 6-0. Still painful.
You're right about 1981 but they should have beaten the Bills at least....dammit but probably would have come up short in Cincy. 1982 I would have to say draw. They would have beaten Miami in regular conditions ( they would have beaten them a month earlier if not for a missed XP and a dropped INT) but I 'm not sure how they would have fared against the Skins. You have the sack exchange going up against the 'hogs'....good matchup. Would Todd have cracked up in the SB? We'll never know..... I think the opposite of most people in regards to 1986. If they had beaten the Browns there is no way they would have won in Denver and certainly no way they beat the Giants. It would have been just another stigma to hang over our heads forever : remember the 86 super bowl when the Giants kicked out butts?? You have to remember how beat up the Jets were at that point.....healthy? Sure they could have won it all. But that Jets team that whipped Denver on MNF was not the same team that would have gone into Mile High. Definate home field advantage for Denver.......
I think they had 4 chances inside the 1 yard line. Even a Namath sneak didn't work. Had to settle for a FG to tie. That seemed to amp up KC they scored the game's only TD on the next series and held on....... I used to live in Eastchester as a kid many years ago right off of Mill Road..
