Was that the game that the Jets thoroughly dominated the Broncs? If so, I remember the announcers saying that was one of, if not the greatest, domination and play by one team in a Monday night game up until that time. It was a thing of beauty, and has been all too rare over the years.
Yes, it was a home Monday night game in Week 7. We were 5-1, the Broncos were 6-0 and considered the best team in the league (the Bears had taken their first loss getting dismantled by the Vikings the day before) and were the only undefeated team. We were beating them 22-0 at halftime; complete domination in all aspects of the game (final score 22-10). The Jets started Pat Ryan (the backup) because Kenny O'Brien was hurt - and the entire first half was Ryan dominating the Broncos. He got hurt late in the first half and O'Brien was forced to play (with the injury) in the second half. The Jets knocked Elway out of the game with a concussion at the start of the fourth quarter, iirc. Another big thing about that game was the Jets ditched using a fullback and started two tailbacks in a split-backs formation (Freeman McNeil and Johnny Hector) and people made a big deal out of it because it was like we were playing two Pro Bowl-caliber backs at the same time (along with three Pro Bowl-caliber receivers - Wes Walker, Al Toon and Mickey Shuler). We came out of that game as Super Bowl favorites and it lasted four weeks.
Growing up my parents and older brothers weren’t into football at all. My older brother got me into wrestling and lacrosse at a young age and my uncle was a huge Brooklyn Dodger fan and started taking me to Met games at Shea in 1964. I got into football a little bit when I was 8 in 62. A neighbor of mine worked for CBS in NYC and they covered the NY Football Giants. He took me and his son to games in Yankee stadium a couple of times in the early 60’s. I liked the game but as a young kid my memory is mostly of the upper deck in Yankee stadium under a grey cold sky, looking around a post that was blocking my site line to a game that seemed very far away. The Jets were a completely unknow to me until NBC started broadcasting their games. I think the first game I watched they were playing SD on the West Coast? I remember watching the game and footballs were flying through the air. The weather was sunny and beautiful and it was exciting as hell. Namath had this way of throwing the ball where it looked like he could put the ball anywhere any time from any position and it happened like a lightning bolt. It was really exciting football and viscerally a very different experience then the games I remembered from Yankee stadium. I was hooked the first time I tuned in. When Namath came to the Jets it was like a bolt of electricity went through the league. Namath was like Barnum and Bailey on the verge of bankruptcy hiring the next great circus act. The AFL started to gain traction and the Jets became a team people wanted to see. The first two AFL-NFL Championship games were brutal to fans of the AFL. Although I personally hated the Raiders and enjoyed seeing the Packers beat the piss out of them, it was pretty apparent that the NFL champs were far superior. While I really didn’t root for the Raiders the Chiefs loss was the one that really brought the point home in the first game. The KS Chiefs were a really good team on both sides of the ball and they had a brilliant young coach. I was shocked how they were handled by the Packers in the second half of that game. They left the field completely broken and I got a sense that the AFL had a lot of work to do to catch up. When it was our turn after the 68 season the kid in me believed we could win but the football fan in me knew better. The Colts made complete mincemeat out of the NFL that year. Their 1 in season loss to the Browns was vindicated in spades at the end of the season when the obliterated them in the NFL championship game 34 to 0. They were a big nasty football team that beat the piss out of their opponents. I hung my hat on the fact that the Jets had built a terrific and big OL and had a very fast DL anchored by Gerry Philbin. Philbin was a legitimate edge rusher who could disrupt an offense all by himself and the Jets OL was big enough to handle the Colts front four. We got very lucky at the beginning of that game. Everyone was tight on both teams and the Jets escaped a couple of scoring chances by the Colts early. Once we settled in the combination of the Colts trying to contain Namath and our OL blowing up their over pursuit our run game started dominating. It was beautiful. The next season I went to the AFL Championship game at Shea where we lost to the Chiefs on a very cold windy day. I would have never predicted that was the last game I would see the Jets as the Champions of pro-football. My favorite player post Namath era was Al Toon. My favorite moment post Namath era was when Parcells put the old uniforms back on the team in 97. The best post season performance I ever saw was Freeman McNeal against the Bengals in the playoffs.
I'll never forget this game...Im in Montana on a ski trip with some friends, the weekend we got there we played the Chargers, which was thought to be a tough match up, but we pulled it off...now i was nervous because i would be traveling home while we would be playing the steelers the following weekend. I'll never forget sitting in the airport waiting for my flight watching this game, when i boarded the plane the Jets were tied 17-17 and i had no options but to leave, i begged a stewardess to have the captain do updates over the loud speaker when able and they obliged. I'm sitting in my tight seat sweating waiting to hear something and then it happened, "the Jets are lining up for the game winning field goal..." i was thinking this is it! This would be our year we were going to win this game go on to beat winner of NE vs Colts and go to the superbowl. Of course then it happened, the Jets missed the field goal, "sorry to inform the Jets fans on board, but the jets have missed and the steelers are about to attempt the game winning kick"...i knew than and there what the next statement was going to be, after that the rest of the flight home was even worse...we ended up losing.
And then the last 5 weeks of the '86 season happened. '86 was rough. There was definitely a Jets-Giants competition going on. The Jets great start was difficult for the Giants, since '86 was supposed to be (and turned out to be) their year of Destiny. As usual, the pro-Giant press was rooting for their team and tried to diminish the Jets success. Sports Illustrated ran a cover which blurted "The Jets Are Always Second To The Giants ". It showed LT eating apples out of a football helmet. Gastineau was egotistical enough to appear in the picture, reaching over his shoulder with a jealous look in his eye. It bled into all aspects of the media. For example, during the ten game winning streak, the drunken hack Paul McGuire constantly derided them and picked against them every week. He was wrong for about 5 weeks in a row. Eventually, injuries mounted and took the toll (both tackles, McNeil, Klecko, Gastineau, Lyons, Mehl). The losses piled up and McGuire took his bows for being a "genius". Ugh. But, as others have mentioned here, nothing was worse than the Cleveland game and the Gastineau penalty. And by nothing, I mean nothing ever. Not the next three Walton years, not the Coslet era, not the "Spike" game. not the Kotite debacle, not the '98 championship game collapse, Herm playing "not" to win the game vs the Steelers nor the '09 and '10 championship game losses. The Gastineau game was the cherry on top of a difficult 5 year run: the failed comeback against the Bills in the play-offs; the '82 championship game debacle; the firing of Michaels and the hiring of Walton; passing on Marino to take O'Brien; two years and two steps backwards in '83 and '84; the disappointing loss against the Pats in '85 and the '86 season. I believe this stretch was origin of the "Same Old Jets" refrain and the mantra of "Giants Good - Jets Bad" that is constantly repeated in the media. And this is all very unfortunate because that team had talent. Maybe not as much as the '68 team, but it was clearly a Super Bowl caliber team. O'Brien could have been a great QB, but his talent was beaten out by too many hits. McNeil was a great runner. The receiving corps of Toon, Walker & Shuler rivaled if not surpassed Maynard, Sauer & Lammons. The line had three perennial All Pros ( Powell, Fields and Dan Alexander). Klecko could be a Hall of Famer. Gastineau, as big an AH as he was, could rush the passer and Lance Mehl was a great LB. Injuries and bad luck took its toll.
This is an AWESOME Thread and GREAT questions from you sir!...I too am a younger Jets Fan(I'm 26), and I live in Panama City,Fl...Born and raised. My father was born in 61' so the 1st Super Bowl he could remember was seeing the J-E-T-S upset the Colts. My dad fell in love with Joe Namath, because at the time my father was an Alabama fan(he later switched to the Seminoles in the early 80's after my great Uncle took him to see the Noles play, so my late father(I love and miss you dad..r.i.p.) is the whole reason I'm a PROUD/Passionate JETS,Seminoles, and Atlanta Braves fan!! These are great questions and I wish I could ask my dad as he would've had a great answer to everyone of your questions. I believe that the Jets(mainly because of "Broadway Joe") were shown on CBS quite often back in the mid to late 60's. Anyways, I am so thankful for the 24 years I got with my dad and I'm also thankful that he turned me into a JET 4 LIFE!...Looking forward to more answer's to yyour questions. Here is one question I have to the Jets fans from the 80's....How do Mo Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson compare to Mark Gastineau and Joe Klecko? (I know there were two others, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam but i'm fairly certain the 1st two I mentioned were the best of the group) of the"New York Sack Exchange"? Do you guys like their upside compared to the front four of the early 80's
The Jets were on NBC in the 1960s. Wilkerson is probably the best all-around defensive lineman the Jets have had since Klecko. Richardson has the ability to be even better than Wilkerson.
Richardson & Wilkerson are certainly on their way. Their early years are comparable to Klecko & Gasitneau. Klecko came into his own in '81 and had 20.5 sacks. To my eyes, he was the most physically dominant DE I had ever seen on a consistent basis in that season. I believe Klecko was Dr.Z's defensive player of the year in '81. He was stronger than every tackle he faced and many of his sacks occurred when he would bull rush the OT into the QB. Klecko played the '81 season on a sprained ankle, and it was funny to watch him run with his ankle bandaged out like a balloon. He hurt his knee in '82 and had to battle injuries and play inside for the rest of his career. Gastineau was a speed rusher and under appreciated, but he was such an AH and hurt the Jets so much with extraneous antics that it was hard to fully appreciate him. Richardson and Wilkerson, as 3-4 ends, don't get the pass rushing opportunities that Klecko & Gastineau did, but they both show great promise.
There was no question that the Jets were the best team in the league at that point. If only that team could have stayed healthy and intact we would have whooped the Giants that year.
The Giants were absolute garbage in the late 60's when the Jets were good. The Giants didn't become a good franchise untill the mid 80's.
Technically I became a fan in the seventies, but I was very young and I feel the questions relating to the 80's fans are more relevant to me. 1. Mud Bowl 2. No - made especially painful as I lived in S Fl and had to watch Marino 3. For sure, the beginning of the 1986 season, they started off on fire.
Another thing that was horrible about the 86 loss was that they were starting to get guys back that had been hurt (causing the five loss swoon at the end of the season). I at least was starting to believe that maybe they were going to miraculously rally and get back to what they had been earlier in the year only to have Gastineau insanely torpedo everything. Plus as other have said there was the smirking Paul McGuire factor :-( And I would also say that the 85 team (which went 11-5) had the look of a SB contender for stretches of that season. I vaguely remember a lot of hype about the Bears @ Jets game that year being a possible Super Bowl preview (although the Bears handled us pretty thoroughly that day). P.S. -- the final AJ Duhe interception in the 82 AFC championship game was the worst single moment for me but that Browns loss was worse overall b/c it was such extended torture (after the Jets blew the lead the game went deep into OT before it finally ended) on top of the awfulness of the end of the 86 season.
RE: DL comparisons. I think that Klecko was still more dominant than Wilk but that may be nostalgia. Gastineau was very flashy but also one dimensional and constantly criticized for being soft against the run. Would take Wilk or Richardson over him
YES The Browns missed at least one chip shot FG in OT. It was like..."Please put us out of our misery"
If anyone is in the mood for intense self-laceration, here's the "AJ Duhe play." I was eleven and wanted to murder Richard Todd (for making the throw, for quitting on the play, for hanging his head, etc) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHDXoiw6U40
Thank God I was not alive for that game. Losing to the Dolphins is the worst. Losing to them in the AFC Championship? I don't even what to think about how that felt. Sorry older Jets fans. :sad:
Over the years, I watched countless Jets games with my Dad. Right before Mosley missed that field goal, he walked out of the room saying, "I can't watch them lose like this." When Mosley missed, I had to run down the hall and outside screaming for him to come back. He didn't believe me. That was the only time I saw him walk out or turnoff a game. Sadly, our hearts were still broken that day. I don't even want to think about the "Mud Bowl". It still hurts.
Yep. Wilkerson is the best DL the Jets have had since Klecko and Richardson is probably better. All 3 players have the same quality: a motor that will not stop and that can go up a notch even when you think they're letting it all hang out already.
