Paul Maguire jinxed the Jets in '86???

Though the record shows they were all teams with good records except for the Steelers. There was a sense it was being done with mirrors in the first half of 1986, like the incredible Miami game. Joe Walton with his fingers up his nose all the time didn't exactly ring command presence, and the Sack Exchange was a shell of its better self with Salaam gone and Gastineau's pass rushing getting to be more of a debit (rushers learned to rush right through the holes he left in his wake, like Eric Dickerson in the Rams game.)

It was only because the weakest AFC playoff team in the 1980s bar one had the good luck to play the one worse AFC playoff team (the Chiefs were essentially a special-teams phenom that year), and that Pat Ryan spelled a clearly done Ken O'Brien, that the Jets did get that playoff win, Walton's only one as head coach.

 

kinda like this yr. but we werent 10-1 at any point. whenever were expected to do good we flunk...

 

Actually that couldn't be farther from the truth. I go back to those AFL days and remember Maguire as an exceptional punter (and decent linebacker) who became proficient in the coffin corner kick which is punting the ball out of bounds inside the 20 for no return. Today's punters booming kick after kick into the endzone could stand to learn from his example.

Maguire's teams were exceptional too. With the Chargers and Bills, Maguire played in 6 of the 10 AFL Championship games. He is the all time AFL punting leader in yards and average.

Rant on Maguire all you want as a broadcaster but as a player, that's a totally different story.

 

I could've sworn that was Pete Axthelm that made the statement that the Jets wouldn't win again. I remember watching it live - I didn't think Maguire was on any of the networks at the time...

 

O'Brien was also hurt but kept playing. He hurt his throwing shoulder and really was never the same QB after that.

They did have some close games but they also dominated previously unbeaten Denver on a Mon Night and a good Seattle team on the road where the Kingdome was a very difficult place to play. The team just had too many injuries to overcome.

It was definitely Maguire.

 

I have never been a McGuire fan either. That year was one of the strangest ones I can remember. We were going along great with the best record in football at 10-1 and then it was like all the air was let out of our balloon. That was the year known as The McGuire Curse.

We didn't just lose our last 5 games, but many times we were completely blown out. We went into the playoffs not knowing what to expect. Somehow we beat KC handily 35-15, only to lose the next week. Believe it or not Marty Schottenheimer was head coach of the Browns in '86, and we should have actually won the game, but lost 23-20. The Jets took a 20-10 lead with 4:14 left in the game on a run from Freeman McNeil of 25 yards, but the Browns would later tie it with 7 seconds remaining. The contest did not end until the Browns made a field goal after 2:02 of the second overtime period. If we did not go into prevent defense against a very capable Bernie Kosar, we would have won. This is one of the first days Joe Walton made me cry.

 

That season, of course, ended in Cleveland. And I'll never forget that the Cleveland game was the game that my mom jinxed the Jets by coming into the room where my brother and I were watching the game and congratulated us prematurely. She has since been banned, never to watch a game with us again.

 

Paul McGuire actually earned the name "Jet Hater" during this period of time. He had just broken into sports announcing and every time he covered a Jets game... I am talking every game, every play, he just pounded away at the Jets with a vengeance. He has since let up on it for the most part, but that doesn't matter to me anymore. To this day I can't stomach even looking at the guy, I hate him so much.

 

What I remember most was Ken O'brien was the highest rating QB in NFL history after 11 games and by the end of the season he was benched. But he was used as a scapegoat, the whole team was awful after week 11...

 

The fact that the first loss, 45-3 at Miami, was on MNF really exposed all of our weaknesses to the other teams we were about to play. Then it just snowballed. I was at the next game at home vs the Rams, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was so cold and windy, O'Brien had no time to throw and we had some key drops and near misses early.

I think going with Ryan for the playoff game worked because our regular offense had stalled so badly, Ryan could run around, buy time and create a few things on his own. Plus the move energized the crowd, and as someone pointed out, the Chiefs were a bit of a fraud to begin with.