Must we always remember? The therapist once told me some things are better left forgotton, left to die in the field like dandelions sprayed with paraquet (A nasty little chemical meant to defoliate plants but leave people unharmed) An amazing act of brilliance by our government minds!
Actually I erred it was 69 not 70 but maybe some day you will get the thrill to watch your teams CHAMPIONSHIP banner raised
What is interesting is every one of those 'good" openers we wound up missing the playoffs in those years and 1 of your "bad" we made the postseason('85). An interesting note- in our 11 postseason appearances we have gone 6-5 in season openers winning in '68, '69, '86, '91, '02, '04 and losing in '81, '82, '85, '98 and '01- we lost in humiliating fashion in '81(31-0 at Buf), '85(31-0 at Raiders), '01(45-24 to Indy).
The funny thing is Chukie plays with the Las Vegas arena team and I asked him about that and he just laughs about it he said to this day he can't believe nobody was able to catch him.....
Does anyone know the statistic of the amount of home vs. away opening games. I remember seeing/hearing somewhere that we have opened like 9 of 10 on the road or something like that. I dont actually remember the stat. I know the '04 was home vs. Bengals.
2001- VT plays a brilliant game, until Richie Anderson knocks the ball out of his hand to produce a 14 point swing, we lose 38-24. 2002- Great game by VT, nice TD passes to Wayne, Etc, going great, and then bledsoe throws a TD pass on the last play of the game. never fear, morton returns the opening kickoff for TD in OT. 2003- We settle for field goals,Lamont gets tuffed on 4th and 1, Hall kicks the game winning field goal, herm ineptitutde. 16-13 2004- Touchdowns on our first 2 drives, after Carter fumbled opening kickoff and lead to bengals TD, Donnie Abe returning a fumble for a TD, Curtis running for about 196, we win 2005- Nice Job Herm having them prepared, 7 fucking fumbles
2 Touchdowns and no INTS is sucking completing about 70 percent of his passes??? wow, are you stupid???
I was at that game also. I had crappy seats on the other sideline. I couldn't be he wasn't out of bounds. I remember when we punted inside the 5, i thought we had the momentum and we had that game. We were 7 point dogs in that game.
I thought so too. Oddly, Parcells cut that punter following the game. I can't remember who he was but I remember he got cut.
1981 Opener in Buffalo! I should know I was there....Richard Todd was horrible as was the entire defense, only bright spot was a rookie named Freeman MacNeil.... Nice job at turning the season around though.
Unfortunately it also ended w/ a loss to Buffalo that year in the playoffs. We lost 31-0 in that game and made the playoffs and in '85 we lost 31-0 at the raiders and made the playoffs.
I just remember CB Bobby Jackson getting toasted in that 1981 opener. Here's one we haven't relived--1979, the one game Matt Robinson era. On the heels of his good year in 1978, filling in for the injured Richard Todd, he beat out Todd in pre season to become the starter, then injured his thumb days before the opener in a mysterious incident. I don't know if we ever learned what really happened. Robinson started the opener vs Cleveland at Shea, a rematch of the game that eliminated the Jets late in the 1978 season. It went into OT, the Jets had a chance to win by returning a blocked punt but Donald Dykes was stopped. Robinson ended up throwing a wobbly INT deep in his own end and Cleveland (I think Don Cockroft) kicked the game winning FG, eerily reminiscent of the 78 game.
Just a bit before my time, but I've read about the 1979 game. In the book NOSE to NOSE written by Joe Klecko and Joe Fields, the thumb incident was mentioned. The Friday night before the game, Klecko and Robinson went out drinking and had a friendly arm wrestle. Klecko won but his weight pushed down on Robinson's thumb. The next morning Robinson went to the trainer with some lame excuse - I forgot what- and they worked all day on getting the swelling down for the game. On Sunday, Robinson was able to play as long as his thumb was taped tight. He didn't play too bad and with only a couple of minutes left he got the Jets the lead. With his thumb aching by now, and in celebrating the apparant win on the sideline, he ripped off the bandage. The Browns meanwhile aided by a pass interference call managed to tie the game. Quickly, the trainer taped up Robinson's thumb again, but it was too late as the thumb swelled up again. That led to the wobbly INT. The next day Michaels demanded the truth from Robinson. Robinson would not rat out Klecko but rumors began circulating about the drinking binge, leading to an argument between Michaels and Klecko. In a fit, Michaels announced Todd the starter the following week (The Jets were creamed 56-3 by NE) and Robinson never played another down for the Jets. The Jets did manage to hoist a first round pick from Denver for Robinson after the season......
I don't know about 9 of 10 but this year will be the 35th time in our 47 year history we open on the road.
Actually Faurot was drafted in 1984 with the first round pick we got from New Orleans for Richard Todd. But yes, still awful. After reading mrjet80's post, I do remember reading about the Matt Robinson incident in "Nose To Nose". True, Robinson didn't play another down for the rest of the year. Todd actually took every snap for the next few years, he was a tough SOB although erractic at times. Except for the 1978 Miami game we discussed, the few openers we had at Shea were mostly disappointments. There was: *The aforementioned 1979 game. *1980 vs Baltimore, when we were supposed to be an up-and-coming team, a disappointing 17-14 loss. *1982, coming off a playoff year, losing to Miami 42-17 (I think) at home in what Walt Michaels termed "a total team disaster". First of three losses to Miami that year, we only lost 4 games total.
