1991 Redskins on NFL Network Friday

[steveo395]

This team definitely should have been higher than 14th.

[ncskinsfanec]

That '91 team was the best of the Super Bowl winners. They had it all! Thinking about that team brings back some great memories!! Gibbs was unquestionably genius at that time, all you people that like to rag on him now should really watch this!

[dmek25]

that team was loaded from top to bottom. they didnt just win, they usually blew teams out

[brent]

Dallas won with a whole lot of trickery in 1991. I seem to recall an end-of-half hail mary TD and a successful onside kick. The playoffs were a total laugher, as both NFC teams were weak run-and-shoot teams and Gibbs had it figured out completely, studying it before the season began. (Gibbs may have personally ended the run-and-shoot) Buffalo used a little of the run-and-shoot in their offense too, meaning run stuffer Matt Millen (ie, Detroit) sat out for the entire playoffs. Even the Redskins did a no-huddle, run-and-shoot thing once in a while just to overwhelm defenses in pre-game preparations. Only Buffalo posed any real challenge. I believe they went through September without even allowing a TD, or something close to that.

Statistically, it was one of the top 3 "points scored vs. league average" ever. I believe the 1983 Redskins also rank high as they had an unbelievably dominant offense, with Joe Theismann playing like a true MVP QB. (I don't recall, was he the MVP?)

One factor in 1991 was the special teams was fantastic, starring Brian Mitchell. The offense always worked on a short field and Rypien never turned the ball over in their own end all season, something that they worked on avoiding consciously. Rypien also had an insane slugging percentage throwing the deep ball. With protection that yielded roughly 7 sacks all season, he was nearly automatic on the deep passes. Earnest Byner had a career year, and he was complemented by a great rookie effort by Ricky Irvins (I think), who dropped off the face of the earth.

I recall the Giants game that year, 1 year after Parcells moved on, being a real bloody battle. They also struggled in a game (week 12 or 13) after the Cowboys loss, I think to the Rams, where Gibbs tossed the gatorade pissed the team was giving such a half-hearted effort against an easily beatable opponent. They never struggled again after that halftime.

Kornheiser wrote the bandwagon column, perhaps one of the most famous (and seriously boring) long-running sports columns ever. To this day, Kornheiser has never pulled the bandwagon out of the garage, although he's written columns about NOT doing it.

I believe the Kornheiser column started as a joke, about how a couple wins doesn't mean the team is going to dominate all season long and win the superbowl. It ended up the joke was on him! They did!!!! I've heard Kornheiser say he was planning to rip the *&^*&^*%^ out of the Skins after their first bad loss.

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by brent

Statistically, it was one of the top 3 "points scored vs. league average" ever. I believe the 1983 Redskins also rank high as they had an unbelievably dominant offense, with Joe Theismann playing like a true MVP QB. (I don't recall, was he the MVP?)
...

Theismann was in fact the league MVP in 1983, and that was a great, great Redskins team, but I believe the 1991 team was more balanced.

The '91 team scored a league high 485 points (30 per game) and yielded the 2nd fewest at 224 points (14 per game). That 16 point average point differential is one of the largest in league history. That team only allowed 9 sacks all year - 2 or 3 of which came in a meaningless loss when they rested starters for much of the finale at Philly. With such great O-line play, Mark Rypien hit deep balls at will all season.

ESPN2 named the 1991 Redskins as their #4 team in NFL history, so I believe that NFL Network ranking them as the 14th strongest Super Bowl winner is ridiculously low. ESPN.com - Page2 - Greatest NFL teams of all time

[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by brent

Dallas won with a whole lot of trickery in 1991. I seem to recall an end-of-half hail mary TD and a successful onside kick. The playoffs were a total laugher, as both NFC teams were weak run-and-shoot teams and Gibbs had it figured out completely, studying it before the season began. (Gibbs may have personally ended the run-and-shoot) Buffalo used a little of the run-and-shoot in their offense too, meaning run stuffer Matt Millen (ie, Detroit) sat out for the entire playoffs. Even the Redskins did a no-huddle, run-and-shoot thing once in a while just to overwhelm defenses in pre-game preparations. Only Buffalo posed any real challenge. I believe they went through September without even allowing a TD, or something close to that.

Statistically, it was one of the top 3 "points scored vs. league average" ever. I believe the 1983 Redskins also rank high as they had an unbelievably dominant offense, with Joe Theismann playing like a true MVP QB. (I don't recall, was he the MVP?)

One factor in 1991 was the special teams was fantastic, starring Brian Mitchell. The offense always worked on a short field and Rypien never turned the ball over in their own end all season, something that they worked on avoiding consciously. Rypien also had an insane slugging percentage throwing the deep ball. With protection that yielded roughly 7 sacks all season, he was nearly automatic on the deep passes. Earnest Byner had a career year, and he was complemented by a great rookie effort by Ricky Irvins (I think), who dropped off the face of the earth.

I recall the Giants game that year, 1 year after Parcells moved on, being a real bloody battle. They also struggled in a game (week 12 or 13) after the Cowboys loss, I think to the Rams, where Gibbs tossed the gatorade pissed the team was giving such a half-hearted effort against an easily beatable opponent. They never struggled again after that halftime.

Kornheiser wrote the bandwagon column, perhaps one of the most famous (and seriously boring) long-running sports columns ever. To this day, Kornheiser has never pulled the bandwagon out of the garage, although he's written columns about NOT doing it.

I believe the Kornheiser column started as a joke, about how a couple wins doesn't mean the team is going to dominate all season long and win the superbowl. It ended up the joke was on him! They did!!!! I've heard Kornheiser say he was planning to rip the *&^*&^*%^ out of the Skins after their first bad loss.

You might want to thank Ritchie Petibone too. Gibbs pretty much left the defense alone. For some reason Ritchie never seems to get any credit. One of the best DC's of all time.

[brent]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

You might want to thank Ritchie Petibone too. Gibbs pretty much left the defense alone. For some reason Ritchie never seems to get any credit. One of the best DC's of all time.

Petibone always had a knack of running the perfect blitz just as a team had reached the edge of field goal range late in the game. I don't think they blitzed much, but when they did -- they were as good at that as Rypien was on the deep ball. I think to most Redskin fans, the playcalling was a bit predictable but the opposition never seemed to catch on.

[Redskinhog1963]

I still think the 1983 team would have gone in as one of the greatest ever if not for that stupid loss in the Super Bowl. But I agree the 1991 team was amazing. I gotta say though in a way I'm glad we went 14-2 (not that I was happy to lose to the Eagles) instead of 15-1. Because I would hate to think that the one loss we'd have looking back on that year would have been to the Cowboys.
Game film for this current team should be highlights of that season every week.

that redskins 1983 team that got blasted by r the raiders was the best redskins team i ever saw!they lost to dallas 31-30 on mnf after leading them 24-3 at halftime,and dallas came back and beat them 31-30.the other loss that year was against green bay on mnf 48-47 when moseley missed a 48 yard fg on the last play of the game.the defense sucked that year,but until minnesota broke the season record for most points by a team in a season
that redskin team had it at 540!funny thing about that day,my dad got me hooked on the redskins as a little boy,but he had been a redskins fan 50 years.
anyways,he got to work the next day,and found out he had won the pool at work,1k cause he had the raiders 38-9.go figure.

[MTK]

14th seems a little low for a team that basically blew through the field on their way to a 17-2 finish. I'll wait to see the entire list before I ultimately judge whether the '91 team got screwed.

[gibbsisgod]

Did anyone see the show where the told about how they came up with the idea for "America's Game"? I was quite pissed off when they suggested that Washington got lucky in '82 and '87 because they were strike years. I believe they used the term "stole suberbowls". I almost turned the channel thinking that once again, Washington got screwed out of any kind of recognition of thier accomplishments. I am just happy they picked one of our teams as one of the greatest ever.

[ncskinsfanec]

Originally Posted by gibbsisgod

Did anyone see the show where the told about how they came up with the idea for "America's Game"? I was quite pissed off when they suggested that Washington got lucky in '82 and '87 because they were strike years. I believe they used the term "stole suberbowls". I almost turned the channel thinking that once again, Washington got screwed out of any kind of recognition of thier accomplishments. I am just happy they picked one of our teams as one of the greatest ever.

They didn't steal anything, they earned it just like all the other super bowl winners. Whose to say they wouldn't have been just as successful without the strikes. Whoever said that is a complete moron who doesn't deserve to be a talking head on t.v., of course half those people on t.v. are complete bafoons who couldn't cut it in any other endeavor in life. For a prime example of this just watch "Around the Horn" on ESPN, they had to pick those guys off the street or something, they are just awful, I mean awful, what a bunch of idiots.

[gibbsisgod]

I just wonder if any other team had won it all during one of those strike seasons would they still have considered it a "stolen Superbowl"? I'll bet not!

[brent]

Originally Posted by gibbsisgod

I just wonder if any other team had won it all during one of those strike seasons would they still have considered it a "stolen Superbowl"? I'll bet not!

But that WAS the knock on Gibbs prior to 1991. "He's never gone through the entire season and won the big one." The 1987 team received 3-0 from their strike players (See "The Replacements" for accurate historical details...) including a win over Dallas. The 82 team was dependant on a big old running back (Rig-something) who might not have lasted a full season.

So when they destroyed the league in 1991, grabbed the #1 seed, and rode it to a Superbowl win...well, it was quite unexpected. Nearly the entire season, the showdown between the Bills and the Redskins -- BY FAR the dominant teams in the league -- was anticipated. I bet there have been very very few times the two #1 seeds met in the Superbowl. This was a very rare occasion that a #1 seed beat a #1 seed for the title.

[celts32]

That was a great show...I love how they began it from the body bag game the year before.

[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by celts32

That was a great show...I love how they began it from the body bag game the year before.

That was great stuff. One thing that I noticed was all the deep passing we use to do. Power running game, deep passing and roll outs.