1991 Redskins on NFL Network Friday

[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.