BrainTrust66

Well, I can't say that I ever saw a Holovak-coached game either since I didn't jump on the bandwagon until 1976. I also didn't mean to mock Berry with that comment - he was a very good coach but I think that my understanding of what makes a "great" coach is permanently skewed by what has happened here the last 10+ years.

Great point about Steinberg - he built that '76 teams as well (should have been our first Super Bowl winner!). I'm trying to remember, didn't he leave in the early 80's and then come back?

__________________
"The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win."
- Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr.

"It's not a lie if you believe it"
- George Costanza

dhamz

I'd say it was without question the best Pre-Brady/BB moment in Patriots history.

robertweathers

Bucko Kilroy and Chuck Fairbanks get most of the credit for building the 70s Patriots.

Steinberg joined the Pats in 81 I think and gets the credit for building the 80s Pats. Once Chucky Sullivan lost $20m on the Jackson tour, they cut way back on scouting, admin and Steinberg left to go to the Jets.

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“I'm not really concerned about the other 31 teams,” - Bill Belichick

"If a player has talent and doesn't succeed, that means that they either don't want to be successful or I have failed as a coach." - Bill Belichick

mgteich

Steinberg did a great job building the 1980's SB team. As you say, in the end, the financial troubles broke up the team. Steinberg violated his contract and moved to the jets in 1989 soon after the sale to Kiam. The Jackson Tour was the end for Sullivan.

In the next five years, there were lots of changes. The team almost ended up in St Louis. We were so lucky that this craziness only lasted only five years.

Deus Irae

I still sometimes allow myself to think that Eason might not have gone full Nancy, and the Patriots might have had a shot in the Super Bowl, if Dawson hadn't gotten injured.

That was a wild year, and one hell of a linebacking corps.

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

chris_in_sunnyvale

I remember:

- Craig James and crew running roughshod all over that soft Miami D for something like 250yds rushing.

- The Pats getting something like 5 or 6 turnovers like they had vs. LA and NY the two weeks prior.

- Marino stubbornly throwing to Mark Duper in the endzone for 3 or 4 straight plays, each time the pass was defensed by Raymond Clayborn. The final throw on 4th down was picked off. I remember SI calling it an "All-Galaxy performance" by Clayborn that day.

- The graphic by NBC showing the cost of various goods 20 years prior...the last time NE won in Miami.

First team to win 3 road playoff games to make the Bowl. It took another 20 years until the '05 Steelers (shortly followed by the '07 Giants...ugh) would win 3 on the road and the Super Bowl.

Regards,
Chris

Patsrock

You forgot a coach. In fact they also won the AFC Championship on 1/12, also over a Florida team. Which also advanced them to a Super Bowl in New Orleans also on 1/26 against a NFC Central team.

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Andre Tippett #56 Greatest Ever!

Patsrock

The Pats could have very easily lead 14-0 in that game. Dropped TD by Morgan and the dropped Int by Blackmon who would have been untouched to the end zone. But oh well

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Andre Tippett #56 Greatest Ever!

robertweathers

Raymond Berry has forgotten more about football that I will ever know, but to come out throwing the ball and not making the attempt to run the football was a gross miscalculation on his part.

He saw what Miami did and though Eason could do the same. The problem is that, while a serviceable QB, he didn't have Duper, Clayton, Nat Moore, Tony Nathan, etc type talent in the passing game.

That team was all about ground n pound and being opportunistic on D.

Either way, I don't think either approach would have mattered as that team was perhaps the greatest single-season juggernaut in NFL history. Steve Grogan is on record as saying that is the fastest defense he has ever seen.

__________________
“I'm not really concerned about the other 31 teams,” - Bill Belichick

"If a player has talent and doesn't succeed, that means that they either don't want to be successful or I have failed as a coach." - Bill Belichick

mgteich

Yup, once Dawson went down, we couldn't run. Hannah and the line just couldn't handle the best defense ever, or even come close. We had 7 rushing yards, not good for a team that won with the run. As much as Hannah wants to blame Eason, there was no way to succeed without the OL stopping Perry, Dent and the rest.

And yes, Eason did look like a deer with headlights in his eyes as he looked and saw Dent coming again and again and again.

BTW, I agree with the analysis then and now that the 1985 Bears were unstoppable. They used Walter Payton as a decoy since we decided that we would take him out of the offense (which we did)