I haven't had the time to watch any of the games that have been uploaded but I can't help but keep thinking about that 1996 Redskins team ever since seeing that playlist I mentioned in the post above. This team started 7-1 and looked like real challengers in the NFC. Then just one frustrating loss after another and they missed the playoffs altogether with a 9-7 record. And it seems like at their peak that year they were better than at least 2-3 of the NFC teams that did make the playoffs in 96. Norv Turner outcoaching Parcells and Belichick in Foxboro in that win over New England has to be his biggest moments as a coach of any kind and kind of an underrated upset. At that point that Redskins team looked like easily the 2nd best team in the league behind Green Bay. 

Also some of the great Sean Taylor games from 2005 have been uploaded to Youtube recently. When Washington needed to win all of their last 5 games to make the playoffs that defense was one of my favorite to watch. They have uploaded the Dallas beat down that I was able to score off a tape traders group on Facebook a couple years ago. After getting lit up by Sean Taylor and co. Dallas receivers had the worst case of alligator arms I think I've ever seen, some of Parcells looks at them when they were walking off the field: priceless. That was a truly wholesome beat down I'll always love(eliminated Dallas from playoff contention). Then the next few games they did the same to the Giants and Eagles(teams that had usually always had their number) before beating Tampa in the Wild Card(and there were moments when it looked like they could have taken Seattle in that divisional round) that team was one of my favorites to watch for sure.

How do you not love Joe Gibbs and so many people doubted that comeback big time, the fact that he got them in the playoffs twice and won a playoff game during the Snyder tenure has to have some merit. I always thought him and Greg Williams should have stuck together one more year in 2008 and that team would have went all the way(at least in the NFC, had Taylor not been killed and Gibbs/Williams sticks around I do believe they win Super Bowl XLIII).  

Joe Gibbs is on the short list of GOAT coaches. 3 Super Bowl rings with 3 different starting QB's and 3 different starting RB's

For 19 glorious years I was a football rube who thought good coaches had good records and bad coaches had bad records.

Then one night in 2005 the main bartender at my nightly haunt* made me slightly less of a rube. This diehard Oklahoma Sooners fan explained to me why Joe Gibbs is a good coach- "Because the Redskins will always score a touchdown coming out of halftime due to Joe Gibbs' halftime adjustments. Watch the games. You'll see."

That nugget of wisdom always stuck with me. So for the last 18 years I've still been a football rube, but at least now I had doubled my criteria for judging coaches- "Do they win? And do they score touchdowns coming out of halftime?" The only things that matter.

*Yes, nightly. Look, I drank way too much from late 04-mid 06. Mid 00-Mid 01 as well while we're at it.

You know what’s cool? How the San Francisco 49ers had a running back named Roger Craig at the same time the San Francisco Giants had a manager also named Roger Craig. Not enough people talk about this very cool coincidence. Don’t think I realized it myself until many years later when the Roger Craigs were done in San Fran.

Stuck on the 96 Patriots for some reason. Interesting dynamic with that coaching staff they brought in Belichick after he lost the Browns HC job after they moved after 95. Parcells already had Al Groh as DC but hired Belichick on as Assistant HC/DB’s. Al Groh I think was an assistant under Belichick’s DC days with the Giants on that staff.

They started 0-2 and are one of a very small number of teams to reach the SB after an 0-2 start. They went on a roll where the offense was on fire and got to 3-2 before Norv Turner our coaches them at Foxboro in that Skins loss, dropping them to 3-3.

I’m wondering if that loss was the turning point for Belichick taking over the defense from Groh? Maybe unofficially? Norv caught that Pats defense with their pants down on a few big plays that won the game.

After that loss at home to Washington it’s like the defense changed and took matters into their hands. The turning point of the season was the back to back wins over Indy and Buffalo after that loss to Washington. The Colts were 5-1 and the Pats defense just killed them. The win over Buffalo was big too, then I think the next week they just destroyed Miami to take control of that division for the rest of the year.

The big loss was getting ran over by Terrell Davis Broncos late in the season. They end up finishing 11-5 for the second seed in the AFC. I forget who they beat in the Divisional round but they had to have been licking their chops with that Jags team in the AFCCG. They lucked out not having to go to Denver. When you think about where this team ranks in the list of AFC Champs that lost to the NFC during that streak they just don’t seem like they should be very high.

I thought it was a shame that the NFL Network stuck a fork in the Timeline series after only that first season batch of episodes, that was a really cool format to take a closer look at some interesting stories in a way that NFL Films never really delved into in it's glory days. Take the 91 Falcons episode for example, the story of that team needed to be told that way, the Team Yearbook episode they did for that team in real time did that story no justice so I thought that was a great episode of Timeline to strip it down and really examine it that way with hindsight.

The Tuck Rule and Fog Bowl episodes were great too. Some ideas for stories that would have made for great episodes had they kept the show going:

Majkowski '89- The Majik Man my favorite One Hit Wonder in 100 years of NFL history, led the Packers to take down the 49ers that year when they were to me probably the GOAT team ever. Majkowski ended up leading the league in passing that year and even scored a few MVP votes over Montana(that year's winner). The Packers went 10-6 that year but there were only 5 playoff teams per conference then so they missed the playoffs. The very next year the NFL added the 2nd wild card team to the format so teams like that could make it in.

62-7; This blowout of the Dolphins by Jacksonville in the 99 playoffs needs a closer look, there was a lot going on here with that Dolphins team and all their drama that season coming to a head in this game, the final game ever for one of the GOAT QB's to ever play, interesting story to be had here with how one thing led to another in that game to lead to the ultimate disaster for a team.

1999: I've wrote a lot about it on here a couple years ago about how this was really a fascinating single season league wide to look at where it was all at and where it was all going. You could probably fit the 62-7 story into this one if not a full episode on it.  


Any others?

Jun 13, 2023 16:50:46 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Stuck on the 96 Patriots for some reason. Interesting dynamic with that coaching staff they brought in Belichick after he lost the Browns HC job after they moved after 95. Parcells already had Al Groh as DC but hired Belichick on as Assistant HC/DB’s. Al Groh I think was an assistant under Belichick’s DC days with the Giants on that staff.

They started 0-2 and are one of a very small number of teams to reach the SB after an 0-2 start. They went on a roll where the offense was on fire and got to 3-2 before Norv Turner our coaches them at Foxboro in that Skins loss, dropping them to 3-3.

I’m wondering if that loss was the turning point for Belichick taking over the defense from Groh? Maybe unofficially? Norv caught that Pats defense with their pants down on a few big plays that won the game.

After that loss at home to Washington it’s like the defense changed and took matters into their hands. The turning point of the season was the back to back wins over Indy and Buffalo after that loss to Washington. The Colts were 5-1 and the Pats defense just killed them. The win over Buffalo was big too, then I think the next week they just destroyed Miami to take control of that division for the rest of the year.

The big loss was getting ran over by Terrell Davis Broncos late in the season. They end up finishing 11-5 for the second seed in the AFC. I forget who they beat in the Divisional round but they had to have been licking their chops with that Jags team in the AFCCG. They lucked out not having to go to Denver. When you think about where this team ranks in the list of AFC Champs that lost to the NFC during that streak they just don’t seem like they should be very high.

Ahhhh, back when the Pats were kinda likeable with dorky logos on their shoulders. Back when Curtis Martin made sure you noticed his ass.

Drew Bledsoe is criminally underrated by modern fans though. Sure, he wasn't the GOAT, but man could still ball and was (maybe) Top 5 in the league at one point (roughly 1995-98, probably more around 6th or 7th but who's counting?). Stupid injuries.... Stupid Brady.

Maybe a what if is in order for Bledsoe going somewhere other than Buffalo in 2002? I know that team was a mess at that point but remember he still had quite a bit of talent on some of those teams. I always remember the Texans game against the Bledsoe Bills in our first season where he threw the 2 fourth quarter touchdown passes to beat us, he looked really good in that game. I know Brady didn't light the world on fire that 2002 season they actually finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs in New England. Another good question to ask is do those Patriots do any better with Bledsoe in 2002? Do they at least make the playoffs? I don't know, I think maybe they were just about ready to move on from him with or without Brady.

I know I stumbled upon Bledsoe's collapse in 1999 when doing my project for that season here a couple Summers ago. I'm sure there is a good explanation for it, maybe some injuries or o-line problems but his stats take about as big of a single season nosedive as any passer has ever had that year. He had a great first half of that season then was really really bad for the back half. The Patriots went from 5-3(they were 4-0 at the start) to an 8-8 finish.

Also the whole coaching deal with Parcells ditching that team is weird. I think it's been lost to time how big of a turn around reclamation project Parcells did with that team in 1993 when he took it over. The 90-91-92 Patriots were really really really really bad. And they were still probably the worst team in football in 93 when he took them over. By the end of that season he had really started to turn that team around. Crazy that he just up and left after taking them to the Super Bowl in three years, giving Bledsoe a coaching change in his 4th season(after a Super Bowl loss). Maybe Bledsoe's development was hindered a bit by some weird coaching changes in New England during that whole deal? What if he would have come up in another scenario/offense drafted by another team in that 93 draft? If only we had a fan fiction that could experiment with alternate timeline theories like that. 

I found a fun old Texans game on Youtube yesterday, opening day game against the Dolphins in Miami from 2003, twenty years ago now. Seeing the Texans wearing their dark home jerseys in the Florida sun was pretty gorgeous. Crazy how much of a minority I'm in in loving my teams colors and uniforms, please leave that shit alone.

I had this going as background noise at the house yesterday afternoon so didn't get to fully watch it. But times when I caught pieces of it looked like a really interesting game. This was Ricky Williams still in his prime coming off of that monster 2002 season he had in Miami and he had a great game here. Also Andre Johnson always balled out when he played in his hometown/college alma matter in Miami and this was his rookie NFL debut. I never made that connection that he made his NFL debut there in Miami where he played for the Hurricanes. One of these days I will finally go down that rabbit hole of watching Andre's college career at Miami.

Also this was Junior Seau's first year in Miami after leaving the Chargers in 2003, with an interesting rematch here. David Carr faced off against Seau in like the Texans second game of their expansion season in Carr's rookie year almost a year earlier to the day in 2002, and Seau killed the Texans in that game almost single handedly. Also on that Dolphins defense was Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor.

The Texans somehow came out of this game with a win with a last second field goal. I remember not getting to see this game because it didn't come on TV up here in east Texas but was pretty shocked they pulled off this upset on the road, credit to Dom Capers here for outcoaching one of his peers Mike Wandstedt or however you spell his name. When you line up the talent on these 2 squads this was another one of those early Texans games where they caught a more talented team that underestimated them and pulled out a win with a really solid defensive unit that was all healthy(by the end of that 03 season the Texans led the NFL with something like 19 players on IR, always remembered that stat for some reason haha).

Really loved that 02-04 Texans squad though, the 2003 team lost a lot but had a lot of heart, especially compared to some of the latter losing teams we had here that felt like losing on purpose. In only their 2nd season in 2003 this squad was in over their head in almost every matchup, played both Super Bowl teams(beat Carolina, took NE to overtime and blocked a Vinatieri fg), was in the same division as Colts/Titans when they were probably strongest teams in the NFL that year(Mcnair and Manning were co-MVP's that season, and we gave both of them hell late in the season when Dominick Davis got hot almost beat both of them), Texans played some great teams to some really tough games that year and went down swinging. 

Stuck on how hard of a schedule the 2003 Texans played that year. In only their 2nd season they played the hardest schedule in the NFL that year(led the NFL with 1.9 SOS rating on PFR). They finished the year with NFL high 19 players on injured reserve by the end of that season. Taking a closer look at it and yeah man that was a brutal schedule:

at Miami(win, 21-20)- Miami got taken down at home by the expansion team I had this game going around the house recently and what an interesting game, excellent. Andre Johnson makes his NFL debut in his first game in the same city he played high school and college ball, he carried the Texans on a critical 4th quarter drive with some crucial 3rd down catches to move them into field goal range against the NFL's 3rd ranked defense that season as a rookie in his NFL debut. Dolphins somehow missed the playoffs that season with a 10-6 record but they were very good, 3rd ranked defense with Jason Taylor/Zach Thomas/Junior Seau and a talent loaded secondary(only allowed 16.3 points per game). Ricky Williams had over 1,300 rushing yards too. Edit: After watching the game a little more closely Carr had an excellent game, after they set a NFL record with allowing him to get sacked 76 times in 2002 they held Jason Taylor(NFL leader in sacks the previous season) and the Dolphins defense off of him. Great stuff. Great game. 

vs Kansas City(loss, 42-14)- I forgot we played historically one of the greatest offenses of all time that season early on when they were red hot too. Dante Hall, Priest Holmes had a historic season, the Chiefs dominated the regular season that year with Dick Vermiel as coach went 13-3 and lost the no-punt shoot out with Manning in the playoffs that year. They averaged over 30.3 points per game and had #1 offense in NFL. Priest Holmes had over 2,100 total scrimmage yards and fucking 27 touchdowns in 2003. Damn I forgot how awesome this Chiefs team was. The most right I ever was predicting NFL was on a ride home from work that week before they played the Bengals in a truck full of guys I was the only one to call them pulling off that upset, everyone thought I was crazy, I liked John Kitna and felt like that was a huge trap game. Everybody on the job thought I was a football guru the next week good times. This Texans vs Chiefs game was recently uploaded to Youtube I need to check it out.

4 games against Titans/Colts(lost all 4): Payton Manning and Steve Mcnair finished as co-MVP's in 2003, and both of them were in our division. The Texans got crushed in the first games against Indy and Tennessee that year but finished the season playing both of them in rematches in the last 2 weeks. Those 2 games have always been some of my favorite Texans game. The game against the Titans at the end of the 2003 season is still probably one of the best Texans games ever played in their 21 years. It's a shame the game isn't available in full form anywhere. The Titans were really really tough in 2003, they came very close to knocking New England out of the playoffs that year in a really great game.

Both Super Bowl teams; New England(lost 20-23 in overtime), Carolina(win 14-10); I've posted about the 03 game against the Patriots often in the old school thread it was a fascinating game where a less than 2 year old expansion team took on one of the greatest teams to ever play in NFL history and took them into deep water. This game was like a minute or so away from ending in a tie, Houston blocked a Vinatieri field goal and Jamie Sharper layed one of the hardest hits on Brady that I've ever seen him take in his career. We really almost had them, it was one of the early Texans games that had me up screaming at the TV and heart racing. The Panthers upset really sums this team up with how much heart they had.

That's a pretty tough lineup. In only their 2nd season in the NFL they played half their schedule(8 games) against a fucking murderer's row of talent in the league that season including a quarter of their schedule(4 games) against the 2 co-MVP's of the league that season. They also played a really solid 8-8 Saints and really tough 8-8 fringe playoff Bengals teams as well as the defending Super Bowl champ Buccaneers. 

I timestamped the start of a pretty fascinating drive here from the opening day 2003 Texans vs Dolphins game in Miami. Texans are down 20-15 with 12:18 left in the 4th quarter. This isn't the game winning drive but it was a big one where they needed some points to stay in it. This is Andre Johnson in his NFL debut game as a rookie in his hometown where he played college and high school football. This was Andre's first game in Miami since he put up 193 yards on Virginia Tech at the Orange Bowl(a different stadium from this one at Pro Player Stadium) in December 2002 in the Hurricanes final home game. Keep in mind he's making his NFL debut here against the 3rd ranked defense of the NFL in the 2003 season, a secondary that was pretty loaded and a defense overall that has some Hall Of Fame talent(Jason Taylor/Zach Thomas/Junior Seau).

So this is David Carr, Dominick Davis, and rookie Andre Johnson against the Dolphins 3rd ranked defense that season that averaged 16.3 points per game allowed, down 20-15 in the 4th quarter. I really thought these 3 guys would be the Texans triplets and that they would have this team deep into the playoffs by 2005-2006. It didn't work out, but here they are driving down the field on the road putting points up against Hall Of Famers:

timestamped start of the drive from Texans own 20 yard line

Excellent debut of future HOF(should be in already), Andre was the best. 

I'm with you on the Majik Man Neo Zeed. My dad and I were big Majkowski fans. Especially during his one majik year. Plus the Pack scored underdog points with us in those days after having it rough during the 70s & 80s. It's too bad they didn't make the playoffs with that 10 win season. Still have to put him behind Ickey, but I would have him above such illustrious luminaries as Derek Anderson & Peyton Hillis when it comes to my favorite NFL one year wonders.

I'm probably one of those who underrated Bledsoe. Always considered him midcard. Lumped him in with guys like Vinny & Kerry Collins as decent enough QBs who look better on paper than they were in reality due to sticking around a long time to compile some impressive looking career statistics. They'd get you to the playoffs, but you were never going to win a Super Bowl with those guys. Then again their latter day equivalents Eli, Stafford, and Flacco actually did win Super Bowls so what do I know?

The 49ers vs Packers game from 89 regular season was so good, one thing I love about this thread is being able to peruse back on thoughts on games like that like a diary here. That game definitely felt like a playoff game, San Fran committed a few critical mistakes that cost them but Majkowski also made some pretty killer plays to get that win.

After somehow being taken back to the 02-03 Texans teams I'm now stuck on the 2002 season as a whole league wide. What an interesting season and one that stands out to me because I had the 2003 NFL Record and Fact Book on the back of my toilet for probably a decade, so it's almost like I remember all the stats and everything(I believe that was one of the last issues of that book where they still included every AP game summary week by week from the previous season). But at the same time I worked at Blockbuster in Houston during this season so every Sunday I was too busy filing Drumline, Changing Lanes, and Red Dragon back on the shelves and missed a lot of football that year. I do remember the excellent Browns vs Chiefs game on opening day and somehow managed to watch just about all Texans games that year but I wasn't able to follow the league as closely as I did the 2 years prior(the seasons that got me back into the sport after completely losing interest in the league and not watching at all in 98-99).

The 2002 Chargers really stick out, they were so good in the first half of that season, 6-2 start, the win over defending Super Bowl Champs New England when both teams were either 3-0 or 4-0 was the high point of the season and a game I'd like to track down. Then the wheels fell off and they had a huge collapse and missed the playoffs with an 8-8 record, jesus. That team was red hot in the first half and damn what a stacked little 4 team division that was in 2002 AFC West, Raiders went on to win the AFC, this Chargers team, Chiefs with Vermiel's first year were tough as hell with that amazing o-line and Priest Holmes was bad ass, and Denver was back into a contender with Clinton Portis torching the league his rookie year. What a division.

Also have to praise how awesome it is that so many old games are on Youtube now. You can type in "NFL _____" enter whatever season and a playlist with all full games available will come up now. I believe just about every game from the 91 season is available(watching through the 91 Skins full season last year was pretty awesome) and most from 92-93 with the holes being filled. It's crazy that there are fewer games from the 2000's available than there are from the 90's, you can tell the years where people stopped using VCR's those games are just gone(haven't had any luck finding the 2004 Texans games, just don't think any of them were recorded or saved). Most games that happened during the VCR era are up and lost games are popping up fairly regularly now. 

Forgive me if you've posted about this in the past Neo Zeed (I did a quick search and couldn't find anything) but the Sam Wyche/Jerry Glanville feud was brought up on a recent episode of ATN and it made me think of you. The 61-7 game sounds absolutely hilarious with Wyche calling an onside kick leading 45-0 just because he hated Glanville so much - it puts today's coaching feuds like Payton & Hackett to shame.

“I feel sorry for the Houston players having to put up with him. He can take that hit-the-beach stuff and take it back to high school or wherever he got it from. He’s a joke.” :lol:

Man the Oilers/Bengals rivalry was legit at that time. The whole Jerry Glanville coaching tenure in Houston was outrageous like that. And it's interesting you bring this up because I just now realized that they played each other again in 1993 with different teams, Wyche was with the Bucs and Glanville was with the Falcons, I'm positive that game is on Youtube its going on my list.

Always read about that blowout but never watched it I need to. I didn’t know they went for the onside that is killer. I know I read they were still going deep for TDs late with a huge lead.

Also I actually grabbed a book off the shelf on the way out today to read, Loser Takes All: Bud Adams, Big Business, and Bad Football”. Written in 97 by somebody from The Chronicle. I read it front to back in like 3 hours when I got it a while back, it’s been a while. I didn’t get the chance to read it today except the first page or two the writer thanks various family members, John McClain, and thanks Jerry Glanville for all the laughs. I remember it was a pretty revealing book about the whole move, also roasts Granville’s tenure here pretty hard, need to revisit it.

I loved Jerry Glanville in Houston*! He was A Character. The perfect mix of eccentric goofball and pro wrestling bad guy. The Man In Black schtick...leaving tickets for Elvis...it was all great stuff that made him one of the few (only?) coaches to be a draw for kiddie me. Neo Zeed good or bad call dumping him for Pardee? You have to admit Glanville turned that team around. Oilers sucked in between Bum & Glanville. Why'd he get the boot anyway? Guessing he was becoming too much of a distraction?

Atlanta Glanville is a different story. I was a Falcons hater. They beat the Saints in the playoffs that one time! TRAGIC! Plus they were weirdly trendy here for about five minutes. All I could think was "where were all you Falcon-loving bandwagon hoppers two years ago?" I suppose Atlanta Jerry does deserve some points for helping to make black The Color of the 90s even if I personally preferred their earlier red-centric look.

I think that Oilers roster was really wasted with both Glanville and Pardee, had they just given Buddy Ryan head coach position in 93 I think that team goes further. Think about how much talent was there in Houston, the GM that put that team together deserves a ton of credit. They put together a super team in the years before unrestricted free agency existed with some huge moves. They drafted Jim Everett in that one draft for the sole purpose of trading him for a bounty of really good players. That was a huge move. The more time goes by the more you realize really how much talent was there. Look at the d-line, Childress, Sean Jones, and Will Fuller on the same line. Moon with that o-line, the receiving corp. I think both Glanville and Pardee were jokers that held that team back, with a competent head coach they would have at least made it to a few AFCCG/Super Bowls if not won a ring.

Glanville’s 92-93 seasons with the Falcons had to be among the most embarrassing for any head coach. So much hype coming off of that 91 playoff win over the Saints. They went like 6-0 against California teams in 91 including sweep over struggling 49ers. So for their first game against the 49ers in 92 in San Francisco he brings a big trophy out for their pregame huddle on the field saying they were Champions Of California, the 49ers just massacred them. They played again 2 weeks later and between the 2 games San Fran scored like over 90 combined points. Glanville was supposed to be a defensive guru and they finish dead last with worst defense in the league both years.

While we're on the late 80s-early 90s Oilers (a Top 10 team of mine during that era) it really gets my goat how their stellar receiving corps seems to have been largely forgotten. Those Oilers were to receivers what the same era Saints were to linebackers! Hill, Givens, Jeffires, Duncan....name a better quartet of receivers. I'll wait.

Aug 2, 2023 22:53:00 GMT Baker said:

I loved Jerry Glanville in Houston*! He was A Character. The perfect mix of eccentric goofball and pro wrestling bad guy. The Man In Black schtick...leaving tickets for Elvis...it was all great stuff that made him one of the few (only?) coaches to be a draw for kiddie me. Neo Zeed good or bad call dumping him for Pardee? You have to admit Glanville turned that team around. Oilers sucked in between Bum & Glanville. Why'd he get the boot anyway? Guessing he was becoming too much of a distraction?

Atlanta Glanville is a different story. I was a Falcons hater. They beat the Saints in the playoffs that one time! TRAGIC! Plus they were weirdly trendy here for about five minutes. All I could think was "where were all you Falcon-loving bandwagon hoppers two years ago?" I suppose Atlanta Jerry does deserve some points for helping to make black The Color of the 90s even if I personally preferred their earlier red-centric look.

Glanville was that guy who told one hilarious joke in high school and then never let anyone forget about it for the rest of their lives.

The 2003 Dolphins team needs a double back. They were picked by a few experts to win the Super Bowl that year then they got upset at home on opening day by the expansion team. What a hell of a way to start the year off. They end up finishing 10-6, second in their division to New England(Super Bowl winner), missing the playoffs. Had 3rd ranked defense in the league, 17th ranked offense.

Very interesting team though, loaded with talent on defense. Anybody remember the name Adewale Ogunleye? In his 3rd season finishes with 15 sacks with Miami in 03. I think he went on to Chicago the next year and was a big part of that Bears team that made it to the Super Bowl in 2006. They also had prime Jason Taylor, led the NFL in sacks in 2002 finished with 13 sacks in 2003. This was Junior Seau's first season with the Dolphins and they had Zach Thomas who was inducted into the Hall Of Fame this weekend. They had a really good secondary too, Brock Marion, Sammy Knight, Sam Madison, Patrick Surtain, and Terrell Buckley. Surtain, Marion, Thomas, and Ogunley were all Pro Bowlers from this unit with Zach Thomas being first team All Pro as well.

The offense was a one man show with Ricky Williams coming off of almost 1,900 yard season in 2002, he still had it in 2003 with 1,372 rushing yards. This was Williams' last full season in the NFL before he started having trouble with the marijuana tests, he ran the ball almost 400 times in 2003.

Other than Williams the offense had nobody. Jay Fiedler was the quarterback, something that stuck out on the roster was that Brian Griese was brought in, he started 5 games that year but didn't do too well playing for his dad Bob's old team. Both Todd Wade and Wade Smith from the offensive line ended up playing for the Texans in later years they weren't all that good.

So all of that hype they had going into the 2003 season for them to get upset at home in the opener by the Texans, starting only their 2nd year as an expansion team(went 4-12 their first year). They weren't able to lay a finger on David Carr, the most sacked quarterback of all time the year before. I was so fascinated by this game after recently finding it on Youtube.

But after the Texans loss they went on a 4 game win streak before losing 13-19 in OT to New England. Then they end up dropping games to the Colts and Titans(Manning and Mcnair co-MVPS that season).

Then they had what looked to be some pretty stout defensive standoffs with Baltimore(won 9-6) and the rematch against New England, which they lost 12-0. The loss to the Eagles the following week dropped them to 8-6 and pretty much ended their playoff hopes. They won their final 2 games to finish 10-6.

Interesting team for one that didn't make the playoffs. That defense was legit and loaded, they had 7 games where they gave up only 10 points or less on top of the 12-0 loss to New England where they didn't allow an offensive touchdown. They lost to most of the good teams they played that year and really I'm left thinking that loss to the Texans on opening day was really what truly fucked this team up. Look at what David Carr could do when you kept the defense off of him, lead an offense on scoring drives to beat Hall Of Famers.

Impeccable timing. The other day we were discussing football video games and the Dolphins were my go to team in one of the Maddens around that time. Pretty sure it was the year you could get Sam Adams & Antonio Freeman as free agents. Could well have been the 03 team. Used my normal strategy of feeding the running back (R. Williams in this case) and hitting the tight end (Greg McMichael) over the middle for 10 in an emergency. Created myself under one of my alter egos to QB because Fiedler was a bum.

I recently posted about breaking this book out. I got it about 9 years ago and haven't read it since. I remember it was an eye opening book that really put the whole Titans/Oilers deal in a whole new perspective. I felt like I had to get it back out to arm myself for all the reptilian Titans fans online with this whole Oilers uniform deal:



I don't think it gets any weirder than Titans fans and their reactions to the Oilers throwbacks, completely ignorant of their own shady ass history. From what I've observed it seems like NFL fans in general really have no idea how Houston lost the Oilers. So many comments/posts I've seen about how Houston should have built Bud a stadium to keep the Oilers if they are salty about the whole deal. That's not how that whole scenario worked back then, it didn't work like that.

The book makes a pretty strong case that Bud Adams ruined the whole vibe of that team, destroyed everything that the city loved about the team, then wrangled up a deal to get paid to ditch the city in a pretty dirty way. Really a true scumbag of an NFL owner.  

At the end of the day if the roles were reversed, if my city got a NFL team from another city, they changed their name/gear to start new, I really wouldn't want the old uniforms from the old city that had that much attachment. Whole deal is super bizarre to me. Weird folks up that way for sure. I've grown to really not like them haha. 

@admin from that book the Oilers under Jerry Glanville became cheap shot artists. He was the defensive coordinator in 1986 under Hugh Campbell, when that guy got fired Glanville took over as interim coach. Bud Adams told Glanville that he would get the head coaching job if he won the last 2 games. The Oilers got blown out in the last two games but they gave him the job anyways.

The Oilers immediately passed up The Raiders as the most penalized team in the league. Players that would injure the opponent would get awarded with an army helmet that they would wear out for pregame the following week. They made the playoffs in 1987 in his first year with a pretty loaded team(they went 2-1 in those 3 weeks with the scabs during that strike). Going into the playoff game against the Broncos Glanville pretty much guaranteed that Houston was going to the Super Bowl to the press, which pissed the Broncos off pretty bad(they were AFC Champs the year before and were on their way to repeating).

In the game Denver had to punt on their first possession. On Houston's first drive Glanville called a play called "Stagger Lee" where he had linemen and the tight end way out from the line of scrimmage, then Moon threw a screen pass to them behind the line of scrimmage, it ended up a fumble and a quick 7-0 lead for Denver. Throughout the whole game the commentators kept showing the replay laughing at the Oilers that they would call a play like that in a moment like that.

Excellent story from the above mentioned book is that not only did Sam Wyche have it out for Glanville and the Oilers dirty play that year, he really pissed off Steelers head coach Chuck Noll that year too. Noll met him in the middle of the field and was wagging his finger in his face about something after their game. The thing is Glanville called that same Stagger Lee play against Pittsburgh in that game. Going into the playoff game against Denver Chuck Noll called Dan Reeves personally and tipped him off about that play AND sent him a tape of it, when Houston lined up for it they already knew what was coming.

What a hell of a division that was at that time man. The Oilers going at it with the Bengals and Steelers, the Browns were still tough as shit too I think by like 1989-1990 that division was a fucking battle, one of those years the team that had the best division record 6-0 finished last place in the division with like an 8-8 record.

Here is the play

EDIT

It's not that old school but lately I've been thinking about just how fucked Hue Jackson's tenure in Cleveland was. And only about a 1/3 of it was even his fault.

Talk about a decent coach and dude who just got buried in the most unlucky, soul-crushing bullshit way. 4 different QB injuries in the first few weeks of his first season. Got so bad he had to switch former Buckeye Terrell Pryor from wideout to QB which he basically hadn't played since college/briefly his rookie year. Finished 1-15 and kept his word - he jumped headfirst into ratchet ass Lake Erie. Got a whole new fresh bunch of analytic nerds deadset on improving the team through numbers that led them to DESHONE FUCKING KIZER.

Obviously he deserves some of the blame but god damn was he done dirty there. Forever ruined his legacy when Hue was the OG Bruce Arians at one point. He helped turn around the Bengals twice and made us a Top 5 offense at one point. Can't help but think he could have had some moderate success somewhere else had he been given a more stable organization to work for.

Aug 2, 2023 1:01:43 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Man the Oilers/Bengals rivalry was legit at that time. The whole Jerry Glanville coaching tenure in Houston was outrageous like that. And it's interesting you bring this up because I just now realized that they played each other again in 1993 with different teams, Wyche was with the Bucs and Glanville was with the Falcons, I'm positive that game is on Youtube its going on my list.

So weird that we were divisional rivals back then considering how far away Texas is from Ohio. Colts are the new version of that dilemma I guess.

So the 2003 Dolphins popped up in my feed this morning, supposedly Troy Aikman nearly came out of retirement to play for that team. Norv Turner was the OC in Dallas that really got him going in 91-92 and was OC for that Dolphins team. Very interesting stuff, the team was loaded with talent everywhere, great coaching staff, but had Jay Fiedler at QB, got upset at home on opening day by David Carr in Andre Johnson nfl debut, gave the Pats 2 really tough challenges in their games that year, then they missed the playoffs at 10-6.