I was 9 at the time. I remember all the playoff games that year except for the Rams-Redskins and Jets-Browns games. It is possible I simply did not watch the L.A.-Washington game. As for the Jets game, I may have blocked it out of my memory.
Well said. You're not a real Jets fan until you've seen this game. It's one of our many red badges of courage.
i have avoided this thread for 3 days. every time i would look at the title i would say why would anyone want to watch that horrific game? i know i dont want to. now i realize that there are in fact people younger than me who probably didnt have to live through the torment of that game. and yes they DO NEED TO WATCH IT. i was 11 at the time and it was really a harbinger of things to come in my jet fanhood.
I saw the game live and got up to watch it this morning at 4...of course, the f---g thing didn't start until 4:30. I have the broadcast on tape, but this was a condensed version with interviews of players and coaches....well worth watching, particularly if you've seen the game and think you know everything. Among the choice bits of info: Kosar basically trashes Shottenheimer's play calling...Shot kept calling runs (which the Jets were equipped to stop) and Kosar kept changing the play to passes. Kosar exploiting the Jets LB (Clifton, Alex Gordon and Kevin McArthur) who couldn't keep up with likes of Ozzie Newsome, Henry Fontenot (RB) out of the backfield and Brian Brennan. The film, of course, points to the Gastineau roughing call (the correct call as Mark speared him with his helmet) as the turning point in the game, but it also shows all the many opportunities the Jets had to make a play and win the game anyway. Besides having no QB (Ryan out, O'Brien hurt), the Jets dropped two key INTs, failed to gain a first down that would've ran out the clock, and suffered some horrendous referee calls. Gastineau is interviewed and is very humble about taking the defeat on his shoulders. The interview is recent, and I've never seen him so down and so serious. I think he's finally grown up. Russell Carter--one of the Jets CB's who dropped an INT in the end zone that would've sealed the game--takes a few shots at Gastineau, but Marty Lyons stands up for 99 saying you can't blame the loss on him--"we had multiple opportunities to win this game." Most interesting are Joe Walton's comments....I always thought that Ryan could've played the 2nd half and that Walton just wanted to get O'Brien back in, but Walton talks about how Ryan had a pulled groin and you see Ryan in the first half just getting crushed time after time and walking off in rough shape...Walton on Gastineau penalty: He points more to Bud Carson's philosophy of being aggressive and getting after the passer, clearly Walton did not agree with that scheme at the time. Immediately after the penalty, the Jets went into a prevent defense. Working against a 3-man rush, Kosar picked the Jets apart and moved them down for the TD. ...Walton on the playing calling after the Jets recover an onsides kick attempt near midfield. (The score is Jets 20-17 inside of two minutes)........Walton calls a running play up the gut with McNeil; the Browns bring everybody inside, and Freeman gets nothing and gets hurt.........Walton then runs Tony Paige up the middle (why not Johnny Hector?) and he gets nothing........On 3rd and 10, Walton calls for an injured O'Brien to run a QB draw, which not only gets stuffed, but stops the clock because the refs consider it a sack. Walton points out that the call worked the previous week vs. KC. (Yeah, with a healthy Ryan.) --Kosar admitted that the Gastineau hit was the hardest he ever took...his ribs were broken, and he was coughing up blood, but he was so disgusted with himself (for throwing 2 4th quarter INTs) that he couldn't leave the field. Can't help but think that if Walton hadn't called off the dogs, Kosar might not've been able to complete the comeback. FINAL THOUGHT: The film really shows how Gastineau was playing a "hall of fame" type game until the penalty turned the whole thing around on him Despite being restricted by a torn stomach muscle, and in a lot of pain and he soldiered on, with no Klecko there to help. No Mehl either. And guys like Buttle and Blinka were long gone. Gastineau was killing Kosar all day. And even after the penalty, Gastineau caused a fumble the Jets failed to recover. Without the penalty, this would've been the signature game of Gastineau's career. And had played on a few more years, the career sack record would've been in the stratosphere, and he might've been a Hall of Famer, But that's the tragedy of Gastineau (and the Jets)...if only.
Thats an interesting read, thanks. I'm glad you watched it for me. I really couldn't bring myself to want to see that again.
Thanks for that insight GSourJr - very illuminating (however, I'm pretty sure Alex Gordon didn't join the team until the 87 season.) As you say, if only...
Walton is a douche. You have to rememeber clearly why the Jets were in that position in the first place. Sitting at 10-1, Walton Kept Playing OBrien who had injured his thumb, instead of Ryan, and wound up dropping 5 straight.
I thought O'Brien had bicep or shoulder tendinitis... whatever, he totally crashed at the end of the season and never fully recovered. Those early weeks of 1986 were something really special though, weren't they?
McGuire kept picking against the Jets week after week and the Jets kept winning BUT heading into our game w/ Miami when we were 10-1 he said we wouldn't win a game for the rest of the year and he was right as we lost our last 5.
This is the game that got my mom banned from ever watching a Jets game with me again. She congratulated my brother and me on the big win prematurely, and the game went to hell quicker than Gastineau's marriage to Bridgitte. Especially after the KC wildcard game, made famous by "Ryan's Ramble" so noted by a poster above, this was a tough one. At least we got our revenge somewhat the following week when Elway nailed the Browns through the heart. It's games like this that make you a Jet fan for life (unfortunately
I felt really good when Denver came back and beat Cleveland a week later by the same score Cle beat us.
This game was the middle of the unholy trinity of painful Jet losses: first was the Mud Bowl then the Mistakes by the Lake and finally 2 missed kicks in Pittsburgh Sure, it sucked loosing close to KC, and it hurt like hell losing to Buffalo on the INT, and it stank stinking up the joint vs the Pats in 1985, Houston in 1991, and the Pats again in 2006, but these 3 are the stigmata that are the true marks of a tortured Jet fan.
