They weren't shell shocked from the beating we gave them, were they? That was their first EVER playoff loss at Lambeau. They were 12-3 coming into our meeting w/ the "great" Brett Favre still in his prime. GB 2002: Beat 9-6-1 Atlanta, 9-7 NO, 9-7 NE, 9-7 Miami, 10-6 SF, 8-8 Buf NYJ 2002: Beat 9-7 Mia, 9-7 Den, 9-7 NE, 12-4 GB, 8-8 Buf(2x), 8-8 SD 1968 NYJ: Beat 9-5 SD(2x), 7-7 Hou(2x), GB beat 6 teams .500 or better, we beat 7 teams .500 or better and the '68 Jets beat 4 teams at .500 or better(they really beat just 2 they just swept both).
Was that the game where the wind was blowing 70 MPH in his face and he tried to throw a pass downfield only to have it land 5 yards behind him? If it was then how could you possibly bring that up here?
I don't know but they lost 37-35 so the conditions couldn't have been that bad. I never blamed him for the loss just saying they lost to teams they shouldn't have either. Their other loss besides Oak was against 5-9 Denver and he only led them to 13 pts that game. That's 2 bad losses, those games do happen and the whole point was he was talking like it never happened to his teams.
I think Maynard made the point better when he talked about all the dinking and dunking we call. Going for a one yard pass when we need 10 for a first down or an end around when we need 10 for a first down. What Maynard said was Namath never threw a pass for less than what the Jets needed to move the chains and I think he may be right. Besides, if he put up 35 points and lost I would be looking at Buddy Ryan and not Namath on that one.
Had they won against us they wouldn't have even had to play the Atlanta game, so it certainly meant a lot to them. It was basically two games for them, because if they won they would have also by-passed the first round.
There were three dominating teams in football in 1968. The Chiefs who we beat the Raiders who we lost to in a very close game in Oakland and who we beat in the playoffs in NYC and the Colts who we beat to win the SB. The 2002 Jets beat not one really good team let alone 1 that was considered the greatest team in football history at the time and a Chiefs team that won the SB the following year and a great Raider team that was at or near the top for years. The Jets beat the best teams in both leagues in 68 and those teams were lights out better than the rest of the league as you have pointed out.
That's all true, 2002 lacked great teams but also lacked really bad teams for easy wins which could not be said for '68. I'm not saying '02 was better than the '68 team b/c they weren't, the entire point was that Joe had alot more years like this year than he did like '68.
The problem with your argument is the concept that it's tougher to win a SB whith a league that's full of okay teams than one that has 2 or 3 dominating teams and more crappy teams. It's tougher to beat really good teams than mediocre teams. To win a SB you have to beat the best the league has to offer, the Jets did when they won a SB the Jets since have not even though as you have now pointed out there are less elite teams to go through. In a smaller league while you do play more crappy teams, you also have to beat the elite teams just to get into the tournment and you are going to play a great team in the reduced playoffs each time as oppossed to the 4th, 5th or 6th best team in a league that may have no elite teams in the first round. A watered down beer has less kick than one that isn't. You have to drink more of them to get the same buzz. While Namath may have had many years that weren't great, as any real Jets fan can point out to you he was also the leader of the only elite Jets team in the history of this team.
It's harder to win 3 or 4 games to win a Championship than 2 games. The Raiders weren't an all time great team that they beat and they beat them at home. They were really good but they didn't win any championships. The jets beat out NE for the division in '02 and NE won the SB in '01 and '03. We beat Baltimore in the SB and Bal won 2 years later but that Bal team wasn't as good as NE(relative to the eras in which they played) and it's hardre to beat out a team for 16 games than 1 game.
You're simply being stuburn if you think its harder to beat 3teams that are mediocre to good than 1 or 2 that are great. It's simply a BS argument. All of the Sports leagues are now designed to reward mediocrity by allowing mediocre teams into the playoffs. The reason is simply TV money is bigger. This trend will continue in all sports. You can delude yourself all you want that it's harder to beat 2 or 3 good teams than 1 or 2 great teams.
It's harder to beat out a great team like NE for 16 games than win 1 game over a great Baltimore team. If you can't see that I can't help you. When you play 1 game to make the Championship and get that game at home despite having a worse record than your opponent it's not as hard. A team can get on a roll(look at last year's Giants, no one thinks they were better than NE but they got hot at the right time). It's harder to win a division where the div is all at or above .500 than it is to win a division where the teams are all at or below .500.
NE wasn't a great team in 02, they weren't a great team in any year they won the SB in fact the only time they had a great team was last year. They were simply a little better than the rest of the league. The Giants last year were a great team and they proved it by the way you of course believed the Jets were as talented as them, another obvious bit of nonesense.
So a SB Championship team wasn't great but the Raiders of the late 60s were great even though that team never won a SB? I can understand the '01 Pats not being considered great at the time but they validated that run w/ 2 SBs in the next 3 years where they went 14-2 each year and sicne 2001 the ONLY non-Pats AFC East Champ was the Jets in 2002. That's a little more special than winning a division where the 2nd place team was at .500, right?
The Oakland Raider team that you mention was great. They went 13 &1 in 67and lost in the SB to probably the greatest team in football history at the time. In 68 they went 12 & 2 and lost in the playoffs to an elite Jets team that beat what at the time was considered the greatest team in football history and the year after they went 12 1&1 and lost to the SB KC Chiefs in the playoffs who beat the World Champion NY Jets in the playoffs to get into the finals. The 2002 Patriots were a pedestrian team that went 9 & 7 and were on their way to an 8 & 8 year and pushing us out of the playoffs when Dave Wanstadt lost his mind and took the ball out of Ricky Williams hands and put it in Jay Fielders with the lead and the game won which allowed us to win the division at 9 & 7 instead of being out of the playoffs entirely.
Shouldn't "Great" teams win Championships? It sounds like Oak was close to being great but never could get over the hump. The 2002 team had some SB hangover but they won it all in 2001, 2003 and 2004 which is something the Raiders didn't do.
I get the feeling that your opinion is that Herm is the greatest Jets coach ever and Penny is the greatest Jets QB ever. Is that true?
The Raiders played in an era where there were elite teams that were better than they were. They had the same issue during the Steeler era and they were able to beat them one year. To compare any of our playoff teams of this decade to those Raider teams and their road to a SB is a joke.
He refused to answer because it might incriminate him! LOL What a thread this one turned out to be! I enjoyed reading all the posts. Great job guys.
Yep that's my opinion I apologize for posting facts, Brett Favre is the greatest. We would be 0-8 w/o him(yep they would have given us an extra loss even though we have only played 7 games). he has truly been amazing and w/o a doubt is having the greatest season a QB has ever had. It is a joke b/c that '68 team had an easy ride to the SB having only to win 1 home game. No team has vere had an easier one and you can mae all the excuses in the world for the Raiders that yuo want but the bottom line is they didn't win a SB while we beat out a DYNASTY team and actually interrupted their dynasty as we prevented them from having a chance to win another SB.
