Can't think of a better way to spend a Friday morning than enjoying NFL Films highlights of the Giants first Super Bowl season.
Road to the Super Bowl 1986
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VatK4xPq8GA
Super Bowl XXI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJkiEwc8U98
The full season video is a good one, as it give a broad flavor of what happened in the league that year and goes right up through the conference championships.
It is part of the 10 Greatest Giants Games DVD set that was put out 11 or 12 years ago. Check eBay for a copy. It has all the playoff games and Super Bowls from 1986 & 1990 on there plus a couple of others like 41-0 over Minnesota.
That fourth quarter was wild. The party was going on pretty much from the end of the third even though the lead was only 17 points. That's how good that defense was - everyone knew the Skins weren't going to do anything on offense. The lead might as well have been 50 points.
I was pissed they didn't get to play the Browns in the Super Bowl.
+infinity...I've heard this nonsense so many times and it really burns my ass. The Bears had zero chance of coming into Giants Stadium in January 1987 and winning. The Niners got blown the hell out 49-3 and Jim fuckin' McMahon would have beaten them? My fat ass he would have.
The 1986 Bears were a paper tiger benefitting from one of the worst divisions, and therefore weakest schedules, in NFL history.
Quote:
Giants Stadium. It would've been VERY gratifying to kick their @$$es up and down the Jersey Turnpike as payback for the previous season. Those turkeys somehow think 86 was a "missing ring" for them, lol. Losing Jim McMahon was supposedly the difference to them.
+infinity...I've heard this nonsense so many times and it really burns my ass. The Bears had zero chance of coming into Giants Stadium in January 1987 and winning. The Niners got blown the hell out 49-3 and Jim fuckin' McMahon would have beaten them? My fat ass he would have.
The 1986 Bears were a paper tiger benefitting from one of the worst divisions, and therefore weakest schedules, in NFL history.
Truth.
Washington was the second best team in the NFL that year. and they whipped the Bears in Chicago the week before coming to the Meadowlands to face the Giants.
That 86 team was one of the most dominant NFL teams ever let alone NYG teams. Their margin of victory from around mid December (win at RFK) through Pasadena was nothing short of historically good.
Quote:
Giants Stadium. It would've been VERY gratifying to kick their @$$es up and down the Jersey Turnpike as payback for the previous season. Those turkeys somehow think 86 was a "missing ring" for them, lol. Losing Jim McMahon was supposedly the difference to them.
+infinity...I've heard this nonsense so many times and it really burns my ass. The Bears had zero chance of coming into Giants Stadium in January 1987 and winning. The Niners got blown the hell out 49-3 and Jim fuckin' McMahon would have beaten them? My fat ass he would have.
The 1986 Bears were a paper tiger benefitting from one of the worst divisions, and therefore weakest schedules, in NFL history.
Remember this?
Green Bay Packers vs Chicago Bears (11-23-1986) "Charles Martin's Cheapshot On Jim McMahon"
Even if the Bears had McMahon, they still weren't gonna beat the giants. Hell, I don't think they would've beaten the 'Skins either. I remember that midget Otis Wilson talking smack about how the Bears would've beaten the Giants in the NFC Title Game in January of '87 if they played after the Bears beat the Giants almost 8 months later by the score of 34-19 in the 1987 regular season opener on MNF at Soldier field. They were awfully chatty that night in the Postgame interviews.
If that doesn't scream BADASS, nothing does.
1. McConkey screaming out of the tunnel waving the towel and knocking over the pylon ...
and 2. Harry coming out alone for the toss.
Not going to say we KNEW the Giants would win, but those things gave it a feel.
Minnesota (9-7)
Detroit (5-11)
Green Bay (4-12)
Tampa Bay (2-14)
Tampa was not only 2-14, but they were arguably the worst team of the '80s, with an astonishing point differential of -234.
In their last seven games, including the playoff loss to the Skins, the Bears turned the ball over an unbelievable 28 times.
And, again, the Giants allowed all of 3 points in two games against the strong offenses of Washington and SF. The Bears offense, after scoring 44 against Cincinnati in week four, only topped 23 points once - at home against the putrid Bucs, whose defense was easily the worst in football. With Jim McMahon, they wouldn't have done much against the Giants. With Flutie, who started in the playoffs, they wouldn't have scored if they had played ten quarters.
Another way of looking at it - the Giants in the playoffs faced the #6 scoring offense (Broncos), #7 (Niners), and #9 (Skins), and allowed a grand total of 23 points. Seven of those came via a meaningless garbage time Gary Kubiak touchdown pass against the Giants backups when the Super Bowl was 39-13 with a couple of minutes to go. But sure, Jim McMahon would have beaten them.
At the time of the 1986 NFL season NFC Championship game you could have brought in the Lombardi Packers or the Noll Steelers or the Madden Raiders and or any other Super Bowl era team you want to name, they weren't beating the Giants in the Meadowlands.
The NFC North sucked in the '80s, thus the Bears winning the division each season. & the one season post '85 in the '80s where the Bears had some postseason success consisted of them winning the 'Fog Bowl' vs. the Eagles before getting their asses kicked @ home by Walsh & SF.
At the time of the 1986 NFL season NFC Championship game you could have brought in the Lombardi Packers or the Noll Steelers or the Madden Raiders and or any other Super Bowl era team you want to name, they weren't beating the Giants in the Meadowlands.
But would we have beaten the '85 Bears?