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If Marcus Allen gets tackled before his then "record run",Do we win the game?(xviii)


michael_33

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Kind of quirky timing, but I just re-watched the 1st half of that game 2 nights ago.

Yes, the screen pass int (with well under a minute to play in half, btw) and blocked punt for TD's were real killers.

What I didn't recall, however, was just how good the Raiders D was that year. Lyle Alzado, Lester Hayes, Ted Hendricks, Howie Long, Rod Martin, Mike Davis, Matt Millen ... yipes.

Their D really throttled a great Redskins O. That was probably the real difference in that game.

CalSkinsFan, you must be masochistic is something prompted you to watch that abomination. :laugh:

I don't remember a whole lot from that game, but what I do seem to recall from my mind's depths is how flat we were that day. Maybe it was because of the Raiders defense but still......here was a team that could move the ball at will down the field, and poof! Seems like Theismann's passes were sailing over people's heads, etc. By the time the Raiders had answered out second half TD with one of their own I decided to bag it and study for the midterms (high school) I had the next day.

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I actually remeber being nervous, because we only won in the reg. season by 1 point...when joe washington had a fabulous game to pull it out, and the Raiders didn't even have Marcus playing.

I still thought we'd win, but defense wasn't our strong point that season...and we ran into a motivated team with one of the best running backs of the last 20 years. We'd be talking HOF for Marcus easily, if Al Davis hadn't have "Keyshawned" him, before free agency came into being.

Oh, yeah, and possibly the best CB tandem ever in the superbowl (in Haynes/Hayes) was what decided that game. The 5 yd. chuck rule was their best freind, and they made sure not to let Monk, Brown, Seay et al get free in the secondary.

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I attended that Super Bowl. Here is how my Super Bowl XVIII went and my take of the game:

We stayed in Orlando and the bus ride to Tampa was riddled with those obnoxious "Commitment to Excellence" billboards the Raiders put up everywhere. I had an uneasy feeling about the game simply because the Skins needed one of the greatest combacks I ever witnessed, during the regular season, in order to beat the Raiders. The Raiders were a team that relied on the big play, both offensively and defensively, all season long. They also had Lester Hayes and Mike Haynes, great students of the bump and run although it was really more like "grab and maul". If you don't believe me, watch how they played Art Monk all game long.

I was anticipating a close game but had heard stories about late night partying by the Skins prior to the game and wondered how that would play out. I know I was a little bit hung over by game time after attending the official Pep Rally the night before. After a Saturday spent at Epcot and a mixer at the Orlando Vacation Resort, where we stayed, a bus took us to the Pep Rally. We loaded the trash cans filled with beer and ice from the mixer on to the bus. We killed one trash can full on the way to Tampa and finished off the other on the way back. It was an eclectic mix of people on the bus and after a few choruses of Hail To The Redskins, we started singing old time songs and show tunes. :doh:

Back to the game......my opinion is things were looking bad from the get go when the Raiders blocked that Jeff Hayes punt and recovered for a TD. It happened right in front of us and Skins fans were shellshocked. By the time Jack Squirek picked off the rocket screen to Joe Washington just before halftime, we all had a really bad feeling. We didn't like our prospects for a big comeback in the Big Sombrero as much as we would have in RFK. For one thing, the wind was swirling throughout the stadium and seemed to cause Joe Theismann some problems early on. Several of his passes sailed and ended up over the head of wide-open receivers.

The Raiders were their usual big play selves and that, along with a fairly stout run defense and the "grab & maul" pass defense spelled doom for the Skins. After the Skins scored in the 3rd quarter, we all thought there might be a slight chance. Unfortunately, that was dashed after a long pass to Cliff Branch set up Marcus Allen's shorter of his two TD runs. That was really the straw that broke the camel's back. The long TD run only served to expel the putrid feeling in our stomachs. One guy in the row in front of us literally got sick after that TD. Maybe it was the nachos and hot dogs and many beers he drank but I think it was that 74 yard run. :puke:

Another interesting rumor that turned up the morning after the game was that the Raiders got hold of a Redskins playbook. I never heard it confirmed but the way the game went, it sure wouldn't surprise me.

I was not much in the mood to drink after the game but I did anyway. I needed to drown my sorrows after that embarrassment. Hung over once again the next day, I still managed to take a few shots of Wild Turkey on the flight home with former Redskins G Ron Saul. He carried that bottle on the plane down to Orlando and carried one home. I'm pretty sure he stayed drunk the entire weekend. I sat next to Ron for about 30 minutes on the flight back because the guy next to him was chatting up a couple of lovelies a few rows back. He was a pretty cool guy and talked about how he had gone through seven knee surgeries during his career. He said George Allen liked the way he played against the Skins when he was with Houston and gave up three draft picks to get him. He laughed and said those three picks were used by the Oilers to trade up and draft Earl Campbell and said Houston probably got the better of that deal. He talked about the Skins being a class organization and loved playing for George Allen and Jack Pardee saying he made All-Pro in 1979, I think it was. His knees were about shot when Gibbs came along and he said it was a real struggle to get through the 1981 season and then finished his career on injured reserve in 1982. I shook his hand and thanked him for the shots and went back to my seat.

Kind of a bittersweet weekend to say the least.

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I know a topic like this is pretty much pointless...But I was curious as too what you guys think about this?

Afterall,some say this is the best Redskins team ever!But do to the fact that we lost the most important game,it kind of gets lost to even us extremeskins fans...

We went 14-2 that year...Lost to the pack 48-47 and ?other team by 1 point as well...Damn??(it has slipped my mind)

2 freakin' points!!!2 games...Very well could have gone undefeated...!

So my question is...? ...If Marcus somehow gets rapped up by someone say Manley...??for example....do we win that superbowl?

And gibbs becomes 4-0 in Superbowls...

And is Theismann to blame for his PISS poor performance that game?

What say you? :2cents:

We lost 48-47 to GB on Monday night and 31-30 to the Cowboys.

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If we had just gone in the locker room down 14-3 and come out like we did and score the opening TD of the 2nd half...you have an entirely different story...the extra point wouldn't have been blocked in all likelyhood and the score would be 14-10.

I agree with that. I rewatched that game not too long ago and for the first half of that game, it was pretty evenly played. The Raiders did not begin to establish dominance until midway through the 3rd quarter. They got some big plays (blocked punt and Rocket Screen) to build their lead.

So who knows, if it had been 14-10 perhaps it would have been a different story because Riggins would have become a factor again instead of Joey T having to throw all the time to catch up and while the Hogs of this time were great great run blockers, their pass blocking was not the greatest and that led to Joe Theismann getting beat up pretty good in the second half of that game.

I still think for that one day, the better team did win. The Skins were just not themselves that day and the Raiders pounced on them and earned the title.

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I remember an interview with Joe T. where he said that was probably the worst they had ever prepared for a game before. He also said the were far more interested in media activity and parties than getting ready for the SB. Seems odd that Gibbs would allow that, but there's a first for everything. It really showed up in their play - it was awful!

:(

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As it has been said here, the play that killed us was the screen pass interception right before halftime. Take away that and its 14-3 at the half, the Skins come right out and drive down the field to score to open the half and its 14-9 (14-10 without the missed extra point) and the Skins are right back in the game & can contiune to stick with the gameplan. By the time Allen broke the 74-yard run the Skins were already beat. There is no way he breaks that run if the Skins are still in the game because there would have still been something to play for. Allen broke that run, IMO, because the Skins were basically just playing out the game at that point and the effort was less then 100% in a 31-9 game.

Having said all that..........I chose to still block out the memory of that entire Sunday from my mind forever!!!!!!!!!! It's like the World Series of 1994......the Super Bowl skipped a year from 17 directly to 19............right???????

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I've heard from Theismann and others that our whole team was hung over for that Super Bowl. They had been out LATE the night before and never got off the ground for that game. I'd have to say that we would not have beaten anyone that day.

I believe that Joe Gibbs never again aloowed his teams to go out the night befare a Super Bowl again.

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I've heard from Theismann and others that our whole team was hung over for that Super Bowl. They had been out LATE the night before and never got off the ground for that game. I'd have to say that we would not have beaten anyone that day.

I believe that Joe Gibbs never again aloowed his teams to go out the night befare a Super Bowl again.

It just blows my mind that professional athletes would go out and get wasted the night before one of the biggest games in their lives. If the stories are true, then what the hell were they thinking?

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I've heard from Theismann and others that our whole team was hung over for that Super Bowl. They had been out LATE the night before and never got off the ground for that game. I'd have to say that we would not have beaten anyone that day.

I believe that Joe Gibbs never again aloowed his teams to go out the night befare a Super Bowl again.

To piggyback on that, the night before the Super Bowl, the first of Theismann's ex-wives found a note from Cathy Lee Crosby, figured out they were having an affair and confronted him with it. So, his mind wasn't even on the game. :mad: :doh:

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We were getting back into the game before halftime and playing them pretty tough. If it stayed 14-3 at halftime then we would have come back right after and it's 14-9. The killer was the Jack Squirek play making it 21-3 at the intermission. We scored on our first possesion after halftime and mosely missed the extra point. It just wasn't our day.

Not to mention Riggins got stopped on a fourth and inches when it was 21-9 too. Nothing went well that day. If Ray Guy not snagged the bad snap out of the air.. who knows? But again it just wasn't our day. We had a great team but they definitely kicked our asses.

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CalSkinsFan, you must be masochistic is something prompted you to watch that abomination. :laugh:

Pretty much. That's what an off-season between a playoff year and a potential SB run the next will do to a man :silly: . I had watched all the other SB's ad nauseum, tho the other day was the first time since the actual game that I had watched this one.

Iirc, I believe Gibbs also gave the team most of the week following the NFCCG off as well.

As much as we all love and trust Coach Gibbs, it may have as much his fault for losing that game as the players, by not keeping the team focused and putting too much trust in the players to keep their s*** together.

And of course, he has been back to the SB twice since, and the team destroyed the opposition both times. No lack of focus from those 'Skins teams. Every great coach is allowed one mistake, right? The key is to obviously not make the same mistake twice. He hasn't, and I doubt he will, given another shot at a SB.

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The back breaker was the screen to lil Joe by Joey T. That ended up in a gimme TD and took the Redskins out of their gameplan.

>> I was screaming at the TV for them to fall on the ball at the end of the first half and then the infamous rocket screen play happened and I just freaking lost it.

The Raiders were able to shut down our two top dog WRs (Brown and Monk) that day and jammed the line of scrimmage to shut down Riggo. IMHO, I think that's why Gibbs came back a few years later with the Posse and we have the current set of recievers we have now.

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I was once told that I block out bad memories...

Anyways, what is this game that you speak of? Who is this Marcus Allen guy? What 74 yard run? What screen pass to Joe Washington that was read and picked off for an easy TD?

Wait I think I remember now... Must forget again... Must forget again

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Back in early '91 CNN was airing a story on security at the Super Bowl in Tampa (the first played there since SB XVIII) due to the Gulf War, and I was working in an area that had CNN on all the time and thus you'd see the story repeatedly. Anyway, during the story they'd always show that clip of "Rocket Screen", and my co-worker (not a Skins fan) felt compelled to bring my attention to it every time it aired!! :doh:

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>> I was screaming at the TV for them to fall on the ball at the end of the first half and then the infamous rocket screen play happened and I just freaking lost it.

I was with you at the time, but later I found out that the Skins ran a similar play against the Raiders in the regular season matchup and it worked beautifully for about a 60 yard gain. We also know that Gibbs loves to have the momentum going in and coming out of halftime so that's why he didn't sit on it. He wanted some momentum and figured that a screen pass that worked so well against this very same team would be a safe play that potentially could get them a big play.

Of course, the Raiders coaches did a great job at guessing that Gibbs would do something like that and the Raiders knew it was coming and the rest was history. NFL Films even has a sideline shot of Matt Millen turning to the defensive coach that "called" the play and congratulating him on the play.

The Skins were outplayed that day for various reasons, but they were outcoached also.

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I know a topic like this is pretty much pointless...But I was curious as too what you guys think about this?

Afterall,some say this is the best Redskins team ever!But do to the fact that we lost the most important game,it kind of gets lost to even us extremeskins fans...

We went 14-2 that year...Lost to the pack 48-47 and ?other team by 1 point as well...Damn??(it has slipped my mind)

2 freakin' points!!!2 games...Very well could have gone undefeated...!

So my question is...? ...If Marcus somehow gets rapped up by someone say Manley...??for example....do we win that superbowl?

And gibbs becomes 4-0 in Superbowls...

And is Theismann to blame for his PISS poor performance that game?

What say you? :2cents:

Rumors in Tampa place half the team at Mons Venus the night before the game and game day was met with a severe hang-over. :cool: :cheers: :mad: :doh:

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It just blows my mind that professional athletes would go out and get wasted the night before one of the biggest games in their lives. If the stories are true, then what the hell were they thinking?

Well, drinking and thinking don't go to well together. But the Mons does have the best looking exotic entertainers in Tampa. :applause:

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I remember this game all too well. Going in, I thought the Redskins were going to win but I also thought the game was going to be close.

Well, we all know what happened. And I think the play that killed our Redskins was the Jack Squirek interception near the end of the first half. Trailing 14-3 going into the half would have been a lot better than trailing 21-3.

As mentioned before, Marcus Allen's run was the nail in the coffin.

The 1983 Redskins were perhaps the best team ever not to win a Super Bowl. It's a shame they picked the wrong week to play their worst game of the 1983 season.

But here's some good news: Since SB XVIII, our Redskins have won two Super Bowls while the Raiders have won none.

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