1983 NFC Title game:Niners at Skins on NFL Network

[pjfootballer]

Does anyone besides me think that 2 other games that year would qualify for Greatest Games? The 48-47 GB Monday night loss and the 37-35 win over the Raiders, both in the regular season.

[hail2skins]

We scored 541 points.

Damn, what's scary is that 23 vs Philly in week 2 was our LOW total up until that stinking Super Bowl. We scored less than 30 four other times in the regular season, and that was it.

The number of points we scored that year was the most ever until Minnesota beat it in 1998 (556) and then New England (589) in 2007. But consider:

1983: Skins had 59 offensive TDs (29 pass/30 rush), and were 33 for 47 on FGs

1998: Vikings had 58 offensive TDs (41 pass/17 rush) and were 35 for 35 on FGs (Gary Anderson picked a bad time to miss in the NFCCG)

2007: Pats had 67 offensive TDs (50 pass/17 rush) and were 21 for 24 on FGs

I don't remember specifics of our season but I can't imagine Gibbs scoring "eff you" TDs like Belicheck did against, among other teams, the Cowboys and Skins in 2007. Plus Moseley had a mediocre year. All adds up to making the case that the Skins offense that year still may have been the best ever....but unfortunately met the same fate that the Pats did in the SB.

[scruffylookin]

I don't remember specifics of our season but I can't imagine Gibbs scoring "eff you" TDs like Belicheck did against, among other teams, the Cowboys and Skins in 2007. Plus Moseley had a mediocre year. All adds up to making the case that the Skins offense that year still may have been the best ever....but unfortunately met the same fate that the Pats did in the SB.

Interesting that you mention that.

In fact the opposite occured that season.

They usually took the foot off the gas pedal after they got huge leads and in fact this made at least three of their games' final scores appear closer than they were.

vs. Detroit they had a 38-10 and the Lions scored a cosmetic TD at the end (final 38-17)

at Giants they were up 33-3 and the Giants scored 14 meaningless points late (final 33-17)

at Rams they were up 42-6 and the Rams scored 14 meaningless points late (I believe Joe Theismann was relieved and Bob Holly was sent in for mop up duty and promptly fumbled a couple of snaps thus giving the Rams the ball deep in Skins territory so Gibbs quickly put Theismann in to finish the game). Final score 42-20

vs. Falcons they were up 34-0 and the Falcons scored 21 4th quarter points. final score 37-21.

This "taking the foot off the pedal" in fact made the 1983 defensive statistics look worse than the defense actually was that year. They had lapses to be sure (second half vs. Dallas, vs. the Raiders, vs. the Packers) but that defense was a much better one than people give it credit for now. People talk about the 541 points, but much of those points were either scored by the D or setup by the D by forcing an ungodly number of turnovers.

Interestingly though, I think Gibbs may have had a few "eff you" scores during the 1991 season.

Specifically vs. the Browns, Falcons (kept bombing away even in the fourth) and at Pittsburgh.

I remember speculation (but not by whom) that it was the Browns game (with rookie HC Bill Belichick) that caused Belichick to return the favor and rub Gibbs' nose in it with the 2007 butt whipping. Thing you gotta love (or I guess some hate) about Belichick, he holds grudges.

[iwasdoinit]

And Gibbs had "no problem" with the way NE ran up the score. I do hate the Patriot's coach, though.