Beau Boone: 'Nightmare Season: The Story of the 1973 San Diego Chargers'

Source:Beau Boone- Johnny Unitas unfortunately deserves to be the cover photo of the 1973 San Diego Chargers.

"When rebuilding a team, it is normal to face a good deal of challenges. The 1973 Chargers faced perhaps every challenge that they could run into, culminating the season into a nightmare." 

From Beau Boone

If there is anything that's good about the 1973 San Diego Chargers, it's that they drafted future Hall of Fame QB Dan Fouts and their 1973 nightmare season, led to the Chargers hiring Tommy Prothro in 1974, who really is responsible for rebuilding the Chargers from the draft. 

It's not Don Coryell who rebuilt the Chargers and turned them into consistent winners and even a Super Bowl contender in the late 1970s and early 1980s. That credit should go to Tommy Prothro. Even though Prothro didn't have a single winning season in his 4 plus years in San Diego, he rebuilt their defense with draft choices like Woodrow Lowe, Don Goode, Gary Johnson, Louis Kelcher, and Fred Dean. He also drafted WR John Jefferson, who was one of QB Dan Fouts favorite targets in San Diego in the late 1970s. 

To give you an idea about bad the 1973 Chargers were: they were 25th in points scored and 26th in points given up. Which should give you a good idea that they were blown out a lot in 1973. Most teams that finished at 2-11, tend to get blown out a lot. They were 19th in total offense, in a 26 team league and 22nd in defense. 

The Chargers had a 40 year old QB in Johnny Unitas and a 22 year old QB in Dan Fouts. So their choice at QB, was either a broken down, over the hill 40 year old QB, or a kid who just finished college, no experience in the NFL and now you want him to lead your NFL team. But when you hit bottom, you can't get any worst and things did get gradually better for the Chargers after 1973. 

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Classic Sports: '1986-09-15 Denver Broncos vs Pittsburgh Steelers'

Source:Classic Sports with this 1986 ABC-MNF game.

"John Elway takes on the Steelers early in the 1986 season" 

From Classic Sports 

I think the best way to describe this game from 1986, is to imagine being on a very long road, perhaps to nowhere, (at least for the car thats going south) and you see two cars pass each other going in the opposition directions. That's the story of the 1986 Denver Broncos and 1986 Pittsburgh Steelers. 

The 86 Broncos were on the rise under head coach Dan Reeves, QB John Elway, and a very good, but underrated Bronco defense. They had already been a consistent winner and AFC Playoff team the previous 10 years, but were now on the verge of being a Super Bowl team and winning 3-4 AFC Championships over the next 4 seasons and playing for 4 out of the next 6 AFC Championships during that same period.

1986 Steelers, just weren't very good at all. They still had a very good defense, at least as far as personal. And if you look at what they had on offense, with their skilled positions at least, a pretty good team on offense, when you looks at their running backs and receivers. But a football offense without a quarterback that they can get them ball and who beats you bye himself, is like a car without tires or an engine. 

Opposing teams knew that if you take away the Steelers running game, you are going to beat the Steelers, because between QB's Mark Malone and Bubby Brister, they didn't have much of a passing game, and their defense wasn't good enough to beat you by themselves. 

The main difference between the 1970s Steelers that won 4 Super Bowls in 6 years and the 1980s Steelers, that struggled just to have winning seasons and make the AFC Playoffs, is the QB position. When they lost Terry Bradshaw after the 1982 season, they never successfully replaced him and that showed up in a major way in 1986.

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NBC Sports: NFL 1985 Week 14- Los Angeles Raiders @ Denver Broncos: Highlights

Source:NBC Sports with this Raider-Bronco matchup.

"Raiders (9-4) and Broncos (9-4) in another AFC West battle for first place after a close Silver and Black win 2 weeks earlier in Los Angeles." 

From John Morgani

The 1985 Denver Broncos were 11-5, but missed the AFC Playoffs. Back then, 5-14 teams in each conference made the NFL Playoffs, unlike 6 that started in 1990. So you could argue that the 1985 Broncos are one of the best NFL teams ever, at least in the Super Bowl era, that didn't even make the playoffs. 

The 1985 Los Angeles Raiders, we're looking to get back to the Super Bowl. The 1983 Raiders are one of the best NFL teams ever (at least as far as I'm concern) but 1984 was very disappointing because they just got back to the AFC Wildcard that season and lost that game. 

So this is a great matchup of two very good teams on both sides of the ball, that have a lot of very good players at every position, who simply hate and yet respected each other. Which is what made these Raider-Bronco games so good in the 1970s and 80s. 

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NBC Sports: NFL 1985- AFC Divisional Playoff- New England Patriots @ Los Angeles Raiders

Source:John Morgani- Los Angeles Raiders LB Matt Millen, showing a fan at the game, how much they appreciate the Raiders fans.

"1985 Los Angeles Raiders Playoff vs. New England Patriots. Raiders (12-4) and Patriots (11-5) meet in the first round of the playoffs."

From John Morgani

With all due respect to the 1985 New England Patriots, who did have an excellent team both on defense and offense, as far as personal and what they accomplished: if Los Angeles Raiders QB Jim Plunkett was healthy and played this game, (which is part of the broader point of this post) the Raiders not just win this game, but probably dominate the Patriots as well. 

With a healthy Jim Plunkett playing this game, instead of career, part-time, starter, Marc Wilson playing instead, the Raiders because of their great defense, would know that they just have to play their game, which is to dominate the Patriots offense. But they wouldn't have to try to win the game themselves, because they know the Raiders offense would have what they needed to move the ball and score points, which was their vertical passing game with QB Jim Plunkett and their receivers and their power running game with Marcus Allen and their big, strong, offensive line.

The 1984 AFC Wildcard lost to the Seattle Seahawks and this 1985 AFC Divisional lost to the Patriots, I believe sums up the Los Angeles Raiders of the 1980s. The team that should've taken over the NFL, or at least the AFC in the 1980s, after the Pittsburgh Steelers fell back to the middle of the pack, basically became a team that after they win their only Super Bowl in Los Angeles in 1983, that a good season for them was winning their division and making it to the AFC Playoffs. Or just making the playoffs for them was a good season for in the mid 1980s. 

But under Tom Flores in the 1980s, especially after the Raiders moved from Oakland to Los Angeles at the end of the 1981 season, they led the NFL in talent and great personal pretty much every year. You look at what they had on defense, I would take their personal, especially their secondary, over the Chicago Bears of that era. 

Offensively, the Raiders as far as personal, were better than the Miami Dolphins and perhaps even the San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins, and Dallas Cowboys, perhaps just as talented as the Cincinnati Bengals of the 1980s. But the old cliche: talent doesn't win games. Players and coaches do. That probably should've been written for the Los Angeles Raiders under Tom Flores and Al Davis.

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Beau Boone: 'Forgotten Legends: Ken Anderson'

Source:Beau Boone- welcome to Super Bowl 16 between the Cincinnati Bengals & San Francisco 49ers. Two of the most unlikely NFL teams to make it to the Super Bowl, going into the 1981 season.

"Ken Anderson was one of the greatest quarterbacks of his era, but in today's world his name is hardly heard. He truly is a forgotten legend." 

From Beau Boone

This is about my case for Cincinnati Bengals QB Ken Anderson to finally be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And I'll make it very simple for you.

If there is room for Dan Fouts and Bob Griese to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, then there is room for Ken Anderson as well, whose at least, at least as deserving as both Fouts and Griese to be in the Hall of Fame. 

Dan Fouts has a career losing record as an NFL QB, He didn't become the San Diego Chargers full-time starting QB until 1978, his 6th season in the league, I'm not a big stats guy when it comes to sports, but he only three 12 more TD's than INT's during his 15 year career. But he's in the Hall of Fame because he was a very accurate QB and three for a lot of passing yards.

Miami Dolphins QB Bob Griese is in the Hall of Fame because he not just won 2 Super Bowls but won them back-to-back. But if he had 2 Super Bowl losses and didn't win a single Super Bowl and the rest of his career was still the same, he's probably not in the Hall of Fame today. He was a system QB, who needed a great offensive line and running game, which he had for most of his career with the Dolphins, in order to be successful at all. He played in a ball-control, power-run offense, where he only had to throw the ball about 15 times a game, for the Dolphins to win. 

I'm not arguing that Dan Fouts and Bob Griese are not Hall of Famers or that they should be removed from the Hall of Fame. I'm just arguing that Ken Anderson just as a QB, was at least as good as both of those players. 

Ken Anderson was generally, if not always the best player on every team that he played for with the Bengals, at least on offense and his numbers, victories, including playoff victories, playing for a franchise that didn't win consistently for most of his career. And yet still won a lot of games and put up excellent numbers for the Bengals in the 1970s and 80s, when Dan Fouts was still on the Chargers bench. And Bob Griese was handing the ball off for the Dolphins and watching his defense dominate the other teams.

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Blitz Burghed: NFL 1972- AFC Divisional- Oakland Raiders @ Pittsburgh Steelers: The Immaculate Reception

Source: Blitz Burghed- Franco Harris's immaculate reception-

Source:The Daily Post

To me for a rivalry to be great or for it to even be a rivalry, the two teams involved have to at least be good. Not just consistent winners, but consistent playoff teams. Not teams that generally 8-8 or 9-7 or worst and every few years sneak into the playoffs. But teams where just getting to the playoffs is not enough for them to have a successful season. Teams that have it as their goal every year to win their division and win the league championship. 

The New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcon Fans and even though both teams are good now and making the playoffs and in the Saints case winning the Super Bowl in 2009, but historically both franchises have either been mediocre or bad. The Falcons didn't make the playoffs until 1978, their twelfth season and are now in their forty-eighth season and they have only made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons once. The Saints didn't even have a winning season until 1987 their 21st season and played and won their first Super Bowl Iin 2009 their forty-third season. So Falcon-Saint games traditionally haven't meant much.

Unlike Packer-Bear games, Packer-Viking games, Bear-Viking games, Redskins-Cowboys, Redskins- Giants etc. It's when the games are important that they have meaning is when they become rivalry's because that's when both teams prepare real well and tend to play their best and when the games are played real hard and physical and get real tense and you see big hits and borderline cheap shots and everything else. And the fans really get into it and even go to the other teams stadiums to watch their team play that the games become rival games. Which is exactly what you get in the NFC East where everyone is a big rival of the other.

That's exactly what the Steeler-Raider rivalry was in the 1970 and 80s to a certain extent. Because every time they played in this time period, their games were about who would have home field advantage in the AFC Playoffs. And have the better chance of winning the AFC Championship and going to the Super Bowl. And the rivalry that the Pittsburgh Steelers had with the Oakland Raiders in the 1970s, is similar to the rivalry the Steelers have with the New England Patriots today because they are playing for home field advantage in the AFC Playoffs almost every time they play each other.

But with the Steelers-Raiders rivalry of the 70s, you're talking about two of the three best franchises of the 70s that made the AFC Playoffs a total of sixteen times, that won fifteen division championships between the two of them. Won five AFC Championships and won five Super Bowls. They knew to get to where they wanted to go they were going to have to beat the other team. It was really that simple because both teams in this decade both had the same goal every year, win the Super Bowl. And since they were both in the AFC, that meant beating the other team especially in the AFC Playoffs just to get to the Super Bowl and this why this rivalry was so great and intense. 

Rivalry's are between two good teams and franchises, otherwise they don't mean anything. They're just another game, rivalry games are important, even when one team may be having a down year because they can make their season by beating the other team. Which would be like their championship. "We didn't do much this year, but at least we beat that team and made their season a little more difficult. Perhaps cost them a home game in the playoffs". And the team who lost that game remembers losing that game, takes that with them going into the next season and try's to get their revenge, which makes the rivalry that much greater.
Blitz Burghed: NFL 1972- AFC Divisional- Oakland Raiders @ Pittsburgh Steelers: The Immaculate Reception 

John Morgani: Video: John Facenda: Pride and Poise, The Glory Days of the Oakland Raiders

Source:The Daily Post

As John Madden put it when asked about the Raiders not being able to win the "Big Game", the Oakland Raiders won a lot of big games. You have to do that just to have the chance to get to the "Big Game". The teams that play in the "Big Game" aren't selected by a "committee of experts" but they are selected by the two teams from both conferences that won their championships. What the Raiders weren't able to do until 1976, other than 1967 be able to get to the one big game the biggest game in the world. If you think about it as far as the amount of people that watch it.

The Super Bowl of course is the biggest television event in the world, but if you look at the teams that they lost to, there were all great teams as far as who they lost to in those AFC Finals that cost them the AFC Championship and a trip to the Super Bowl. They lost to the Baltimore Colts in 1970 that won that Super Bowl, the Miami Dolphins in 1973 that won that Super Bowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers their arch-rival in the 1970s in both 1974 and 75 that won both of those Super Bowls. So the Raiders problem was that they didn't choke or get it done, they just lost to the best team in football all of those years.

The Raiders had to be the best team in the NFL not just have the best record in the AFC and host the AFC Final at Oakland Coliseum better known as "the Black Hole" as they did in 1974, but they had to have the best team in the AFC both regular and postseason. So when 1976 came around having lost four of the last six AFC Finals, including one at home, the sole-mission of the 1976 Raiders was to go to and win the Super Bowl and meant getting past the Steelers and running through anyone else who got in their way.

The Raiders knew they had the players and they had the talent on both sides of the ball. One of the best offenses in the NFL if not the best, with their vertical spread offense (as I call it)  always looking to throw deep to Cliff Branch from quarterback Ken Stabler. But working the whole field, to tight end Dave Casper and wide receiver Fred Belitninkoff both who are in the Hall of Fame. 

And with their power running game with the best offensive line in the NFL, with Hall of Famers offensive tackle Art Shell and offensive guard Gene Upshaw arguably the best players who ever played their positions. With center Dave Dalby another Pro Bowler and their power running game with their man-on-man blocking where you literally try to destroy the man in front of you.

And with tailback Clarence Davis and fullback Mark Van Egan and their kick ass defense (for lack of a better word) with defensive tackle John Mutuzak and defensive tackle Dave Rowe up front and others. Hall of Famer Ted Hendricks arguably the best outside linebacker of all- time and Pro Bowler Phil Viliapano. With two bump-and-run cover corners in Mike Haynes and Willy Brown. And perhaps the two hardest hitting safety's in football George Atkinson and Jack Tatum.

The Oakland Raiders by the time 1976 came around were already a very good team with a lot of talent. You would have to be to just be in six AFC Finals even though they lost all of them going into 1976. But they weren't a great team yet and being a great team and having great talent are two different things. The trick is to have both of them at the same time which is something the 1976 Raiders were finally able to learn and most of that credit goes to John Madden a Hall of Fame head coach. He figured out how to get all of these great players to play together at the same time.

NFL Films: The New York Jets 1968 Yearbook

The 1968 Jets were a solid team, but not a great team loaded with Hall of Famers all across the board.  They only had two that I know of, QB Joe Namath, obviously one of the top five to ten quarterbacks of all time, and, of course, WR Don Maynard, one of the best receivers of all time.  This team was not loaded with great players at every position but had a lot of very good players at every position as well as a lot of depth and a great head coach in Weeb Ewbank.

NBC Sports: NFL 1978- AFC Divisional- Houston Oilers @ Miami Dolphins: Highlights

Source:Classic Sports- Houston Oilers Head Coach/General Manager Bum Phillips.

"Bum vs Shula. If you want to see the first game it's highlights are below. Reposted from classicsportsvids."

From Classic Sports

An interesting playoff matchup here for several reason: the Houston Oilers made their first playoff appearance from the 1970s in 1978. They were pretty bad in the early 1970s, started winning under head coach Bum Phillips in the mid 1970s, but 1978 they were good enough to make the AFC Playoffs after the NFL expanded to 5 playoff teams for each conference, with two wildcards, instead of one, starting in 1978. 

The Miami Dolphins after being the best franchise in the entire NFL in the early 1970s, started losing a lot of their key players by 1974 and slipped into mediocrity under Don Shula and missed the playoffs 3 straight seasons from 1975-77. So both the Dolphins and Oilers had something to prove in this playoff game. The Oilers wanted to show the NFL that they were not just winners, but could win the AFC and the Super Bowl. The Dolphins wanted to show the NFL that they were back as one of the premier franchises, at least in the AFC. 

You can also see this post at The FreeState, on Blogger.

You can also see this post at The FreeState, on WordPress.

NBC Sports: NFL 1978- AFC Wildcard - Houston Oilers @ Miami Dolphins: Dan Pastorini's Performance

Source:Official Jaguar Gator- Houston Oilers QB Dan Pastorini.

"Prior to the 1978 AFC wild card game between the Houston Oilers and Miami Dolphins, Oilers quarterback Dan Pastorini was severely injured. He was hospitalized for multiple days, did not practice all week, and was dealing with injuries to his elbow, his knee, his ankle, and his ribs, of which he had three of them that were cracked. What followed was a game where not only did Pastorini play and somehow send the Oilers to the next round of the NFL playoffs, but a game where despite all the pain, Pastorini had arguably the best game of his career at the time." 

From Official Jaguar Gator 

Dan Pastorini wasn't a great NFL QB. At best, he was a system's quarterback, who needed a strong offensive line and running game, to be a successful QB. As a backup, I think he would've been one of the best backups in the NFL during his career. But as a starter, he needed the people and coaching around him, to be successful. He needed a power offense, that only three off of play action a and threw the ball vertically, to be successful. Which is exactly what he had in Houston, with head coach Bum Phillips and the Oilers.  

As far as this game, I think Dan Pastorini, what ever he think of him and career in the NFL, cemented his legacy as one of the toughest QB's to ever play in the NFL. To not only play an NFL game, but a playoff game, on the road, in the heat and humidity of Miami, Florida, at Orange Bowl Stadium, where the Dolphins were almost unbeatable, against a team as good as the 1978 Dolphins, to play that game with broken ribs and on drugs to deal with the pain, you know he was a tough guy and clutch QB. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Post, on Blogger. (No pun intended)

NFL Films: NFL 1981, The Giants and Jets Return to The Playoffs

Source:The Daily Post 

1981 was a huge year for New York pro football fans, because it was the year that both of their football franchises woke up from their more than a decade long hibernation. The New York Giants hadn’t made the NFL PLayoffs since 1963 when they lost the NFL Championship to the Chicago Bears. And the New York Jets hadn’t made the playoff AFL or NFL since the NFL-AFL merger of 1970. 

Its one thing to live in a market, a metro area with two pro football franchises, which I do in the Washington-Baltimore Region, but it is another thing to live in a market with two bad pro football franchises, especially if you love football. And not just bad, but to the point every year you know your team isn’t good and won’t even have a winning season mostly likely, let alone make the playoffs. 

And you’re just hoping to see some improvement going into the next season. And that was the Giants and Jets of the 1970s, two of the worst franchises in the NFL and they just happened to represent the same city. Year in and year out in the 1970s for the most part, both the Giants and Jets could be counted on to lose ten games each. And the sixteen game schedule didn’t start until 1978.

Conky Joe: Video: NFL 1973-The Don Shula Show-Super Bowl 8-January 14, 1974

Source:The Daily Post

Obviously a Miami Dolphins local TV show with the so-called host of it not there to ask Head Coach Don Shula any tough or critical questions. But having said that, forget about the score of Super 8 between the Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings, 23-7. The game looked like a 28-0 or 35-10 game, where one team could basically did everything they wanted to do on offense and dominate the first half. And play keep away in the second half, as well as shut down the other team’s offense in the first half at least. Because sometimes the final score in football games are misleading. Because you could have one team dominate the other really badly without the score indicating that. And making the game look a lot closer than it actually was. Which is what the Dolphins did, completely dominate the Vikings in Super Bowl 8. To the point that the Vikings were never actually in the football game with a real chance of winning. They Vikings fell behind early and never got into the game.

Richard Waldrup: Video: NBC Sports: NFL 1993-AFC Divisional-Kansas City Chiefs @ Houston Oilers: First Half

Source:The Daily Post 

The two best teams in the NFL in 1993 were the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Oilers. And yet only the Cowboys made it to the NFL Final Four, which is the four conference finals teams, the NFC Final and AFC Final. The Oilers didn’t even get to the AFC Final and as a result we didn’t get to see the Texas Bowl as part of the Super Bowl in 1993 between the Cowboys and Oilers. Because as good as the Oilers were on both sides of the ball in 1993 and perhaps even better than the Cowboys at least in the regular season, if you want to be a great team you have to get it done in the playoffs. To be a great team you have to do more than get a first round bye and have the best record in your conference. You have to win in the playoffs and at the very least you have to get to your conference final. Great NFL teams don’t lose in the divisional round of the playoffs. They play for Super Bowls and win Super Bowls and the Oilers under Jack Pardee and Buddy Ryan and even Kevin Gilbride were out coached by Marty Shottenheimer and his Chiefs coaching staff.

WCPO-TV: Video: Sam Wyche Remembers Super XXIII

Source:The Daily Post 

There are a lot of things that I respect about Sam Wyche and a lot of things that I like about him. But there some faults and weakness’ in his career that I do not respect and have been looking for an opportunity to blog and write about Sam Wyche. And what I call the Wyche Bengals and not just the 1988 Bengals and basically his entire tenure in Cincinnati. Because there is a brilliant side of Sam Wyche, a guy with a brilliant both football and real world mind as far as some very intelligent when it came to football. 

Sam Whyce a man who understood both offensive and defensive football about as well as any head coach from his era. And yet I consider Sam Wyche to be a rich or poor man’s Norv Turner. A higher football IQ than Norv, but someone who produced similar results as a head football coach. And someone who seems to have a very good football team at least on paper each year, yet struggles just to make the playoffs every year for the most part. The 1988 Cincinnati Bengals perfectly sums up the Sam Wyche tenure in Cincinnati. 

Because here’s a franchise in the Bengals that arguably had the most talent in the AFC Central in the mid and late 1980s. And perhaps as late as 1990 and 91 when Sam was still the head coach in Cincinnati. And yet The Bengals do not even make the AFC Playoffs until year five of Sam’s tenure in Cincinnati in 1988. Let alone win a divisional title, yet he had the best team in the AFC Central in 1984 and 85 for sure. Perhaps not in 86, the 86 Cleveland Browns were very good and another example of a team that was a underachiever. 

But the 86 Bengals that went 10-6 had a better team than the Denver Broncos that won the AFC that year. And would’ve at least been a wildcard team that year. And 1987 a strike season, but a team that went 4-11, but had great opportunities to win at least 4-5 more games and make the AFC Playoffs and they didn’t do that. The 1988 Bengals a team that went 12-4 and by most accounts had a great season. Yet they had opportunities to win Super Bowl 23 in the fourth-quarter and put this game away against the. San Francisco 49ers. 

And the Bengals didn’t do that, like dropping an interception in the end zone and settling for field goals despite having the best offense in the NFL that year. The Bengals in Super Bowl 23 looked like the Bengals of 1987 a team that simply didn’t finish. And why they are part of a show that’s called The Missing Rings instead of on a show that’s about one of the best NFL teams of all-time and one of the best ever. A lot of NFL head coaches don't succeed because they don't have enough talent. Sam Wyche didn't succeed, because he didn't do enough with the talent that he had. 

John Morgami: NFL 1980- AFC Divisional-Oakland Raiders @ Cleveland Browns: Last Drive

Source:John Morgami- Mike Davis's famous game-winning interception for the Raiders.

Source:The Daily Post 

“Raiders at Browns 1980 playoffs” 

From John Morgami

The Cleveland Browns of the late 1970s early 1980s were called the Cardiac Kids for a good reason. They trailed late in games a lot and many times by two scores and would have to either score once very quickly to win, or have to score twice with like five minutes left in the game.

The Browns defense was not horrible and perhaps not even bad, but certainly not dominant which is what it became under Marty Shottenheimer in the mid and late 1980s. And as a result they would get into shootouts and when they play good teams with good defenses, would fall behind late and have to make great comebacks to win.

The 1980 Raiders were a very good if not great all around football team. That could score a lot of points and simply shut teams downs. As they did in the AFC Playoffs and in the Super Bowl that season. The Browns were simply beaten by a better all around football team.

Cleveland Brown: Video: NFL 1986, Cleveland Browns Highlights

Source:The Daily Post 

The three best teams in the NFL in 1986 were the New York Giants, Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns. The Giants clearly deserved to be number having won the Super Bowl that year and were the most consistent team in the NFL in 1986. The question is who would be number two? The Redskins or Browns and no Denver Broncos aren’t in the top three even though they won the AFC and played in the Super Bowl and beat both the Browns and Redskins that year. The Redskins and Browns simply had better teams, better personal and better records. The Broncos won enough to get to the Super Bowl. And a lot of that credit goes to their head coach Dan Reeves. But the Browns of this era were an NFC caliber and style team as far as physical strength toughness and speed on both sides of the ball. But simply didn’t win the games they needed to, to play in the Super Bowl. The two AFC Final’s they lost in 86 and 87. When they had the best team in both games.