Best Games (or interesting matchups) that Never Happened

[74_75_78_79_]

Bears at Giants, 1950 NFL Championship!

Both teams did sweep Rams & Browns respectively during regular season. And both didn’t play against each other which would have made the matchup even more intriguing.

[L.C. Greenwood]

I suppose this game that wasn't might not be widely accepted, but Steeler fans who recall the 1976 season will pine for a Steelers-Vikings Super Bowl. With only one healthy running back and no placekicker for the AFC championship game at Oakland, Steeler faithful can only ask what might have been.

It would have been a fascinating matchup, because the two teams played at Minnesota during the regular season, and the Vikings won, as Chuck Foreman ran wild. The Steel Curtain was more like the Aluminum Curtain during the first five games of that 1976 season. Certainly the defense turned it around 180 degrees later, but a rematch at the Rose Bowl would have interesting.

[CSKreager]

1992 NFC Divisional Playoffs- Saints/Cowboys

1996 AFC Championship Game- Patriots/Broncos

1980 AFC Championship Game- Browns/Chargers

1989 NFC Championship Game- Giants/49ers

2003 AFC Championship Game- Chiefs/Patriots

[Saban1]

1966 NFL Championship - Browns/Packers - Browns finished 2nd to Dallas by 1 1/2 games, but were the only Eastern Conference team to play Green Bay during the regular season. Cleveland almost won leading until the end of the game when Jim Taylor ran 8 yards with a screen pass on a 4th and goal situation to win the game for the Pack, 21 to 20.

The Browns also had to play Dallas on Thanksgiving, which made the game harder to win IMO, and was the Browns first loss to the Cowboys since 1962 even though they played twice a year (seven straight wins for Cleveland over Dallas).

Cleveland also lost to Philadelphia 30 to 21 in their second from last regular season game, when the Browns had virtually no chance to win their conference title. Losing that game also put the Eagles into the old Playoff Bowl (runnerup bowl), a game that the Cleveland players did not like to play in.

Never mind what happened in 1967. The Cleveland Browns were much better in 1966 than they were in 1967. In 1966, Cleveland almost beat Green Bay, losing by only 1 point. In 1967, the Browns lost 55 to 7 to the Packers (I think that there is a thread here about that).

The Cleveland/Green Bay Championship would have been played in Cleveland.

[7DnBrnc53]

2003 AFC Championship Game- Chiefs/Patriots

I think the Chiefs would have had a fairly good shot in this one if they would have stuck with the ground game. They had Priest Holmes and the best O-line in the NFL that year. They didn't have a great D, but NE's offense wasn't exactly scary.

[74_75_78_79_]

1989 NFC Championship Game- Giants/49ers

Sure enough Tuna gives SF a much better game than the Rams did. ’80s G-Men always played them tough, even if SF was the better team a particular year. But, rivalry/both teams familiar with each other aside, just how close would it have been against such a ‘Mt Rushmore’ historic juggernaut? Or at the very least they were once those playoffs began.

[sheajets]

1989 NFC Championship Game- Giants/49ers

Sure enough Tuna gives SF a much better game than the Rams did. ’80s G-Men always played them tough, even if SF was the better team a particular year. But, rivalry/both teams familiar with each other aside, just how close would it have been against such a ‘Mt Rushmore’ historic juggernaut? Or at the very least they were once those playoffs began.

Parcells has supposedly said that his 1989 team was his best squad ever (according to Mike Francesa, NY sports radio host who used to be very close to Bill Parcells)

It would've been a nail biter. Still have to give the edge to San Fran though.

[7DnBrnc53]

1996 AFC Championship Game- Patriots/Broncos

According to the Farmer's Almanac, that game would have had nasty weather:

https://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather- ... h-results/

[74_75_78_79_]

1989 NFC Championship Game- Giants/49ers

Sure enough Tuna gives SF a much better game than the Rams did. ’80s G-Men always played them tough, even if SF was the better team a particular year. But, rivalry/both teams familiar with each other aside, just how close would it have been against such a ‘Mt Rushmore’ historic juggernaut? Or at the very least they were once those playoffs began.

Parcells has supposedly said that his 1989 team was his best squad ever (according to Mike Francesa, NY sports radio host who used to be very close to Bill Parcells)

It would've been a nail biter. Still have to give the edge to San Fran though.

Tuna says ’89 his best?? Nothing too special about that squad. A slightly older twin of the previous year’s campaign that didn’t make playoffs. As they did in ’88, they get swept by Philly and lose a convincer to Rams (and, of course, get eliminated by them at home in January). Yes, they sweep 10-6 Redskins and win at Denver but, end of day, just a pretty good team that likely enough (though not definite) would have given Forty Niners a game in a hypo-NFCC if only due to familiarity with their decade-long rival. They’re definitely not in same boat as ’86 or ’90.

[CSKreager]

I would choose regular season games that were cancelled by the 1982 strike, like the Cincinnati-Dallas then-rare Sunday Night game at Texas Stadium, or what about the MNF game between the 49ers and Buccaneers at Tampa Stadium?

That Cincy/Dallas game would have been at Riverfront (the Cowboys’ AFC home games were vs Pittsburgh and Cleveland)