NFL "what-if" scenarios thread

[SeahawkFever]

- What if "The Drive" didn't happen, and the Browns played the Giants in the Super Bowl?

In 86, do the Browns match up with the Giants any better than the Broncos did in your opinion?

[7DnBrnc53]

What if Paul Brown blocked Modell from buying the Browns:

https://www.morningjournal.com/2020/04/ ... f-schudel/

[CSKreager]

What if the 1994 Chargers lose to Pittsburgh in week 17 and Miami gets the #2 seed?

San Diego loses the bye and has to play a Wild Card game- round 3 with KC, whom while they beat twice that year had for the most part SD's number in the 90s to that point. Plus do you REALLY think Joe Montana would have lost thrice to Stan Humphires?

If SD goes 3-for-3 ala what happened in real life with CLE/PIT, it's Chargers AT Dolphins and remember SD could never ever win at Miami (remember this was two years after 31-0)

OTOH, if Joe Cool finds a way, we get Chiefs at Steelers (a rematch from the year before, this time in 3 Rivers) and assuming CLE/NE plays out the same way Browns at Dolphins

CLE/MIA would have been fascinating- MIA with a bye and home game, a Browns team that mostly held their own against non-Steeler teams, #1 scoring D vs probably the last real shot for Shula/Marino

Heck if San Diego goes one and done......... surely any of CLE/KC/PIT/MIA couldn't have fared any worse vs the Niners in SB 29? Certainly any of those teams with their credentials wouldn't have been a 19 point underdog?

[7DnBrnc53]

What if the 1994 Chargers lose to Pittsburgh in week 17 and Miami gets the #2 seed?

San Diego loses the bye and has to play a Wild Card game- round 3 with KC, whom while they beat twice that year had for the most part SD's number in the 90s to that point. Plus do you REALLY think Joe Montana would have lost thrice to Stan Humphires?

If SD goes 3-for-3 ala what happened in real life with CLE/PIT, it's Chargers AT Dolphins and remember SD could never ever win at Miami (remember this was two years after 31-0)

OTOH, if Joe Cool finds a way, we get Chiefs at Steelers (a rematch from the year before, this time in 3 Rivers) and assuming CLE/NE plays out the same way Browns at Dolphins

CLE/MIA would have been fascinating- MIA with a bye and home game, a Browns team that mostly held their own against non-Steeler teams, #1 scoring D vs probably the last real shot for Shula/Marino

Heck if San Diego goes one and done......... surely any of CLE/KC/PIT/MIA couldn't have fared any worse vs the Niners in SB 29? Certainly any of those teams with their credentials wouldn't have been a 19 point underdog?

I just don't see that Chief team winning. Joe Cool seemed to be at the end of the line. I think the Chargers lose at Miami, and the Steelers beat the Browns and Dolphins and go to the Super Bowl (I don't see them taking Marino lightly like they did the 94 Chargers).

[74_75_78_79_]

What if the 1994 Chargers lose to Pittsburgh in week 17 and Miami gets the #2 seed?

San Diego loses the bye and has to play a Wild Card game- round 3 with KC, whom while they beat twice that year had for the most part SD's number in the 90s to that point. Plus do you REALLY think Joe Montana would have lost thrice to Stan Humphires?

If SD goes 3-for-3 ala what happened in real life with CLE/PIT, it's Chargers AT Dolphins and remember SD could never ever win at Miami (remember this was two years after 31-0)

OTOH, if Joe Cool finds a way, we get Chiefs at Steelers (a rematch from the year before, this time in 3 Rivers) and assuming CLE/NE plays out the same way Browns at Dolphins

CLE/MIA would have been fascinating- MIA with a bye and home game, a Browns team that mostly held their own against non-Steeler teams, #1 scoring D vs probably the last real shot for Shula/Marino

Heck if San Diego goes one and done......... surely any of CLE/KC/PIT/MIA couldn't have fared any worse vs the Niners in SB 29? Certainly any of those teams with their credentials wouldn't have been a 19 point underdog?

I just don't see that Chief team winning. Joe Cool seemed to be at the end of the line. I think the Chargers lose at Miami, and the Steelers beat the Browns and Dolphins and go to the Super Bowl (I don't see them taking Marino lightly like they did the 94 Chargers).

I wouldn't have taken the Dolphins for granted going into a hypo-Mia@Pit AFCCG as I did the Chargers. I still would have been a little worried with the Marino/quick-release factor - which would have offered a match for Blitzburgh. But I think the Steelers pull it off. Remember, Mike Tomczak played in their regular season home OT win. More QB-power would have been in play this time with Neil O at QB instead. And as you say, 7Dn, the Steelers don't take Miami lightly so, I think, that would be a big reason why they'd win.

With Eric Green throwing a party before the real-time AFCCG being the main example, it seemed like the Steelers players in general may have taken the Chargers lightly. If not so much before the game itself, then once they got off to that great start - opening drive for a TD and then the 3-and-out. But then by halftime, with the 'Burgh having had the ball for more than 22 minutes, they're only up...10-3! And even with that FG to make it 13-3 minutes into the second half, it sure seemed discouraging! My friend who was hosting the get-together said, "The Steelers are going to lose this game", and sadly I couldn't help but to agree inside while trying, but not totally succeeding, at denying it. And then Stan-to-Pupunu on the very next possession...

Despite Joe and the offense putting up the stuff and not punting (Miami didn't punt either) in the first half of that 1st-Rd game, 'Montana Magic' seemed out of gas going into those '94 playoffs. That Monday Night comeback at Denver, correct me if wrong (maybe there was another 'moment' or so right after that), seemed like the last breath of Joe Cool being...Joe Cool (seeing Christie Brinkley - oops, I mean his wife - what's the difference - on the sidelines cheering)! They, finishing at 9-7, definitely fell off from '93. Not that '93 was juggernaut-like, but topping scary Houston in the House of Pain and then, the following week, Joe gets knocked out which, at least, entertains a 'what-if' he doesn't get knocked out at Rich! Yeah, a special season, just the same. And Marcus Allen among other story lines!

If Miami would have played against San Fran in SBXXIX, it would have marked the ten season anniversary of the two teams meeting in a previous Super Bowl. Just like Miami & Washington in both '72 & '82. And KC@Mia in that '94 1st-Rd game, Montana-vs-Marino, marked the ten season anniversary of their first and only other post-season meeting between each other.

It's interesting to think what each point-spread would have been between San Fran and each of the other possible SB-opponents from the AFC which they would have faced (Dallas vs any of them as well). You say, CSK, that no one else would have been installed as a 19-pt underdog. True enough, I think. But I still think that all of them, starting with Pittsburgh, would have been a double-digit dog even if at the very low-end. I guess the Steelers, no matter how convincing they win the AFCCG, would have been an even ten (or maybe 10.5 which actually makes such a difference). Miami? Maybe 11 or 12-ish? Cleveland? Perhaps an even greater dog! 13 or 14 (or 14.5)? New England? Perhaps the 'Parcells'-factor makes them less a dog than Testaverde/Belichick.

And then you got...9-7 Kansas City! I would guess that the 'Montana'-factor would have prevented they from being a 19-pt dog. But I'm thinking that the spread would have been larger than any of the teams mentioned thus far. Right? What do you all think?

11-5 Chargers. No, they being installed as 19-pt dogs not really as much disrespect as a real simple...they had nothing to OFFER San Fran (or Big D had it been them instead)! Names like Dana, Bryant, Norton Jr, etc makes this hard for me to say, but if that San Fran D had a weakness (if they did; if, if if) then I guess it'd be against the run, And that 7+min drive that SD put up early on, Natrone fittingly scoring the TD, to make it 14-7 is the example to give. But as if they, led by Stan, were going to keep up with that Steve Young-led...Machine! And while the Forty Niner D would keep allowing Natrone-led 7-min TD drives?? No, don't think so.

At least the 'Burgh would have had moments throughout. Their Blitz, Woodson holding his own vs Rice. etc. But as you all should know, I have for quite sometime changed opinion that SBXXIX between Pit & SF would have been a 'Classic'. It may, maybe, have still been suspenseful-enough going into the 4th Q, but as I said recently, if Neil O couldn't turn those drives into TDs vs San Diego, then how could he have mustered TDs vs...SF?? Young & Co win in the end by either ten points or two TDs.

Does Marino lose by more than 3 TDs to San Fran yet again? I'd lean toward not so, but #13 would still have a blitz to face while trying to be careful throwing in Deion's direction (or Eric Davis's, or Merton's, etc)! It'd be real tough!

[7DnBrnc53]

With Eric Green throwing a party before the real-time AFCCG being the main example, it seemed like the Steelers players in general may have taken the Chargers lightly. If not so much before the game itself, then once they got off to that great start - opening drive for a TD and then the 3-and-out. But then by halftime, with the 'Burgh having had the ball for more than 22 minutes, they're only up...10-3! And even with that FG to make it 13-3 minutes into the second half, it sure seemed discouraging! My friend who was hosting the get-together said, "The Steelers are going to lose this game", and sadly I couldn't help but to agree inside while trying, but not totally succeeding, at denying it. And then Stan-to-Pupunu on the very next possession...

There is a podcast called Pittsburgh Sports Memories (don't know if you are familiar with it or not). On one of them, they interviewed Levon Kirkland. He basically said that the 94 Steelers were better than the 97 Steelers, but the 97 team knew how to focus better:

https://podcastaddict.com/pittsburgh-sp ... /185020238

Does Marino lose by more than 3 TDs to San Fran yet again? I'd lean toward not so, but #13 would still have a blitz to face while trying to be careful throwing in Deion's direction (or Eric Davis's, or Merton's, etc)! It'd be real tough!

In Week 11 of the 1995 season, SF gave Miami a 44-20 shellacking on MNF (at Miami) with Elvis Grbac at QB!! However, I think the 94 Dolphins were better than the 95 version, and I think they lose a hypo SB 29 by two TD's to the 49ers.

[74_75_78_79_]

With Eric Green throwing a party before the real-time AFCCG being the main example, it seemed like the Steelers players in general may have taken the Chargers lightly. If not so much before the game itself, then once they got off to that great start - opening drive for a TD and then the 3-and-out. But then by halftime, with the 'Burgh having had the ball for more than 22 minutes, they're only up...10-3! And even with that FG to make it 13-3 minutes into the second half, it sure seemed discouraging! My friend who was hosting the get-together said, "The Steelers are going to lose this game", and sadly I couldn't help but to agree inside while trying, but not totally succeeding, at denying it. And then Stan-to-Pupunu on the very next possession...

There is a podcast called Pittsburgh Sports Memories (don't know if you are familiar with it or not). On one of them, they interviewed Levon Kirkland. He basically said that the 94 Steelers were better than the 97 Steelers, but the 97 team knew how to focus better:

https://podcastaddict.com/pittsburgh-sp ... /185020238

Does Marino lose by more than 3 TDs to San Fran yet again? I'd lean toward not so, but #13 would still have a blitz to face while trying to be careful throwing in Deion's direction (or Eric Davis's, or Merton's, etc)! It'd be real tough!

In Week 11 of the 1995 season, SF gave Miami a 44-20 shellacking on MNF (at Miami) with Elvis Grbac at QB!! However, I think the 94 Dolphins were better than the 95 version, and I think they lose a hypo SB 29 by two TD's to the 49ers.

Thanks, 7Dn! Going to listen! #99!! How can I not??

Well of course '94 was better than '97. I know not too long ago I may have given that Charger team more credit than I should have. I guess it was a way to make sense of that upset. There's no excuses, but they had to have been taken lightly. I remember actually feeling good when SD beat Miami in that divisional, 22-21, because I would have been a bit worried going against Marino.

The simple Chargers stumbling a bit down the stretch - couldn't do a thing vs San Fran in their late regular season game either, and at home even - and then barely winning that finale at home vs a Steeler team not playing all their starters, the 'Burgh already clinched top-seed, while SD had to win to get that 2nd-seed. I guess that helped plant the seeds of underestimation, making myself and others forget that SD did start 6-0.

But I think you still should see them as a pretty good team. They had Seau, Natrone was a premiere back at that immediate time. Bobby Ross was an underrated coach. I believe Joe Theismann predicted going into the playoffs that SD would represent the AFC due to their balance. But they simply couldn't match up with San Fran at all, not even in a regular season game. And they wouldn't have been able to do anything against Dallas either - SB or regular season as well. They were too balanced and un-fancy for their own good, I guess.

End of day, upset or not (yes, a BIG upset), they will forever be in the books as the 1994 AFC Champions, a Super Bowl team, and you can't ever take that away from them. So what if the Steelers may have given San Fran a better game. Then they should have gotten there instead!

[7DnBrnc53]

But I think you still should see them as a pretty good team. They had Seau, Natrone was a premiere back at that immediate time. Bobby Ross was an underrated coach. I believe Joe Theismann predicted going into the playoffs that SD would represent the AFC due to their balance. But they simply couldn't match up with San Fran at all, not even in a regular season game. And they wouldn't have been able to do anything against Dallas either - SB or regular season as well. They were too balanced and un-fancy for their own good, I guess.

I kind of see the 94 Chargers as the NFL equivalent to the 2001 Sixers or 02 Nets. Nice teams in a weak conference that had good years, but weren't going to win a title when all was said and done (although, I don't see those Laker teams as great as the champion Cowboys or 94 49ers. They only had two players and a collection of stiffs, and their three-year run may have been assisted by NBC).

[ChrisBabcock]

and their three-year run may have been assisted by NBC

What?

[7DnBrnc53]

and their three-year run may have been assisted by NBC

What?

PM sent. I want to keep it football here.