Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Out of both these teams that looked quite SB-caliber during the regular season, it seems '93 gets more kudos in retrospect. I'm guessing the Buddy Ryan hype and all the drama which unfolded that entire season helps to make it more memorable hence giving them the nod as the better Pardee-era squad. It definitely is tough to argue against such a body of work. That 11-game win streak to end the season and holding the Niners to just 7 points in the next-to-last game! Other than that, the 9-7 Steelers were the only playoff team they played (and swept) after 'waking up' from that 1-4 start.

There's no denying how great '93 was, but I have to lean toward '91. They beat 5 playoff teams that season albeit one of them was against 8-8 NYJ whom they would barely beat both regular and post season. However, they did wallop both the Raiders and Denver by 30 and 28 respectively, and beat KC by 10. They also beat Dallas. Yes, all those wins were at home, they finished 4-4 on the road, but it was the barely-loss at RFK that signified their status as a legit SB contender in '91. A letdown in the finale to Ray Handley's G-men cost them a 1st-round bye and once again Houston failed to make the CC as was the reoccurring case all through the late-'80s/early-'90s.

HOU vs. BUF a year before The Comeback or HOU/WAS would have made for better playoff drama.

Those Broncos were some of the biggest overachievers- Dan Reeves literally only had Elway and the Mile High mystique at his disposal. Their 1984-1985 teams went the least farthest and would have beaten any of their 1986-1991 teams by double digits.

From 1986-1991, they were NEVER the most talented team in the AFC, yet there they were finding their way to SB's- and getting blown out- while more talented teams should have been there getting beaten by less decisive margins. They weren't as good as the Vikings/Bills teams that also went 0-fer in SB's.

BTW, you mentioned the Giants game at the end of the season, but what about that week 3 loss to New England? It would have made the Giants season finale meaningless in terms of 2 seeds AND it would have made HOU/WAS the latest battle of unbeaten before NE/IND.

I always thought that the Oilers' prime window of opportunity was 1988-1991. They had been terrible through the mid-80s, getting multiple premium draft picks and through some good fortune they also acquired a HOF QB without having to use a draft pick. They started to gel in 1987, winning a playoff game against a tested Seahawks team (before losing to Denver the next round thanks in part to Glanville's Stagger Lee). I thought after getting a tast of postseason success, the Oilers would take the next step. The Bengals were the team to beat in 1988, but the Oilers destroyed Cincy 41-6 at the end of the year and Esiason had a bum shoulder throughout the playoffs. Despite being a WC, the Oilers could have very easily made the SB, but lost to the upstart Bills. 1989 had the terrible loss to the Steelers in the WC round.

Looking back, two things stand out to me about the Oilers. One, they never really took care of business in the regular season. Many times they were the most talented team in the conference but they would wind up finishing third in their division. Two, the teams they would lose to in the postseason weren't that good and they never even made the AFC Championship game. Some great Eastern conference teams in the NBA during the 1980's like the Atlanta Hawks or the Milwaukee Bucks never made their conference championship round, but that was because the Sixers, Celtics, or Pistons were always beating them. The Oilers lost to an array of mediocre teams.