Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Both closing out their respective decades with back-to-back titles but neither seen as ‘Team of the(ir) Decade’ thanks to being overshadowed by Browns/Lions and Cowboys/Forty Niners respectively. Very great Historic teams, though!

Two different eras, of course, but who to you was the stronger two-year squad for its time? ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’ and “This one’s for John”, the first reminder for each.

Whats similar and ironic about the two franchises, is that after winning their back-to-back championships, they follow up losing their leading backs to devastating injuries. Alan Ameche has his achilles injury in 1960 and is done. He was on a HOF pace. Terrell Davis had his terrible knee injury in 1999 and was done as well, though he hung on for two more seasons. Though Denver easily replaced his production, he makes the HOF.

Another similarity between the two teams is that they may or should have contended for the championship before their back-to-back seasons. Denver had a great 1996 season that was ended at home in the playoffs as a heavy favorite against Jacksonville. The loss was so devastating that Elway nearly retired. In 1957, the Colts in my mind, should have won the west by beating SF, who they led going into the final minute of the game but got beat on a TD pass from rookie John Brodie. Had they won this game and maintained their division lead, they still would have had to beat the Rams and I think they would have for the division. Even if they had lost, they would have played Detroit a third time.

Yeah, I guess you can equate Baltimore losing their lead down the stretch in '57 to the Denver disappointment to Jacksonville. It would have been nice if at least just ONE TIME in that era we would have seen a semifinal tiebreaker, and then a conference tiebreaker, and then finally the League Championship Game. '57 is the closest that it came to happening. And in such a case, Cleveland would have had to wait three weeks!

Yes, parallels between '60 Colts & '99 Broncos as well. Wrong, it was, for anyone to think that Denver with Brian Griese plugged in, handing off to TD, would simply be able to possibly three-peat! I forgot what I thought going into that season, but I think I leaned on they having even-enough odds. Which, then, brings us back to the 'champs that'd still win w/out their starting qbs' thread and me thinking that I may have gone a bit too far with some of my hypotheticals. You simply can't calculate the importance of a QB on a championship team, even if they dominated the whole way and you think that even the backup would pilot things.

The '58/'59 Colts don't get the Historic attention that the Browns/Lions get (just like Broncos not as much as Dal/SF though, mind you, the latter winning just one, in '94). But one thing about those Colts that is the most underrated...their D-front! Of course everyone knows Donovan, Big Daddy, his off-season wrestling partner, Joyce, and...GINO! But it seems as if the Fearsome Foursome and Purple People Eaters are placed above them. That shouldn't be. Winning two titles is a key in me seeing it this way. But I have a feeling had they not won a title at all, I'd still not place them beneath the other two.

74_75_78_79_ wrote:Yeah, I guess you can equate Baltimore losing their lead down the stretch in '57 to the Denver disappointment to Jacksonville. It would have been nice if at least just ONE TIME in that era we would have seen a semifinal tiebreaker, and then a conference tiebreaker, and then finally the League Championship Game. '57 is the closest that it came to happening. And in such a case, Cleveland would have had to wait three weeks!

Actually, on the last Sunday of the 1951 season it was Mathematically (but not realistically) possible for four Western Division (OK, National Conference) teams (SF, LA, Bears, Lions) to all finish 7-4-1, thus necessitating two rounds of playoffs that would've pushed the title game vs. Cleveland to January 6, 1952. A series of coin tosses in Bert Bell's office in the days before the final weekend determined the pairings and home fields for the various possible scenarios: a 4-way tie, a 3-way tie (thus a round-robin that would give one lucky team a bye), and a two-way tie. As it turned out, no playoff was needed. LA edged out Detroit and SF by a half-game to win the division outright. The Bears might've tied LA at 8-4, thus requiring a tie-breaker, but they were upset by the Cardinals.

Mike Shanahan wasnt afraid to gamble with rookie QBs like Griese and Cutler. The question is, would veterans Brister and Plummer had been better for the team? Brister had played well in relief of Elway and Plummer seemed to find a home in Denver before Shanahan fell in love with Cutler's arm. Mike would be fired after the 2008 season ...

Brian wolf wrote:Mike Shanahan wasnt afraid to gamble with rookie QBs like Griese and Cutler. The question is, would veterans Brister and Plummer had been better for the team? Brister had played well in relief of Elway and Plummer seemed to find a home in Denver before Shanahan fell in love with Cutler's arm. Mike would be fired after the 2008 season ...

I wonder if the team started to mail it in when Griese was given the starting job in 99 (they got off to an 0-4 start on the way to a 6-10 season). The next year, Gus Frerotte QB'ed several wins down the stretch to help lead Denver to an 11-5 record and a WC berth.

Then, in 2001, John Elway's father Jack (who was scouting with the team) tried to get the Broncos to take Drew Brees. However, he died a week before the draft, and Shanny took Willie Middlebrooks instead. Griese went on to have two average seasons as the Broncos missed the playoffs both years. Don't know what Mike ever saw in Griese.

Like Jon Gruden, Shanahan liked Griese's smarts and accuracy, yet despite beautiful throws, his arm wasnt the strongest and he was more aloof as a leader. What hurt Griese throughout his career was decision-making. He couldnt get rid of the ball quick enough and had bad pocket awareness, getting sacked way too often. Had he learned to get rid of the ball like Tom Brady, he could have had a much better career.