Parcells mentioning the 89 playoff loss to the Rams as his poorest job is interesting because in 1988 with both teams having virtually the same personnel, the Rams routed the Giants in NY/NJ...28-3 in the 1st half with the Giants scoring a late garbage TD to make the final 45-31. Jim Everett threw 5 TDs. In 1989, the Giants lost twice to the Eagles in the regular season, and the Rams had defeated Philly 21-7 in the WC round. So I don't really view the Rams win over NY as an 'upset'.JohnH19 wrote:Parcells admitted he did a poor job in the game against the Rams but how do we know that the HC did a poor job in the games you listed? They're all routs or upsets but who is to blame for those results? For example; Fouts threw five picks against the Oilers. How much blame does Coryell deserve?
Curious to know why you mentioned Lombardi in the playoff win over the Colts. The Packers dominated most of the game but couldn't finish their drives. Zeke Bratkowski played essentially the whole game in place of Bart Starr and he played fairly well going 22-39 for 248 IIRC. Tom Matte didn't have a productive game at QB for the Colts as their only TD came on a Don Shinnick fumble return on the play that Bart was injured. I think Lombardi's poorest big game was the loss to the Eagles in the 1960 championship game.
As for Lombardi, I thought it was gutsy of him to let Bratkowski throw 40 passes. Not sure if many other coaches would have done that, even with Baltimore stonewalling the Packers running game. Your QB gets knocked out early in a playoff game on a fumble return TD that puts you in a 7-0 hole, and you go on to win the game....how is that a bad coaching performance?