Originally posted by captveg:
You know what I've never heard once? A complaint that Mike Holmgren choked and didn't get his offense to put up more than 13 points in the 1990 NFC Championship Game. He had Montana for 90% of the game and one of the best offenses of all time. Why doesn't anyone blame him?
The answer is because everyone could zero in on one play from Craig.
The reality is that the entire offense under performed that day and were out performed by a great Giants defense. It happens, even to great teams, great players and great coaches.
The biggest issue with Craig wasn't the fumble, but his injured state led to reduced performance where otherwise the Niners probably win that game slightly comfortably.
It was similar in ways to how ineffective Todd Gurley was in the Rams SB vs the Patriots, where all year he was dominant.
The Niners defense was better than the offense that year. It wasn't quite like the Harbaugh era disparity, but for sure it wasn't close to the offensive production we were seeing in late '88 to '89.
The Giants defense was great and the team super locked in. In those days, when you won a Super Bowl, it was super hard to get back (which is why '88-'89 back to back is SPECIAL). Losing teams took it hard, and fought hard to get back the next year and usually advanced while the winner faltered. From like '83-'87 you had runner ups advancing to the next level in succeeding postseason. The Niners attempting to 3peat (and almost making that 3rd consecutive SB) was pretty insane to begin with, and it's frustrating how people take it for granted like it was a sure thing.
It was meant for the Giants to win that day, I've accepted it. Maybe one day I can accept 2011, but for years 1990 was darkkkkkkkkk, LOL...
Now the $64,000 question nobody ever wants to discuss is, are we sure the Niners would've beaten the Bills in the SB without Montana?
Could they have game planned the defense as well as the Giants' did to limit their scoring.
People assume because the Bills went 0-4, the Niners would've beat them, but it was only one week of prep and Young wasn't the Young of '92+ at that point either....and remember the Niners did lose to the Bills in that no punt game early '93 season (I think it was '93) at Candlestick...
Given the a*****e teams we've lost SBs too, I probably would've been ok with SF losing to Buffalo if that happened, but crazy stuff....
[ Edited by JTsBiggestFan on Jun 13, 2024 at 9:54 AM ]