The Dream Was Alive in the 1991 Redskins Super Bowl, Part 1

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January 26, 2018

by Chris Larry

As a proud, card-carrying member of Generation X, the 1990’s were a rich era. Sure many of you are rolling your eyes and clucking your tongues, go ahead, mock. If you use the metrics of the decade’s popular culture by its music (which is basically my only metric) then the 1990’s are sneaky good. Rubes will throw out boy bands and other pop dreck (quickly give me a decade that doesn’t have that, teenage girls are a renewable resource after all) against my argument but that looks past Nirvana, Hip-Hop’s ascendancy and entire regional scenes going mainstream. I am such a 90’s fan boy that I was excited by the non-comedic possibilities of the Portlandia sketch The Dream of the 90’s is Alive in Portland and almost uprooted my family to move there…

 

 

So I am clearly sick in the head and have probably alienated most of you already, but WAIT. The common thread that can bind all of our 90’s nostalgia together is the 1991 Super Bowl Champion Washington Redskins. We had no idea then that this was a high water mark for the franchise that we may never sniff again. Back in those long gone days we thought we were on an everlasting plateau of beatific dominance. But alas we gather to celebrate and remember the past, not the future, so join me around the warm comments campfire and revisit this legendary team’s postseason steamroll toward Super Bowl XXVI.

Here is how this is going to roll: this post will look at their NFC Championship run, and next week we will look at the Super Bowl. I would love to get your rewarmed takes on that Super Bowl game, so load them up for me in the comments and I will work them in for next week’s post.

There isn’t much that needs to say about the team’s regular season other than that they were dominant. They lost one legitimate game (to an on the rise Cowpukes…gross) with their second loss coming in a ‘sit the vets’ finale against the Buffalo Bills (more on these clowns next week). They outscored their opponents by a greater margin (261) then then points they allowed (224). There are so many more eye-popping stats that show just how much ass they kicked you can just read their Wikipedia page yourself so I don’t have to copy and paste it for you (but wowsers, +18 in turnover differential, only 9 sacks allowed and 5 D/ST touchdowns)

Three reasons make this a special team:

  • They bridged the 80’s teams but had lots of new energy. The Hogs were there of course but gone were Doug Williams, John Riggins and Dave Butz. George Starke wasn’t walking through that door. Instead names like Ricky Ervins, Mark Rypien, Jim Lachey and Martin Mayhew had stepped in and the team was experiencing a mini-youth movement
  • Everyone knows what this team did through the air. Oh right, many of you were still being bottle fed at this time, so let me tell you this: Mark Rypien had 28 TDs and only 11 picks while completing almost 60% of his passes for 3564 yards. And kids, this was when they actually let defensive backs play football. But people always forget how well they ran the ball. The three headed beast of Earnest Byner (listen to The Hog Sty’s interview with Earnest here: http://www.thehogsty.com/2017/10/26/earnest-byner/), Gerald Riggs and Ricky Ervin combined for 1976 yards and 19 touchdowns. Oh yeah, add in 489 receiving yards and TD just for spice. This diverse ground attack proved huge in postseason.
  • They were a T-E-A-M. Not only in how mechanically they excelled at every aspect of the game but how they comported themselves and broadcast a cohesion that is almost unthinkable in today’s society, let alone sports culture. They are always in any short listed conversation of “greatest SB team” and “greatest seasons”

NFC Division Round: Washington Redskins vs the Atlanta Falcons January 4th, 1992. Final score 24-7.

I really don’t think this would have mattered, but it has to be said, the Skins had one of the easier paths to a Super Bowl this side of the 2017 New England Patriots. First up was the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons were led by the decent but unmemorable QB Chris Miller. Their biggest star was Andre Rison (i.e. Andre “Bad Moon” Rison) and they had headline grabbing Jerry Glanville at coach. Washington had actually beaten Atlanta in Week 11 to the tune of 56-17. The Falcons posed no threat to the juggernaut that was this Skins team. This game was never close and the score doesn’t reflect the beat down. This game was a classic example of how efficient the ’91 Redskins were against almost all opponents that year. Remember that ground attack that always seemed like an afterthought to the air game with this team? The 3 headed beast combined for 168 yards and 3 TDs. This game does provide a great memory to bring a tear to our oldster’s eye – 55,181 crazed fans at RFK tossing their giveaway seat cushions into the air with exuberance as Riggs iced the game with a signature goal line battering ram TD. Let’s relive this moment shall we:


NFC Division Round: Washington Redskins vs the Detroit Lions January 12th, 1992. Final score 41-10.

All legendary teams need to catch a few bits of luck on their runs to glory. And here my friends is where Gibbs’ team got their biggest one. The young Cowboy triplets (gag) led by that crooked college coach Jimmy Johnson were the only real threat to the Skins that season. They were the sole team to legitimately beat them all year. Of course history shows us they would go on to soil the rest of the 90’s with a run of their own, but that is an unsavory tale. And yet in the playoffs that year they somehow lost to the Lions by a jaw-dropping score of 38-6! Erik Kramer, our hats off to you. Wayne Fontes is a genius. Barry Sanders, well you are Barry Sanders. This set-up an NFC Championship game of a re-match of the season’s opening day meeting. Which the Skins won 45 to zippy. Detroit gave up 85 points and 737 total yards in its season opening and closing games to Rypien and the offense that season. This wasn’t a game; it was a clinic with the Skins turning a modest 7-0 lead at halftime into that sc ore you read above. I know I have gone out of my way to not talk about how insane in the membrane the passing game was, so let me highlight The Posse’s day: 183 yards and 2 TDs. And let’s call out my man Terry Orr who piled on another 45 yards from the H-Back role.  This game even featured a hapless and desperate Andre Ware throwing a pick-6 to Darrell Green! So all great teams get breaks (or all the breaks *cough* Patriots) but it’s what you do with them that matters, and the Skins rewarded the Lions for doing their dirty work for them with another humiliating drubbing.

Next Up: We ride the Bandwagon into Minneapolis, Minnesota for Super Bowl XXVI.

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