I remeber at all his press conferences after the game he used to always comment about how hard his team played by saying..."These guys are studs"!, "We Just didn't get it done". It was the same line week after week. I also remember that he had to wear a different color shirt then the rest of the staff on the sideline because the players could not see him. Also his daughter always used to hold the wires to his headset, and he would tell her to go away when he was going to curse at the players.
The details after we left were a bit sketchy. I mostly remember my best friend (Broncos fan) complaining to me about how his team would have killed us. I think what it was, if we had beaten Houston, then we would have gone to Denver the next week as the lowest seed advancing. But thanks for clearing up the holes in my head. :up:
Thomas sure had a nice warm fur coat for when he stood on the sideline when he was hurt, which was often. TBTF
"I think Coslet might have been over his head coaching from the sidelines. he used to do some headscratching stuff. Who opens a playoff game with a flea flicker?" I think Al groh did in 2000 with vinny vs the ravens. I think we scored two touchdowns right away then got crushed. I believe it was the last game of the season vs. the ravens, or it was the next game vs. the ravens in the wild card. I don't even remeber, but I do remember the flea flicker.
The flea flicker wasnt the first play -- but it was early on in the game and was wide open. I couldnt believe that we were beating them -- and then it came crashing down in a hurry. It was the last game of the season. They needed one win in the last three to make the playoffs. They played the Raiders, Lions and Ravens. We all had the Lions circled b/c the Raiders and Ravens were very good (played in the AFC Championship game actually). The Lions were actually decent -- but Hall missed an easy one to tie the game. I recall that it wasnt even close. (I think that game was in bad weather. Earlier that season i went to jets/bears which was played in an absolute monsoon. Terrible game although we won).
That's interesting. Where did you hear this? And how specifically did Coslet ruin his career? I always wondered what happened to McMillan. He started out so promising with Pro Bowl appearances and then fell off the planet.
1991 playoff seeds: 1-Buf 2-Den 3-Hou 4-KC 5-LA 6-NYJ 1 & 2 had byes, 3 played 6 and 4 played 5. The only team the Jets could have played in the div rd was Buf, the only team hou could have played was Den. McMillan was an overrated player early in his career. yeah he had alot of picks but he got beat alot more, Coslet immediately yanked him from the starting lineup(I think Travis Curtis took his place) and Erik was never a starter again.
McMillian was a great center field type, but garbage in run support. I think he was bitching that the staff made him play away from his strengths. There was also some acrimony when he finished up his MBA or something at Hofstra and they were taking pictures of him on the practice field in his cap and gown, he was miffed Coslet didn't come over to congratulate him. I think he followed Mickey Shuler and Kenny O'Brien to the Eagles.
IIRC, McMillan didn't like that Coslet made him a kick returner and took away his starting job at safety. Dierking and Nyjunc have the rest covered. I honestly can't remember where I heard that stuff, but I'm guessing it was a newspaper article. TBTF
Yep. Pete Carroll's defense called for run support from safeties, and hitting was not McMillan's forte. Ballhawking was. He didn't help his cause any in 1990 when he tried to lateral an INT (of Jeff George of the Colts) and ended up giving the ball back...
Coslet was a good football mind, but hubris was his downfall. The Jets tended to be well prepared for the good teams, but they always fell a bit short. They also played down to the level of the bad teams. Someone hit it on the head when they said he must have the record for the most 4th quarter collapses in history, as those Jets were good for at least 4 a year. His teams also had no killer instinct, poor special teams play and were known for cheap chop blocking. Also Coslet sometimes came off as a classless jerk. But if you look at the talent he had, you wouldn?t have expected him to do better. Bottom line, he wasn't the worst coach ever (he was certainly better than Edwards, Walton, Carroll and Kotite), but he was no Parcells. I did want to add some corrections from what previous posters have said The Jets actually had a strong running game under Coslet - they finished 4th, 5th, 12th and 9th in total rushing yardage the 4 years he was there. It's true that they didn't have a big name workhorse back, but you don't really need that if you cycle in fresh legs throughout a game. In '90, the defense was too horrible to have expected more from that team. They did as well as they could have. McMillan had a down year and before the next season, the Jets traded a low round pick to the Cardinals for Lonnie Young. He started over McMillan in '91 and '92 and was a pretty good player. In '91, the Jets lost at least 3 games because of missed FGs from under 30 yards (CHI, IND, NE). They played well in the WC game, and they got 0 pts despite being in the Houston red zone 3 times in the second half - however, it's tough to blame Coslet as the first failure came on a questionable 3rd down INT at the 1 yard line. The second came on a failure to convert 3rd and 1 and then 4th and 1 from the 4. The last came on a 4 and out from around the H 20 after the Jets got a fumble recovery. In hindsight, you'd love to kick the 3 FGs for the win but at the time, Coslet did nothing extraordinarily stupid. In '92, O'Brien didn't exactly hold out - he was up for a new contract and free agency didn't begin until the next season. The Jets made him a super lowball offer because Coslet loathed him and wanted to do everything possible to make Nagle the starter. While he played better than Nagle that season, he only led the Jets to one win (MIA). Nagle started the other 3 wins (BUF, CIN, NE) - he just had very little to do with the fact that the Jets won those games. While the Jets had their share of bad luck this year (Byrd injury, Toon retirement, Lageman missed the whole season), Coslet made some dubious coaches moves and the jets were blown out of a lot games. In '93 they blew 3 games (PHI, LA and BUF), and in the first two, they knocked out the starting QB in the first half and the backup came in and whipped them, perhaps a sign of poor adjustments from the coaching staff. While people like to bring up that there were a couple bad weather games at the end of that season, but you can't blame that for the collapse. The final game against Houston was inside and that was by far their worst performance. The bottom line is that they scored more than 14 pts in only 3 of their last 11 games. It wasn?t as good as an offensive team as it showed in the first couple of games. Dick Steinberg demanded Coslet hire an offensive coordinator (he was the OC himself the entire 4 years). Coslet refused, was fired and Carroll was promoted to HC. Would Coslet have done better with the ?94 team? Doubtful ? the ?94 team was a really old (art monk!) and slow (Johnny Johnson) offensive team. The defense wasn?t bad but with the best of coaching, that team was 9-7.
Ah I'm not a fan of pete carroll, but I would have to say they really didn't give him a chance to succeed. They fired him right away, as oppossed to kotite. Go figure, Pete didn't have much more luck with the patriots either.
Wonderful post. Brings back all the bittersweet memories. Two things I'll contest you on: 1. Coslet called Steinberg's claim that Coslet refused to hire an OC "a bold-faced lie." Coslet said that he was ready to do so but Steinberg told him he was fired anyway. Coslet stormed out and didn't let Steinberg explain the reasons. Whatever the reason was, Steinberg took it with him to the grave. My reference for this was Eskenazi's book. 2. The failure of 1994's offense was due to a bad OC (Ray Sherman) trynig to install the West Coast offence on ill-fitting personnel. And the defense lost its great coordinator as well, since he had another job to do. Having said that, while I think the hypothetical '94 Jets with Coslet at the helm would have made the playoffs as a wild card, I certainly don't think they would have been of Super Bowl quality. Maybe 10-6 instead of your 9-7.
Great post. We also lost the Chicago MNF game in 91 because the "Blair Thomas Fumble." I'll never forget that play as long as I live. Thomas ran great that night, but in the 4th quarter he came through a hole, began to stumble, and fumbled the ball. The game culminated with that missed chip shot FG. An account of that ugly night is here:http://www.bearshistory.com/seasons/1991chicagobears.aspx Despite a 28 completion, 303 yard performance by Jim Harbaugh, and nine-catches by the clutch Tom Waddle, the Bears trailed the Jets, 13-6 with less than a minute left. As was beginning to be common in 1991, Chicago couldn't maintain a solid running game. Fullback Brad Muster had left the game early after re-aggrevating his hamstring injury. So New York settled in to run out the clock. Steve McMichael had different plans. He stripped Blair Thomas of the ball, and Chicago had the ball back in their own territory. Several plays later, Harbaugh, Waddle, Davis, and Anderson had the team 3rd down and inches from the Jets' one yard line. The QB attempted a sneak from the shotgun formation, and was stuffed just short of the goal line. With time for one final play on fourth down, Harbaugh rifled a pass in the flat to Neal Anderson....TOUCHDOWN! as time expired. The game went into overtime, and New York drove down the field to attempt an easy, game winning field goal. Not much of the crowd had left, despite the situation looking grim. In another freak twist of fate, the Jets blew the field goal attempt. Fate gave Chicago one more shot, as time was winding down in the extra period. Several passes later, Harbaugh hit tight end Cap Boso on a rollout, Boso was driven over the goal line, popping up with a face full of sod. The Bears had one the game, and they headed into the locker room full of jubilation....or so they thought. The officials ruled Boso down at the one-yard line, and the players were called out of the locker room to get back on the field. Finally, Jim Harbaugh scored on a sneak, and the Bears had won a game they shouldn't have by the score of 19-13. The team was 4-0. TBTF
I remember waking up the next morning after that game and my father laughing at me over toast when he told me they blew it.
Thomas did run great that night. I've always believed that the fumble from that game really affected him and he was never really the same again. Not sure anyone agrees with me, but that's what I thought.
