37 years ago today...

[74_75_78_79_]

FOG BOWL!

Yep!! The BIG deal of that day!

But there was another game later on. Just like Forrest Gregg's Bengals made it to a Super Bowl seven years earlier by beating a Chuck Knox team in the divisional round, this Wyche Bengals team did it en route to a SB as well. If two-point-conversions existed then, maybe this game would have had a bit more suspense in that 4th quarter but who knows?

And then you had the next day, that New Years Sunday! After the New Years Eve games, how many were thinking that San Fran would - indeed - be for real? Perhaps many were thinking of last year and that the 11-5 Vikes would top the 10-6 Forty Niners.

Thoughts after those two 'Eve' games? Especially more on the more overlooked of the two, the Sea@Cin game?


Happy New Year! And thank you all ONCE AGAIN for the knowledge!!

[Brian wolf]

That Fog Bowl was definitely a strange game. Cunningham was throwing pretty well except for the turnovers. At the time, I felt the Bears would beat the 49ers in Chicago, but I feel Montana played his best ever game against them.

Krieg led a good comeback but too little, too late against the Bengals.

[74_75_78_79_]

It just occurred to me that this was Chuck Knox's very last ever playoff game! And for some reason I either forgot or never knew in the first place that Curt Warner still played for the 'Hawks (and I also didn't know that he was a key-enough player for them in '86 - the 'Hawks campaign that many of you here respect quite a bit)!

Yeah, 'Fog Bowl' gets the monster's share of historic attention over that Sea@Cin divisional, but here's the thing...BOTH were 8-point wins! Could the latter, actually, have been a better game ('Fog'/historic-ness aside)??

[Brian wolf]

After discussing Rich Stadium today, it was also the Bills first ever playoff game in that stadium that weekend. They easily dispatched the Houston Oilers. They would go 16-3 in postseason games at Rich ... unless there is another game these 2025/26 playoffs?

[ChrisBabcock]

They would go 16-3 in postseason games at Rich

The 3 losses being 1996 vs. Jaguars, 2022 vs. Bengals and 2023 vs. Chiefs. Those years are seasons not calendar years of course.

[74_75_78_79_]

I don't exactly remember what I was thinking going into that weekend/divisional round. I was excited about the Eagles getting in as they did, concluding such an exciting roller-coaster season at Dallas as the Jets did them a favor against the Giants.

I vaguely remember thinking that Minny would win at Candlestick as they did the year before. That Roger Craig TD run, eyes bulging out his face mask a la Willie Brown SBXI/Mike Singletary, is the memory that always comes to mind when thinking of San Fran blasting the Vikings on that day.

Going into the CCGs a week later, I did think it'd be a SBXVI SF/Cincy rematch which turned out to be correct; and also thought SF would win. I just thought that Chi-town would at least have some chance to add another Lombardi to '85. Didn't think they'd get bludgeoned on their bitter night tundra home-field! Especially considering that they did beat SF during the regular season albeit early on before SF got it together in the end.

[Brian wolf]

The 49ers should have beaten the Bears on that MNF game earlier in the 1988 year but Walsh got too conservative with pass protections as the game went on. The CBS broadcast for that 49ers-Vikings playoff game was exciting because Madden was questioning whether the team could get revenge, play better in the postseason and have their best players step up after three straight playoff exits? The Vikings were just too nervous or flat, and the 49ers answered bigtime. Walsh wrote in his book that he thought it was one of the best team performances he ever witnessed.

[nicefellow31]

I was thinking that we were going to see a Super Shuffle Pt II since the Bears had home field advantage. Being a Redskins fan I didn't think the Eagles would win in Chicago . However you have to wonder what would have happened if there was no fog. Hearing the players talk about this game has always been fascinating to me.

[74_75_78_79_]

I was thinking that we were going to see a Super Shuffle Pt II since the Bears had home field advantage. Being a Redskins fan I didn't think the Eagles would win in Chicago . However you have to wonder what would have happened if there was no fog. Hearing the players talk about this game has always been fascinating to me.

Had the Bears actually won-it-all in '88, sure-enough that championship would be looked back upon in the same way as their 1946 title: good-enough to win the League Championship, respected as a true-champ, but nothing historically special; not at all '41 or '85.

Going into that post-season, the Eagles (who finished 9-3, swept Giants) were seen as a swagger-some bunch who were too young to know they were underdogs thus dangerous. Though I rooted for the Birds that very game at Soldier, I think Bears would have ended up winning anyway. Ditka had Buddy Ryan's # and Buddy simply wasn't that good a playoff HC in the end.

But a hypo-NFCCG match that year at Candlestick always intrigued me. Walsh and Buddy never HC'ed against each other (they were supposed to meet at Candlestick in Week #3 the year before but it, of course, got cancelled along with all the other Wk#3 games all never to be made-up). Would it have been like Wk#3 the following year (Seifert now at HC) or would San Fran have steamrolled over them as they did to Chicago? I lean to the former but we'll never know.

San Fran was simply clearly the best once those playoffs began along with, IMO, also having the best defense in the league - better than Minny's who, technically, were #1. Bears, Bengals, and Bills (each 12-4) were pretty much even-enough with me. San Fran was noticeably better than the three by then, but Bengals give them a game, I think, because of Wyche's familiarity with Walsh and that system.

Despite the Steelers being at a nadir along with the '70s clearly over with Dolphins/Raiders/Cowboys also struggling, '88 I think was a great season.