That win over the Pats was one of the craziest games I remember seeing. Marino threw a pick 6 on the first play and came out of the game with the neck issue. Huard comes in on the next drive and throws a pick 6. Somehow, they got the W. I had to look up the box score, because the name "Stanley Pritchett" eluded me and it was driving me crazy. 6 Mare field goals... http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199910170nwe.htm As for games vs. Manning, I really enjoyed when Wanny ran Lamar Smith into the ground in the Wild Card and got the W. I have blanked on what happened the following week, of course.
That Colts game the week before was also highly exciting. I can still visualize in my mind, the exact instance where IMO Marino took the hit that resulted in the pinched nerve that effected his arm the next week. At the time it happened he was able to keep playing, but I think the area around the injury tightened up in the week between the games. After taking the shot where he got injured, a play or two later he completed a 48 yd pass on 4th and 10, to Gadsden. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199910100clt.htm
Some of it was. But, for the most part we played a very vanilla D and Bates was a mediocre coordinator (that's why he's still not a star DC). By the end of the year, the better coached teams would figure out where the weak links were and exploit them. We lined up in a 4-3 and said, "this is what we do, this is our coverage, and see if you can beat us." Just not quite strong enough to do that and Bates just did not mix things up well enough toward the end of the year. We did have a number of very good players.
