Redskins Trivia Time

What year was the infamous 'body bag' game at the Vet on MNF when we lost all of our QB and Mitchell had to play QB in the 4th quarter?

Brian mitchell i think it was 1997 or around there.

What year was the infamous 'body bag' game at the Vet on MNF when we lost all of our QB and Mitchell had to play QB in the 4th quarter?

That's exactly what I was thinking about. I think it was either 90 or 91. Something like that.

What year was the infamous 'body bag' game at the Vet on MNF when we lost all of our QB and Mitchell had to play QB in the 4th quarter?

Here's a great read about the body bag game and how it sparked the Skins (from the Washington Post Redskins History Book):

"Joe Gibbs was mad. Sputtering mad. Red-faced mad. Punch-the-wall mad. The subject was Philadelphia Eagles Coach Buddy Ryan, and the more Gibbs talked about him, the madder he got. The words came in angry bursts, as if Gibbs were ready to deck the questioner, as if he hoped that Ryan would feel the punch in Philadelphia.

"I live to play a game like this one," Gibbs said. "I live to play this guy."

It was the first week of 1991, and the Redskins were facing a playoff game against the Eagles. While the Redskins had missed the playoffs the two previous seasons, Gibbs had lost none of his magic, especially in motivating his team. To help get the Redskins ready for the Eagles, he had taunted his players, saying:

"If you lose this game, Buddy Ryan is going to call you a bunch of fat asses like he did last time. If you don't mind being called a bunch of fat asses, that's your business."

Now it was two days before kickoff. In the parking lot at Redskin Park, Gibbs' car was still covered with snow that had fallen four days earlier. He had arrived for work late Sunday night after a meaningless December 30 victory over Buffalo to end the regular season, had spent New Year's Eve there and still had not left. During a break in a late-night meeting with his coaches, he encountered a reporter he knew well, and he finally let loose with thoughts and emotions he had long been holding back from the public.

In fact, for three days Gibbs had stood grim-faced and silent as reporters peppered him with questions about Ryan and the Eagles.

That very day, Ryan had joked about how uptight Gibbs probably was, while he, Ryan, was loose and confident, knowing that he had a Super Bowl contender. Indeed, to help prepare for the Redskins, Ryan had taken his Eagles to Tampa, the site of Super Bowl XXVI, for a week of practice. "We plan to be back here," he said with a smile.

Yet when journalists pressed Gibbs to comment on Ryan, they got nothing. "Jump into the conversation at any point, Joe," one reporter joked. But Gibbs stood firm, arms folded across his chest, smiling a half-smile, simply talking about the challenge ahead.

Until that Wednesday night. Then the floodgates burst. Then the fury against Ryan poured out. Then it was clear that this would be more than a playoff game. Why? After all the big games the Redskins had played, why did this one take on such an extra dimension?

At Redskin Park, the answer was simple. Two months earlier, in a nationally televised Monday night game at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium, the Eagles had beaten the Redskins badly. They had knocked nine Redskins, including two quarterbacks, out of the game. Five Redskins had to be carried off the field. The final score, 28-14, scarcely reflected the severity of the whipping.

Worse than the defeat were the accompanying insults. As the game wore down, an Eagle reacted to one injured Redskin lying on the turf by yelling, "Do you guys need any more body bags?" Another time an Eagle shouted, "You guys are going to need an extra bus just to carry all the stretchers!"

After the game it was even worse. The Eagles publicly poked fun at the Redskins, with Eagles defensive tackle Jerome Brown telling reporters, "They acted like they didn't want to play us anymore."

At Redskin Park, that game became known as The Body Bag Game, and it would be hard to underestimate its effect on a proud team filled with veterans like Joe Jacoby, Jeff Bostic, Earnest Byner, Art Monk and others. That game became the chief rallying cry for a stunning three-year run.

When the Redskins filed off their bus outside the Vet for that playoff game on January 4, 1991, they were stone-faced and determined. Gibbs had injected a Notre Dame-Miami hatred into them — and on the Redskins' first play from scrimmage, he was amazed by what he saw.

"The line of scrimmage just exploded," Gibbs said later. "Our guys knocked Philadelphia about seven yards back. That's the kind of day it had been. In that situation, you either run and hide or you respond like a champion. Our guys responded like champions."

The Redskins, in fact, played their best game since routing Denver in Super Bowl XXII. Rypien earned his playoff spurs with two touchdown passes. Byner chalked up 126 total yards. The Redskins defense forced three turnovers. Best of all was the sweet revenge of the final score: Redskins 20, Eagles 6.

"People threw dirt on us all year," Monte Coleman said. "They didn't know we had shovels."

Surely Ryan and the Eagles had never dreamed that their words would awaken an entire organization. The Redskins would win 23 of their next 28 games. They would make three straight playoff appearances and win their first-round contest each time. The season after the Body Bag Game, they would rip through the NFL like few teams in history, winning their first 11 regular-season games and then rolling over the Buffalo Bills, 37-24, in Super Bowl XXVI.

If there had been no Buddy Ryan, would there still have been a victory in Super Bowl XXVI? That's impossible to say, since other factors also contributed to the Redskins' success. Art Monk, for example, had surprised everybody in early December with his request for a players-only meeting in which he made the rare, put-up-or-shut-up plea that moved many teammates (see profile on Page 167). But great coaches, including Gibbs, have always said that great teams have an indefinable magic. "Somewhere a team finds a spark," Gibbs said. The Redskins of 1991 — with a little help from Joe Gibbs — found their main spark in Buddy Ryan."

Thats a great article. Thanks for posting that.

That was great CrazyC. I always hated Buddy Ryan.

B Mitchell

I would have guessed Mitchell too,that was pretty easy,guessing the game was harder,but I have the body bag game and the dallas game on tape,I should go watch them,better then what i'm seeing now