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It’s always included in NFL Films’ lists of the greatest games of all time, and rightfully so. With the Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers meeting this week on the league schedule, we’ll feature this game, known as the “Epic In Miami”, as our Throwback Thursday game of the week. Classic games are always more memorable when they occur in the playoffs, and this game was an AFC Divisional round clash played on January 2, 1982 in Miami’s Orange Bowl. The Dolphins, under coach Don Shula, were perennially one of the NFL’s best teams, and on this day they met up with the Chargers, who were at the pinnacle of their high-powered offensive era under coach Don Coryell. With quarterback Dan Fouts engineering the attack, the Chargers’ offense was nicknamed “Air Coryell” for its’ proficiency in the passing game. San Diego, behind Fouts’ passing and a couple of big plays from wide receiver Wes Chandler, jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first quarter, and it appeared the game was going to turn into a blowout. As the second quarter began, Shula made the strategic decision to bench his starting QB, David Woodley, in favor of Don Strock, and the Fish rallied back to pull within 24-17 at halftime, scoring on a “hook and lateral” play at the end of the half. Miami came back to tie the game in the third quarter, but the Chargers continued to put together scoring drives, with their star tight end, Kellen Winslow, having an individual game for the ages. He caught an NFL playoff record 13 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown and blocked a potential game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter, playing through various injuries in addition to being treated for severe cramps and dehydration. He also suffered a pinched nerve in his shoulder and a gash in his lower lip that required three stitches.

A game this great needed to last longer than the standard 60 minutes, and indeed it did, as the two AFC rivals battled to a 38-38 tie through regulation. Both club’s offenses strung together drives deep into enemy territory in overtime, with both kickers, Miami’s Uve Von Schamann and San Diego’s Rolf Benirschke, missing chip shot field goals. Aided by a couple of big passes to Charlie Joiner, Fouts then drove his club into field goal range again, and given another chance, Benirschke made good on his mulligan, giving the Chargers a 41-38 win to advance to the AFC Championship game the following week in Cincinnati.

An exhausted Kellen Winslow is helped into the locker room after the “Epic In Miami”

A short while ago, we featured the 1966 American Football League championship game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs as a Throwback Thursday post – a game that decided which AFL team would represent the league in the very first Super Bowl. This week, we’ll remember the same season’s title game for the NFL, played between two clubs who meet on this week’s schedule, the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers. The most famous game played between these two teams was the championship game played the following year, forever known as the “Ice Bowl”. Since we featured that game already in the past, we’ll go with this game instead. which was just as exciting and had as much drama as that “Ice Bowl” contest.

This game pitted two head coaches who had worked together as assistants in the 1950s with the New York Giants, Green Bay’s Vince Lombardi and Dallas’ Tom Landry. They would both go on to become NFL coaching legends, but were at different stages of their success at this point. Lombardi’s Packers had already appeared in 4 championship games, winning 3 of them, while Landry, who had taken over an expansion team in 1960, was just beginning to enjoy the fruits of his labor, this being the Cowboys’ first postseason venture. The Cowboys’ inexperience showed up early in the game, as Green Bay drove for an early touchdown using misdirection runs by Elijah Pitts to churn out yardage. Lombardi had figured Landry would have his team prepared to stop the vaunted Packer power sweep, so he installed those misdirection runs playing off of fake sweep plays. Bart Starr finished the drive by tossing a 17 yard scoring throw to Pitts, and when a jittery Dallas club fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the Packers’ Jim Grabowski scooped it up and ran it in for another score to up Green Bay’s lead to 14-0. It looked like the defending champions were going to coast to victory after they took advantage of Dallas’ early nervousness, but to their credit the Cowboys settled down and put together a pair of scoring drives to tie the game. The clubs traded scores after that but Starr fired three TD passes to three different receivers, while the Cowboys settled for field goals, so the Pack widened their lead to 34-20. Dallas QB Don Meredith rallied his troops to stay in the game, however. With his top target, Bob Hayes, being blanketed all day by Green Bay’s defense (he had 1 catch for 1 yard), Meredith hooked up with his other top flight receiver, Frank Clarke, on a 68 yard touchdown pass to pull the Cowboys to within 34-27. When the Cowboy defense held late in the game and got the ball back, Meredith again led a drive which reached the Packer 2 yard line with a chance to tie the game. They failed to score on consecutive plays until it was fourth down, giving them one last chance at the tying touchdown. Meredith rolled out and Packer linebacker Dave Robinson, who was supposed to drop into coverage, rushed Meredith instead and harassed him into a hurried throw into the end zone that Tom Brown intercepted to seal Green Bay’s win. In typical Lombardi style, after the game he congratulated Robinson for the play, then criticized him for being out of position. Green Bay went on to defeat Kansas City in the first Super Bowl, then called the AFL-NFL Championship game, 35-10, following the victory over Dallas.

Dave Robinson pursues Dallas QB Don Meredith