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On this week’s NFL schedule, two AFC teams fighting to qualify for the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts, are slated to meet. This week’s Throwback Thursday post will highlight a playoff game played between them, the 1995 AFC Championship game. It was played on January 14, 1996 in Pittsburgh’s old Three Rivers Stadium. The game was expected to be somewhat of a mismatch, with the Steelers, considered a strong Super Bowl contender under coach Bill Cowher, a heavy favorite over the Colts, who snuck into the playoffs as a wild card with an underwhelming 9-7 record. Ted Marchibroda, who had some success as the franchise’s head coach when they were still located in Baltimore in the 1970s, had returned to lead the Colts after a successful stint as offensive coordinator in Buffalo, helping the Bills reach multiple Super Bowls. Neither team had what would be considered a “franchise” quarterback, with Neil O’Donnell manning the position for the Steelers, while the Colts rallied behind veteran warrior Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh had earned the nickname “Captain Comeback” for leading the Colts to a few surprising come-from-behind victories in the regular season. Their wild card status meant the Colts would have to take the hard road of playing on the road in all playoff games for as long as they could stay alive, and they managed to pull off a pair of incredible wins, first defeating the defending AFC champion San Diego Chargers, then shocking the top seeded Kansas City Chiefs, 10-7, in as hard of a place to win as there is in the NFL, Arrowhead Stadium.

Meanwhile, the Steelers rolled over Buffalo 40-21 in the divisional round to advance directly into the title contest. Kansas City’s loss gave Pittsburgh the additional advantage of playing the game at home. Pittsburgh’s versatile weapon, Kordell Stewart, a former college QB who played multiple positions and was nicknamed Slash (because he was technically a halfback/quarterback/receiver) made some big plays to convert third downs and keep a drive alive which saw his club score on a 5 yard TD throw to Stewart from O’Donnell. Otherwise the teams traded field goals as the Steelers took a 13-9 lead. Early in the final quarter, Harbaugh connected with Floyd Turner on a 47 yard scoring throw and once again, it looked like Captain Comeback was leading his team to another surprising win. The Steelers weren’t going down easily, however, and O’Donnell led them on a 67 yard drive, capped by a one yard touchdown run by Bam Morris, to put Pittsburgh back on top 20-16 with a minute and a half left. Harbaugh would now have one more chance for a miracle comeback, and he proceeded to put together an impressive drive that reached the Pittsburgh 29 yard line with 5 seconds left. Needing a touchdown to win, Harbaugh launched a high, lofting “Hail Mary” pass into the end zone into a crowd of players from both clubs. The ball eventually landed in the chest of Colt receiver Aaron Bailey, but he couldn’t hold on and the Steelers secured the win by the narrowest of margins.

The ensuing Super Bowl proved to be too big of a stage for O’Donnell, who threw a pair of interceptions to the game’s MVP, Dallas cornerback Larry Brown, helping Dallas win their third Super Bowl title of the decade.

Colts’ last second Hail Mary falls short

Two old American Football League rivals, the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, play on the NFL’s schedule this weekend, and this week’s Throwback Thursday feature will travel back in time to 1967, when these two clubs met to decide not only the AFL championship for the 1966 season, but also who would represent the upstart league in the very first AFL-NFL Championship game, which of course, was the very first Super Bowl. The game was originally scheduled for December 26th, the day after Christmas, but when merger talks between the two leagues were completed, the new title game was created and this matchup was moved to New Year’s Day.

The Chiefs, under coach Hank Stram, were a powerhouse AFL team that year, blending a creative offensive attack with a menacing defense to post an 11-2-1 record, dominating the Western Division. Stram was a true innovator, from his team’s use of their unique “choir huddle” to their use of different formations and motion to confuse opposing defenses.  The Bills were two-time defending AFL champs and a league dynasty at the time, but the ’66 season had been a bit of a struggle. Lou Saban, who coached the Bills to their consecutive titles, left abruptly following the previous season in a dispute with owner Ralph Wilson, and his top assistant, Joel Collier, took over as head man. Collier did a decent job of keeping the Bills afloat even though they were decimated by injuries to the defense, while quarterback Jack Kemp was getting up in years. Also, even though he’s widely considered one of the top defensive minds in pro football history, Collier was a bit in over his head as a head coach. The media’s feelings about this game showed up in the fact that even though Buffalo was a two-time defending champ and the game was being played in their home stadium, they were three point underdogs.

There was an omen of sorts for the Bills on the game’s first play, as they fumbled the opening kickoff, which the Chiefs recovered, setting up a touchdown pass from K.C.’s veteran QB, Len Dawson, to tight end Fred Arbanas. The Bills, trying valiantly to play like defending champs, countered with a 69 yard touchdown throw from Kemp to Elbert “Golden Wheels” Dubenion, to tie the score. However, that would be the Bills’ only shining moment in this game. They turned the ball over three more times and the Chiefs’ offense made them pay, riding the passing of Dawson and the running of Mike Garrett, who scored a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns, to an easy 31-7 win. The Bills were clearly a team in decline, starting to show signs of age, and their fortunes dipped considerably in the years to follow. The Chiefs were just getting started. Although they lost to Green Bay in that first Super Bowl, they remained an AFL power the rest of the decade and a few years later stunned the Minnesota Vikings to win their first (and only) Super Bowl.

 QB Len Dawson calls the play in the Chiefs’ unique “Choir Huddle”

The Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins meet on this week’s NFL schedule, and we’ll feature a game played in the past between these two teams for this week’s Throwback Thursday post. We’ve featured a lot of past Super Bowl games this year as throwback games with Super Bowl 50 approaching, and the Cowboys and Dolphins once played in one. However, with Thanksgiving coming up soon, let’s go back to a Turkey Day clash played between the two in Dallas, in an unexpected snow storm, that saw a Dallas player, defensive lineman Leon Lett, commit a major gaffe that cost his team the game.

The game was played on Thanksgiving Day in 1993, with both teams fighting for playoff spots. Miami was 8-2 entering the game and leading the AFC East, while the Cowboys had a 7-3 mark. The city of Dallas was hit with the rare snow storm, which also included sleet and made for slippery playing conditions for the game. The Cowboys, behind a pair of touchdowns from Kevin Williams, one on a punt return and another on a pass from Troy Aikman, led 14-7 at halftime. Miami’s offense struggled, not only because of the field conditions, but also because their star quarterback, Dan Marino, was sidelined with an Achilles tendon injury, leaving aging veteran Steve DeBerg to guide them. They managed only a pair of Pete Stoyanovich field goals and trailed 14-13 when DeBerg, who had thrown 2 interceptions in the game, led them on a drive to set up another field goal attempt by Stoyanovich. It was a 41 yard attempt to take the lead but the kick was blocked. That’s when Lett stepped in to help Miami’s cause. While most of his Cowboy teammates began celebrating, Lett attempted to recover the ball. He slipped on the ice as he tried to pick up the football, and Miami recovered on the Dallas one-yard line. Had Lett simply done nothing, the Cowboys would have automatically received possession and could have run out the clock. By touching the ball and then failing to hold onto it, Lett enabled the Dolphins to take possession and then try another field goal with three seconds left on the clock. Given another chance, Stoyanovich’s second attempt was good, giving the Dolphins a 16–14 victory as time expired.

Oddly, both teams’ fortunes changed dramatically after this epic contest. Dallas won all their remaining games on their way to a Super Bowl title, while Miami never won another game the rest of the season.

Leon Lett kicks some snow after his Thanksgiving Day blunder

Super Bowl matchups of the past have been highlighted in some of this year’s Throwback Thursday posts, and this week’s will feature one of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl history, the 2008 matchup between the undefeated New England Patriots and the New York Giants. The two franchises play each other on this week’s NFL schedule, with the Giants having another shot at ruining what so far has been a perfect season for the Pats.

But, lest we regress, back to that 2008 Super Bowl meeting. It was Super Bowl XLII, the climax to the 2007 season. The Giants had beaten the Patriots three years earlier in the big game, but this time, circumstances were different. New England, on a league-wide revenge tour after they were accused of cheating by taping opponents’ signals during games, had bulldozed their way through the regular season with a perfect 16-0 record, the first team to finish the regular year unbeaten since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The Giants were 10-6 in the regular year, but didn’t even win their division, the NFC East, and were attempting to become the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl. Coach Bill Belichick’s Patriots were installed as 12 point favorites, as they had accumulated some awesome offensive statistics during their unbeaten season. They set NFL records for most points scored in a season (589), most touchdowns by a quarterback (Tom Brady with 50) and most touchdowns receiving by a single player (23 by Randy Moss). Moss had been acquired from Oakland before the season after having his worst statistical season the prior year with the Raiders.

The Giants’ defense, however, did an outstanding job of pressuring Brady up the middle all game long, taking him out of his usual comfort zone, and for the most part controlled New England’s attack. Still, when Brady found Moss for a six yard scoring throw with a little under 3 minutes left to put the Pats ahead 14-10, it looked like the perfect 19-0 season was going to be a reality. The Giants then embarked on an 83 yard drive, highlighted by an amazing completion from Giant QB Eli Manning to David Tyree, with Manning barely escaping being sacked and firing the ball downfield to Tyree, who pinned the ball against his helmet with one hand while falling to the ground with the ball secured. When Manning found Plaxico Burress open in the end zone for a 13 yard score with 35 seconds left, the upset was complete. New York’s veteran star defensive end, Michael Strahan, was a big part of his team’s effort to pressure Brady during the game, and decided to go out on top as he retired following the game.

Prior to this game, the Buffalo Bills’ four consecutive losses in the big game was widely considered to be the biggest disappointment in NFL history, but New England’s falling one win short of a perfect record ranks right up there also.

David Tyree’s “helmet catch” helped the Giants clinch the Super Bowl upset

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders meet this week on the NFL schedule, and this week’s Throwback Thursday post will feature a game played from the past between these two old rivals. The most famous contest ever between these clubs was the “Immaculate Reception” game, but since we already featured that one last season, this year we’ll move a few years deeper into the 1970s and look at a game in which Steeler coach Chuck Noll, a pretty low-key guy and one of the all-time greats, became incensed at Oakland’s physical, and sometimes borderline dirty, style of play on defense. After a vicious hit on Pittsburgh receiver Lynn Swann by Raider safety George Atkinson, Noll complained that Oakland’s secondary, and their defense in general, were part of a “criminal element” in the league that needed to be dealt with.

Atkinson’s hit came in the opening game of the 1976 season. He leveled Swann with a forearm smash to the head on a play in which the ball wasn’t even thrown to him, leaving the future Hall of Fame Steeler receiver out with a concussion. The hit was bad enough, but the fact that Atkinson had done the same thing to Swann in the previous year’s AFC Championship game, also causing a concussion, led to Noll’s post-game reaction. This particular game, played on September 12, 1976, was a completely frustrating experience for Noll and the Steelers. The two clubs had evolved into bitter rivals as they had met in the two previous AFC title matches, with Pittsburgh winning both on their way to back-to-back Super Bowl wins. On this day, however, the Raiders extracted some revenge, not only with the Atkinson hit on Swann but by wiping out a 28-14 deficit and rallying to beat the vaunted Steelers 31-28.

The first half of the game was a defensive struggle, as expected between these two proud, hard-nosed defenses, while both clubs exploded in the second half, as 45 total points would be scored. Raider quarterback Ken “The Snake” Stabler led the furious Raider comeback by throwing for three scores (2 to Dave Casper and one to Fred Biletnikoff) and running for another, and also drove his team into position for kicker Fred Steinfort to boot the winning field goal. Stabler also threw 4 interceptions in the see-saw game, but kept his composure and led the comeback. The win was a huge boost for the Raider franchise, as they cruised through the ’76 season with only a single loss on their way to the first Super Bowl win in franchise history, finishing 16-1. Atkinson, who was a boy scout compared to his secondary teammate of that era, Jack “The Assassin” Tatum, wound up suing Noll for defamation of character for the “criminal element” comment, but lost the suit.

Bitter rivals in the 1970s, the Steelers and Raiders really didn’t like each other

This Thursday night, on this week’s NFL schedule, the Miami Dolphins take on the New England Patriots. We will feature a game from the past between these 2 franchises as this week’s Throwback Thursday game. It was played in 1972 – week nine of what was then a 14 game league season. The Dolphins didn’t know it yet, but they were more than halfway to their undefeated regular season at that point, entering the game with an 8-0 record. Veteran Earl Morrall had taken over for the injured Bob Griese at quarterback for the Fish, and despite being without a loss, Miami wasn’t necessarily dominating opponents in their wins. On this particular day, however, they certainly did, as they crushed the Pats, 52-0. It was the second of what would be three shutouts posted by their “No Name” defense on their way to a perfect 14-0 record for the year. They would then go on to win the Super Bowl to cap a perfect 17-0 mark.

The Dolphins normally played a grind-it-out style featuring their stifling defense and a pounding running game that would control the ball for long stretches of time, with fullback Larry Csonka and halfback Jim Kiick churning up yardage. On this particular day, however, it was Mercury Morris’ turn to shine. Morris was the third option of the three-headed monster that was Miami’s rushing attack of that era. He was the speed back, and in this game he sped for 90 yards on 16 carries and three touchdowns. Miami’s top pass receiver at the time (the few times they threw the ball) was future Hall of Famer Paul Warfield, but on this day it was Marlin Briscoe, a converted quarterback who was the number two pass catcher, who had the big day. He put up numbers that are routine in today’s Madden video game style of play, catching 4 passes for 128 yards and a pair of scores. The game got so far out of hand that the Dolphins’ backup QB, a little known entity named Jim Del Gaizo, got some action, throwing a pair of TD passes himself.

Miami’s tough defense forced the Patriots’ young signal caller, Jim Plunkett, into a frustrating day that saw him throw for only 66 yards, and two interceptions, before being yanked in favor of backup Brian Dowling, who didn’t fare much better. It was not a good time in Plunkett’s career. He had been a top overall draft pick and was on his way to becoming a major bust. Eventually he landed in San Francisco and didn’t have any success there either, but his story, unlike a lot of disappointing top draft choices, had a happy ending. He found a home with Al Davis’ Oakland Raiders and his career was rejuvenated, as he engineered a pair of Super Bowl titles for the Silver and Black in the 1980s, even winning the game’s MVP award in Super Bowl XV.

Dolphins’  QB Earl Morrall

On this week’s National Football League schedule, the St. Louis Rams take on the Cleveland Browns, and our Throwback Thursday feature harkens back to an NFL championship game that pre-dates the Super Bowl era, the 1950 title game between these two franchises. Played on Christmas Eve, the game featured a clash between the Rams, based in Los Angeles at the time and a league offensive juggernaut, and the Browns, who were a powerhouse in the old All America Football Conference and joined the NFL, along with the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts, for the 1950 season. The Rams, already a strong club, were made stronger when they added players from the defunct AAFC L.A. Dons. They averaged almost 39 points per game, and scored over 60 in two of their games, in racking up a 9-3 record to reach the title game, while the Browns went 10-2 but were underdogs in the game due to being the “new kids on the block” in the NFL.

Program from the 1950 NFL Championship, played on Christmas Eve

The Rams were loaded with offensive weapons – future Hall of Famers like Bob Waterfield, Norm Van Brocklin, Tom Fears and Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, plus others – Deacon Dan Towler, Tank Younger and former Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis, who had a short-lived NFL career but had his best season in 1950. The Browns, under owner/coach Paul Brown, were a force in the AAFC, winning the title in all 4 years of the league’s existence.  However, owners in the NFL considered them to be a decent team in what they considered an inferior league. Those feelings looked like they were correct when the Rams opened the game with an 82 yard touchdown throw from Waterfield to Davis, giving L.A. a 7-0 lead. Cleveland, however, stayed the course and kept the game close behind the play of their star quarterback, Otto Graham. He threw for 298 yards and 4 scores, compared to Waterfield, who wound up passing for 312 yards, but only one TD with 4 interceptions. The Browns’ defense proved to be ballhawks that day with the four picks, two of which were pilfered by Warren Lahr. As the game wound down, the Rams clung to a 28-27 lead, which they held only because the Browns had missed an extra point on one of their touchdowns. At this point, Graham led his team on a drive from his own 31 yard line, with 1:28 left, to set up a field goal attempt by Lou “The Toe” Groza, which he made to send the Browns on to a 30-28 win, securing the NFL championship in the team’s first year in the league. After the game, NFL commissioner Bert Bell called the Browns “the greatest team ever to play football”, now that they’d proven they could handle the old NFL’s best. The win was also of great satisfaction for the city of Cleveland, since the Rams had abandoned the town and moved to the west coast. Now their new (and better) team beat the Rams, the best the NFL had to offer.

Lou “The Toe” Groza kicks the winning field goal for Cleveland

The Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns meet on this week’s NFL schedule, and that matchup brings back memories of a contest between these two franchises that will be this week’s Thursday Throwback feature. It was a playoff game, the 1986 AFC Championship game, and was a game that was  a major contributor to the legacy of Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway. His Broncos were placed in an almost impossible position as the Browns had scored to take a 20-13 lead, then on the ensuing kickoff, Denver muffed the ball and wound up pinned at their own 2 yard line with about 5 minutes to play. So Elway was faced with the proposition of needing to drive his team 98 yards, almost the entire length of the field, on the road in the most hostile of environments – Cleveland’s Dawg Pound. Elway, who was a master of the two minute drill during his career, methodically drove his club downfield, mixing in short passes to his backs, Sammy Winder and Steve Sewell, a couple of scrambles for positive yardage, and a pair of completions to one of his favorite targets, wide receiver Mark Jackson. It was Jackson who hauled in the pass in the end zone to culminate “The Drive”, a five yard completion from Elway to tie the game with 37 seconds left, sending it into overtime.

The overtime session is mostly forgotten as Elway’s mastery on the game-tying drive immediately went into NFL folklore. In the extra period, Denver’s defense held the Browns on their first possession, and Denver took over for their first try. Elway was brilliant again, taking his club 60 yards to set up a game-winning field goal by Rich Karlis. A key play on the winning drive was a 28 yard completion from Elway to receiver Steve Watson on a third and 12 play. The loss was another chapter in Cleveland’s supposedly cursed professional sports history, and another chapter would be added the following year as the same two clubs would meet again for the right to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, this time with running back Earnest Byner being the goat by fumbling the ball as he attempted to cross the goal line for a go-ahead score. That game would go down in league history as “The Fumble”. To this day, the Browns’ last NFL championship was accomplished in 1964, and in the modern era, they are one of a small group of teams that has yet to qualify for a Super Bowl.

Denver QB John Elway engineers “The Drive” in 1986

This week’s Throwback Thursday featured game (the Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears meet this week) will be the first and most likely only one of it’s kind to be highlighted here – a preseason game. The preseason of 1967, however, was unique compared to any other season. It was the first year when established NFL teams played clubs from the upstart AFL after an agreed merger of the leagues took place. The first Super Bowl had taken place the previous year, and the NFL was pounding its’ collective chests after their representative in that game, the Green Bay Packers, had soundly beaten the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi poured a little salt in the AFL’s wounds after the game, claiming that although the Chiefs were a fine club, there were more than a handful of NFL teams who were better. The Chiefs were looking for some redemption and respect in ’67, and the first chance they had to get back at the cocky NFL came in a preseason contest against George Halas’ Chicago Bears. Preseason games today can barely even be considered legitimate NFL contests, as they are mostly used as glorified scrimmages to evaluate young players while all the star players rest up for the regular year. But in 1967, things were completely different. The fact that the AFL clubs were going to get a chance to show how well they matched up with the established league meant that these games, even though they were exhibitions and the results didn’t count, were very important. How important was this game to the Chiefs? Their quarterback, Len Dawson, had been battling a virus all week leading up to the contest, but climbed out of the sick bed to play and throw 4 touchdown passes as coach Hank Stram’s forces totally befuddled the Bears. Can anyone imagine a sick player playing in an exhibition game in today’s game? Kansas City pulled out all the stops, emptying out their playbook with all sorts of offensive formations and defensive shifts and blitzes to crush the proud NFL Bears. The final score was a whopping 66-24. After Dawson was finished with his aerial display, K.C.’s backup signal caller, Pete Beathard, came into the game and fired a fifth scoring pass. In all, Gloster Richardson and Otis Taylor caught a pair of TD passes each, while Chris Burford hauled in the fifth. Gale Sayers, Chicago’s star back who was the “Kansas Comet” in his college career, had a rough homecoming as he was held to a paltry 35 yards. The Bears’ lone positive moment came when Dick Gordon returned a kickoff 103 yards for a touchdown. Of course, with all the scoring the Chiefs did, their kickoff coverage teams were probably pretty tired. Despite the fact that the Chiefs had their triumphant moment in manhandling the Bears in this game, in the 16 exhibitions played between AFL and NFL clubs that season, the NFL dominated play overall, winning 13 of the games.

Chiefs’ coach Hank Stram plots strategy with his QB, Len Dawson

For the third time in the first four weeks of the young NFL season, the 50th Anniversary celebration season of the Super Bowl, our Throwback Thursday feature game is one that has a pair of clubs matching up on the schedule who previously faced each other in the big game. This week it’s the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills, who met in one of the most exciting Super Bowls ever played, Super Bowl XXV. The game was played under heightened security measures with our country engaged in the first Gulf War, and the atmosphere was a patriotic display of flags waving and a stirring rendition of the National Anthem before the game, provided by Whitney Houston.

Whitney Houston sings the Star Spangled Banner

The game featured the Bills and their high-powered “K-Gun” offense, which operated in a hurry-up mode, against coach Bill Parcells’ grind-it-out Giants, who fought their way into the game using a backup quarterback, Jeff Hostetler, and an offensive attack bent on slowing down the game, controlling the ball and minimizing the opponent’s possessions. The Giants had used that tactic to perfection in the NFC Championship game, stifling the high-powered San Francisco 49ers and QB Joe Montana on their way to a 15-13 win. The conservative offensive approach was teamed up with a tough, aggressive defense led by All Pro linebacker Lawrence Taylor. Parcells and defensive coordinator Bill Belichick employed the same tactics against the Bills, sometimes rushing only 2 players and dropping all the other defenders into coverage, daring the Bills to run rather than allowing Buffalo QB Jim Kelly to pick apart the secondary. That strategy allowed Bills’ running back Thurman Thomas to rush for 135 yards on 15 carries, a performance that surely would have won him the game’s Most Valuable Player Award if the Bills had managed to win. Unfortunately for him and the Bills, however, Parcels’ strategy worked, as the Giants controlled the ball for 40 of the game’s 60 minutes, keeping the vaunted Buffalo offense off the field for most of the game. Still, when Thomas ran 31 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Bills took a 19-17 lead. New York drove to a Matt Bahr field goal to retake the lead at 20-19, setting up a dramatic game-ending drive by the Bills. Kelly drove his club into position for a 47 yard field goal attempt by Scott Norwood, but the Buffalo kicker was wide right and the Giants escaped with the win by the narrowest of margins. It is still, to this day, the only Super Bowl game to be decided on the game’s final play. What became known as the “Wide Right” game formed Norwood’s lasting legacy, which is really not fair considering he was only a 50/50 proposition from the 47 yard distance on grass for his career, and he had made a lot of kicks during the regular season to help get his team into the big game.

A dejected Scott Norwood leaves the field as Super Bowl XXV ends