rayonsports.com

Week 10 of the NFL season is upon us, and an intriguing matchup on this week’s slate of games has the Cleveland Browns visiting Foxborough to meet the New England Patriots. For Throwback Thursday this week, we’ll feature a playoff game between these 2 clubs played on New Year’s Day, January 1st, 1995. The game matched mentor against student in the head coaching ranks, as New England’s Bill Parcells, a two-time Super Bowl winning coach with the New York Giants earlier in his career, faced off against his former New York defensive coordinator, Bill Belichick, now the head man with the Browns.

Parcells and a young Belichick meet before the game

The Browns entered the game with a better record and were favored at home in venerable old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The only first quarter scoring came on a 30 yard Matt Stover field goal for the Browns, as the defenses of both clubs stymied the offenses. In the second quarter, New England’s young second year quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, put his team in the lead with a 13 yard touchdown pass to LeRoy Thompson. Cleveland matched that as their signal caller, Vinny Testaverde, tossed a short scoring pass to Mark Carrier to put the Browns ahead 10-7. A Matt Bahr field goal for the Patriots tied the score at halftime, and it was sure to continue to be a defensive struggle for the final 30 minutes. When all was said and done, the Cleveland defense did more damage than Parcells’ squad. They harassed Bledsoe all day and forced him into throwing 3 interceptions. One of the Browns’ biggest defensive contributors on the day was backup safety Louis Riddick, starting due to injury. The future Monday Night Football analyst had an interception and led his team in tackles. Testaverde, the journeyman QB who was expected to be outplayed by Bledsoe, had perhaps the game of his career. He completed 20 of 30 passes for 268 yards, and engineered a third quarter drive that ended with LeRoy Hoard scoring on a 10 yard run to put Cleveland up 17-10. It was all the scoring the Browns would need. The teams traded field goals in the final quarter, and the Browns earned a 20-13 victory. Testaverde’s favorite target on the day was wide receiver Michael Jackson, who moonwalked his way to 7 catches for 122 yards.

Cleveland’s win propelled them into a showdown with their bitter division rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the following week. The success would end there, as Pittsburgh soundly defeated them 29-9. Things got worse from there. Browns’ owner Art Modell announced during the 1995 season that he was moving the franchise to Baltimore, becoming the most hated man in the city.

Browns’ QB Vinny Testaverde

Last week’s Throwback Thursday post featured a very historic Super Bowl game, and with the Green Bay Packers meeting the Kansas City Chiefs on this week’s slate of games, we’ll revisit another title game of historic proportions, the first Super Bowl. It was played between the Packers and Chiefs, and technically wasn’t a Super Bowl because the annual championship contest hadn’t been given that name yet. The established National Football League, with commissioner Pete Rozelle leading the way, engineered a merger with the newer American Football League, led by Chiefs’ owner and AFL founder Lamar Hunt. Under the 1966 merger agreement, the 2 leagues would henceforth hold a common draft of college players, ending the wild bidding war between the rival leagues, merge into one league beginning with the 1970 season, and immediately following that ’66 season, hold an annual championship contest between each league’s best to be played at a neutral site. The Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys to win the NFL title, while the Chiefs steamrolled the Buffalo Bills to emerge as the AFL champ.

The title game was dubbed the “AFL-NFL Championship Game” for the first couple of years, and this first one was carried by both networks that televised each league’s games. The Los Angeles Coliseum was chosen as the venue for the game, and it was treated more as a curiosity than anything. It didn’t sell out, and the NFL clubs basically ridiculed the junior league, dubbing it a “Mickey Mouse” league made up of NFL rejects. For anyone who is old enough to have witnessed the match (like me), however, the sight was incredible. Seeing these 2 teams from different leagues on the same field was unheard of, and the pre-game handshake between the coaches, Vince Lombardi of Green Bay and the Chiefs’ Hank Stram, was like nothing ever seen before. It was new and fresh and exhilarating, even if it wasn’t given a lot of credibility by the established NFL.

Hank Stram, Vince Lombardi pre-game handshake

Lombardi entered the game under tremendous pressure to win the game and show the NFL’s dominance. He was a smart football man and realized that this young K.C. club was talented and wouldn’t be a pushover. He also had confidence in his players, who had won 2 consecutive NFL titles and been champs 4 times in the previous 6 years. The Packers were dealt an early blow when their starting flanker, Boyd Dowler, went down with a shoulder injury. An unlikely hero then emerged to start off the scoring in the game. That would be Dowler’s backup, old veteran Max McGee. Rumor had it that McGee, not expecting to play on Sunday, had defied Lombardi’s curfew on Saturday night and was hung over when he entered the fray. McGee snagged a Bart Starr pass over his shoulder and rambled 37 yards into the end zone. It was the first of many big plays the old receiver would make in the game. Kansas City stayed competitive, and Len Dawson led a drive that culminated in a 7 yard scoring toss from him to his fullback, Curtis McClinton, to tie the score. Green Bay’s fullback, Jim Taylor, put his club back in front with a 14 yard touchdown run, and when a Chief drive near the end of the half stalled, Mike Mercer booted a 31 yard field goal to shorten the Packer lead at the break to 14-10.

Rozelle, whose background was in public relations, attempted to boost the game’s overall look from just another gridiron clash to an event. The halftime show included doves being released, singer Carol Channing and a couple of guys in football uniforms flying around the stadium with jet packs. It was a far cry from today’s lavish halftime shows, but it was a modest beginning to what was to become practically a national holiday in the future.

Halftime show included release of doves, Carol Channing and flying rocket men

The Chiefs put up a competitive fight in the first half, but the Packers’ experience and power took over in the second half. Elijah Pitts scored on a 5 yard run and Starr targeted McGee again on a 13 yard score to open up a 28-10 lead after 3 quarters. The lead allowed Lombardi’s forces to tee off on Dawson in the final quarter, and when a heavy pass rush forced an errant throw, Willie Wood intercepted and returned it 50 yards to set up the game’s final score, a 1 yard plunge by Pitts to secure Green Bay’s victory at 35-10. Starr was deservedly named the game’s MVP, although he got a lot of help from McGee, who staggered his way to a game-high 7 catches for 138 yards and the 2 TDs. The Chiefs never mounted much of a rushing attack, but Dawson and his receivers, Chris Burford, Otis Taylor and tight end Fred Arbanas, all put forth a good effort. Lombardi, who pleased his NFL counterparts by winning the game handily, praised the Chiefs as a very good squad but also threw a dig at the AFL, saying he felt there were numerous teams in the older league that were better than Stram’s club.

Green Bay QB Bart Starr, the obvious MVP

Super Bowl XXII, a very historic championship game, is the subject of our Throwback Thursday feature this week, the eighth week of the NFL season. On this week’s slate is a game between the Denver Broncos and the Washington Football Team, the 2 franchises who played in that historic title game on January 31, 1988. History was made before the game even started, as Doug Williams was announced as Washington’s starting quarterback, becoming the first African American to start at the position in a Super Bowl. He was an unlikely starter. He had entered the year as a backup and was 0-2 in the only starts he did make in the regular season. After leading the Redskins to their 2 playoff wins to reach the big game, he earned the start in the Super Bowl. His start hit a snag when he had to undergo an emergency root canal the night before the game, but he was pronounced fit to play. Denver, behind star QB John Elway, was making their second appearance in the title game in a row, having lost to the New York Giants the previous year.

The game started out slowly for Williams and the Redskins. Elway hit Ricky Nattiel on a 56 yard touchdown pass and Rich Karlis added a 24 yard field goal to give Denver a 10-0 lead after the first quarter. Near the end of the quarter, Williams twisted his knee awkwardly while dropping back to pass and had to leave the game. He returned in the second stanza, with a vengeance. The Redskins’ receiving corps at the time was small and speedy, and were collectively nicknamed “The Smurfs”. They also earned the moniker of  “The Fun Bunch” for their colorful touchdown celebrations. In the second period of this game, they got to celebrate a lot. Williams engineered an incredible 5 touchdown drives, throwing touchdown passes of 80 and 50 yards to Ricky Sanders,27 yards to Gary Clark, and 8 yards to Clint Didier. Also, the game’s other hero, Timmy Smith, ran 58 yards for a score. When the dust settled, the Redskins found themselves with an astonishing 35-10 lead going into halftime. The halftime show of the game was the first time a major act was booked to entertain the crowd and the television audience. The performers? Chubby Checker and The Rockettes. In another tidbit of trivia involving this game, Herb Alpert played the National Anthem on his trumpet, the last non-vocal performance of the song to date.

The Fun Bunch celebrates another TD

The third quarter of the game was scoreless, but the outcome had already pretty much been determined. Smith wrapped up a record-breaking day on the ground with a 4 yard touchdown run in the final quarter to give Washington a 42-10 victory. Williams was named the game’s Most Valuable Player, deservingly so with his play. Smith would have been a good choice also, as he set a new Super Bowl record with 204 yards rushing on 22 carries, a mark that still stands to this day.

Doug Williams enjoyed an historic victory in Super Bowl XXII

It’s week 7 of the NFL season, and one of the matchups this week finds the San Francisco 49ers taking on the Indianapolis Colts. Our Throwback Thursday feature travels back to the 1969 season for a game between these 2 teams played on October 26th of that year. Coach Don Shula’s Colts were coming off the huge disappointing loss in the Super Bowl the previous season to the New York Jets. They were battling inconsistency as they started the year with 2 straight losses, then rebounded with a pair of wins. The 49ers were a team they hadn’t lost to since 1962, so a third consecutive win looked like a sure thing, especially with Baltimore being at home. San Francisco was enduring a down period in their history at this point. They were in the midst of a decade of mediocrity and coach Dick Nolan was struggling to make any headway in his quest to turn the franchise around, as the Niners entered this game winless at 0-4-1.

After a scoreless first quarter, Tommy Davis opened the scoring with a short field goal for San Francisco, but the Colts answered that with a drive that ended with Tom Matte hauling in an 11 yard touchdown pass from John Unitas to take a 7-3 lead. Quarterback Steve Spurrier, a career backup getting a rare chance to start, then guided a drive before the half with Ken Willard running in from 5 yards out, giving the 49ers the lead back at the half. San Francisco came out in the third quarter on fire. Spurrier led another drive in which he cashed in for a touchdown with an 18 yard scoring toss to Dick Witcher, then the defense took command by pilfering a Unitas throw, courtesy of John Woitt, which he ran back 57 yards for a touchdown to give San Francisco a shocking 24-7 lead. The proud Colts rallied as Unitas found his favorite target on the day, Jimmy Orr (8 catches for 146 yards), for a short touchdown pass, then closed the gap again with a one yard touchdown run by Matte. That was the end of the scoring, however, and Baltimore found themselves on the short end of a 24-21 score at the final gun.

Nolan’s 49ers won only 4 games in the ’69 season, and ironically half of those wins came against the Colts, as they upset them again later in the season. He was building something for the future, and the team won 3 straight Western Division titles to start the 1970s. The Colts were underachievers at 8-5-1 for the year, and Shula departed for Miami after the season, where he would find great success on the way to becoming the winningest coach in NFL history. Shula’s departure didn’t initially hurt the Colts, as they won the Super Bowl under Don McCafferty in 1970.

Steve Spurrier shined in a rare starting performance

The Denver Broncos face off with their AFC West rivals, the Las Vegas Raiders, this Sunday in a week 6 game on the NFL schedule. For Throwback Thursday, we’ll go back to the high-flying early days of the American Football League, to a game played between these clubs on December 15, 1963. The Raiders were based in Oakland at the time and this contest was played at Frank Youell Field, a glorified high school stadium that was Oakland’s home then. Prior to 1963 the Raiders were one of the AFL’s weakest franchises. They had finished the 1962 season with a 1-13 record, and Buffalo Bills’ owner Ralph Wilson had to loan the club $400,000 just to keep them afloat at one point. The Raiders’ fortunes turned around that season, however, when they hired a brash young assistant from the San Diego Chargers’ staff, Al Davis. Of course, Denver was the ultimate sad sack franchise of the AFL for the entire 10 year existence of the league. This game was the penultimate regular season contest of the ’63 season, with the Raiders enjoying an 8-4 record while the Broncos wallowed in last place of the Western Division at 2-9-1.

The game started out as expected with the Raiders scoring twice, on touchdown passes of 32 yards from Tom Flores to Bo Roberson and 18 yards from Flores to Art Powell, one of the AFL’s brightest stars in it’s formative years. Denver rounded out the first quarter scoring when rookie fullback Billy Joe rambled in from 9 yards out to cut Oakland’s lead to 14-7. Flores answered that by hitting his running back, Clem Daniels, with a 26 yard touchdown pass. The Broncos mustered up a field goal from Gene Mingo, and the clubs went into halftime with the Raiders holding a 21-10 edge.  When Flores threw his fourth touchdown pass of the day, from 43 yards out to Daniels again, Oakland took a sizable 28-10 and it looked like the lowly Broncos were finished.

Denver quarterback Mickey Slaughter rallied the troops, however. He threw a 9 yard touchdown pass to Gene Prebola, and then led a drive that ended in a short scoring run by Hewritt Dixon, and suddenly Denver entered the final quarter down by only 28-24. The Broncos’ defense was their Achilles heel in 1963, as they allowed a total of 473 points overall for the season, by far the highest total in the AFL’s history. So it was easy pickings again for Flores, and he found Powell again for his fifth TD toss of the day. Slaughter didn’t give up easily. He engineered another drive and hit his All-AFL split end, Lionel Taylor, with a 29 yard scoring throw to pull his club to within 4 points again at 35-31. That would be all the scoring for the day, and Oakland held on to improve to 9-4. They finished the regular season the following week by outscoring the Houston Oilers in a 52-49 barnburner to end their season at 10-4, a miraculous climb from the previous year. It was only good enough for second place in the West as San Diego won their third division crown in 4 years. The Broncos put up a game effort on this day, and Taylor and Prebola both garnered over 100 receiving yards, but their reward for the “moral victory” was a date with the mighty Chargers in the regular season’s final week. The Chargers demolished them 58-20.

Al Davis transformed the Raiders’ franchise in 1963

The New England Patriots meet the Houston Texans on this week’s NFL schedule, and for our Throwback Thursday post we’ll go back just a few years to find a contest between these 2 clubs that turned out to be a wild shootout between the G.O.A.T. and a fresh young upstart, those players being the Patriots’ Tom Brady and Houston rookie DeShaun Watson. It was early in the 2017 season, in week 3 on September 24, when the Texans invaded Gillette Stadium to take on the mighty Patriots. New England was a heavy favorite, having won the Super Bowl the previous season, while the Texans were AFC South Division champs in a mediocre year for the division in 2016. Watson hadn’t done much to this point, although he did scamper 49 yards for the only touchdown of the game the prior week to give his team a win over Cincinnati.

This turned out to be a breakout performance for the young rookie as he battled Brady for 4 quarters. New England opened the scoring with Brady hitting Rob Gronkowski with a 5 yard touchdown pass. Then Watson led his team on a pair of scoring drives that ended with a field goal and a 29 yard scoring toss from Watson to Bruce Ellington. Brady answered with a touchdown throw of 7 yards to Chris Hogan. Houston added another field goal, then suddenly took a 20-14 lead when Jadeveon Clowney scooped up a fumble and ran 22 yards for a defensive score. As he has done his whole career, Brady never flinched. He found Hogan again from 47 yards out to regain the lead for his club at 21-20 at the half. Brady increased the lead to 28-20 in the third quarter when he hooked up with Brandin Cooks, who ironically now plays for the Texans, on a 42 yard scoring throw.

Not to be outdone, Watson pulled his team to within a point by finding Ryan Griffin for a 12 yard TD, then engineered a pair of field goal drives to give Houston a 33-28 lead. Houston made the mistake of leaving time on the clock for Brady, and he took advantage. He led the Pats downfield and finished the drive with a controversial touchdown pass to Cooks. Replays seemed to show that Cooks bobbled the ball, and that it hit the ground, after he landed out of bounds. However, the catch was upheld, Brady hit Cooks for a 2 point conversion and New England hung on for a 36-33 win.

Brandin Cooks’ controversial touchdown catch

In all, Brady threw for 5 touchdowns on the day, and his team needed every one of them to squeeze out the victory over the young buck. Cooks and Hogan had great statistical days, with Cooks grabbing 5 passes for 131 yards and Hogan adding 4 receptions for 68 yards, with both receivers scoring twice each. Watson, a tremendous talent, threw for over 300 yards and 2 TDs and added 41 yards on the ground in the losing cause. It should have been the breakout game that launched him to All Pro status, but his career has taken a turn for the worse today due to off the field issues, and the Texans are actively trying to trade him in 2021, with no takers so far.

Brady, Watson shake hands after epic battle

We’re already headed into week 4 of the young NFL season, and one of this week’s matchups features a pair of teams who were once division rivals in the AFC East – the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore (now Indianapolis) Colts. The game we are highlighting was played on December 9, 1973 at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The Dolphins were the class of the NFL at the time, having completed a perfect 17-0 season in 1972 culminating in their first Super Bowl win. Some consider the 1973 club even better, even though they had lost to Oakland earlier in the year to snap their unbeaten streak. Miami came into the game heavy favorites, with an 11-1 record under coach Don Shula, who had formerly coached the Colts. Baltimore entered the game with a dismal 2-10 mark, and were coached by Shula’s old assistant, Howard Schnellenberger. Also, the rivalry between these 2 teams had been completely one-sided in Miami’s favor. The Fish owned 4 consecutive shutout victories over the Colts, including a 44-0 shellacking in Miami’s Orange Bowl a month earlier. Even with all the odds stacked against the Colts, this turned out to be one of those “any given Sundays” that pop up in the NFL all the time.

Baltimore achieved what had to be a moral victory in the first quarter when George Hunt kicked a short field goal to give his team their first score of any kind in 5 meetings against the stifling Dolphins. Colts’ quarterback Marty Domres played an extremely conservative game on this day in an era where conservative was the norm. Relying on his running game and throwing only 8 passes, the career journeyman signal caller engineered touchdown drives in each of the next 2 quarters. Bill Olds scored from 2 yards out to up the lead to 10-0 at halftime, and Domres found tight end Tom Mitchell for a 1 yard touchdown toss to put the Colts up 16-0 with the extra point attempt failing. Meanwhile, the Colts’ defense played their best game of the season, picking off a pair of Dolphin passes and recovering a fumble. They also at least contained Miami’s strong rushing attack, and held the defending champs to only 228 total yards. Garo Yepremian’s fourth quarter field goal was all the offense the proud Dolphins could muster on this day, and the Colts pulled off a huge 16-3 upset. Player of the game for Baltimore was their workhorse running back Lydell Mitchell, who carried 35 times for 104 hard-earned yards.

Miami got the wake-up call from this loss, for certain. They won their final game of the regular season, pounding Detroit 34-7, then defeated Cincinnati in the divisional playoffs, and avenged the earlier loss to the Raiders in the AFC title game. The season ended with a second straight Super Bowl title win as they defeated the Minnesota Vikings.

Colts’ QB Marty Domres celebrates the upset win

Week 3 of the NFL season is upon us, and one of the matchups features the Denver Broncos and New York Jets. For our Throwback Thursday feature of the week we’ll revisit an old-fashioned American Football League shootout played on November 22, 1962 between these 2 original AFL franchises. It was played at an old minor league baseball park in Denver, Bears Stadium, and the New York club was still known as the Titans. Denver came into the game with a winning record at 7-4, a rarity for that team in the AFL days, and was favored at home in this contest. It turned out to be the crowning moment in the career of Titan quarterback Johnny Green, who had been acquired from Buffalo after languishing with the Bills in the first 2 seasons of the league’s existence. Coach Bulldog Turner’s New York team jumped out to a surprising 17-0 lead on a short touchdown run by Bill Mathis, a Green scoring toss to Dick Christy and a Bill Shockley field goal. Denver finally broke the ice as Frank Tripucka found Bob Scarpitto open for a 35 yard touchdown, but Green matched that by hitting Art Powell, one of the AFL’s first stars, from 4 yards out for a touchdown. Denver ended the half with a pair of field goals from Gene Mingo to cut the Titans’ lead to 24-13, and the Broncos rode that momentum and came out storming in the second half. First their defense struck, as Bud McFadin scooped a fumble and rambled 69 yards for a score, followed by an offensive strike, as the other Bronco signal called, George Shaw, threw a 6 yard touchdown pass to Scarpitto to give his team a 27-24 lead. Now the shootout was on.

When Shaw fell on his own fumble in his own end zone to give New York a safety, he didn’t know at the time that he was providing the Titans with their margin of victory. Denver’s lead was now down to a single point, and that evaporated when Green hit future Hall of Famer Don Maynard for a 35 yard touchdown. New York missed their extra point attempt, and when Shaw found Lionel Taylor with a short scoring pass to open up the final quarter, Denver took advantage of an AFL rule that didn’t exist in the NFL at the time – the 2-point conversion – to take a 35-32 lead. The Broncos then took command. First Jim McMillin picked off a Green pass and returned it 59 yards for a score, then Mingo added a field goal to give Denver a sizable 45-32 lead. In the old wild and wooly AFL, however, no lead was safe. Green redeemed himself for the pick six by engineering scoring drives that ended in his 4th and 5th touchdown passes of the day, both short tosses to Christy and Powell, and the Titans left the Mile High city with a hard-earned 46-45 win.

Dejected Denver coaches Mac Speedie, Jack Faulkner after loss to the NY Titans

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders square off this Sunday in the second week of NFL action, and for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature we’ll travel back to the AFC Championship game of the 1976 season, played in Oakland on December 26th between those 2 franchises. They had become heated AFC rivals at this point, and this was to be the third consecutive year they would battle for the right to represent their conference in the Super Bowl. There were stark differences in the two teams’ histories. The Steelers were perennial losers in the 1960s, elevated by coach Chuck Noll to become solid playoff contenders in the 1970s, and had 2 straight Super Bowl titles in their resume from the previous 2 years. Oakland had the winningest record in all pro football for a decade, but had earned a dubious distinction of not being able to achieve the ultimate goal of winning it all.

The Raiders were dominant in the regular season, finishing 13-1 overall, while the Steelers wound up 10-4 and were hampered by injuries. In fact, with both of their starting running backs, Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier out with injuries, Pittsburgh was at a distinct disadvantage going into the AFC title game. So this was going to be the best chance yet for coach John Madden’s Silver and Black troops to finally climb to the mountain top by slaying the dragon that had kept them out of the big game the last 2 seasons. As expected, the defenses of both teams dominated the game. Oakland scored the only first quarter points on an Erroll Mann field goal, then increased their lead to 10-0 in the second quarter when Raider linebacker Willie Hall intercepted a Terry Bradshaw pass and returned it to the Steelers’ one yard line, with Clarence Davis bursting  into the end zone  for a touchdown.  The Steelers, knowing they needed to answer to not let the game get out of hand, did just that. Bradshaw rebounded from his miscue to engineer a 75 yard scoring drive that was capped off with a 3 yard touchdown run from Reggie Harrison, who was filling in for the injured starting backs.

Not to be outdone, Raider signal caller Ken Stabler guided his team on a long, time-consuming drive, and hit Warren Bankston from 4 yards out to give his club a 17-7 lead going into halftime. With the way the defenses were playing on this day, that lead could almost be considered insurmountable, and when Stabler found Pete Banaszak for a 5 yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, Oakland led 24-7 and was clearly in the driver’s seat. Both team’s defenses took over again after that and 24-7 turned out to be the final score. Oakland had cleared a huge hurdle in finally beating the Steelers, and they wouldn’t waste the opportunity. Madden’s forces went on to dominate Super Bowl XI, defeating the Minnesota Vikings 32-14 to capture their long-awaited first Lombardi Trophy.

Willie Hall tracks down Steeler WR John Stallworth