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On November 30, 1980 the Philadelphia Eagles faced the San Diego Chargers at Jack Murphy Stadium, and with the now Los Angeles Chargers taking on the Eagles on Monday night to close out the weekly NFL slate of games, the 1980 clash will be our Throwback Thursday feature. The game was a bit of a clash of titans at that time. The Eagles entered the match with an 11-1 record, sitting atop the NFC East standings on their way to a Super Bowl appearance. Meanwhile, the Chargers were in their “Air Coryell” era, an offensive machine named for head coach Don Coryell.

Despite the Eagles owning a stout defense, San Diego owned the entire first half. The Air Coryell machine, powered by quarterback Dan Fouts, opened the first and second quarter scoring with touchdown passes of 14 and 17 yards to All Pro tight end Kellen Winslow. Add in 2 Rolf Benirschke field goals (and a missed extra point) and the Chargers led 19-0 at the halftime break. Coryell’s club may have gotten a little complacent with that lead as the second half unfolded. Costly fumbles (a total of 3 on the day) allowed the Eagles to rally. Star running back Wilbert Montgomery provided the only scoring in the third quarter with a 1 yard touchdown plunge, while Benirschke booted his third field goal in the final quarter to up his team’s lead to 22-7.

The proud Eagles stormed back to put a scare into their hosts. Quarterback Ron Jaworski, nicknamed “The Polish Rifle”, engineered a pair of touchdown drives, ending with scoring passes of 16 yards to tight end Keith Krepfle and 11 yards to Montgomery. With no 2 point conversion option available at that time, the Eagles fell short by a point, losing by a 22-21 count. The Chargers’ dynamic wide receiver, John Jefferson, burned the Philly defense with 8 catches for 164 yards to complement Winslow’s 6 grabs for 89 yards and 2 TDs. Montgomery led the Eagle attack, totaling 139 yards of offensive production.

Both teams qualified for the postseason, with the Eagles advancing all the way to the Super Bowl, where they would lose to the team that eliminated the Chargers in the AFC Championship game, the Oakland Raiders.

Chargers’ John Jefferson beats the Eagles’ defense (Focus On Sport/Getty Image)

On December 15, 1962 the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers, two teams that face each other on this week’s NFL schedule, were involved in a contest at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium, a game that is our feature for our Throwback Thursday post. It was the final game of the regular season for both clubs, and both were eliminated from postseason play (which amounted to just a championship matchup of the Eastern and Western Division winners at that time). To make matters worse this basically meaningless game would be played on a rain-soaked field that turned into a Mud Bowl. The playing surface became so bad in the second half that neither team could muster up a score.

The teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter, as 49er quarterback John Brodie snuck in from a yard out and Cleveland fullback Jim Brown rambled in from 5 yards out. A missed extra point by the Browns left them behind at 7-6. Brown’s second score of the game, a 12 yard scamper, along with Lou Groza’s extra point put the Browns up 13-7.

Muddy Browns’ defense awaits the action

San Francisco’s Tommy Davis kicked a 14 yard field goal before the half ended to close the Niners’ deficit to 13-10, but that would end the scoring, and the clubs sloshed through the mud the second half without generating points. The win allowed Cleveland to at least salvage a winning record as they finished 7-6-1, but there was disappointment also. Brown, who in my opinion is the greatest football player of all time, fell 4 yards short of passing the 1,000 yards rushing mark for the fourth consecutive season , despite gaining 135 yards on 22 carries in the messy weather.

A muddy and disappointed Jim Brown leaves the field

It’s week 12 of the NFL season already, and the Detroit Lions take on the New York Giants in one of the week’s matchups. For our Throwback Thursday feature this week, we’ll land on December 7, 1958 for a contest between these teams. The Giants were one of the league’s powerhouse franchises in those days, and the Lions were defending champions. As for this season, however, entering this week 11 matchup the Giants were surging toward an Eastern Division title while the Lions had a bit of a championship hangover as they were 4-5-1 and completely  out of the Western race.

The first score of this game would ultimately be the difference. Detroit back Gene Gedman was tackled in his own end zone by defensive end Jim Katcavage for a safety. Pat Summerall booted an 18 yard field goal to close out the opening quarter scoring, giving the Giants a slim 5-0 advantage. New York jumped out in front 12-0 in the second quarter on a 6 yard touchdown toss from quarterback Charlie Conerly to fullback Alex Webster. Detroit’s anemic offense managed a Jim Martin field goal to cut the lead to 12-3 at halftime. The Lions showed some life in the third quarter. Tobin Rote, who completed only 6 passes for 32 yards in the game, found Ken Webb with a 2 yard completion for a TD. Then linebacker Wayne Walker returned a recovered fumble 34 yards for a score that shockingly pulled Detroit into the lead at 17-12.

The Giants scored in the final quarter on a 1 yard run by Frank Gifford to nail down a 19-17 win, but it took stopping a fake punt to set up the winning drive, and also a blocked field goal as time expired to secure the victory.

Giants’ DE Jim Katcavage

We’re headed into week 11 of the NFL season, and one of the matchups on this week’s slate of games finds the Kansas City Chiefs facing their AFC West division rivals, the Denver Broncos. Our Throwback Thursday time machine will land on October 11, 1964 for an AFL contest between the 2 teams. These clubs were like night and day as far as success on the field goes during the 10 years of the AFL’s existence. The Dallas/Kansas City franchise won 3 league titles, including the final one in 1969, while Denver failed to compile a winning record in any of the 10 years of the league’s stand-alone existence.

So it was not surprising that when they took the field for this matchup, in the league’s fifth year, that the Broncos had not beaten the Chiefs in 8 attempts to that point. There was no reason to expect that this streak would end on this day, as Denver entered the contest winless at 0-4. There was determination, and perhaps a bit of embarrassment, on the Bronco sideline, and they managed the only score of the opening quarter on a 4 yard touchdown run by running back Charlie Mitchell. As is common with losing teams, Denver missed the extra point, which allowed the Chiefs to take the lead at 7-6 when Len Dawson found end Chris Burford for 17 yards and a TD. The rest of the half was a field goal kicking contest between Denver’s Gene Mingo, who booted 17 and 47 yarders, and K.C.’s Tommy Brooker, who connected from 37 and 48 yards. This left the Chiefs with a slim 13-12 lead.

There’s no telling whether keeping the score close motivated the Broncos or if coach Mac Speedie fired them up with a speech, but the lowly Denver squad came out fired up in the second half. They dominated the third quarter, as quarterback Jacky Lee hit star receiver Lionel Taylor with a 13 yard scoring toss, then heaved a 58 yard touchdown bomb to Mitchell. Lee, who had come to Denver on a strange “lend-lease” trade with Houston that saw the Oilers loaning the QB to the Mile High club for 2 years, found Taylor again for a 34 yard score to open the final quarter, and Denver found themselves in the unusual position of holding a commanding 33-13 lead.

Vagabond AFL quarterback Jacky Lee

Kansas City was too proud of a team to not fight back, and indeed they did. Dawson connected with his tight end, Fred Arbanas, for a 33 yard score, then hit Burford from 21 yards out to cut the final deficit to 33-27, as Denver held on to win. It was a satisfying result for the long-suffering Broncos, although it didn’t last long as the Chiefs would win the next 11 matchups between the Western Division foes. Still, it was a fine effort from Lee, who bounced around the AFL with 3 different teams but won 3 championships as a backup, and Mitchell, who garnered 127 yards from scrimmage and who earned a doctorate in education after his playing days ended.

Dr. Charles Mitchell, later in life