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It was a Wild Card playoff game played on January 10, 2010 between the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals, that is the Throwback Thursday feature this week, with those 2 clubs battling on this week’s NFL slate of contests. Arizona sported a 10-6 record entering the game, while the Packers stood at 11-5. It was a quarterback duel for the ages between a Hall of Famer, Kurt Warner, and a certain future one, Aaron Rodgers.

Making full use of their home field advantage at University of Phoenix Stadium, the Cardinals dominated the opening quarter. Tim Hightower plunged a yard for the first score, then Warner found Early Doucet on a 15 yard touchdown toss. Neil Rackers’ field goal completed the first quarter scoring with Arizona holding a comfortable 17-0 lead. Green Bay rebounded somewhat in the second stanza, sandwiching a 1 yard Rodgers QB sneak touchdown and a Mason Crosby field goal around another 15 yard Warner to Doucet touchdown connection. The second half exploded into an aerial showdown between the 2 signal callers. First it was Warner to Larry Fitzgerald for 33 yards to build Arizona’s lead to 31-10. Rodgers battled back, bringing the Packers to with 7 points with touchdown passes of 6 yards to Greg Jennings and 11 to Jordy Nelson. Warner countered that with another touchdown connection with Fitzgerald of 11 yards, ending the wild third quarter with a 38-24 Cardinal advantage.

The scoring barrage continued in the final quarter. Rodgers rallied the Packers back to a 38-38 tie with a scoring toss of 30 yards to James Jones, while another drive ended with a 1 yard touchdown run by fullback John Kuhn. Warner and Rodgers then traded touchdown passes to a couple of their lesser known weapons. Arizona took the lead as Warner connected with Steve Breaston from 17 yards out, while Rodgers followed that with an 11 yarder to Spencer Hayner to tie the contest once again. The game now would have to be settled in overtime. With the day’s aerial battle that proceeded the extra period, of course a majestic touchdown pass would surely finish it, right? That was not to be. Instead, the Cardinals’ defense, ravaged all game by Rodgers, took matters into their own hands. They blitzed the Packer QB, causing a strip sack that Karlos Dansby scooped up and returned 17 yards to the end zone to secure a wild 51-45 win. Arizona rode the momentum of this victory all the way to the Super Bowl, where they lost a heartbreaker to the Steelers.

In this game, Warner’s final numbers were 29 of 33 completions for 379 yards and 5 touchdowns, while Rodgers accumulated 423 yards and 4 scores on 28 of 42 passes.

Cardinals’ playoff hero Karlos Dansby

This week’s Throwback Thursday feature lands on the date of October 17, 1954 for a contest played between 2 clubs that meet on this week’s NFL schedule – the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns. The Browns, under legendary coach Paul Brown, were an NFL powerhouse at the time. After winning all 4 championships in the defunct AAFC from 1946 to 1949, they joined the NFL in 1950 when the established league absorbed them and others into the fold. The Browns immediately won the league title in ’50, and also reached the title game in all of the next 3 seasons. The Steelers were sad sacks at the time, although they had begun the 1954 season with wins in 2 of their first 3 games. But the fact remained that since the 2 teams began facing each other in 1950, the Browns had won all 8 games, beating Pittsburgh twice a year for 4 straight years.

Billy Reynolds opened the scoring for Cleveland with a 5 yard touchdown run, but starting what was to be a huge day, Steeler end Ray Mathews tied the game when he gathered in a 7 yard touchdown pass from Jim Finks. The Browns didn’t flinch, and their star quarterback, Otto Graham, regained the lead with a 37 yard scoring pass to Dub Jones. Then the second quarter happened, and it hit the Browns like a tsunami. Finks hit Fran Rogel with a 14 yard TD toss, future Hall of Famer Jack Butler picked off a Graham pass and returned it 41 yards for a score and Johnny Lattner scampered 12 yards for a touchdown to put the Steelers up by a surprising 27-14 margin. Graham gathered his troops and cut the score to 27-20 with a TD throw to Dante Lavelli, but the Steelers ended the first half with a shocking 78 yard bomb from Finks to Mathews to lead 34-20.

Browns guard Chuck Noll, a future Steeler legend

The third quarter was the Ray Mathews show again. He scored twice, on an 8 yard pass from Finks and a 3 yard run, to cap off a 4 touchdown day and raise the Steelers’ lead to an insurmountable 48-20. Graham, being the extreme competitor that he was, didn’t give up. He opened the fourth quarter scoring with a 24 yard TD pass to Lavelli. In what was probably the worst day of his distinguished NFL career, Graham threw his second pick six of the game, as Russ Craft pilfered the ball and raced 81 yards to paydirt, capping off a rousing 55-27 rout. In all Graham threw 5 interceptions on the day, while the Browns had a total of 8 turnovers. This was a very satisfying win for Pittsburgh, their first ever against the Browns. Looking ahead though, the joy didn’t last long. Cleveland got revenge later in the season with a 42-7 romp over the Steelers, on their way to victories in the next 4 contests against them in the coming years, and 8 of the next 9.

Hall of Fame QB Otto Graham

On October 7, 1956 the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, 2 west coast NFL rivals, met at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium in a week 3 contest. They are also facing each other on this week’s league slate so that matchup was chosen for the Throwback feature. The 49ers entered the NFL as one of the merged franchises from the All American Football Conference in 1950, and in the 6 years prior to ’56 the Rams dominated the series, with San Fran only managing 3 wins and a tie in 12 tries.

The Rams were an offensive powerhouse in those days, but in this contest the first half played out rather strangely. L.A. quarterback Billy Wade scored the only touchdown of the half on an 8 yard run, with teammate Les Richter adding a field goal. On the San Francisco side, Gordy Soltau, known as a “Ram killer”, provided the only points with 4 field goals, giving his club a 12-10 lead. The scoring opened up in the third quarter. Wade hit Bob Boyd with a 24 yard TD pass, and the 49ers countered as Joe “The Jet” Perry scampered 28 yards to the end zone. The Rams continued the see-saw battle to retake the lead at 23-19 when Wade found future Hall of Famer Elroy “Crazy Legs”Hirsch open for a 57 yard scoring bomb.

San Francisco added a pair of 2 yard touchdown runs by Hugh McElhenny in the final quarter to jump out to a 10 point advantage at 33-23. For various reasons in that era, teams regularly changed signal callers, and in this case the Rams went with veteran Norm Van Brocklin, who connected with Hirsch for a short 3 yard touchdown. That was all that L.A. could manage, and they fell 33-30. The strange part about this game? Los Angeles almost doubled the amount of total yardage gained with 432 compared to the 219 by the 49ers. Those totals included 382 passing yards for the Rams to only 52 for San Fran. Ram ends Hirsch and Boyd collected 150 and 119 yards receiving respectively, with back Tank Younger adding 86.

The culprit in the defeat? Seven turnovers by the Rams in a sloppy display that cost them. They did exact revenge later that season, however, routing the Niners 30-6 at the Coliseum.

Game program from 10/7/1956

The Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens clash on this week’s NFL schedule, and for our Throwback Thursday feature this week we will travel back the short distance to September 5, 2024 for a game between these 2 AFC title contenders. It was the opening week of the season, with the Chiefs celebrating the previous year’s Super Bowl win. The game was a rematch of the 2023 AFC Championship game in which K.C. prevailed 17-10.

Baltimore drew first blood by putting together a drive that culminated in a 7 yard scoring run by bruising back Derrick Henry, but the Chiefs matched that with a bit of trickery, finishing their scoring drive with a 21 yard end around touchdown run by rookie receiver Xavier Worthy. The second quarter was a field goal fest, as the defenses of both clubs stiffened. Harrison Butker kicked a pair of three pointers for the Chiefs, while Justin Tucker ended the half with a 25 yarder for Baltimore. Kansas City upped their lead to 20-10 with the only score of the third quarter, a 1 yard touchdown plunge by Isaiah Pacheco.

The offenses loosened up a bit in the final stanza. Ravens’ quarterback Lamar Jackson, the league’s Most Valuable Player in ’23, cut the Chiefs’ lead to 3 points with a 49 yard TD strike to tight end Isaiah Likely. Kansas City didn’t flinch. Their QB, Patrick Mahomes, led another scoring drive, ending it by using Worthy again, this time with a 35 yard touchdown pass, restoring the team’s 10 point advantage. Tucker booted another field goal to bring the Ravens to a one score deficit at 27-20, and the Baltimore defense regained possession to allow a possible tying touchdown drive. Jackson delivered most of the way and when the Ravens got into the red zone he fired what appeared to be the tying score, to Likely at the back of the end zone. Of course, all scoring plays are automatically reviewed, and in this case the review determined that Likely’s toe was touching the white out of bounds line, nullifying the score and sending the Chiefs to the first of what was to be many close/lucky victories for the season on their way to another Super Bowl appearance.

Isaiah Likely’s toe on the line, negating the tying touchdown

On this week’s slate of NFL games the Las Vegas Raiders meet the Washington Commanders, and for the second week in a row our Throwback Thursday feature will highlight a past Super Bowl matchup, this time between these 2 franchises. It was played on January 22, 1984 at Tampa Stadium, with the Redskins (Washington’s long time team name) a slight favorite. That Redskin team boasted a powerhouse offensive unit and was also defending NFL champions. The Raiders were no slouch, having won a title a few years earlier under coach Tom Flores.

The Raiders’ special teams made the first big play of the game when their bomb squad captain, Derrick Jensen, blocked a punt and recovered it for a touchdown, the only score of the first quarter. In the second quarter Los Angeles (Raiders’ home at the time), after running a mostly conservative offense, decided to stretch the field. Quarterback Jim Plunkett  sailed a 50 yard bomb to Cliff Branch, then hit Branch again in the end zone on a 12 yard scoring pass to up the lead to 14-0. Washington managed a Mark Mosely field goal to cut the lead to 14-3, but with just 12 seconds to go in the half the Raiders made the play that was the turning point. Joe Theismann, with his team backed up deep in their own end, inexplicably attempted a short screen pass that linebacker Jack Squirek promptly intercepted and returned the short 12 yards to the end zone and suddenly it was 21-3.

The Redskins tried to regain some momentum after that crushing blow and succeeded in that somewhat by cobbling together a touchdown drive that ended with a 1 yard John Riggins dive into the end zone, but a blocked extra point tampered that momentum. After that the game became the Marcus Allen show. The Raider running back earned the game’s Most Valuable Player award by running roughshod through Washington’s defense, first scoring on a 5 yard run and then adding a second TD with a highlight reel 74 yard scamper that has been considered the greatest run in Super Bowl history. In all Allen set a then-Super Bowl record of 191 yards rushing on 20 carries. Matt Bahr finished the scoring with a field goal that set the final score at 38-9. The Raiders had now earned the third title in team history and second in a 4 year span, while the loss was a dismal end to what was otherwise a good season for the ‘Skins. That was to be the last Raider championship even to this day, however, while Washington coach Joe Gibbs went on to win 2 more for a total of 3 (won with 3 different quarterbacks). He also has been a very successful NASCAR team owner.

Marcus Allen scampers to the end zone (SI.com photo)

It’s week 2 of the NFL season, and the Los Angeles Rams take on the Tennessee Titans on the league slate. For our Throwback Thursday feature, we will highlight the first of 2 straight Super Bowl games of the past, played on January 30, 2000 between the Rams and Titans. The Rams, based in St. Louis at the time, had completed an unimaginable season in which they traded quarterback Tony Banks in the offseason, then lost their other QB, Trent Green, to a season-ending injury. That vaulted an unknown former Arena League player whose last job was bagging groceries – Kurt Warner – into the starting role. Warner was basically training camp fodder, an extra arm to take reps and save wear and tear on the regular signal callers. However, he instead turned in a storybook performance in which he led the Rams to the Super Bowl, while being named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player.

After finishing second to Jacksonville in their division, the Titans entered the playoffs as a wild card, and used an astonishing victory over Buffalo highlighted by the “Music City Miracle” kickoff return touchdown to advance all the way to Super Bowl XXXIV. Played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the game lacked offense in the first half, which was especially surprising considering the Rams’ impressive offensive  performance in the regular season. Tennessee’s tough defense kept the game close, but coach Dick Vermeil’s club did manage 3 Jeff Wilkins field goals to lead at halftime 9-0. Warner finally broke the ice with a 9 yard touchdown pass to Tory Holt in the third quarter to up the lead to 16-0, and it looked like the favored Rams were finally going to distance themselves from their gritty opponent and take command of the game. The Titans had other ideas. Quarterback Steve McNair engineered a touchdown drive that culminated in a 1 yard scoring plunge by their bruising back, Eddie George. A failed 2 point conversion left the score at the end of 3 quarters at 16-6.

Tennessee continued to fight back in the final quarter. Their defense throttled Warner and the “Greatest Show On Turf” while adding another George TD on a 2 yard run, and an Al Del Greco field goal that tied the game at 16-16. The Rams were desperate at that point to regain momentum, and Warner provided the needed spark by connecting with Isaac Bruce on a long 73 yard scoring pass at the 2 minute warning. That left the Titans with one last drive to try and tie the game. McNair was brilliant on that drive, leaving everything he had on the field with timely throws and scrambles, and with time for one more play , he connected with Kevin Dyson on a short route. Dyson appeared to have a clear path to the end zone for the tying score, but Ram linebacker Mike Jones rallied to the ball and stopped him a yard short of scoring, ending one of the most exciting Super Bowls of all time.

Rams’ LB Mike Jones’ game saving tackle

The new NFL season begins tonight, and that signals the return of our weekly Throwback Thursday feature, in which we visit a game from the past played between 2 teams who meet on the league schedule that week. Our first feature of 2025 is a November 1, 1970 contest played between 2 AFC opponents who play in week 1 this year – the Miami Dolphins and the then Baltimore Colts. The significance of this game? It was the first time Miami head coach Don Shula faced his old team – the Colts. He had been the head man in Baltimore since 1963 and was very successful. However, a devastating and shocking loss to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III, followed by a mediocre 8-5-1 campaign in 1969 in which the team missed the playoffs, caused Shula to part ways with the Colts, and he took over the young Dolphin squad in 1970.

It not only was the first test of Shula against the Colts, it was also a return to Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The contest played out rather strangely. Shula’s Miami squad thoroughly outgained the Colts, racking up 201 rushing yards and amassing 383 total yards to Baltimore’s 239. But on the scoreboard, it was a totally different result, as Colt coach Don McCafferty’s team ran up a 35-0 score in winning for the sixth time in 7 games. The difference was the Baltimore defense and special teams. Despite giving up a lot of yardage, the defense forced the young Dolphins into 4 turnovers, led by a pair of interceptions by linebacker Mike Curtis. McCafferty’s special teams recorded a pair of kick return touchdowns. Ron Gardin opened the scoring with an 80 yard punt return for a score, and Jim Duncan returned the second half kickoff 99 yards to paydirt to up Baltimore’s lead to 21-0 at that point. A 1 yard TD plunge by Norm Bulaich in the second quarter was the second score of the game.

The lead went to 28-0 in the third stanza when an old Shula favorite, quarterback John Unitas, found Eddie Hinton open for a 32 yard touchdown pass. Earl Morrall, who in later years would join Shula in Miami, came off the bench to finish the rout with a 15 yard TD connection to tight end Tom Mitchell. The 35-0 debacle surely stung Shula’s pride but it obviously did not hinder his continued development of the young Dolphin team, only in it’s fifth year of existence. Just 3 weeks later in a rematch in Miami’s Orange Bowl, the Dolphins returned the favor by defeating the Colts 34-17. The Colts apparently weren’t bothered at all by that defeat either. they went on win Super Bowl V that season.

A smiling Shula introduced as the new Miami coach

It’s the last week of the NFL’s 18 game regular season schedule, and the final Throwback Thursday post for the 2024 season. With the Buffalo Bills facing the New England Patriots on the docket, we’ve chosen a “playoff” game from 1963 between these 2 clubs as our feature for the week. At the time in the AFL there weren’t any playoff games other than the league championship, but this contest was necessitated by the fact that the 2 teams tied for the Eastern Division lead with 7-6-1 records. Played on a snowy field at Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium on a cold wintry December 28, 1963, it wasn’t much of a contest as the visiting Patriots earned a 26-8 victory. Also, the story of this game for me is that I didn’t get to see it, since I was in a school Christmas play that day at the Catholic elementary school I attended back then.

I was 10 years old at the time, and what I remember is that each class would put on a short performance, either singing Christmas songs or doing short skits. The nun in charge of our class decided to have us act out nursery rhymes, and I got the dubious role of playing Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. I don’t remember if I had lines or if another classmate read the rhyme as I acted it out but my part involved pulling a wagon decorated to look like a pumpkin holding my wife’s hand, and then giving her a quick smooch before depositing her into the pumpkin. Of course this was a source of great laughter for the other boys in my class. The girl who played my wife was a shy classmate who we boys made fun of because of her long jet black hair. We had cruelly nicknamed her “Tarpit”. I guess we were typical insecure brats back then who did things like that, but this is just another example of why I say that if time travel is ever made possible in my lifetime I would surely go back in time and beat the crap out of little me. The shy little girl got her revenge eventually. Although she is now deceased, she grew up to be an absolutely gorgeous woman. Rest in peace, Mary Jane, I’m sure you were a beautiful person inside and out.

Ok, back to the actual game. After my part in the play was complete, I was allowed to go sit with the audience and watch the rest of the performances. What I found out when I sat down was that there were a number of small transistor radios among the parents tuned into the game. It wasn’t a very happy audience, as the Patriots dominated the first half. Gino Cappelletti booted 3 field goals and the star of the game, Boston halfback Larry Garron, grabbed a Babe Parilli pass and raced 59 yards for a touchdown, giving his team a 16-0 lead at the break. We didn’t have much in the way of music classes back then, but one of my classmates, Norm Skiba, was a talented drummer, and he did a drum solo performance which was excellent, but the ovation he got when he finished was more than he probably would’ve gotten if it wasn’t perfectly timed with a Daryle Lamonica to Elbert Dubenion Buffalo touchdown pass of 93 yards which, coupled with a successful 2 point conversion, cut the Bills’ deficit to 16-8. Unfortunately that was all the Bills could manage. Parilli and Garron connected again on a 17 yard scoring throw, and Cappelletti added another three pointer to account for the final 26-8 score. The win gave the Patriots the Eastern Division crown, and the right to get slaughtered in the AFL title game the following week by the clearly superior San Diego Chargers 51-10.

Pats’ Larry Garron high-steps Bills’ defender (UPI Photo)

The Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants battle on this week’s schedule of NFL games, and we’ll highlight a matchup of these 2 old franchises for this week’s Throwback Thursday feature. It was the 1959 NFL Championship. A rematch of the ’58 title game, won by the Colts in the first sudden death contest in league history that has been labeled “The Greatest Game Ever Played”. Would this contest provide the same dramatics?

It was played on December 27, 1959 at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, and to say it was decided in the final quarter would be an understatement. The Colts were defending champions, of course, but the Giants were also a proud franchise, having won the title as recently as the 1956 season and reaching the championship for the second year in a row. The biggest fireworks of the early part of this contest came in the first quarter on a 60 yard touchdown hookup from the Colts’ John Unitas to Lenny Moore. The rest of the first 3 quarters were a defensive battle, with New York managing a Pat Summerall field goal in each quarter to fashion a slight 9-7 lead going into the fourth. Finally, Unitas, who had basically invented the “2 minute drill” in the previous year’s title game, began to solve the Giants’ defense and engineered a pair of scoring drives to break open the close game. He finished one by scrambling 4 yards to paydirt on his own, then threw a 12 yard touchdown pass to split end and future Carolina Panthers’ owner Jerry Richardson for the second one as Baltimore gained a 28-9 lead. Kicker Steve Myhra added a field goal to total, while New York finally found the end zone late in the game as QB Charlie Conerly tossed 32 yards to Bob Schnelker to provide the final score of 31-16, giving Unitas and the Colts their second straight championship.

It was Deja Vu for the Big Blue, and part of a frustrating stretch of years for the Giants. After winning the ’56 title and faltering in 1957, they reached the league’s final game 4 more times in the next 5 years, only to lose all 4 games. After coach Weeb Ewbank’s Colts and Unitas defeated them twice, they ran into Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers in 1961 and ’62 and absorbed 2 more losses.

Colts’ Unitas scans the field

Week 16 of the 2024 NFL schedule finds 2 old league rivals, the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, meeting with the clubs going in opposite directions. The Lions are quite possibly the best team in the league, while the Bears are struggling with a rookie quarterback and have already fired their head coach. Circumstances were different, but not completely, when this week’s featured Throwback Thursday game was played between the 2 teams. It was on November 11, 1951 at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, and the Bears, a powerhouse at the time, had won 5 of their first 6 games. Detroit was a good team looking for respect, sporting a 3-2-1 mark. However, the Bears ruled the series between the clubs, having beaten the Lions 11 consecutive times.

This record didn’t sit well with one Lion player in particular – their extremely competitive quarterback Bobby Layne. Layne’s 26 yard touchdown pass to Dorne Dibble gave the Lions a 7-0 first quarter lead. The Bears squared the score with a 54 yard Steve Romanik to John Hoffman pass to open the second stanza, but Layne caught fire for the rest of the half. He led a trio of scoring drives, first managing a short Doak Walker field goal, then finding Leon Hart, along with Dibble his favorite target of the day, on scoring throws of 17 and 9 yards. Detroit’s second quarter surge left them with a 24-7 halftime advantage.

Chicago switched to Johnny Lujack at quarterback in the second half, and he delivered the first score of the half when he tossed a 10 yard touchdown pass to Gene Shroeder. The Lions kept the heat on, however, upping their lead to 31-14 when Pat Harder rushed 3 yards to paydirt to close out the third period. Determined to continue their dominance over their Western Division rivals, the Bears scored next with a Lujack 7 yard pass to Jim Keane, but the Lions, just as determined to break the losing streak to George Halas’ forces, kept up the fight. Layne and Harder supplied the needed push. A Layne to Harder 15 yard touchdown pass and a Harder field goal completed Detroit’s scoring, giving them a comfortable 41-21 lead. Chicago’s George Gulyanics scored from 4 yards out to make the final margin 41-28, but Layne and the Lions finally earned a victory over the Bears after 11 unsuccessful tries. Detroit managed to surpass the Bears in the final standings for the ’51 season with a 7-4-1 record to Chicago’s 7-5. Unfortunately they still fell short of the Western Division crown to the Los Angeles Rams, who finished 8-4.

Detroit’s feisty QB Bobby Layne