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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

On this week’s NFL slate of games, the Atlanta Falcons meet the Indianapolis Colts. Our Throwback Thursday feature game took place on December 6, 1998 at the Georgia Dome between these 2 clubs. The final result was a 28-21 Falcons’ victory, but it was a groundbreaking contest for the Atlanta franchise for a shocking reason. The teams had met 10 times prior to this game since the Falcons entered the NFL as an expansion team in 1966, and amazingly the Colts had won all 10. If ever there was going to be an ideal time for Atlanta to break that streak, this would be it. The Falcons, under coach Dan Reeves, entered the contest with a 10-2 record, and would ultimately wind up qualifying for the first Super Bowl appearance in club history. Indy, on the other hand, sported a 2-10 mark and were led by a struggling rookie quarterback – some guy named Peyton Manning.

Manning looked like anything but a scuffling rookie to start the game, as he engineered a pair of touchdown drives that culminated with scoring passes of 11 yards to running back Marshall Faulk and 30 yards to receiver Torrance Small. The lowly Colts now led 14-0. Would they shock the world and continue their crazy domination of the Falcons? Atlanta QB Chris Chandler cut the deficit in half with a 40 yard touchdown toss to Tony Martin, but Faulk scored again, this time on a 3 yard run, to put the Colts up 21-7. Atlanta was just too good of a club to stay down, and they rallied to score twice, on touchdown runs of 1 yard by Jamal Anderson and 3 yards by Chandler (with 5 seconds left in the half), to tie the game at 21-21 going into the break.

The defenses of both teams rose up in the second half, with the only score coming on a third quarter 3 yard pass from Chandler to Terance Mathis, giving the Falcons a 28-21 lead that wound up being the final score. Statistically, Atlanta had a 100 yard rusher in Anderson (30 carries for 122 yards) and a 100 yard receiver in Martin (7 catches for 140 yards). Anderson’s “Dirty Bird” touchdown celebration dance was a feature of the team’s surprising Super Bowl season, and as for the Colts, although the ’98 season was a wash, they faced a bright future with Manning under center as he matured into a Hall of Famer.

Jamal Anderson does his “Dirty Bird” TD celebration

This week the New York Giants face the San Francisco 49ers, so we’ll harken back to January 22, 2012 to an NFC Championship game played between these 2 clubs for our Throwback Thursday feature. Playing at home at Candlestick Park and sporting a 14-4 record, the Niners were favored over the 12-7 wild card Giants. Halfway through the opening quarter, San Francisco quarterback Alex Smith found his tight end, Vernon Davis on a 73 yard scoring pass, but the Giants would do the only scoring in the second stanza, taking a 10-7 lead into the locker room after a 6 yard Eli Manning TD toss to Bear Pascoe and a Lawrence Tynes field goal. Davis, who had a massive day with 3 receptions for 112 yards, hauled in a 28 yard pass from Smith to give his club a 14-10 lead after 3 quarters.

Both defenses dominated a lot of this contest, with the Giants registering 6 sacks and the 49ers sacking Manning 3 times and forcing a pair of turnovers. Manning broke the ice in the final quarter with a go-ahead 17 yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham, who would have a heroic effort a couple of weeks later. David Akers tied the game with a short field goal to send it into overtime, where coach Tom Coughlin’s gritty Giants would eke out a 20-17 win on a Tynes field goal.

The upset win set up a Deja Vu championship game in Super Bowl XLVI, as the Giants upset New England 21-17, with Manningham making an incredible sideline catch that helped set up the winning touchdown, similar to the David Tyree “helmet catch” that set up the winning score in Super Bowl XLII, which saw the Giants stun the previously unbeaten Patriots.

49ers’ Alex Smith feeling the heat

On this week’s NFL schedule the Green Bay Packers meet the Pittsburgh Steelers, a contest that finds quarterback Aaron Rodgers of Pittsburgh facing his old team. These 2 clubs will also be the feature of this week’s Throwback Thursday post, as we travel back to December 17, 1967 for a game played at legendary Lambeau Field. It was the final week of the regular season, and the Packers had already wrapped up first place in the Central Division, while the Steelers were finishing up another dismal losing season. It’s debatable how much effort Green Bay put into winning this game, although their coach, Vince Lombardi, wasn’t one to accept anything less than maximum effort. A telltale sign might be that Green Bay’s third string quarterback, Don Horn, saw the lion’s share of playing time over Bart Starr and even backup Zeke Bratkowski.

Game program from 12/17/67

Pittsburgh, on the other hand, saw this as a major opportunity to win a little respect against the league’s defending champions. The Steeler defense opened the scoring when defensive lineman Ben McGee intercepted a pass and returned it 21 yards for a touchdown. The Packers got on the board early in the second quarter on a Don Chandler field goal, but Pittsburgh upped their lead to 14-3 when former Packer Earl Gros scored on a 22 yard run. Horn hit speedy back Travis Williams for a 29 yard touchdown pass before the half ended, cutting Green Bay’s deficit to 14-10. Pittsburgh’s defense again clamped down in the third quarter. After Mike Clark connected on a field goal to give his club a 17-10 lead, another Steeler defensive lineman got on the score sheet as Chuck Hinton scooped up a fumble (1 of 5 Packer turnovers on the day) and rambled 27 yards to paydirt. Travis Williams would score the only touchdown of the final quarter to pull the Pack to within a score at 24-17, but that turned out to be the final as the Steelers sent Lombardi off to the playoffs with a loss. Green Bay still finished with a 9-4-1 record, winning their division and fighting all the way through those playoffs to their second consecutive Super Bowl win, while Pittsburgh languished in another losing season with an opposite record than Green Bay’s at 4-9-1.

Motivated Steeler defense awaits the action

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