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The New York Jets will attempt to qualify for the NFL playoffs this weekend by defeating their AFC East rivals, the Buffalo Bills. This week’s Throwback Thursday post harkens back to another season finale played between these two franchises, on December 16, 1973. Neither team had any postseason hopes, but the Bills had their eye on an individual accomplishment for their star running back, O.J. Simpson, who had a chance to break Jim Brown’s single season rushing yardage record. Brown’s record of 1,863 yards in a season had stood since 1963, and the Buffalo running back needed 61 yards to eclipse the mark.

The Bills dominated the game, building up a 28-7 lead through three quarters, allowing them to concentrate on getting Simpson the record. Running behind his offensive line, nicknamed “The Electric Company” (because they turned on The Juice, O.J.’s nickname at the time), Simpson eclipsed the record easily. Early in the fourth quarter, members of the line realized it was possible for Simpson to reach the unreachable 2,000 yard total, never done before in pro football. It was their best offensive weapon anyway, so the Bills continued to feed Simpson the ball, and he wound up carrying 34 times for 200 yards, the third time in the ’73 season that he went over 200 in a game, to finish the year with a record-breaking 2,003 yards rushing. The 2,000 yard mark has been eclipsed a few times since Simpson did it, but he remains the only player to accomplish the feat in a 14 game season, as the NFL went to a 16 game slate in 1978.

Although they didn’t make the playoffs, 1973 was a successful season for the Bills. They finished 9-5, their first winning season since 1966, found a new quarterback in rookie Joe Ferguson, who would be a mainstay there for a decade, and with O.J. and his fullback Jim Braxton carrying the load, also set an NFL record for the most rushing yards in a season for a team. Braxton actually ran for 98 yards and two touchdowns in Simpson’s record-breaking game. How much did the Bills feature Simpson on this day in the attempt to get the record? Ferguson’s stat line was 3 of 5 passes for 70 yards. Simpson’s personal life took a complete nose-dive after his playing days ended, but for one shining moment on a cold December day in 1973, he was king of the football world.

O.J. Simpson on his way to a 2,003 yard rushing season in 1973

The NFL season is winding down, with only 2 more weeks of games to be played. On this week’s schedule, the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals meet, which takes this week’s Throwback Thursday post back to January of 1965, when these two franchises met in what was then a postseason game played annually known as the “Playoff Bowl”. Officially, the game was called the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl, named in honor of the league’s late commissioner, with proceeds benefitting the players’ pension fund. The  game, held in Miami’s Orange Bowl, was played between the two teams who finished second in their respective divisions, and was essentially a game to decide who finished in third place, or a “consolation” game as it’s called in the NCAA basketball tournament. It was also known to some as the “Runnerup Bowl”.

The Packers finished second behind the Baltimore Colts in the 1964 season, while St. Louis (where the Cardinals were located then) wound up behind the Cleveland Browns. Cardinal quarterback Charley Johnson had a pretty good game, throwing a pair of touchdown passes to split end Billy Gambrell, who had the game of his life. Gambrell’s season total for receiving yards was 398, but on this day he grabbed 6 catches for 184 yards and both TD receptions from Johnson, one from 10 yards out and the second from 80. St. Louis built a 17-3 lead, but Green Bay’s Jim Taylor scored on a short run to cut the lead to 17-10. When Jerry Stovall intercepted a Bart Starr pass and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown, the Cards pretty much sealed the victory, winding up winning by a 24-17 count. (Taylor scored again late in the game for the Packers but it wasn’t enough). Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi is said to have lost only one postseason game in his coaching career, the 1960 NFL championship game, but this would have been his second one, except that the NFL made the decision to count the “Playoff Bowl” results as exhibition games, which was pretty much what they were.

Lombardi, who hated losing, detested the third place game. After losing this one, he called the game “the Shit Bowl…a loser’s bowl for losers. A hinky dink football game, played in a hinky dink town, by hinky dink players. That’s all third place is. Hinky dink.” That was probably a bit extreme. The game did have some value, raising over a million dollars for the pension fund over the years. The game was discontinued in 1970 after the NFL merged with the AFL and the playoffs were expanded to add divisional round games.

Packers and Cardinals battle in Miami in the “Playoff Bowl”

It’s always included in NFL Films’ lists of the greatest games of all time, and rightfully so. With the Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers meeting this week on the league schedule, we’ll feature this game, known as the “Epic In Miami”, as our Throwback Thursday game of the week. Classic games are always more memorable when they occur in the playoffs, and this game was an AFC Divisional round clash played on January 2, 1982 in Miami’s Orange Bowl. The Dolphins, under coach Don Shula, were perennially one of the NFL’s best teams, and on this day they met up with the Chargers, who were at the pinnacle of their high-powered offensive era under coach Don Coryell. With quarterback Dan Fouts engineering the attack, the Chargers’ offense was nicknamed “Air Coryell” for its’ proficiency in the passing game. San Diego, behind Fouts’ passing and a couple of big plays from wide receiver Wes Chandler, jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first quarter, and it appeared the game was going to turn into a blowout. As the second quarter began, Shula made the strategic decision to bench his starting QB, David Woodley, in favor of Don Strock, and the Fish rallied back to pull within 24-17 at halftime, scoring on a “hook and lateral” play at the end of the half. Miami came back to tie the game in the third quarter, but the Chargers continued to put together scoring drives, with their star tight end, Kellen Winslow, having an individual game for the ages. He caught an NFL playoff record 13 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown and blocked a potential game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter, playing through various injuries in addition to being treated for severe cramps and dehydration. He also suffered a pinched nerve in his shoulder and a gash in his lower lip that required three stitches.

A game this great needed to last longer than the standard 60 minutes, and indeed it did, as the two AFC rivals battled to a 38-38 tie through regulation. Both club’s offenses strung together drives deep into enemy territory in overtime, with both kickers, Miami’s Uve Von Schamann and San Diego’s Rolf Benirschke, missing chip shot field goals. Aided by a couple of big passes to Charlie Joiner, Fouts then drove his club into field goal range again, and given another chance, Benirschke made good on his mulligan, giving the Chargers a 41-38 win to advance to the AFC Championship game the following week in Cincinnati.

An exhausted Kellen Winslow is helped into the locker room after the “Epic In Miami”

A short while ago, we featured the 1966 American Football League championship game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs as a Throwback Thursday post – a game that decided which AFL team would represent the league in the very first Super Bowl. This week, we’ll remember the same season’s title game for the NFL, played between two clubs who meet on this week’s schedule, the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers. The most famous game played between these two teams was the championship game played the following year, forever known as the “Ice Bowl”. Since we featured that game already in the past, we’ll go with this game instead. which was just as exciting and had as much drama as that “Ice Bowl” contest.

This game pitted two head coaches who had worked together as assistants in the 1950s with the New York Giants, Green Bay’s Vince Lombardi and Dallas’ Tom Landry. They would both go on to become NFL coaching legends, but were at different stages of their success at this point. Lombardi’s Packers had already appeared in 4 championship games, winning 3 of them, while Landry, who had taken over an expansion team in 1960, was just beginning to enjoy the fruits of his labor, this being the Cowboys’ first postseason venture. The Cowboys’ inexperience showed up early in the game, as Green Bay drove for an early touchdown using misdirection runs by Elijah Pitts to churn out yardage. Lombardi had figured Landry would have his team prepared to stop the vaunted Packer power sweep, so he installed those misdirection runs playing off of fake sweep plays. Bart Starr finished the drive by tossing a 17 yard scoring throw to Pitts, and when a jittery Dallas club fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the Packers’ Jim Grabowski scooped it up and ran it in for another score to up Green Bay’s lead to 14-0. It looked like the defending champions were going to coast to victory after they took advantage of Dallas’ early nervousness, but to their credit the Cowboys settled down and put together a pair of scoring drives to tie the game. The clubs traded scores after that but Starr fired three TD passes to three different receivers, while the Cowboys settled for field goals, so the Pack widened their lead to 34-20. Dallas QB Don Meredith rallied his troops to stay in the game, however. With his top target, Bob Hayes, being blanketed all day by Green Bay’s defense (he had 1 catch for 1 yard), Meredith hooked up with his other top flight receiver, Frank Clarke, on a 68 yard touchdown pass to pull the Cowboys to within 34-27. When the Cowboy defense held late in the game and got the ball back, Meredith again led a drive which reached the Packer 2 yard line with a chance to tie the game. They failed to score on consecutive plays until it was fourth down, giving them one last chance at the tying touchdown. Meredith rolled out and Packer linebacker Dave Robinson, who was supposed to drop into coverage, rushed Meredith instead and harassed him into a hurried throw into the end zone that Tom Brown intercepted to seal Green Bay’s win. In typical Lombardi style, after the game he congratulated Robinson for the play, then criticized him for being out of position. Green Bay went on to defeat Kansas City in the first Super Bowl, then called the AFL-NFL Championship game, 35-10, following the victory over Dallas.

Dave Robinson pursues Dallas QB Don Meredith

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