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The NFL season is moving along quickly, entering week 14 already. This week, we honed in on a matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons, who meet on this week’s schedule, to find a game to highlight for Throwback Thursday. It was the NFC Championship game for the 1998 season, played on January 7, 1999. It was a fairy tale regular season for coach Dennis Green’s Vikings, who were near perfect in finishing 15-1. Atlanta wasn’t far behind at 14-2, so that made for an evenly-matched contest in the title game. The first quarter was a wash as both teams scored, the Falcons on a short 5 yard pass from Chris Chandler to back Jamal Anderson, and the Vikings on a 31 yard Randall Cunningham to Randy Moss throw.

Minnesota, behind their raucous home crowd at the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome, took over the game in the second stanza. Gary Anderson sandwiched field goals around a 1 yard Cunningham QB sneak to pull ahead 20-7. Atlanta salvaged the period by cobbling together a drive that ended with Chandler finding Terance Mathis for a 14 yard score with 59 seconds left, shortening the deficit to 20-14. Morten Andersen, Atlanta’s kicker, provided the only third quarter scoring with a field goal, but in the final quarter Cunningham widened his team’s lead to 27-17 with a touchdown pass of 5 yards to Matthew Hatchette. Morten Andersen kicked another field goal to keep the game close, but with just a few minutes remaining, the Vikings had a chance to salt the game away when Gary Anderson entered to attempt a 38 yard field goal. Anderson had been perfect on every one of his three point tries in ’98, so this seemed to be a lock.

Of course Anderson missed the kick. This fueled the Falcons to drive to a tying touchdown with 57 seconds left on another Chandler to Mathis pass of 16 yards, almost mirroring the TD they scored with less than a minute left in the first half. The touchdown sent the game into overtime, where, after failed possessions by both teams, Morten Andersen booted a 38 yard field goal to send Atlanta on to the Super Bowl. A huge disappointing end and a lost opportunity for Minnesota, a franchise that bears the burden of also losing the Super Bowl 4 different times.

Gary Anderson watches his missed field goal

The Dallas Cowboys versus the New York Giants. A classic NFC East matchup that will be renewed this weekend on the NFL schedule. This week for our Throwback Thursday feature, we’ll go back almost exactly 10 years, to a prime time Sunday night battle played on November 23, 2014, between these 2 clubs. They entered the contest at opposite ends of the spectrum, the Cowboys at 7-3 for the year and the Giants at 3-7. It turned out to be a tale of 2 halves, as the Giants took control of the game early while Dallas rallied in the second half to assume command. Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning, a Hall of Fame candidate for 2025, got his team on the board with a drive that ended in a short 3 yard touchdown pass to his rookie wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who was on his way to being named the Offensive Rookie Of The Year. The Cowboys countered with a Dan Bailey field goal that would turn out to be the difference in the game. It was Manning to OBJ again to start the second quarter, on a 43 yard TD throw, and the Giants now led 14-3. The half continued with the teams trading scores, Dallas cutting the lead to 14-10 when Tony Romo hit his tight end Jason Witten with a 4 yard touchdown toss and New York getting a 3 yard TD run from Andre Williams.

Romo came out with guns blazing in the second half and quickly engineered his club into the lead at 24-21 with a pair of scoring throws, 45 yards to reliable target Cole Beasley and 31 yards to Dez Bryant. Manning’s short touchdown pass to Adrien Robinson got the Giants the lead back in the fourth quarter, but Romo finished off the scoring by hitting Bryant for a 13 yard score, giving Dallas a 31-28 victory. Running back DeMarco Murray was an unsung hero for the Cowboys as he contributed a solid running game with 121 yards on 24 carries to complement Romo’s 4 touchdown passes. Despite the loss, New York gained the national spotlight with the play of the game, an amazing one-handed touchdown catch by Beckham Jr. that some pundits called the greatest catch of all time. Indeed it was what old time sportswriters would’ve called a “circus” catch. Today’s receivers, somewhat aided by modern gloves, seem to make these types of grabs routinely, but OBJ was definitely the pioneer at it. He has maintained a career in the league, with it’s share of ups and downs, and is still active today with the Miami Dolphins.

Odell Beckham Jr.’s “circus” catch

Two NFL rivals who have battled each other over the decades, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns, face off on the week 12 schedule, and our featured Throwback Thursday contest, played between these clubs on September 10, 1989, was an anomaly as far as the way most games went when these AFC rivals met. It was opening day of the ’89 season and Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium was rocking, expecting coach Chuck Noll’s forces to start the year with a big win over the Browns. The game marked the head coaching debut for Cleveland of Noll’s former defensive coordinator, Bud Carson, who had been part of 2 Steeler Super Bowl wins under Noll in the 1970s.

One thing about this late ’80s version of the Steelers – they were not the Mean Joe Greene Steel Curtain, Terry Bradshaw-led club of the previous decade. The quarterback to begin this season was one Bubby Brister, who would never be mistaken for the Blonde Bomber. The Browns’ defense feasted on Pittsburgh miscues all day long. They began the game jumping out to a 17-0 first quarter lead, with a Matt Bahr field goal sandwiched between 2 defensive touchdowns scored on fumble returns by linebackers Clay Matthews and David Grayson. The onslaught continued in the second quarter as Bahr added a pair of field goals and Tim Manoa scored on a 3 yard TD run, giving Cleveland a commanding 30-0 lead at the break.

There was no letup in the second half, either. Manoa scored again on a short run, Grayson scored his second defensive touchdown of the day with a 14 yard interception return, and Mike Oliphant rambled 21 yards for the final tally. When the dust settled, the Browns had garnered a shocking 51-0 victory. The statistics didn’t lie as far as how one-sided the contest was. The Steelers turned the ball over 8 times. Brister threw 3 interceptions and was sacked 6 times. First round draft pick Tim Worley contributed 3 fumbles in his rookie debut. In all the Pittsburgh offense could only muster 53 total yards, while the Browns gained 357. No single Cleveland player collected big numbers on the day, but there were plenty of contributors, as the Browns also possessed the ball for almost 41 of the game’s 60 minutes. That’s pretty easy to do when your opponent hands you the ball 8 extra times in a game. The game was not only the worst loss in Noll’s tenure, but at that point was the worst defeat in the franchise’s 57 year history, which is saying a lot since the team didn’t have much success until Noll arrived in the ’70s.

Pittsburgh head coach Chuck Noll

It was perhaps the most important game in pro football history – Super Bowl III in Miami between the AFL’s New York Jets and NFL powerhouse Baltimore Colts, and with those 2 clubs meeting on this week’s schedule, it is an obvious pick to be chosen as this week’s throwback feature. I have featured this game in other posts regarding past Super Bowls, usually during the week of the ultimate title game, but to my actual surprise, have never given it the TBT treatment. The story of this game is pro football legend today, and the reason is because of a brash young quarterback who stood the sport on it’s collective ear.

To set up the story, let’s look at the games that got the 2 teams to this contest. The Colts were an NFL behemoth in the ’68 season. They had run roughshod through the league and finished 13-1, including running off 8 consecutive wins to finish the regular season after their lone loss, 30-20, to the Cleveland Browns. After dispatching Minnesota in the divisional playoff, they found themselves facing the Browns again in the title game.  This time, they dismantled Cleveland 34-0 and after the result of the AFL championship was decided, sportswriters and analysts everywhere predicted that the “Super Bowl” would be a laugher. In that AFL game, the underdog New York Jets, guided by the passing of their stellar quarterback Joe Namath, rallied in the final quarter to upset the previous year’s champs, the Oakland Raiders, 27-23. Oakland had beaten the Jets 43-32 earlier that year in the infamous “Heidi” game and were favored for a repeat trip to the Super Bowl.

So after 2 resounding victories for Vince Lombardi’s Packers, the third big game was expected to be even more of a one-sided rout, since it was a match between an NFL juggernaut and a club that wasn’t even seen as the best the AFL had to offer. This was reflected in the pre-game betting odds, with the Colts being installed as anywhere from 18 to 23 point favorites. Sportswriters and pundits spent the week ridiculing the Jets, and finally Namath, fed up with it all, stopped the sports world in it’s tracks when he boldly stated “We’re a better team than Baltimore. We’re going to win the game. I guarantee it.” Of course this set off a media feeding frenzy and the ridicule got even louder and more boisterous. Namath in particular, who at the time was disliked by the buttoned-up, conservative media for his unconventional look, (his white shoes, wearing a mink coat on the sidelines while injured, etc.) and his supposed wild lifestyle, took the brunt of the jokes and insults.

Then there was the actual game. Namath wasn’t particularly great, but he engineered a surgical attack mixing the run and the pass to befuddle the Baltimore defense. Running back Matt Snell, who was the unsung hero for the Jets, continually exposed a weakness on the Colts’ left side and scored the game’s first touchdown on a 4 yard run, and did yeoman’s work for the game with 121 yards on 30 carries. Namath used his  quick release to frustrate coach Don Shula’s Baltimore defense, connecting on short and intermediate throws to his backs and to wide receiver George Sauer, who caught 8 passes for 133 yards. Namath’s favorite target, future Hall of Famer Don Maynard, did not catch a pass on the day, but Namath shrewdly used the rest of his team’s weapons to lead 3 field goal drives and build up a 16-0 lead. The Jets’ defense surprisingly shut down Colts’ MVP quarterback Earl Morrall, intercepting him 3 times, including 1 by former Colt Johnny Sample, and holding him to 6 of 17 passing for a paltry 71 yards. Shula, in a sign of desperation,  eventually benched Morrall and turned to legendary John Unitas, his aging and now often injured backup. Unitas led one scoring drive but couldn’t complete the comeback, also throwing a pick.

Matt Snell, Super Bowl III’s unsung hero

When the final gun sounded, the Jets had themselves a stunning 16-7 conquest of their personal Goliath. The win sent feelings of pride throughout the other organizations in the AFL, as their league had finally shown that they were indeed an equal force to their established big brother. The next year, in the final Super Bowl played before the 2 leagues were officially merged into one, the Kansas City Chiefs, humiliated by Lombardi’s Packers in the initial title game, defeated a favored Minnesota Viking squad to end any argument that the AFL had reached parity. Incidentally, Lombardi, the smartest man in pro football at the time, was in the stands at Super Bowl III. Beforehand, he issued a warning to the Colts about Namath, saying the Colts had better not get caught up in the press clippings and underestimate him as he was “a perfect passer”.

Super Bowl III – Namath’s shining hour