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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