This is a newer logo, from 2014, of a major college football program, the Stanford Cardinal, a member of the Pacific 12 Conference, North Division. Their program first came into existence in 1891. The school produced only one Heisman Trophy winner – Jim Plunkett – but has churned out some of pro football greatest players, including John Elway, Andrew Luck, Ernie Nevers, John Brodie, James Lofton and Richard Sherman.
1954 Bowman football card of former pro football defensive back Warren Lahr, who played 11 seasons for the Cleveland Browns in both the old All America Football Conference and the National Football League. He is second in Browns’ franchise history in career interceptions, was a four-time All Pro and helped the club win 4 championships. After retiring as a player, Lahr served as an analyst on Browns’ television broadcasts from 1963 until 1967, teaming with Ken Coleman. He passed away in 1969 at age 45 of a heart attack.
One thing you can take from the Buffalo Bills’ 34-21 one-sided loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday is that Rex Ryan’s preseason bluster about “guaranteeing” the playoffs this year was just empty noise. The Bills stand at 3-3 and are far from out of the playoff race, but they have looked completely overmatched against high level competition (Patriots, Giants and Bengals) in their losses so far. Buffalo entered the game having to play backup quarterback E.J. Manuel, so it figured that Rex’s vaunted “elite” defense needed to defend their home turf with a dominating effort against Cinci’s Andy Dalton, who has started off strongly this year but still has the reputation for wilting under pressure. Instead, Dalton had his way all day long, as the Bills’ defensive unit had no sacks, no turnovers and looked helpless to stop the run. Manuel guided an opening TD drive which he capped by running 2 yards for the score, and led another drive to pull his club to within 17-14 at halftime. How did Buffalo respond? By allowing touchdown drives, with little resistance, on the Bengals next 2 drives as Marvin Lewis’ unbeaten squad went ahead by an insurmountable 31-14 count.
Buffalo now needs to circle the wagons enough to try to eek out a win next week in London over the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. This shouldn’t be difficult, especially on a neutral field (the Bills have experience with that from their Toronto games in past years) but at this point they are capable of losing to anyone. If they accomplish that and get to 4-3, they then have to use their bye week to self-evaluate and figure out how Ryan took Jim Schwartz’s aggressive defense and in trying to “fix what wasn’t broken”, has turned that unit into a confused bunch that can’t be counted on for stops when they’re most needed, let alone play dominating football. They also have to answer the question of why last season’s successful special teams have turned into a weekly liability, and why this team can’t seem to stop itself from committing costly penalties, many of which are undisciplined. Basically, Rex needs to shut his mouth and start actually coaching this team. It never seemed possible, but Ryan is making Doug Marrone look good.
This is a “script” logo of a team that played in the National Football League, the Baltimore Colts. It was used from 1972 until 1983, until the franchise relocated, secretly with moving vans in the middle of the night, to Indianapolis. There were quite a few disappointing seasons in the era leading up to the move. However, in the mid-1970s the club had a stretch of success under coach Ted Marchibroda and behind players like Bert Jones, Lydell Mitchell, Roger Carr, Stan White and Roosevelt Leaks.
1989 ProSet football card of former pro football coach Chuck Knox, a long-time NFL coaching stalwart who guided the Los Angeles Rams (2 different stays), Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks. A three-time NFL Coach of The Year, he guided all 3 of those franchises to playoff status, but never had much success once in the playoffs, posting an overall 7-11 record and never reaching the Super Bowl. Still, his clubs achieved winning records 14 times in his 22 years as a head coach.
The Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns meet on this week’s NFL schedule, and that matchup brings back memories of a contest between these two franchises that will be this week’s Thursday Throwback feature. It was a playoff game, the 1986 AFC Championship game, and was a game that was a major contributor to the legacy of Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway. His Broncos were placed in an almost impossible position as the Browns had scored to take a 20-13 lead, then on the ensuing kickoff, Denver muffed the ball and wound up pinned at their own 2 yard line with about 5 minutes to play. So Elway was faced with the proposition of needing to drive his team 98 yards, almost the entire length of the field, on the road in the most hostile of environments – Cleveland’s Dawg Pound. Elway, who was a master of the two minute drill during his career, methodically drove his club downfield, mixing in short passes to his backs, Sammy Winder and Steve Sewell, a couple of scrambles for positive yardage, and a pair of completions to one of his favorite targets, wide receiver Mark Jackson. It was Jackson who hauled in the pass in the end zone to culminate “The Drive”, a five yard completion from Elway to tie the game with 37 seconds left, sending it into overtime.
The overtime session is mostly forgotten as Elway’s mastery on the game-tying drive immediately went into NFL folklore. In the extra period, Denver’s defense held the Browns on their first possession, and Denver took over for their first try. Elway was brilliant again, taking his club 60 yards to set up a game-winning field goal by Rich Karlis. A key play on the winning drive was a 28 yard completion from Elway to receiver Steve Watson on a third and 12 play. The loss was another chapter in Cleveland’s supposedly cursed professional sports history, and another chapter would be added the following year as the same two clubs would meet again for the right to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, this time with running back Earnest Byner being the goat by fumbling the ball as he attempted to cross the goal line for a go-ahead score. That game would go down in league history as “The Fumble”. To this day, the Browns’ last NFL championship was accomplished in 1964, and in the modern era, they are one of a small group of teams that has yet to qualify for a Super Bowl.
Denver QB John Elway engineers “The Drive” in 1986
This is an “alternate” logo of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, used from 2002 until 2011. It looks somewhat similar to a logo used by the Philadelphia Eagles over the years. The first year (2002) this logo was used coincided with the year the franchise was moved into the National Conference of the league, after having been in the AFC since their inception in 1976, and was also the year they moved into their current home stadium, CenturyLink Field. During these years, the team was coached by Mike Holmgren (until 2008) and reached the Super Bowl in 2005, losing a close contest to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
1989 Score football card of former pro football wide receiver Mark Jackson, who enjoyed a nine year career in the NFL, mostly with the Denver Broncos. Along with teammates Vance Johnson and Ricky Nattiel, Jackson was part of a Bronco receiving corps nicknamed “The Three Amigos”. He was a favorite target of Denver Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway in his career, and caught the touchdown pass in the 1986 AFC Championship game that completed “The Drive”, one of the league’s most memorable moments.
I believe it was the 1983 Chicago White Sox baseball team that originally coined the phrase “Winning Ugly”, but on Sunday the Buffalo Bills’ performance in defeating the Tennessee Titans 14-13 certainly fit that expression. Based on their play for most of the first three quarters, the Bills had no business winning this game. Their defense, expected to dominate rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota, looked passive and was ineffective at getting stops on third down, and as a result the Titans built a huge advantage in time of possession. Pair that passive defensive effort with the team’s almost totally inept offense (it took until a little over six minutes were left in the first half for them to register a first down) and this looked like it was going to end in an upset. Despite not being able to get off the field, Buffalo’s defense did manage to at least hold Mariota and his teammates off the scoreboard for the most part. The Titans dominated play in the first half but went to the locker room with only a 3-0 lead. Once the Titans extended their lead to 10-0 in the third quarter, Bills’ QB Tyrod Taylor took matters into his own hands. Buffalo’s offensive game plan hadn’t worked all day, with running backs Boobie Dixon and newly-signed Boom Herron looking slow and plodding in the run game, and the Titans shutting down the two main weapons in Buffalo’s depleted offense, Charles Clay and Percy Harvin. Taylor then went into semi-playground mode as he led the Bills on a pair of touchdown drives starting late in the third quarter. He ran 22 yards for his team’s first score, then led a game-winning 80 yard scoring drive that he capped off with a 2 yard TD toss to Chris Hogan. That drive included a 24 yard scramble by Taylor on a 3rd and 23 play, and even featured a 4 yard reception by him on a trick play, setting up the throw to Hogan. Cornerback Stephon Gilmore then sealed the win by making an alert play to intercept a Mariota pass as Tennessee attempted to drive for a winning field goal at the end of the game. Buffalo’s defense, when all was said and done, didn’t dominate as they expected but their “bend but don’t break” approach was good enough to keep the team close until Taylor took matters into his own hands (and feet). The Bills now return home next week to face the undefeated, red-hot Cincinnati Bengals, and will certainly have to improve in all phases if they expect to win.
Logo of a major college football program from the Southeast Conference, the University of Mississippi Rebels. The school, affectionately known to its’ fans as “Ole Miss”, is one of the country’s oldest programs, having been founded in 1893. They’ve played in the SEC since 1932, and over the years have claimed a number of conference titles and 4 national championships. The list of famous former Rebel players includes Bruiser Kinard, Archie Manning and son Eli, Charlie Connerly, Jim Dunaway, Patrick Willis, Larry Grantham, Ben Williams and Hall of Famer Gene Hickerson.