A CHRISTMAS GAME TO REMEMBER
When you snuggle up before a warm hearth to watch this Friday night’s San Diego-Tennessee game, think about this: In the long 90-year history of the National Football League, there has been only one Christmas Day when postseason pro football was played. The figure is an oddity, in that a slew of playoff games once took place on either Christmas Eve or the day after Christmas, especially back in the days of 12- and 14-game regular-season schedules. Necessarily, that one occasion rates special attention. Thirty-eight years ago, two postseason divisional playoff games, one in each conference, were played on December 25, 1971. One of them instantly entered league annals as a classic.
While Dallas methodically defeated Minnesota 20‒12 outdoors in frigid Bloomington, Minn., in an NFC playoff encounter, the AFC Divisional Playoff confrontation that pitted the Kansas City Chiefs against the Miami Dolphins would turn out to be the longest game ever played in pro football history—82 minutes and 40 seconds, extending into two overtime quarters.
The final game ever played at Kansas City’s old Municipal Stadium featured an outstanding performance from Chiefs halfback Ed Podolak, who churned out 350 all-purpose yards—85 rushing, 110 receiving, and 155 on kick returns. The game was tied at the half (10‒10), tied after three quarters (17‒17), and tied after regulation at 24‒24. After the Dolphins knotted the game at 24‒all with 1:36 left in the fourth quarter, Podolak gathered in the ensuing kickoff and rattled off a 78-yard return to the Dolphins 22. But with 31 seconds remaining, Kansas City kicker Jan Stenerud pushed his 31-yard field-goal try to the right, and the game went into just the third sudden-death overtime game in NFL annals.
Both clubs missed field goal chances in the first overtime quarter. Stenerud’s attempt from 42 yards was blocked after a high snap and Miami’s Garo Yepremian failed from 52 yards out. Back then a team took possession at its own 20-yard line after an opponent’s missed field goal, not at the spot where it had been kicked as the rule exists today. Three minutes into the second overtime period, Miami started on its own 30 and ran five straight running plays from their Butch Cassidy (Jim Kiick) and the Sundance Kid (Larry Csonka) backfield, with Csonka’s 29-yard burst the key play. Seven minutes and forty seconds into the sixth quarter, Yepremian made good on a 37-yard field goal, and the longest game ended.
Stenerud could rightly be labeled the game’s goat, with his 31-yard miss near the end of regulation. Ironically, the Norwegian-born booter is the only pure kicker enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame to this day.
Miami went on to make the first of three straight Super Bowl appearances, a fine Christmas gift indeed. To the Chiefs’ future Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson, though, the afternoon felt more like the Grinch his mean old self had stolen Christmas from everyone in Kansas City: “It was a horrifying experience,” he said of playing in sudden death, “because one break is going to be the game.”
Alan Ross is the author of 32 books, including Away from the Ball: The NFL’s Off-the-Field Heroes. © Sportland 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Vikings, Chargers Day's Best Games
Two NFL games featuring divisional-leader matchups highlighted Week 14, as the NFC North’s Minnesota Vikings took out Cincinnati (AFC North) 30‒10 and, in the day’s best game, AFC West leader San Diego hung a 20‒17 defeat on Dallas, which had been tied for the NFC East lead with Philadelphia.
In the Metrodome, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer brought Cincinnati to within three points of the Vikings, with just under four minutes left in the first half, on a touchdown toss to Chad Ochocinco—an interesting misdirection-type play from the slot, in which the Bengals’ wideout headed toward the backfield as if on a reverse, before switching direction and gathering in the 15-yard scoring pass all alone. Minnesota followed up with a clock-eating, 14-play drive that netted a field goal to boost the Vikes to 13‒7 with just 35 seconds till the half. But the Norsemen weren’t done. A untimely fumble by Bengals running back Brian Leonard with just 13 ticks left opened the door for yet another Ryan Longwell field goal, and Minnesota danced into the locker room with the gift three-pointer—and the game—in hand.
In a tight game at the new Cowboys Stadium, the Chargers and Dallas put on an even display of talent and execution—only 10 seconds separated the time of possession between the two. In the end, though, it was just another December defeat for the snake-bitten Cowboys, who got a good performance from quarterback Tony Romo but lost All-World linebacker DeMarcus Ware with a sprained neck on a scary play early in the final period, when Ware’s head slammed into the knee of Chargers’ lineman Brandyn Dombrowski. Ware’s head and neck were immobilized as he was delicately lifted onto a stretcher and taken from the field. The game’s big defensive series took place earlier,just before halftime, when Dallas, with a first and goal at the San Diego 4, ran Marion Barber four straight times into the thick of the Chargers’ front wall. Four times San Diego rebuffed him. It was the Chargers’ eighth win in a row and their NFL-record 16th straight victory in December, dating back to 2005.
ANGLING FOR THE CORNER: Several NFL records were broken during the Denver-Indianapolis game, the biggest mark being the 21-reception performance by Denver wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who eclipsed Terrell Owens’ 20 catches in a single game set in 2000 against Chicago, when the premier wideout was then with San Francisco. Marshall earned his record on Denver’s final offensive play. The Broncos faced fourth and 18 from their own 12, when Marshall grabbed Kyle Orton’s throw short of the first-down marker. The resourceful receiver, who grabbed 21 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns in the 28‒16 loss to the Colts, attempted a hook-and-lateral to trailing lineman Chris Kuper, who tacked on seven more yards but still fell short of the first down. It’s not surprising the pass reception mark fell in this day and age of total passing fancy. Just nine years separate Marshall’s and Owens’ feats. Before Owens, Los Angeles Rams’ Hall of Fame end Tom Fears held the mark (18 catches) for an incredible 50 years, dating back to 1950. Indianapolis made NFL history as well, forging the NFL’s longest win streak ever—now at 22 games and counting, breaking the recent skein of the 2006-07 New England Patriots.
Alan Ross is the author of 32 books, including Away from the Ball: The NFL’s Off-the-Field Heroes. E-mail him at: alanross_sports@yahoo.com
© Sportland 2009
In the Metrodome, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer brought Cincinnati to within three points of the Vikings, with just under four minutes left in the first half, on a touchdown toss to Chad Ochocinco—an interesting misdirection-type play from the slot, in which the Bengals’ wideout headed toward the backfield as if on a reverse, before switching direction and gathering in the 15-yard scoring pass all alone. Minnesota followed up with a clock-eating, 14-play drive that netted a field goal to boost the Vikes to 13‒7 with just 35 seconds till the half. But the Norsemen weren’t done. A untimely fumble by Bengals running back Brian Leonard with just 13 ticks left opened the door for yet another Ryan Longwell field goal, and Minnesota danced into the locker room with the gift three-pointer—and the game—in hand.
In a tight game at the new Cowboys Stadium, the Chargers and Dallas put on an even display of talent and execution—only 10 seconds separated the time of possession between the two. In the end, though, it was just another December defeat for the snake-bitten Cowboys, who got a good performance from quarterback Tony Romo but lost All-World linebacker DeMarcus Ware with a sprained neck on a scary play early in the final period, when Ware’s head slammed into the knee of Chargers’ lineman Brandyn Dombrowski. Ware’s head and neck were immobilized as he was delicately lifted onto a stretcher and taken from the field. The game’s big defensive series took place earlier,just before halftime, when Dallas, with a first and goal at the San Diego 4, ran Marion Barber four straight times into the thick of the Chargers’ front wall. Four times San Diego rebuffed him. It was the Chargers’ eighth win in a row and their NFL-record 16th straight victory in December, dating back to 2005.
ANGLING FOR THE CORNER: Several NFL records were broken during the Denver-Indianapolis game, the biggest mark being the 21-reception performance by Denver wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who eclipsed Terrell Owens’ 20 catches in a single game set in 2000 against Chicago, when the premier wideout was then with San Francisco. Marshall earned his record on Denver’s final offensive play. The Broncos faced fourth and 18 from their own 12, when Marshall grabbed Kyle Orton’s throw short of the first-down marker. The resourceful receiver, who grabbed 21 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns in the 28‒16 loss to the Colts, attempted a hook-and-lateral to trailing lineman Chris Kuper, who tacked on seven more yards but still fell short of the first down. It’s not surprising the pass reception mark fell in this day and age of total passing fancy. Just nine years separate Marshall’s and Owens’ feats. Before Owens, Los Angeles Rams’ Hall of Fame end Tom Fears held the mark (18 catches) for an incredible 50 years, dating back to 1950. Indianapolis made NFL history as well, forging the NFL’s longest win streak ever—now at 22 games and counting, breaking the recent skein of the 2006-07 New England Patriots.
Alan Ross is the author of 32 books, including Away from the Ball: The NFL’s Off-the-Field Heroes. E-mail him at: alanross_sports@yahoo.com
© Sportland 2009
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