NFL: Super Bowl Memories - running documentary (1 to 57)

[jackpot269]

Eagles salvaged a TD. But Rod Martin picked off Jaworski for a third time. 27-10 Final.

*Plunkett played great, won the SB MVP. Could have easily gone to Martin.

A few milestones:
*Gene Upshaw played in a Super Bowl in a third decade. He'd retire a year later.
*Kicker Chris Bahr won a Super Bowl. Matched his brother Matt, who had won a Super Bowl with the Steelers the year before.

Enjoying the nice work and remembering these early Superbowl! You do a great job of summarizing Chucky!
The Raiders are my team in the NFL, and have been since I first started watching football in the mid-70's. Plunkett did play well in this game but he would make me so mad, watching him take so many sacks because he was so immobile! My 90 year old Grannie could out run him!! Thanks again Chucky

[ChuckyTheGoat]

4th/1. Another Johnson rush attempt off Right Tackle. Johnson is stopped by a mass of humanity.

Surely the greatest goal line stand in Super Bowl history.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

3rd/1. This is the play that will go down in history.

It almost looks like a remnant from Bill Walsh's short-passing game. Anderson hits Charles Alexander hit on a square-out in the Right flat. Surely Alexander will turn in for one yard of YAC to score the touchdown.

Not today. LB Danny Bunz read the play with great anticipation. Bunz stuffed Alexander and stopped him one foot short of the goalline.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

1st Down. Power-back Pete Johnson gains two yards.

2nd/goal from the 1. Against the goal-line Defense, this play is hilarious. Blair Bush tries to leap like a frog to get to Jack Reynolds but he has no blocking angle. Reynolds delivered a crushing blow against another Johnson rush attempt.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Re-vitalized the Bengals seize momentum in the 3rd quarter:

*Early Bengal TD on scramble by Anderson. Niners, 20-7.

*Niner offense stalled in the 3rd quarter.

*49-yard pass to Collinsworth put the Bengals into the redzone.

*LB Keena Turner missed the call to go out on the field, leaving the Niners with only ten defenders.

First and goal for the Bengals.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Facenda's narration on this game is so insightful. Facenda mentions that Walsh picked up a trick from their regular-season road trip to Detroit. Walsh found that a bouncing ball behaved funny on the hard Silverdome turf.

He instructed Ray Wersching to squib-kick the kickoffs. This worked to a charm late in the first half:
1) Fumbled return pinned the Bengals inside their own 10.
2) On the next kickoff, even better. The Bengals fumbled again, this time the Niners recovered.

After two Field Goals, the Niners led 20-0 at halftime.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

After a Niner TD, Cris Collinsworth fumbled in the redzone. Turnover at the Niner 8.

Walsh's precision offense was then on display. 92-yard TD drive. 14-0.

It's been said that the Walsh offense had no tendencies. So balanced that scouting it is almost impossible.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Niners fumble away the opening kickoff. Great chance for the Bengals.

Anderson was NFL MVP in 1980. But he threw a redzone INT to Dwight Hicks.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Great ties between Niners and Bengals:

*Bill Walsh had coached in Cincinnati under Paul Brown. Walsh thought he would be Brown's successor but he was passed over.

*Walsh had coached Kenny Anderson in his formative years. Moving on from Cincinnati, one has to wonder if KEN ANDERSON might have developed into JOE MONTANA if Walsh had stayed in Cincinnati.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

SB16: Bengals vs Niners

These teams came in off historic wins in the Conference Finals:

*Bengals beat the warm-weather Chargers in the "Freezer Bowl" played in frigid Cincinnati.
*Niners nipped the Cowboys, 28-27, in the famous "Catch" game. Montana to Clark.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

SB16: Bengals vs Niners

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Throwing against the long arms of Hendricks and Matuszak, Jaworski was again picked off by Rod Martin. The Raiders turned it into a FG, 24-3.

Eagles salvaged a TD. But Rod Martin picked off Jaworski for a third time. 27-10 Final.

*Plunkett played great, won the SB MVP. Could have easily gone to Martin.

A few milestones:
*Gene Upshaw played in a Super Bowl in a third decade. He'd retire a year later.
*Kicker Chris Bahr won a Super Bowl. Matched his brother Matt, who had won a Super Bowl with the Steelers the year before.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Throwing against the long arms of Hendricks and Matuszak, Jaworski was again picked off by Rod Martin. The Raiders turned it into a FG, 24-3.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Facenda mentions that Flores adjusted their blocking scheme to pick up Eagle blitzes. This was in response to the eight sacks that the Eagles recorded in the first meeting. Very well done.

With sound pass-blocking, Plunkett threw an endzone effort toward Branch. Well-covered at first, Branch made an adjustment that would make Lynn Swann proud. TD Raiders, 21-3.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Facenda mentions that Flores adjusted their blocking scheme to pick up Eagle blitzes. This was in response to the eight sacks that the Eagles recorded in the first meeting. Very well done.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

PHI FG by Franklin, 14-3 Raiders.

Eagles attempted another FG at the end of the first half, but they were denied by The Stork. Blocked-kick specialist Ted Hendricks blocked Franklin's attempt.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

The Raider defensive front outplayed the PHI Offensive Line. In particular, NG Reggie Kinlaw was a thorn. They limited the PHI rush game to 69 yards.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

The Raiders capitalized with a Plunkett-to-Branch TD. 7-0.

Plunkett later broke out of the pocket and dropped a sideline pass over Herm Edwards. Long TD to Kenny King.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

On the game's third play, we heard a name that we'd hear again:

*Jaworski threw an INT to linebacker ROD MARTIN, who had dropped perfectly into pass coverage.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

SB15: Raiders vs Eagles

En route to the Super Bowl:

*Raiders get there via the Wild Card. In particular, they had to win in the cold at Cleveland. Sipe threw the late INT to Mike Davis, when they weren't sure Cockroft could make the short FG in the wind.

*Eagles get there after beating Dallas. Vermeil's 18-hour workdays had finally led to fruition.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

SB15: Raiders vs Eagles

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Late Franco Harris touchdown to lock up the win. Also secured the cover against the -10. 31-19.

Fourth title for the Steelers. I have to wonder if the players sensed it was the end of the line for this group.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Driving for the lead, Ferragamo threw an INT to Lambert.

Noll re-iterated his stance to Bradshaw. Noll noted how compact their defense was. Again, Bradshaw went deep and completed a long pass to Stallworth.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Driving for the lead, Ferragamo threw an INT to Lambert.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Noll had recognized how compressed the Ram defense had become. With Swann out, he had Bradshaw go deep to Stallworth. It was an inch-perfect pass that eluded Rod Perry's fingertips.

Long TD pass. PITT, 24-19.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

I know people will look back and say that the Rams were never going to win. Not true, Rams entered the 4th qtr with a 19-17 lead after Bradshaw threw two INTs in the quarter.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Noteworthy that Swann was knocked out of the game in the 3rd quarter. The Ram defense had a pretty good read on the Steelers and felt better without Swann as the deep threat.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

The Rams responded:

*50-yard pass to Billy Waddy.
*Going into the bag of tricks, McCutcheon halfback pass. TD to Smith.

Rams regain the lead, 19-17. Missed Xtra Point. Think about how many kicking problems teams had back then, compare to how accurate kickers are now.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Early in the 2h, Bradshaw hit Swann who outleaped the safety for a long TD. Swann made a career out of his acrobatic Super Bowl catches. At least five, by my count.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Ferragamo, replacing injured Pat Haden, threw accurately. Two Frank Corral FGs. Rams surprisingly led at Half, 13-10.

Funny clip from end of the 1st half. Noll, so often stone-faced, lightheartedly tried to outrace a cameraman. Maybe his way of staying loose.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Ferragamo, replacing injured Pat Haden, threw accurately. Two Frank Corral FGs. Rams surprisingly led at Half, 13-10.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Ram Offensive Line was formidable with the likes of Jackie Slater and Dennis Harrah. Keyed by Wendell Tyler runs, the Rams struck first. Cullen Bryant TD, 7-0.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

1979: Steelers vs Rams

*Steelers: going for 4 in 6 years
*Rams: went thru Dallas/TBay to get here

Played in the new decade as the calendar flipped into JAN 1980.

This will forever be the game where I think about Jack Youngblood playing 2.5 games on a broken leg after getting caught in a "Cowboy vice" in Dallas. Youngblood famously told the trainer "give me two aspirins and we'll worry about it later."

[ChuckyTheGoat]

1979: Steelers vs Rams

*Steelers: going for 4 in 6 years
*Rams: went thru Dallas/TBay to get here

Played in the new decade as the calendar flipped into JAN 1980.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Cowboys rallied but it was so late in the game:

*Dupree TD.
*Thurman recovers onside kick.
*Staubach leads another drive, highlighted by Dorsett. TD Butch Johnson, but only 0:22 left.

Bleier recovers the onside kick. Not as close as the 35-31 final.

The guys who DID CARE were the bookies. Closing line of -3.5 middled the early line of +4.5. If you believe the lore, the books got hammered pretty good on the game landing 4.