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2004 NFC championship on a cold miserable winter day. The images of the wind swirling, blowing trash everywhere and Dawk crying will never leave me.
Even though I wasn't born the 1960 NFL championship should be mentioned. Chuck Bednarik didn't leave the field, played both ways and special teams. The image of him after the last tackle is probably the best image in Eagle history.
Do any other Eagle fans here remember the Bounty Bowl? Thanksgiving 1989 the Eagles sacked Troy Aikman 11 times and Buddy Ryan supposedly put a bounty on the Dallas kicker.
Good comments by Twista 6002 here. Will comment on the 1960 game.
It was Philadelphia's last NFL championship. What amazes me is that Bednarik was in his 13th season when he played a full 60 minutes in that game, as he came into the league in 1948. But the Eagles had talent on O, with Norm Van Brocklin at qb and Tommy McDonald at wr, Pete Retzlaff at te, and Timmy Brown at halfback. Solid talent there. Van Brocklin, McDonald, and Bednarik are HOFers. Actually, four are in the HOF, enter Sonny Jurgensen in there.
It was the only time a Vince Lombardi coached team lost a playoff game.
And Bednarik made the last tackle of the game, tackling Packers running back Jim Taylor at the Eagles 7 yard line as the Pack marched down the field for one last shot. Final score-Philadelphia 17, Green Bay 13.
That so called bounty bowl game.in '89. Eagles were heavily favored against a horrid Cowboys team in a game that meant nothing...in the game that meant something for the Eagles that year...LA Rams beat them 21-7 at PHILLY..in the playoffs.. I recall Cowboys 34, Eagles 10 in '92 playoffs...Cowboys 30, Eagles 10 in '95 playoffs...and..Cowboys 34, Eagles 7 last year..
On the subject of Eagles playoff football, I also remember the 1990 playoff game when the Eagles played the Redskins, after the infamous regular season 'body bag' game, where the Redskins were reduced to using Brian Mitchell as a third string quarterback late in that game, in which the Eagles won, 28-14. In the playoff rematch, early on, Earnest Byner of the Redskins appeared, at first glance, to have fumbled at the Eagles 4 yard line, as the Eagles returned it for a TD. Instant replay proved Byner hit the turf as the ball came out. Once overruled, the Redskins went on to score and win. Had that fumble stood, I am pretty convinced the Eagles were going to win. As a Giants fan, that frightened me, because the last thing I wanted to see that year was the Eagles surviving. I think the only way they would have faced the Giants the following week was if the New Orleans Saints beat the Bears in their game, which they did not. Earlier in the regular season, the Giants went into the Vet, undefeated, and got absolutely pasted by the Eagles. Even during their great years, the Giants always had matchup problems on their offensive line against the Eagles front four pass rush.
Super Bowl III. Probably as big a game as there is in NFL history.
It was only the year previous that the AFL and the NFL merged. Make no mistake, however, that the AFL was looked down on by the established NFL. There were a lot of NFL owners who were against the merger. And in the first two Super Bowls, the AFL representatives were soundly beaten. Kansas City and Oakland were thought to be the best of what that league had to offer, and that the New York Jets didn't stand a prayer.
And the smart money reflected that opinion. Vegas had Baltimore originally by 17 points, if I'm not mistaken, and I remember that for a while those odds went over twenty points. And why not? Baltimore finished 13-1 last season, with only the Cleveland Browns beating them in the regular season. In the NFL title game, Baltimore returned the favor, shutting out Cleveland 34-0 on the Browns field. *note* Back then, believe it or not, the NFL used to rotate where the championship games were played, and in 1968 the game was to be scheduled in the eastern conference winner. When the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints joined the league, the NFL developed four divisions; coastal, century, capitol, and central. Cleveland represented the century division of the eastern conference, and Baltimore represented the coastal division of the western conference. Cleveland finished 10-4, but in the championship game Baltimore played with a vengeance. There was a reason for that. Four years previous Cleveland shut out Baltimore in the 1964 NFL title game.
The Colts were prohibitive favorites in this game. Baltimore returned the favor and then some. I remember in that year a lot of the NFL "talking heads" were calling the Colt squad the best club of all time, for good reason. Baltimore's defense gave up 144 points that year, at that time an NFL record. HOFers Lenny Moore and Raymond Berry had retired in 1967, and in training camp Johnny Unitas developed an arm injury that sidelined him for nearly the entire season. But trading for Earl Morral proved to be a no brainer. Baltimore had so much depth that Morrall couldn't help but excel. That year he was the NFL's MVP!
In the AFL, Oakland had a better record than the Jets, but traveled to Shea Stadium for the AFL championship. The Raiders finished 12-2, the Jets 11-3 with the Jets prevailing in the AFL championship game 27-23 in a game that was a classic in its own rite.
The last few days building up to the game had the media convinced that this game was going to be a slaughter. No one gave the Jets a chance-no one. That's why Joe Namath made that famous quote "We're gonna win the game, I guarantee it."
I'm a fan of America's Game, the excellent one hour bio series that Steve Sabol and NFL films produced a couple years ago, which has been showed repeatedly on the NFL channel. There are two quotes from two players interviewed in the 1968 New York Jets one hour special that I will always remember.
Joe Namath: "The other side thought they were ready. They weren't ready."
Gerry Philbin: "The Colts should have really been upset when Joe made that statement in the press. If they were as good as everybody in the NFL and the press said they were, they should have come out and beat the s*it out of us. They didn't do it!"
There were a lot of factors at play here regarding the New York Jets. The Jets had a few ex-Baltimore Colt employees associated with the Jets, among them Weeb Eubank (who coached them to two NFL championships and '58 and '59, Johnny Sample who was a defensive back who was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers under iffy circumstances and eventually was waived (I call it blackballed) by the NFL years later. There were a few other ex-Colts on that squad.
One thing about this game that I really want to keynote here. Joe Namath called the Jets plays as he was sizing up the defense after every play. Called every single play himself. He was sacked only twice as Winston Hill, Dave Herman, Randy Rasmussen and the rest of the offensive line played the game of their lives, particularly Herman. Herman was set up against Bubba Smith, at that time the best (IMO) defensive lineman in the NFL. And another lineman who had an excellent game was Bob Talamini, who played all those years with the Houston Oilers but was a valuable pickup as he could play every position on the line.
Baltimore moved the ball all right, they finished with 324 yards total offense, but kept shooting themselves in the foot, with Morrall tossing four picks. Lou Michaels blowing an easy 27 yard field goal in the second quarter didn't help.
Starting in the third quarter Namath made up for the time advantage regarding Baltimore always moving the ball and not being able to score. One would think Morrall would have been under siege, but he was never sacked in the game. Namath played keepaway, and ran Matt Snell. And ran him. And ran him. George Sauer came in with some big catches over all-pro Colt db Lennie Lyles. Namath kept those passes short though, while chewing up the clock.
Finally, Don Shula sought out Unitas. Unitas had played very little in the season due to his bad arm injury, but he was put in for another reason. Surprisingly the Colts were losing their poise, and they needed leadership, like right now. I remember when the Jets were up 13-zip and after another turnover on the Colts side of the field, Namath was going to go long, but got his hand hit on a blitz and had to come out of the game for a short time, and Babe Parilli relieved him.
The Jets punted, and when Unitas put on his helmet and ran on the field, it's like he woke up the entire crowd. I have Johnny Sample's biography "Confessions Of A Dirty Ballplayer" and when he talked about that same thing, he said the Jets, to a man, just gawked out on the field while muttering to themselves, "Oh sh*t, here comes Unitas." But his first couple series produced nothing. His arm wasn't what it was, he hadn't played since October, but he was still the man. John Unitas.
Unitas finally got Baltimore in the end zone but had to take a lot of time off the clock to do it. Baltimore surprisingly got the ball again off the onside kick and by that time there was just a couple minutes left in the game. Final score: New York 16, Baltimore 7.
Heroes for the Jets??
Don Maynard. Didn't catch a pass. Played with a partially torn hamstring which he got in the AFL championship game. He was double teamed the whole game, and went full blast so Pete Lammons, Bake Turner, and especially George Sauer would go one on one.
Jim Turner aka "old hightops". Calmly kicked three field goals, made a huge tackle on a kickoff return.
The Jets offensive line, Dave Herman in particular. One of the famous quotes that the Jet players disliked came from Howard Cosell (who else?) Cosell: "Big Bubba will break Joe Namath's legs today." Herman throttled Bubba Smith.
Matt Snell. Ran for 120 something yards, and ran with power. Scored the only Jet touchdown.
Joe Namath. No explanation necessary. Was the MVP!
This game was huge. It gave the AFL credibility. The game was talked about for months. It was monstrously memorable!
This was Dungy's birthday and his first return to Tampa Bay since they fired him and went to the Super Bowl (with his team) that next year. Tony played it down as just another game. But everybody knew this would be a great win for him, just on principle. Only 4 minutes left....down 35 to 14!! I lost my voice on this game!!
Snow Bowl Game,a.k.a.the famous Brady "Tuck Rule"game,my feet were frozen before kickoff,and the game goes into OVERTIME,and I'm not even a frickin' Patriots fan (love them Cowboys).Note on Vinateri's tying field goal from about 35 yards out,when he kicked it,a moan went up from the crowd,no one thought it was going the distance,it was only about 10 feet off the ground for most of its flight,it just never came down!A awesome clutch kick in those conditions!
A lot of great games...mentioned here...Anyone recall Staubach coming off the bench in San Francisco.down 28-16...scoring 2 Tds in last 2 minutes to beat 49ers...30-28...and of course...the 4th and 16..."Hail Mary" to Drew Pearson to beat Vikes in '75.
Roger the dodger was always a great clutch performer.GO NAVY!!!!!!
FYI the tuck rule game was also the last one played at the old Shaeffer Stadium.Man do my 'roids those aluminum benches,and that smell of stale urine!!!!
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