Here's the game from Week 8 of the 1974 NFL season that NFL Films deep dove into for its NFL Game of the Week telecast ...
Sports Illustrated got excited about the same game and dispatched Joe Marshall to Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, for the lowdown. Plus, SI uprounded the rest of the Sunday games, so I know how all of those came out. But given that Nov. 11 Ali/Foreman issue's coverage cut off at Nov. 3 and I was busy watching a lot of 2020 stuff last week, I don't know how the Nov. 4 NFL Monday Night Football episode comes out ...
Once I watch the game, I'll plan to update the standings in the comments, to get us all reset for Week 9 action. And to get us all fired up for the Sunday, Nov. 11, kicksoff, ABC is rerunning a made-for-TV movie shot during the Chicago Bears' 1971 training camp ...
More NFL74 in the Nov. 9-15 Sophia Loren TV Guide ...
Also, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Programming note: I plan to break out my virtual NFL magnetic-helmet standings board for next Monday's #freakinweekend post.
ReplyDeleteAnother programming note: You've probably noted that it's pretty tough to figure out why some of these posts are headlined "The Freakin' Weekend" and others are "What's On TV ...?" or "NFL Update" or whatever. Well, I've noted it, too. This one, in fact, went back and forth among three of those heads until I finally settled on what's on here now. I think I'm going to consolidate this whole family of posts under "The Freakin' Weekend" heads and #freakinweekend labels moving forward, but no promises. This is kind of like I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy; they're different shows, but I like a Lucy of any stripe here and there.
ReplyDeleteFrom the SI roundup: "With the score tied 14-14 and four seconds left, Efren Herrera kicked a 20-yard field goal to give Dallas a 17-14 victory over St. Louis, ending the Cardinals' winning streak at seven."
ReplyDeleteThis game was the first discussed in the roundup, and it's the first in NFL Films' This Week in the NFL for this week. It's going to be really cool if these two productions always aligned, and I'd never noticed before now.
1974 Jim Hart has been a thing to behold. That guy could really throw. I never gave him much regard because he was always on the Channel 12 regional broadcast when I wanted to watching some other game.
Efren Herrera was my favorite late 1970s kicker.
ReplyDelete"Even so, St. Louis (7-1) had a two-game lead in the NFC East over the Washington Redskins, who rallied in the second half to down Green Bay 17-6."
Second in both the SI and NFL Films batting orders! This is very exciting.
These are some beautiful highlights--WFT in its white jerseys, Green Bay in its greens, autumn late-afternoon sun.
The Packers' starting quarterback was Jack Concannon. Green Bay really had to believe it had something going under Dan Devine when it went back to the playoffs a couple of seasons ago, and I'm glad the Packer fans didn't know what was coming. They've given up on Scott Hunter and Jerry Tagge, and now they've traded a whole bunch of draft picks to Los Angeles for John Hadl. The ex-Bear and veteran Concannon is starting because he's been on the roster and around the playbook, but Hadl makes his Green Bay debut in this game. Anyway, it's going to be a long time before the Packers get good again--long after Hadl, Concannon and Devine, anyway.
"Buffalo took over the AFC East lead with a 29-28 win over New England (page 76), ..."
ReplyDeleteBack on Page 76, Joe Marshall recaps us on the ascent of the Bills (with former No. 1 overall choice O.J. Simpson and third-year Coach Lou Saban) and Patriots (with former No. 1 overall choice Jim Plunkett and second-year Coach Chuck Fairbanks). In this game, Marshall writes, New England sicced the four linebackers of its unconventional 3/4 formation on Simpson and Buffalo fullback Jim Braxton. That, however, freed the Bills' wide receivers from double teams, and Buffalo persevered through three second-quarter turnovers and came from behind to score its second victory of the season over the Patriots by now a total of three points.
Marshall: "Despite his shaky second quarter, (Joe) Ferguson's overall performance was superior. He took particular advantage of Rashad, who caught seven passes for 110 yards and a touchdown in the first half. The Bills acquired Rashad, who pronounces his first name Ah-mod, in an offseason trade with St. Louis for Quarterback Dennis Shaw. While he was with the Cardinals, Rashad not only dropped his former name, Bobby Moore, but also many of the passes thrown his way. Bad eyesight was the excuse. He tried glasses, but in cold weather they fogged up or became icy. He would cup them in his hands in the huddle to melt the ice. He tried hard contact lenses. He tried soft contact lenses. Then, in Buffalo, he found what seems to be the ultimate solution. 'Now I just squint a lot,' he says. 'It helps my concentration. In night games I see rings around the ball, but in daylight I can see it pretty clear. Once I tune into it, I got it.' Rashad still has to wear glasses to drive himself home after a game."
I'm sure someone has detailed it somewhere in a book with a title like "Tales of the Big Red" or something similar, but I'd like to know more about the Jim Hart/Don Coryell/Dennis Shaw situation in St. Louis. One of the big things that Coryell did in arriving in St. Louis for NFL73 was settle on Hart as the Cardinals' quarterback (instead of Gary Cuozzo, Tim Van Galder, etc.) But then before this season, he traded Rashad, a former No. 4 overall draft choice, to Buffalo for the NFL70 offensive rookie of the year, Shaw, who had played for Coryell at San Diego State.
ReplyDeleteI guess no one expected Shaw to unseat Hart; Street & Smith's said Shaw was brought in to be the backup. Still, if I had been Hart, I wouldn't've liked it one bit. I don't like challenges. I like everyone to say I'm doing great, and I don't like anyone to do anything to make me think they believe otherwise. In fact, I tend to think that I thrive in cushy situations.
Of course, I was never much of an athlete or a competitor. Jim Hart, though, was a real stud ... one of those guys who plays all of the sports ... football, basketball and baseball at Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois. Whether it had anything to do with the offseason arrival of Coryell's old SDSU QB, Dennis Shaw, Jim Hart is going to end up being United Press International's NFC offensive player of the year in NFL74. Good for Jim Hart!
Meanwhile, back in Foxborough, ...
ReplyDeleteWow. NFL Films says Joe Ferguson is the AFC's leading passer going into this game. Lou Saban calls plays for Ferguson, by the way; Fairbanks lets Plunkett let it rip.
ReplyDeleteThere are players who grab everyone's imagination for a year or two and then disappear. It's pretty hard to think of them, of course, because they have faded from top of mind. New England's Mack Herron is one of those guys.
ReplyDeleteTo the kids in my football-cards neighborhood in Paducah, Mack Herron was on his way to Hall of Fame consideration.
ReplyDeleteSchaefer Stadium end-zone sign:
ReplyDeleteSQUEEZE THE
JUICE
TO A
PULP
"Bam" is a great nickname for Sam Cunningham. He's big, and his body is all over the place when he runs. He'd be terrifying to try to tackle in the open field--big arms and legs coming at you from every direction.
ReplyDeleteIt has been fun to see Chuck Foreman in his prime this season. Foreman was such a violent runner--similar to Sam Bam but more angular.
Robert Newhouse had really short arms and legs. He looks like a little locomotive.
Chuck Fairbanks was going to be Jimmy Johnson before Jimmy Johnson.
ReplyDeleteSee? Here's another of these tough dudes. "John Leypoldt, who claims he kicks better under pressure," hits a 47-yard field goal to give Buffalo a 29-28 lead. If that had been me, I'd've scuffed my toe before it ever got to the hold, and I would've been lucky for the ball to go 10 yards. Good for John Leypoldt.
ReplyDeleteThe story goes that Saban cut Leypoldt after a game in 1976 and Leypoldt learned about it when he got to his car afterward. His wife was in the car crying after hearing the news on the post-game radio show.
Another story goes that Leypoldt hadn't played any college football and was working at a lighting company in 1971 when he won a kicking tryout with the Bills.
And then yet another story goes that Leypoldt was a big pool player. He ran a billiards hall in West Seneca, New York, after he finished playing.
Last story: Leypoldt showed up at the hospital in Cheektowaga (a Buffalo suburb where he was living) one Saturday afternoon in February 1987, complaining of chest pains. About 30 minutes later, he died of a heart attack. Forty years old.
One of the things my wife talks about a good bit is how far we've come in treating heart attacks. Used to be--as recently as when even she was a kid--that if you heard about someone having a heart attack, you usually heard about it after the person was already dead. Now, someone has a heart attack, and he or she is often back to work the next day. She's right. Amazing.
I think this might've been said before, but NFL Films is really great. About 10 minutes into this program about the Patriots-Bills game, they included a clip of New England receiver Randy Vataha swabbing a brown glop from a plastic jar and onto his white socks. I'm pretty sure that must be the "stick 'em" product we used to hear about so much in association with Fred Biletnikoff and Lester Hayes, among others. Now, late in the show, with the Patriots trying to come back after Leypoldt's field goal, they show a moment where Vataha bobbles the ball and has to recover his own fumble looping around behind the line of scrimmage on a New England reverse. It's an eight-yard loss, and then Plunkett throws an interception to Buffalo's Robert James on the next play.
ReplyDeleteO.J. Simpson was also really great, and NFL Films has a terrific highlight of him catching a swing pass in the flats and then dodging and bullying his way to a significant gain inside the New England 20. Then there are some nervous sideline shots of both teams, as Buffalo seems to be pushing toward a clinching score. But then Simpson is stripped of the ball on a run to the Bills' left, and now it's the Patriots on the move in the game's final moments.
ReplyDeleteTwo of New England's top receivers--wideout Darryl Stingley and tight end Bob Windsor--are both out for the season, so there has been a lot of note throughout this telecast about the makeshift targets Fairbanks and the Patriots have provided for Plunkett. A linebacker, John Tanner, has been playing tight end; an old Colt, Eddie Hinton, was picked up off waivers, and wide receiver Reggie Rucker has simply come back off the injured list to play the last two weeks with a broken arm.
Maybe this explains some of the clips from this game of Plunkett throwing into terrific coverage. (I remember at the start of this NFL20 season and some of the stats people talking about Ryan Fitzpatrick attempting throws into tighter windows than any other quarterback in the league with Miami's top receivers unavailable.) Maybe Plunkett is attempting throws he wouldn't normally attempt because he knows he's not going to get any better options on future downs, as the receivers he has are not going to get any more separation.
Well, there's a big completion up to Vataha in the middle of the field where the ball zips in among a couple or three Bills defenders, and then there's an outlet pass out to a backup fullback that comes up a yard short of a first down. And then on comes Englishman John Smith for a 46-yard field goal that would've won it for the Patriots, and then there's Bill Jeff Yeates, formerly of Boston College, swatting down the ball and finishing off New England's defeat in Foxborough.
This was a terrific television program, written and edited by Louis Schmidt and Mike Adams. Thank God for them. One of the things I hope to get to do in the sweet by-and-by is catch up on all of the episodes of NFL Game of the Week that I ever missed.
ReplyDeleteSix-year-old I, for one, thought the Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show was hilarious and brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI felt in on every joke, and that felt fantastic.
DeleteHere's the debut episode of U.S. of Archie, in Portuguese. It's about the Underground Railroad, which I learned a slew about in Covington this summer.
ReplyDeleteAlso this summer, we watched a movie about Laurel and Hardy that was just terrific. Here are Laurel and Hardy moving a piano across a swinging bridge over the Swiss Alps. This involves a gorilla.
ReplyDeleteName That Tune intensity!
ReplyDeleteMy mother was never a Bea Arthur fan. She always felt she was too loud, and I figured that started with Maude. But now I would lay money this 1956 moment from The Perry Como Show was Mom's condemning first impression of Bea Arthur. Bea Arthur was loud, but the truth is that Mom resented all of the guest stars or others competing for screen time on any Perry Como television production--felt like they were all were taking away Perry minutes. There was no way poor Bea Arthur was ever going to live down this moment with Mom.
ReplyDeleteWow. There are no halftime highlights in this episode of NFL Monday Night Football. Instead, we've got Howard Cosell's live-via-satellite interview with the new/again heavyweight champ, Muhammad Ali, and then some Punt, Pass and Kick competition to watch. I love me some Ali and PPK, but I can't tell you how disappointed I am (and, no doubt, Don and the Nottingham family were): "Don Nottingham scored three touchdowns for Miami as the Dolphins battered Atlanta 42-7."
ReplyDeleteThe Rams lead the 49ers, 12-3, at the half, by the way. Tony Kornheiser on his podcast of late has been talking a lot about Chuck Knox and his "Ground Chuck" offense, and he's remembering it to be about as exciting as it was. But Tony is misremembering that Ground Chuck was associated with Eric Dickerson--Dickerson came to the Rams after Knox had moved on to Seattle. The top runner of the Chuck Knox Rams is Lawrence McCutcheon, but there's also substantial committee input, with John Cappelletti, Tony Baker and Jim Bertlesen also factoring prominently.
ReplyDeleteI am now following Don Nottingham on LinkedIn!
ReplyDeleteAli (of Louisville) discussing his corner men's yelling for him to get off the ropes against Foreman, in a segment sponsored by Tiparillo cigars (of Owensboro) at halftime of an NFL game ... well, Virginia, you've got to understand it was a different time ...
ReplyDeleteHow did I miss the Kendra Wecker Punt, Pass and Kick story?
ReplyDeleteThis game finds a little juice early in the second half when 35-year-old Norm Snead, recently acquired from the Giants, comes on at quarterback for the 49ers and "sprints" out of the pocket for a 27-yard gain. Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Alex Karras get a big chuckle out of the site of creaky-kneed Snead; on the replay, Gifford says Snead "almost takes a coffee break" in the middle of the run and appears to be "looking for some Rams who might take him down."
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me to report that I won in tennis last night: 7-6 (7-4). My partner (another minister's spouse) and I played only one set because that set already took so long and we were getting cold.
Now John Wayne's in the booth, so things are really picking up.
ReplyDeleteBut the 49er threat is foiled as Bruce Gossett's field-goal try is blocked, and Candlestick Park tamps back down to about as quiet as a 2020 game with the fake crowd noise.
ReplyDeleteThe 10-year-old PPK winner for the 49ers' region was from Moscow, Idaho, and I wonder if it's not the same Darin Magnuson who was the sophomore punter for the 1984 University of Idaho Vandals.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the 49ers have closed to within 12-6.
And now Norm Snead has thrown a touchdown bomb to Gene Washington--everybody loves ol' Norm--and the 49ers are within 15-13 of the Rams with about six minutes to play. Here's Don Rickles for Right Guard ...
ReplyDeleteNow McCutcheon fumbles; Dave Wilcox recovers, and Snead has about four minutes to advance San Francisco from about its own 40. Well, this really is getting pretty exciting. I love football.
ReplyDeleteBut now Isaiah Robertson intercepts Snead, and that might well do it. "That one should've never been thrown," sighs Giff.
ReplyDeleteGround Chuck has Jimmy Harris hand off to McCutcheon, and he now has moved back ahead of O.J. Simpson for the NFL74 rushing lead.
ReplyDeleteFinal: Rams 15, 49ers 13.
ReplyDelete