Please note that Bob Griese does not appear as himself in IMDb's Season 6, Episode 11 cast listing for NFL Monday Night Football, a highly rated television program which ABC broadcast at 8 p.m. Central on Mondays in the autumn of 1975. (Griese wasn't even hit when he hurt his toe against the Colts. Brutal!)
Two weeks ago, the Dolphins were 7-1, on a seven-game win streak and looking like Super Bowl contenders again. Then the Oilers and Colts beat them, and now the banner headline at the top of the sports page of this 1975 morning's Miami News reads, "It's 0-1 Morrall against 3-7 Patriots."
“Funny, the last time Miami played New England it was under similar duress,” Charlie Nobles writes. “The club had lost its season-opening game to Oakland and sat in the locker room at halftime against the Patriots pondering a 14-0 deficit. Head coach Don Shula did a little screaming, the players did a little soul-searching, then fullback Don Nottingham did a lot of running and Miami had a 22-14 victory.”
That was starting to make me feel better, but then Nobles really turned up the volume on my anxieties. Miami's Earl Morrall, he notes, turned pro when President Eisenhower was in office, while New England rookie Steve Grogan is "one of the league's hottest passing arms."
This game was blacked out in Miami--as it is in Madisonville (I'm finding no clips of it on YouTube). So I guess we'll all just have to pretend together.
As you can see, by the way, the Colts beat the Chiefs, 28-14, on Sunday, Nov. 30. NFL Films is getting really excited about Bert Jones. He has Baltimore on a six-game winning streak and "will soon dim people's memories of Johnny Unitas if he keeps going as he has been." Jones came out wearing an Orioles cap for Sunday's game with Kansas City.
ReplyDeleteAt 1:30 this Saturday afternoon, Dec. 6, 1975, Channel 12 is showing NFL Game of the Week, and today's episode features this past Sunday's Washington-Minnesota clash.
ReplyDeleteBoth Washington quarterback Billy Kilmer and Minnesota quarterback Fran Tarkenton are 35 years old, Harry Kalas notes.
ReplyDeleteWashington had lost its previous two games, both in overtime. Three of its previous four games, in fact, had gone to overtime.
ReplyDeleteMinnesota was 10-0.
ReplyDeleteThe Vikings were allowing an average of 11 points per game through 10 weeks, but Washington opened a 21-0 advantage in this Week 11 matchup.
ReplyDeleteBut Minnesota rallied to within 24-23, now just a missed Fred Cox point-after-touchdown attempt behind. As Kalas put it, "The Redskins' playoff hopes were rapidly fading under an avalanche of Northmen defense."
ReplyDeleteOn third-and-1 from the Washington 31, Tarkenton sent Chuck Foreman up the middle with a handoff, and Foreman spurted through the Washington defense ganged at the line of scrimmage and all the way for a touchdown: 30-24.
ReplyDelete"With less than two minutes left, Billy Kilmer faced a brutal Vikings pass rush once more, knowing that, if he did not get it done this time, the Redskins were in trouble! ... Kilmer completed four excrutiatingly clutch passes."
ReplyDeleteThe fourth went to Frank Grant for a take-back-the-lead touchdown: 31-30. Forty seconds remained ...
ReplyDelete"Fran Tarkenton was not about to give up center stage."
ReplyDeleteA roll-right/throw-left pass to Foreman went for 20 yards.
ReplyDeleteA scramble up the middle of the collapsing pocket and then sudden lateral right to Brent McClanhan gained 19 more.
ReplyDeleteThen a roll-left/throw-left pass to Stu Voight brought Minnesota to the Washington 28 with five seconds to go.
ReplyDeleteOn came Fred Cox.
ReplyDeleteBut no! Ron McDole, a 36-year-old, 6-foot-4 defensive lineman, deflected Cox's 45-yard attempted field goal, and Washington's playoff hopes live on for at least another week!
ReplyDelete