Tag Archives: Chiefs

Great moments in NFL fandom

We had an NFL first in Week 5. A Lions fan tried to discombobulate the Bills by shining a green laser pointer into the eyes of quarterback Kyle Orton and holder Colton Schmidt, but — and this might be the best part — he got caught because he made the mistake of tweeting about it (something that never happens in Mickey Spillane novels).

Now Mark Beslach will have to pay a fine for disorderly conduct, and he’s been banned from Ford Field for all eternity. Of course, “all eternity” means different things to different people. To somebody from Detroit, the Lions’ 2008 season, when they became the only team in league history to go 0-16, might qualify as “all eternity.”

Fans have been trying to insert themselves into the fray for as the NFL has been blowing up footballs. Minersville Field in Pottsville, Pa., home of the Maroons, was a particularly inhospitable place to play. Don Thompson, a guard for the Los Angeles Buccaneers in 1926, once told the Los Angeles Times, “The spectators stood on the sidelines and threw chunks of coal at us through the entire contest.”

Here’s the first known video of a fan running on the field and interrupting the game. It wasn’t just any game, either. It was the 1958 championship game between the Colts and Giants — the famed Sudden Death Game won by Baltimore, 23-17. It also wasn’t just any fan. It was a business manager for NBC News, Stan Rotkiewicz, who on Sundays would stand on the sideline and keep statistics for the network.

Impulse didn’t spur Rotkiewicz’s mad dash, though. Technical Difficulties did. Late in the game, some of the crowd had come down on the field, and somebody “behind the end zone had kicked [NBC’s] cable and unplugged America,” Mark Bowden writes in The Best Game Ever. The Colts were at the New York 8, about to push across the winning score, but fans at home had no picture on their TV screens.

So the business manager caused a brief — and necessary — delay by doing this:

By the time police escorted him off the field, technicians had identified the problem and reconnected the cable. Rotkiewicz’s heroics kept millions from missing the last three plays, capped by fullback Alan Ameche’s 1-yard touchdown run.

Then there was the Baltimore fan who ran on the field and snatched the ball during a Colts-Dolphins game in 1971. It might have been Colts linebacker Mike Curtis’ most famous forced fumble:

Ball, hat, fan — everything went flying. Any list of the NFL’s Greatest Hits has to include this one. Curtis had no qualms about it, either, no Pulverizer’s Remorse. Decades later he told The Associated Press: “We were trying to win a football game, trying to get to the playoffs, and this guy [Don Ennis] shows up on the football field. My intention was to get him out of there as quick as possible. Usually they run around for 15 or 20 minutes, and you can lose concentration and momentum.

“If somebody busts into my office uninvited, it’s trespassing. Just because it’s a stadium, that’s no different.”

Can’t fault that logic.

Finally, there was this episode in Denver in 1965, one of my personal favorites:

Fan fined for throwing ice cubes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s right, a Broncos fan was fined $50 for throwing ice cubes at the visiting Chiefs.

From Ice Cube Man to Laser Guy. What a glorious tradition.

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The best and worst of kicking

On one side Sunday, you had the Bills’ Dan Carpenter booming a 58-yard field goal with four seconds left to give his team a come-from-behind 17-14 victory. On the other, you had the Lions’ Alex Henery missing all three of his boots — none shorter than 44 yards — and losing his job because of it.

That, friends, is all you need to know about the kicking profession in the 2000s. The NFL has kickers these days capable of knocking through a game-winner from 58 yards or longer, if need be. But the bar for them has been raised so high that missing more than a handful of boots a season — never mind three in an afternoon — is likely to put them on the unemployment line. They’re the victims of their own near-perfection.

Granted, Henery has had a rough go of it this year. In his two games for Detroit, he was 1 for 5 on field goal tries, a success rate that might have raised eyebrows even in the ’50s. But he also has a track record, and it’s pretty good. In his three previous NFL seasons, all with the Eagles, he converted 86 percent of his attempts. But now he’s gone because, well, that’s just the way it is in pro football.

As Lions coach Jim Caldwell put it: “There’s somebody out there for us that’ll do the job for us. We just got to see if we can track him down quickly.”

Translation: No biggie. We’ll just hold a tryout, open up another box of 86-percent kickers and see who performs best. (It turned out to be Matt Prater, the former Bronco.)

NFL soccer-stylers have become so accurate, even from great distances, that last year they were successful on 86.5 percent of their field goal tries (which made Henery, at 82.1, below average). There even have been kickers, two of them, who have gone through an entire season without missing. And, of course, Tom Dempsey’s 63-yarder, which had stood as the record since 1970, was finally topped  by Prater, who booted a 64-yarder in Denver’s thin air last December.

The field goal is becoming almost as automatic as the extra point. So it’s easy to forget, with all these footballs tumbling through the uprights, that, at late as the ’60s, it was a very hit-or-miss proposition. And earlier than that, it was more miss than hit.

Let’s pay a visit to 1939 for a moment, to a game between the Redskins and Pittsburgh Pirates (they weren’t the Steelers yet). The Redskins won easily, 44-14, but they also missed five PATs. The Associated Press’ account read like this:

“Jim German ran off right tackle to a touchdown. Washington missed the kick. . . . [Andy] Farkas knifed through for the score. His kick was blocked by Sam Boyd. . . . Frank Filchock stood in the end zone, passed to Farkas on the 4-yard stripe, and Andy galloped 96 yards for a touchdown — a total gain of 99 yards. Turk Edwards’ kick was not good. . . . [Dick] Todd . . . raced 60 yards for another touchdown. Bob Masterson’s kick was not good. . . . Ed Justice went around left end . . . for the final Redskin[s] touchdown. [Bo] Russell missed the kick.”

This is obviously an extreme example of what I’m talking about. The Redskins were so far ahead that day that they started goofing around and letting everybody kick. (Russell and Masterson were their main guys.) But it just shows how casual teams could be about kicking and how inexact a science it was — even though PATs were 10 yards shorter because the goal posts were on the goal line.

Pittsburgh’s kicker, Armand Niccolai, was one of the better ones in the league — so good that, after he retired following the 1941 season, the team talked him into coming back for one more year. Since he’d already taken a coaching and teaching job at a local high school and couldn’t attend the Steelers’ practices, he just showed up for the games.

“He will not even don pads,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, “but will be used exclusively as a placekicker.”

No practices and no pads! What a sweet deal. Alas, he made just 2 of 14 field-goal attempts that year and decided, wisely, to retire for good.

Niccolai’s final season is one of the worst of all time by a kicker. His competition:

WORST SEASONS BY KICKERS (10 OR MORE FGA)

Year Kicker, Team Made Att %
1965 Bob Timberlake, Giants      1 15 6.7
1955 Art Michalik, Steelers      1 12 8.3
1939 Clarke Hinkle, Packers      1 10 10
1963 Bob Jencks, Bears      1 10 10
1952 Joe Geri, Cardinals      2 18 11.1
1942 Armand Niccolai, Steelers      2 14 14.3
1963 Jack  Spikes, Chiefs      2 13 15.4
1950 Ted Fritsch, Packers      3 17 17.6

All of them, by the way, kicked in the Old Style, with their toes rather than their instep. By the ’70s, though, almost every club had a soccer-styler, and success rates started going up . . . and up . . . and up. It’s just a more reliable way to boot the ball.

Still, while you’re snickering at these percentages, keep in mind: Many of these guys played another position — back when rosters were smaller — in addition to handling the kicking. That certainly raised the margin for error. (Sonny Jurgensen once told me he never had receiver Bobby Walston run a deep route on third down when the Eagles were in field goal position because he didn’t want Walston to be tired if he was needed to kick.)

Just out of curiosity, I thought I’d find out which kickers have missed the most kicks — field goals or extra points — in a season. There are some interesting names on it, including two Hall of Famers.

MOST MISSED KICKS IN A SEASON (FG AND PAT)

Year Kicker, Team FG PAT Total
1964 Paul Hornung*, Packers 12-38 41-43 28
1961 John Aveni, Redskins 5-28 21-23 25
1976 Jan Stenerud*, Chiefs 21-38 27-33 23
1963 Lou Michaels, Steelers 21-41 32-35 23
1967 Bruce Gossett, Rams 20-43 48-48 23
1969 Tom Dempsey, Saints 22-41 33-35 21
1969 Roy Gerela, Oilers (AFL) 19-40 29-29 21
1969 Gino Cappelletti, Patriots (AFL) 14-34 26-27 21
1966 Bruce Gossett, Rams 28-49 29-29 21
1963 Jerry Kramer, Packers 16-34 43-46 21
1963 Tommy Davis,49ers 10-31 24-24 21
1960 Larry Barnes, Raiders (AFL) 6-25 37-39 21

*Hall of Famer

If you’ve ever wondered why Vince Lombardi’s Packers didn’t win the title in 1963 and ’64 — after going back to back in ’61 and ’62 (and winning three more from 1965 to ’67) — you can start with kicking. Kramer and Hornung missed 44 field goal tries in those seasons, and the Golden Boy’s 26 misses in ’64 are an NFL record that probably will last forever. After serving a one-year suspension in ’63 for betting on games, Paul simply lost it as a kicker.

It’s also worth noting that the kicker who has missed the most field goal attempts in a game since 1960 — the Cardinals’ Jim Bakken, six, vs. the Falcons in ’66 — turned around the next season and booted seven in a game, a mark that wasn’t broken for 40 years.

That’s what was so ironic about the Bills-Lions game. Henery got fired for going 0 for 3, right? Guess who the last kicker to have an 0-for-4 day was.

Carpenter, Buffalo’s hero, in 2010.

So maybe this isn’t the last we’ve heard of Alex Henery.

Armand Niccolai clothing ad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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The latest Running Back from Nowhere

Once again Sunday, NFL fans watched slack-jawed as another Mystery Running Back darted and dashed all over the field. This time it was Branden Oliver, the Chargers’ undrafted rookie, who amazed the masses, racking up 114 yards rushing, 68 receiving and one touchdown — in just his third game as a pro — as San Diego routed the Jets 31-0.

This is becoming almost an annual event now, pro football’s version of Punxsutawney Phil emerging from his hole to forecast the weather. Oliver’s emergence, of course, just reminds everybody that scouting is a woefully inexact science, especially when it comes to running backs.

We know this because good ones go unclaimed in the draft all the time. Indeed, there have been 17 1,000-yard rushing seasons in the 2000s by backs who weren’t selected. Practically every year, it seems, an overlooked runner makes personnel departments cringe by leading the NFL in rushing, yards from scrimmage, touchdowns or otherwise distinguishing himself. Check out this list:

THE 9 UNDRAFTED BACKS IN THE 2000S WHO HAVE BEEN 1,000-YARD RUSHERS

Running back, Team Best Year Att Yds Avg TD
Arian Foster, Texans 2010 327 1,616 4.9 16
Priest Holmes, Chiefs 2002 313 1,615 5.2 21
Willie Parker, Steelers 2006 337 1,494 4.3 13
Ryan Grant, Packers 2009 282 1,253 4.4 11
James Allen, Bears 2000 290 1,120 3.9 2
Dominic Rhodes, Colts 2001 233 1,104 4.7 9
BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Bengals 2012 278 1,094 3.9 6
Fred Jackson, Bills 2009 237 1,062 4.5 2
LeGarrette Blount, Bucs 2010 201 1,007 5.0 6

Note: League leaders in bold face. Foster (2,220) and Holmes (2,287) also led the league in yards from scrimmage.

It’s not just these guys, either. It’s all the other guys, the ones who were drafted as afterthoughts in the late rounds. There are plenty of those, too. Such as:

TOP LATE-ROUND RUNNING BACKS IN THE 2000S

Running back\ Team Round Best Year Att Yds Avg TD
Michael Turner, Falcons 5th 2008 376 1,699 4.5 17
Alfred Morris, Redskins 6th 2012 335 1,613 4.8 13
Mike Anderson, Broncos 6th 2000 297 1,487 5.0 15
Ahmad Bradshaw, Giants 7th 2010 276 1,235 4.5 8
Chester Taylor, Vikings 6th 2006 303 1,216 4.0 6

Oliver, built along the lines of the Eagles’ Darren Sproles at 5-foot-7, 201 pounds, came out of the same University of Buffalo program that produced James Starks. Starks, you may recall, was one of the nicer stories of 2010. After being drafted in the sixth round by the Packers and spending most of the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list, he pulled a Punxsutawney Phil in the playoffs and rushed for 315 yards to help Green Bay win the Super Bowl. It’s the third-highest rushing total by a rookie in the postseason since 1960.

There’s no telling what lies ahead for Oliver. Sunday could be the highlight of his career or it could lead to even better things. With Donald Brown now questionable with a concussion, Ryan Matthews (knee) still out and Danny Woodhead (broken fibula) on injured reserve, there’s plenty of opportunity for the rookie.

But if it is his one, brief, shining moment, it was an awfully good one. His 182 yards from scrimmage are the third most by a running back this season (and include a 50-yard reception).

But getting back to our previous subject — why are so many good backs drafted so low (or not at all)? — it’s interesting to compare the Top 5 rushers this season with the Top 5 passers in terms of what round they went in.

CURRENT TOP 5 RUSHERS

Yds Running Back, Team Round (Pick)
670 DeMarco Murray, Cowboys 3rd (71)
460 Le’Veon Bell, Steelers 2nd (48)
404 Arian Foster, Texans UFA
396 Rashad Jennings, Giants 7th (250)
365 Frank Gore, 49ers 3rd (65)

CURRENT TOP 5 IN PASSER RATING

Rating Quarterback, Team Round (Pick)
116.3 Philip Rivers, Chargers 1st (4)
114.8 Aaron Rodgers, Packers 1st (24)
112.9 Russell Wilson, Seahawks 3rd (75)
109.0 Peyton Manning, Broncos 1st (1)
100.3 Andy Dalton, Bengals 2nd (35)

Huge contrast, no? On the quarterback side, you’ve got three No. 1s (two of them very high), a near No. 1 and a No. 3. And on the running back side, you’ve got a second-rounder, two third-rounders, a seventh-rounder and an undrafted free agent.

You hear all the time that the hardest position evaluate is quarterback. Well, on the basis of this, running backs may be even harder to get a read on.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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Ernie Ladd revisited

Since Ernie Ladd, the mammoth defensive tackle for the Chargers (and others) in the ’60s, is featured in this week’s Friday Night Fight, I thought I’d post my tribute to him when he died in 2007. Hopefully it’ll give you a better sense of the man — large in every respect.

“He was so big and strong, he didn’t have to be mean.”

— Billy Shaw, the Bills’ Hall of Fame guard

Everything about Ernie Ladd was supersized, from his height (6-9, same as Too Tall Jones) to his appetite (124 pancakes at one sitting). He was a 325-pound defensive tackle in an era, the 1960s, when a 250-pounder was considered strapping. The ground shook — and so did opponents — when Ladd walked.

He also hit Bobo Brazil over the head with a chair once.

This was in 1971, after his days as a quarterback cruncher for the Chargers, Oilers and Chiefs were over. Back then, you see, a fellow as large — indeed, mythic — as Ernie couldn’t simply be a Screen Shot 2014-10-03 at 12.28.21 PMprofessional football player. There was too much money to be made in the wrestling racket. As 49ers Hall of Famer Leo Nomellini, another moonlighting grappler, put it, “After you hit 30 or 32, football hurts your bones. A wrestler can go until he’s 45 or 50 and be good at it.”

Ladd, who died of cancer Saturday at 68, might have been the last of the breed. Sure, Lawrence Taylor and Fridge Perry did some rolling around, but no big name footballer since the “Big Cat,” as Ernie was called, has had anything resembling a career in the ring. (And none of them, of course, ever had to deal with Bobo Brazil’s dreaded Cocoa Butt.)

We forget how strong the connection was between the pro football and wrestling once upon a time. In the ’20s and ’30s, Jim McMillen, Gus Sonnenberg, Joe Savoldi, Bronko Nagurski and scores of other NFLers took to the mats and helped popularize the sport. Sonnenberg, the Providence Steam Roller’s 5-6 fireplug, introduced the flying tackle; Savoldi, the Chicago Bear by way of Notre Dame, gave us the dropkick. Nagurski, meanwhile, amazed the masses by keeping up a full ring schedule while playing for the Bears in 1937. In one 22-day stretch, he had five football games (from Green Bay to Pittsburgh) and eight wrestling matches (from Vancouver to Philadelphia).

Who knows how good these guys really were between the ropes? (A sportswriter once joked that Bronko was “one of the dozen or 15 world’s wrestling champions who flourished simultaneously a few years ago.”) In the end, though, it doesn’t matter. They put fannies in the seats — and turned the previously moribund mat game into the spectacular it is today.

It was in the cleat marks of Sonnenberg, Nagurski and the rest that Ladd followed. Pro football had never seen a behemoth like him when he joined the Chargers out of Grambling in 1961. In fact, he might still be the greatest extra-large player in the game’s history, a four-time All-Star who played in four title games in eight seasons before his left knee gave out.

“He was so big and strong, he didn’t have to be mean,” said Billy Shaw, the Bills’ Hall of Fame guard.

Courageous, too. After arriving in New Orleans for the 1965 AFL All-Star Game, Ladd and other black players had problems getting white taxicab drivers to pick them up. So they banded together and forced the owners to move the contest. Barely 15,000 showed up for the unplanned event in Houston, making it an embarrassment all around for the young league, but an important point had been made.

Ernie also played out his option that year and became a free agent, a rarity in those days. (Only the strongest of the strong dared to buck management like that.) He signed with Houston for Screen Shot 2014-10-03 at 12.31.24 PMmuch more money than San Diego was paying him but played just one more full season because of injuries.

There was still wrestling, though. And on the night of Sept. 14, 1971, after the tag team of Flying Fred Curry and the Stomper had fought to a draw with Mitsu Arakawa and Mr. Sato, Ladd tried to take Brazil’s U.S. championship from him. The end of the bout came suddenly, the local newspaper reported, when Bobo was “hit over the head with a chair . . . [and] counted out.”

Alas, because Ernie neglected to pin him — this is wrestling, remember — Brazil retained his belt. “A rematch,” the paper said, “has been set.”

The next time, you’ll be pleased to know, the Big Cat finished the job. After which he probably celebrated by eating “two shrimp cocktails, three dishes of coleslaw, three servings of spinach, three baked potatoes, eight rolls and butter, [a] half gallon of milk, three exotic desserts . . . and four 16-ounce steaks” — as he once did to impress a reporter.

It was just another meal for larger-than-life Ernie Ladd.

“You should see him eat when nobody’s watching,” a teammate said.

From The Washington Times, March 15, 2007

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Murray in a hurry

How unusual are DeMarco Murray’s four 100-yard rushing days in the first four games of the NFL season? This unusual: No other active running back has done it.

Indeed, only one other back has done it in the 2000s. The short list of runners who have accomplished the feat since 1960:

BACKS WITH 4 100-YARD RUSHING DAYS IN FIRST 4 GAMES (SINCE 1960)

Year Running back, Team Att Yards Avg TD Proj. Yds Final Total*
2014 DeMarco Murray, Cowboys 99 534 5.4 5 2,136 ?????
2003 Stephen Davis, Panthers 106 565 5.3 2 2,260 1,444
1997 Terrell Davis, Broncos 95 526 5.5 3 2,104 1,750
1995 Emmitt Smith, Cowboys 88 543 6.2 9 2,172 1,773*
1985 James Wilder, Bucs 102 497 4.9 2 1,988 1,300
1975 O.J. Simpson, Bills 118 697 5.9 5 2,788 1,817*
1973 O.J. Simpson, Bills 102 647 6.3 4 2,588 2,003*

*led league

As you can see, there are two Hall of Famers here (Smith and Simpson) and two 2,000-yard rushers (Davis in 1998 and Simpson in 14 games in ’73). So Murray is in pretty good company. As you also can see, none of the backs came within 300 yards of their projected total (based on their four-game figure). So DeMarco likely will fall considerably short of 2,136.

(FYI: Davis’ streak came in his first four games with the Panthers after signing with them as a free agent. Carolina went all the way to the Super Bowl that season — and nearly upset the Patriots.)

What Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has to be careful of is playing too much with his New Favorite Toy. After all, Murray is on pace for 396 carries, which would be the seventh-highest total of all time — and nearly twice as many as he’s ever had in a season (217). The group he would join:

MOST RUSHING ATTEMPTS IN A SEASON

Year Running back, Team Carries
2006 Larry Johnson, Chiefs 416
1998 Jamal Anderson, Falcons 410
1984 James Wilder, Bucs 407
1986 Eric Dickerson, Rams 404
2000 Eddie George, Titans 403
1985 Gerald Riggs, Falcons 397
2014 DeMarco Murray, Cowboys 396*

*projected

Seasons like these aren’t usually conducive to long-term productivity. Johnson, for instance, never had another 1,000-yard year, and Anderson, Wilder and Riggs had only one. As for George, he was a diminished back after that, averaging just 3.2 yards a carry in his remaining four seasons. Dickerson is the outlier, topping 1,000 yards three more times and winning the rushing title in 1988. Not coincidentally, he’s the only one in Canton (or likely to get there).

At any rate, it’s something for the Cowboys to think about. Murray is just 26, and he’s been used humanely up to now. He could be capable of a few more seasons like this if they don’t run him into the ground.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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2-14 has stopped meaning what it used to mean

Until recently, a 2-14 season was a pretty deep hole for an NFL team to escape from. (Anybody got a pulley?) In the last few years, though, we’ve seen some of the quickest turnarounds in league history. Let me refresh your memory:

● After going 2-14 in 2011, the Colts changed coaches (Jim Caldwell/Chuck Pagano) and quarterbacks (Peyton Manning*/Andrew Luck) and earned a wild-card berth with an 11-5 record.

● Following a 2-14 bottoming-out in 2012, the Chiefs changed coaches (Romeo Crennel/Andy Reid) and quarterbacks (Matt Cassel-Brady Quinn/Alex Smith) and also earned a wild-card berth with an 11-5 mark.

● And now the Texans, 2-14 a year ago, are off to a 2-0 start with their new coach (Bill O’Brien) and new quarterback (Ryan Fitzpatrick). Looking at their remaining schedule — which includes home-and-homes against the Jaguars and Titans and only four games against clubs that made the playoffs last season — an above-.500 record, and possibly even a division title, seems within reach. (Assuming, that is, they continue to stay reasonably healthy, which is always a dicey assumption.)

Compare this to the first 33 years of the 16-game schedule (1978-2010). In those three-plus decades, only two 2-14 teams — two of 23 — posted a winning record the next season and only one made the playoffs: the Patriots in the ’82 strike year, when they got help from a snowplow operator to beat the Dolphins 3-0 in a crucial game.

Snowplow Guy in New England

That, basically, is what it took for a 2-14 club to go playoff-ing the next season: a guy to get work-released from prison so he could steer a tractor across a snowy field and clear ground for the home kicker. Leigh Montville’s column in The Boston Globe the next day was priceless. It began thusly:

He started to become famous when he hit the 20-yard line.

He was not famous when he started the little John Deere 314 tractor, still not famous when he put the automatic shift into drive, but by the time Mark Henderson reached the 20, the frozen hearts at Schaefer Stadium realized what he was doing, and he was on his way. Absolute strangers would be asking Mark Henderson, 24, of Walpole to “sign my forehead” before yesterday afternoon was finished.

“What made you do what you did?” this sudden, surprise hero was asked after he had helped the New England Patriots to their 3-0 upset win over the Miami Dolphins. “What started you going?”

“I just heard a voice,” Mark Henderson said. “Someone shouted to me to get out there and clear the snow. And I just went.”

Alas, most 2-14 teams don’t reach the postseason the following year by divine intervention, aren’t rescued by a convicted burglar hearing voices. Indeed, many of them go right on being bad, even worse. Like these four:

2-14 TEAMS THAT WON TWO OR FEWER GAMES THE NEXT SEASON

Year Team (W-L) Changes Made Next Year
2008 Rams (2-14) New coach 1-15
1985 Bucs (2-14) New quarterback 2-14
1981 Colts (2-14) New coach, quarterback 0-8-1
1978 49ers (2-14) New coach 2-14

Keep in mind, though, that the Niners had the happiest of endings. Bill Walsh took over as coach in ’79, drafted Joe Montana in the third round that year and the rest, as they say, is history. Other 2-14 clubs also went to the Super Bowl not long afterward — four seasons later for the ’81 and ’92 Patriots and five for the ’85 Bills.

Maybe that will happen for Colts, Chiefs and/or Texans in the next few years. But regardless, it’s comforting to know the worm has turned. No longer is a 2-14 season like beginning of a lengthy prison term (where if you’re lucky they might let you out on Sunday afternoons to drive a snow plow around an NFL field).

At least, not necessarily.

*Granted, Manning didn’t play in 2011 because of a neck injury; Curtis Painter did (mostly). But the decision was between Manning and Luck, not Painter and Luck.

WHAT 2-14 TEAMS DID THE FOLLOWING YEAR

1978-10 2011-12
2-14 teams 23 4
Above .500 the next season 2 2
Playoffs the next season 1 2

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Another tight end runs amok

If you don’t think the Era of the Tight End is upon us, consider this: When Julius Thomas caught three touchdown passes in the Broncos’ Week 1 win over the Colts, it was the 18th time in the 2000s a tight end had done that. What’s more, we’re talking about 16 different tight ends, everybody from Mark Campbell (Bills, 2004) to Greg Olsen (Bears, 2009) to Dante Rosario (Chargers, 2012 — his only three scores that season). The only ones who’ve had two of these games (playoffs included) are the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski and the Chargers’ Antonio Gates.

Thomas also had 104 yards receiving. Three TD grabs and 100 receiving yards in a game aren’t so common for a tight end. In fact, there have been only 10 such performances in the last 25 years. The roll:

TIGHT ENDS WITH 3 TD CATCHES, 100 RECEIVING YARDS IN A GAME SINCE 1989

Date Tight end, Team Opponent Rec Yds TD
9-7-14 Julius Thomas, Broncos Colts 7 104 3
1-14-12* Rob Gronkowski, Patriots Broncos 10 145 3
10-22-06 Alge Crumpler, Falcons Steelers 6 117 3
10-30-05 Antonio Gates, Chargers Chiefs 10 145 3
11-16-03 Shannon Sharpe, Broncos Chargers 7 101 3
9-29-02 Tony Gonzalez, Chiefs Dolphins 7 140 3
12-14-97 Ken Dilger, Colts Dolphins 5 100 3
10-6-96 Shannon Sharpe, Broncos Chargers 13 153 3
10-3-93 Johnny Mitchell, Jets Eagles 7 146 3
9-17-89 Keith Jackson, Eagles Redskins 12 126 3

*playoffs

For sheer economy, you can’t do much better than Lions tight end Joseph Fauria did last season against the Browns: three catches, 34 yards, three touchdowns. The only TEs since the merger who’ve topped him — that is, scored three times in fewer yards – are, well, see for yourself:

FEWEST RECEIVING YARDS IN A GAME FOR A TIGHT END WITH 3 TD CATCHES 

Date Tight end,Team Opponent Rec Yds TD
10-12-75 Mack Alston, Oilers Browns 3 22 3
10-14-90 Eric Green, Steelers Broncos 4 28 3
10-13-13 Joseph Fauria, Lions Browns 3 34 3
11-21-04 Mark Campbell, Bills Rams 4 37 3
12-18-88 Damone Johnson, Rams 49ers 4 42 3

I’ll say it for you: Stats don’t get any more obscure than that.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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Cordarrelle Patterson and the Snowflake Theory

A snowflake fell in St. Louis on the first Sunday of the NFL season. Not the shoveling kind; the Dave Kindred kind. “At every game, if you’re paying attention, you’ll see something you’ve never seen before,” the esteemed sportswriter once wrote. “It’s my Snowflake Theory. Every game is somehow different from every other game ever played.”

Often, of course, these snowflakes are barely visible to the naked eye, of little consequence in the course of human events. Sometimes, though — when we get lucky — they’re big, fluffy things, happenings that are discussed, analyzed, marveled at and even laughed about long after the clock hits zeroes.

Which brings us to Cordarrelle Patterson, the Vikings’ multi-purpose wide receiver. Patterson, you may have heard, rushed for 102 yards in the Vikes’ 34-6 win over the Rams. No wide receiver — in the modern era, at least — had ever had a 100-yard rushing game. Before that, the best rushing performance by a wideout was 86 by the Seahawks’ Joey Galloway. (He got them all on one play, a touchdown run against the Jaguars as a rookie in 1995.)

Patterson had a quiet offensive day otherwise, though — three catches for 26 yards — so we’re still waiting for a wideout to rack up 100 yards receiving and 100 yards rushing in the same game. That’s the Holy Grail — like 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick flirting with an unthinkable 300 yards passing/200 yards rushing game against the Packers in the 2012 playoffs. (He settled for 263 and 181, which is ridiculous enough.)

Here’s some Stat Candy for you:

WIDEOUTS WITH 100 YARDS RECEIVING, 50 RUSHING IN A GAME SINCE 1960

Date Player, Team Opponent Rec Rush
11-12-95 Joey Galloway, Seahawks Jaguars 5-114-2 1-86-1
9-20-82 James Lofton, Packers Giants 4-101-0 1-83-1
11-5-06 Javon Walker, Broncos Steelers 6-134-2 1-72-1
1-16-83 James Lofton, Packers Cowboys 5-109-1 1-71-1
10-11-87 Kelvin Edwards, Cowboys Eagles 6-100-0 1-62-1
12-5-76 Freddie Solomon, Dolphins Bills 5-114-1 1-59-1

Note: Figures are receptions (or rushing attempts), yards and touchdowns.

Kind of thought Percy Harvin would be in this group. But Harvin’s top rushing total in a 100-yard receiving game is 45 in ’09 vs. the Bears. In fact, he’s rushed for as many as 50 yards just once — on a day he was held to 42 receiving.

Still, Percy strikes me as the kind of player who has a snowflake or two in him. He and Cordarrelle both. This gets me thinking about other snowflakes, other singular single-game events — or, at the very least, exceedingly rare events. The list I came up with:

● Intercepting a pass and scoring a safety. In modern times, the only player who has this double on his resume is James Harrison. Against the Chargers on Nov. 16, 2008, the Steelers linebacker sacked Philip Rivers in the end zone, caused a fumble that was recovered by tackle Marcus McNeill, then tackled McNeill in the end zone for the two points. Later Harrison picked off a pass and ran 33 yards to the Pittsburgh 43. I don’t remember anybody making a big deal of this. And in addition to being highly unusual, it happened in a single quarter (the second). What got more attention — for whatever reason — was that the game produced the first 11-10 final score in NFL history. (Thanks to James’ heroics, Pittsburgh eked it out.)

● 100 rushing yards and 100 punt-return yards. Bears Hall of Famer Gale Sayers did this the same day he tied the NFL record by scoring six touchdowns against the 49ers (Dec. 12, 1965). He was 9 for 113 rushing (long: 50) and 5 for 134 running back punts (long: 85). No one else has managed it since.

● Throwing an interception and intercepting a pass. A Steelers rookie named Tony Dungy chalked up this exploit on Oct. 9, 1977. At safety, the future Bucs and Colts coach picked off a Dan Pastorini throw for the first interception of his pro career. As if that weren’t enough, he also served as Pittsburgh’s emergency quarterback in the fourth quarter — after Terry Bradshaw and Mike Kruczek got hurt — and threw a pair of INTs. (He’d been a QB in college at Minnesota.) Maybe Bill Belichick could let Julian Edelman try this. Edelman, the all-purpose Patriot, has seen action at DB in addition to playing receiver and was a quarterback at Kent State.)

● Three touchdown catches and a punt-return TD: Az-Zahir Hakim, Rams, vs. Bengals, Oct. 3, 1999. TD receptions (all from Kurt Warner): 9, 51 and 18 yards. Punt return: 84. Five players since 1960 have had three (or more) touchdown grabs and also scored a rushing TD — all backs — but only Hakim has accomplished this particular combo. And it’s getting harder to do with all the specialization now.

● 100 punt-return yards with a punt-return TD and 100 kickoff-return yards with a kickoff-return TD. Walter Payton’s younger brother, Eddie, had a game like this for the Vikings against the Lions on Dec. 17, 1977. Kick returns: 5 for 184 with a 98-yard score. Punt returns: 3 for 105 with an 87-yard score.

● 150 yards from scrimmage and 150 yards on punt and kickoff returns. Since 1960, it’s been done as many times in the playoffs (2) as in the regular season. Go figure. The postseason guys:

— Darren Sproles, Chargers, Jan. 3, 2009 vs. Colts: 150 yards from scrimmage (105 rushing, 45 receiving), 178 return yards (72 on punts, 106 on kickoffs). He also scored the winning touchdown in overtime on a 22-yard run.

— Ed Podolak, Chiefs, Dec. 25, 1971 vs. Dolphins: 195 yards from scrimmage (85 rushing, 110 receiving), 155 return yards (153 on kickoffs, 2 on punts). This was the famous Christmas Day game, the one that went into the sixth quarter. Snowflakes (single-game division) that haven’t fallen yet:

● Catching a touchdown pass and returning an interception for a TD. Or to put it another way: Scoring on a pass on both sides of the ball. Nobody in the modern era (read: since 1960) has done it. Surprised? So am I — a little. Especially since Deion Sanders and Roy Green (among others) swung between defensive back and receiver and Mike Vrabel snuck out for 12 TDs as a goal-line tight end when he wasn’t backing up the line (and picking off 11 passes).

● 100 yards rushing, 100 receiving and 100 returning. Again, nobody in the modern era has done it. The Browns’ Greg Pruitt came closest on Nov. 23, 1975 against the Bengals (121 rushing, 106 receiving, 77 returning). A snowflake that hasn’t fallen in decades, but seems bound to with all these quarterbacks running around:

● 50 yards passing, 50 yards rushing and 50 yards receiving. The only player to do it in the last 50 years is Walter Payton, who had 50 passing, 81 rushing and 55 receiving against the Lions on Dec. 22, 1985. Nowadays, though, one of the Mobile QB Brigade — Colin Kaepernick, Cam Newton, Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III — seems more likely to pull it off. Somebody just needs to catch the defense napping.

Now, you can question the significance of some of these feats, and I respect that. But regardless of how you feel, you have to admit: We’re not talking about walking and chewing gum here. If we were, players would do this stuff a lot more regularly.

Fear not, by the way. Pro Football Daly will keep an eye peeled for any future snowflakes and dutifully report them. It’s one of our hobbies.

Or to put it another way: Snowflake Fever — catch it.

1 Which reminds me: In Week 1 of that First Sack Season, the Browns’ Chip Banks began his NFL career with a three-sack day against the Seahawks. No rookie in the 31 years since has made a better Week 1 debut, sack-wise (though the Titans’ Carlos Hall tied Banks with three against the Eagles in 2002).

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia.

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The first quarter of the first game

Every team wants to get off to a fast start in Week 1, but the 1964 Bills took it to another level. In their opener 50 years ago against the Chiefs, they jumped out to a — no, this is not a typo — 31-0 lead after the first quarter. It’s the best beginning to a season in pro football history . . . by a lot. And lest you think this is just an inconsequential detail, they went on to their first AFL championship that year.

The explosion started quietly enough with a 13-yard field goal by Pete Gogolak. But then Jack Kemp, the future vice presidential candidate, threw three touchdown passes — two to Glenn Bass, the other to Elbert “Golden Wheels” Dubenion — and defensive tackle Tom Sestak added interception to injury with a 15-yard TD return. (His victim: Hall of Famer Len Dawson.)

The Chiefs regained consciousness and got within striking distance by the end of the third quarter, but Buffalo held them off, 34-17. The Bills then proceeded to win their first nine games and, on the day after Christmas, beat the defending champion Chargers to take the title.

In other words, it wasn’t the season their coach, Lou Saban, said this:

No other team NFL team has ever had more than a 21-point lead after the first quarter of its opener. The ’08 Falcons were the last to do it (against the Lions in Mike Smith’s first game on the Atlanta sideline). As you’ll see in the following chart, four of the 12 Fast Starters went on to win the title and eight made the playoffs. Somehow, though, two managed to lose the game.

BIGGEST WEEK 1 LEADS AT THE END OF THE FIRST QUARTER

Year  Team Opponent Pts (Score) Final Result (Record)
1964  Bills Chiefs 31 (31-0) W, 34-17 Won AFL title (12-2)
2008  Falcons Lions 21 (21-0) W, 34-21 Wild card (11-5)
1999  Eagles Cardinals 21 (21-0) L, 25-24 Missed playoffs (5-11)
1991  Redskins Lions 21 (21-0) W, 45-0 Won Super Bowl (14-2)
1990  Falcons Oilers 21 (21-0) W, 47-27 Missed playoffs (5-11)
1988  Eagles Bucs 21 (21-0) W, 41-14 Won division (10-6)
1981  Seahawks Bengals 21 (21-0) L, 27-21 Missed playoffs (6-10)
1973  Redskins Chargers 21 (21-0) W, 38-0 Wild card (10-4)
1968  Raiders Bills 21 (21-0) W, 48-6 Won division (12-2)
1966  Chiefs Bills 21 (21-0) W, 42-20 Won AFL title (11-2-1)
1951  Rams Yanks 21 (21-0) W, 54-14 Won title (8-4)
1940  Packers Eagles 21 (21-0) W, 27-20 Missed playoffs (6-4-1)

Other items of interest:

● The ’81 Bengals, who overcame that 21-0 first quarter deficit against the Seahawks, went all the way to the Super Bowl (where they couldn’t overcome a 20-0 halftime deficit against the 49ers).

● While the ’51 Rams were coldcocking the New York Yanks in their opener, Norm Van Brocklin was throwing for 554 yards. It’s still the NFL record (by 27). Sixty-three years and counting, folks.

● Did you notice? Two years after the Bills laid a 31-0 first quarter on them in Week 1, the Chiefs returned the favor, 21-0 (in the very same stadium: War Memorial). Buffalo still reached the ’66 AFL championship game, though (only to lose to Kansas City again).

● That miserable first quarter certainly set the tone for the ’08 Lions. They proceeded to go 0-16, the only NFL team to plunge to such depths. The ’91 Lions, on the other hand, proved more resilient. After their stinker of a beginning, they regrouped, went 12-4 and met the Redskins again in the NFC title game (where the result was pretty much the same — a 41-10 whipping).

● The Bills’ 31-point margin isn’t just the biggest in the first quarter of an opener; it’s the biggest in the first quarter of any game. (Vince Lombardi’s Packers put up a 35 in the opening quarter against the Browns in November ’67, the record for total points, but they also gave up a touchdown, so they were ahead by “only” 28.)

● Finally, remember that Gogolak field goal I mentioned at the top? Turns out it was the first by a soccer-styler in pro football history. It’s also the subject of my next post, which I’ve linked to here.

At any rate, who knew the first quarter of the first game could be so telling?

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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R. C. Owens’ one-of-a-kind field goal block, revisited

History, as we all know, is a living thing. More information — better information — comes along, and the record gets revised. Earlier this week I published a post (and photo) about the Colts’ R. C. Owens blocking a field goal try in 1962 in a unique way: He stood back by the goal posts, jumped as high as he could and re-jected a kick attempted by the Redskins.

The newspaper accounts said it was an NFL first, and in all my research I’ve never come across another play like it. (I do remember seeing — on TV — a 1970 game between the Chiefs and Raiders in which Morris Stroud, the Chiefs’ 6-10 tight end, played “goalie” in the closing seconds and nearly blocked a 48-yarder by George Blanda (a boot that left the bitter rivals in a 17-17 deadlock). The Associated Press reported: “The ball barely made it over the crossbar and above the hands of . . . Stroud, who was stationed at the goal line.”

Reader/Facebook buddy/fellow blogger Jack Finarelli brought up another candidate in a comment: Erich Barnes, a six-time Pro Bowl cornerback with the Bears, Giants and Browns from 1958 to ’71. Wrote Jack: “I think I remember [him] doing this also in a game about 1961 or 1962. As I recall, it was considered a ‘blocked field goal’ and was open for recovery.”

So I did a little investigating. Turns out Barnes did do something like that — in 1969, when he was playing for Cleveland. (He may have done it as a Giant, too, but my search of The New York Times archive turned up nothing. It did, though, produce a photo of him blocking a field goal in the conventional fashion against the Rams in ’61.)

Screen Shot 2014-08-30 at 4.41.46 PM

 

Here’s the link to the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s story on The Game in Question. The relevant passage is as follows:

The Eagles got on the board in the second quarter after a freak play. Erich Barnes, who also was injured late in the game and may have a cracked rib, leaped high to deflect Sam Baker’s field goal bid.

Erich was playing right in front of the goal posts. He touched the ball and it bounced back in the playing field, where it was recovered by [Philadelphia’s] Tim Rossovich.

So the Eagles had a first down on the Cleveland 2-yard line. They took it into the end zone on two smashes by Tom Woodeshick.

Maybe that’s why Barnes’ play has been forgotten: because, unlike Owens’, it didn’t prevent the opponent from scoring. In fact, it cost the Browns four points — the difference between a field goal and a touchdown.

There’s also uncertainty about whether Baker’s boot would have gone through the uprights. According to United Press International, he “was short on a 44-yard field goal attempt, and Barnes, leaping high at the goal post in a bid to deflect the ball, batted it back on the playing field.”

Which is why it was a live ball — and why the Eagles were able retain possession. Had the kick gone into the end zone, as it (presumably) did in Owens’ case, it would have been ruled a touchback.

What we don’t know — because we don’t have the game film handy — is what UPI meant by “short.” It could have just meant the ball would have barely made it over to the crossbar. Or . . . it could have meant Barnes’ block was superfluous.

I’d like to think this blog can do this kind of stuff often — that is, try to get the facts as straight as we can. The truth, after all, is in the details.

Sources: newspaperarchive.com, The New York Times archive, Cleveland Plain Dealer archive, pro-football-reference.com.

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