Pro Football Daly, in its never-ending pursuit of truth, has stumbled across evidence that Y.A. Tittle did, at one time, have (some) hair:
Y.A. Tittle at the outset of his career with the Baltimore Colts.
By the way . . .
Tag Archives: quarterbacks
Ryan Fitzpatrick is no “Little General”
Came across an interesting passage in Bill Simmons’ longer-than-your-small-intestine column Friday for Grantland. Wrote Bill:
By the way, I think we should put a bow on Ryan Fitzpatrick’s career as a starting QB.
Record as a starter: 31-54-1
Number of NFL teams that started him: 5
Number of winning seasons: 0
Most wins in one season: 6
Career: 117 touchdown passes, 101 picks, 28 lost fumbles, 185 sacks, 78.4 ratingHere’s why I brought this up. . . . Has anyone started 85 NFL games and won less than Fitzpatrick? We know Joey Harrington finished 26-50 and David Carr finished 23-56 . . . but did anyone win a lower percentage of 85 or more games than Fitzpatrick’s minus-23?
Fortunately, Grantland has one of the best editorial assistants/competitive eaters in the world: the one and only Danny Chau. Here’s what Danny found out: Only one player in football since 1920 has won less than Fitzpatrick after starting at least 85 games, a 5-foot-9 quarterback named Eddie “The Little General” LeBaron, who had a 26-52-3 record from 1952 to 1963.
Actually, if you study the information provided by The Competitive Eater (courtesy of pro-football-reference.com), you’ll see this isn’t true. Two other quarterbacks besides LeBaron started “at least 85 games” and had “a lower winning percentage” than Fitzpatrick — and two more had percentages that were nearly as bad. The list should read like this:
[table]
Years,Quarterback,Teams,W,L,T,Pct
1971-84,Archie Manning,Saints\, Oilers\, Vikings,35,101,3,.263
1952-63,Eddie LeBaron,Redskins\, Cowboys,26,52,3,.340
1961-76,Norm Snead,Redskins\, Eagles\, Vikings\, Giants\, 49ers,52,99,7,.351
2005-14,Ryan Fitzpatrick,Rams\, Bengals\, Bills\, Titans\, Texans,31,54,1,.366
1987-99,Chris Miller,Falcons\, Rams\, Broncos,34,58,0,.370
1990-2001,Jeff George,Colts\, Falcons\, Raiders\, Vikings\, Redskins,46,78,0,.371
[/table]
Note: The data lists LeBaron as having 85 starts but credits him with only 81 decisions.
Another way of looking at it, of course, is:
George (1990) was the first pick in the draft.
Manning (1971) and Snead (1961) were the second.
Miller (1987) was the 13th.
And LeBaron (123rd, 1950) and Fitzpatrick (250th, 2005), the two outliers, have the least explaining to do.
And another way of looking at it is to say: For goodness sakes, whatever happened to context? Eddie “The Little General” LeBaron and Ryan Fitzpatrick have almost nothing in common except
Two Redskins lineman hoist Eddie LeBaron.
their position. LeBaron was one of the better quarterbacks of his era, a four-time Pro Bowler who was a magician as a ball-faker and even did some punting (averaging 40.9 yards on 171 kicks). He just had the misfortune of spending his first seven seasons with the Redskins (whose bigoted owner, George Preston Marshall, wouldn’t sign black players) and his last four with the expansion Cowboys.
Pro-football-reference.com lists LeBaron at 5-foot-9, but the Cowboys media guide in 1963, his final season, puts him at 5-7. When he retired, he was 13th in NFL/AFL history in both passing yards (13,399) and touchdown passes (104). Those totals may not seem like much today, but the ’50s and early ’60s were a much different time.
Some of LeBaron’s individual seasons were outstanding. In 1957 (86.1) and ’58 (83.3) he finished second to Colts Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas in passer rating. In ’62 he led the league (95.4). That was the year he might have played his most amazing game. In a 42-27 win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh, he threw for five touchdowns in a mere 15 attempts while rotating at QB with Don Meredith. Repeat: He threw for five TDs despite playing only about half the game. Here’s Pat Livingston writing about it in The Pittsburgh Press:
Can you imagine anybody calling Ryan Fitzpatrick “a brilliant old pro who happens to be one of the most underrated performers in pro football”? So again, a little context, please. Fitzpatrick and LeBaron in the same sentence? They’re not even in the same universe. Going into this season, Fitzpatrick had never had a year when his passer rating was higher than the league average.
Yup, The Little General could play. And Fitzpatrick, the Harvard grad, will appreciate this: While Eddie was with the Redskins, he got his law degree at George Washington and practiced law in Dallas — that is, when he wasn’t busy throwing five touchdown passes in half a game.
More from Tom Flores, the first MMQB
My post on Tom Flores’ stint as the Oakland Tribune’s Monday Morning Quarterback in 1962 got some nice attention. Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback, Peter King, tweeted out a link to it, and the result, naturally, was a flock of new visitors to the site.
So I thought I’d follow up with a bit more from the Flores/MMQB file — more X’s and O’s, in particular.
Let’s start with his Sept. 10 column, after the Raiders dropped their opener to the New York Titans, 28-17. Flores:
New York’s secret was no secret — just the long pass. They scored all their points from outside our 20 and all through the air. Powell, New York’s spread end, made his touchdowns on a sideline-and-up and on a post pattern.
From where I sat it looked like his post pattern was not called in the huddle, and he confirmed this to the writers later. As he was running some other pattern downfield, our deep backs switched off to what was supposed to be a zone or switch-off between safety man and corner man. But our backs got confused and Powell adjusted his pattern into a post, hoping that [quarterback Lee] Grosscup would have enough time to spot the change. Lee did . . . and hit Art with a beautiful throw which put New York out in front 28 to 10.
The accompanying diagram:
On Sept. 15, with the Raiders off that week, Flores weighed in on the 49ers. One thing he touched on was the halfback option play:
Now that Bill Kilmer has been moved to running back [from quarterback], a new weapon will be introduced: the run-or-pass option. This play, with the right person running it, can be one of the most dangerous in football. [Frank] Gifford of the Giants and [Paul] Hornung of the Packers are perfectionists of this play.
It starts out like an end sweep, except the flanker, instead of blocking, fakes in as if he were going to block and then runs a corner pattern. The halfback runs it like he would any normal end sweep, only he has his eye on his flanker and the deep defensive back on that sideline. If the defensive back reads “run” and shoots up . . ., the halfback slows up and throws a nice soft pass so the flanker can run under it as he cuts to the corner.
Should the deep back read “pass” and stay with the flanker, all the halfback has to do is yell “go” and his guards will turn upfield as they would on an end sweep.
Two days later, following the Niners’ 30-14 loss to the Bears, Flores wrote about Chicago’s pass rush, which registered seven sacks for 64 yards and was essentially the story of the game:
[The Bears] had linebackers running in and out of spots in the line all day long, and most of the time they ended their assignments in [QB] John Brodie’s lap. Bill George, the great middle linebacker, and Joe Fortunato, outside linebacker, kept the 49er[s] offense confused. From a regular pro-type defense with four big men up on the line of scrimmage, they would jitterbug back and forth from various spots along the line and on the snap of the ball go shooting through on either side of the defensive tackles or ends. . . . On 90 percent, or so it seemed, of their defensive plays they shot at least one backer but more often two or three.
They used several types of defensive setups. One in particular seemed to really give the 49ers a rough time. On this defense George would get into the line in a regular lineman’s stance, and the rest of the linemen on the split end side would move out a couple of feet.
This left giant end Doug Atkins (6-8) outside the offensive tackle, and man did he come hard. He and Brodie got to know each other pretty well on a not-so-friendly basis.
On Oct. 1, Flores analyzed a 91-yard pick-six by cornerback Fred Williamson that had given the Raiders a 14-7 lead over the Chargers (in a game they ultimately lost, 42-33):
Fred actually intercepted a pass thrown for another man’s receiver. It went like this. San Diego lined up in a slot-right formation with [Don] Norton spread far out and [Lance] Alworth flanked inside, between Norton and the tackle. As the ball was centered, the outside man, Norton, ran up the field and curled in toward the middle, ending up in a deep hook pattern, at about 15 yards. Williamson went with him and had him covered.
The flanker, meanwhile, ran downfield and cut toward the sideline behind Norton at about 10 yards. This was [safety Vern] Valdez’s man, and he was right behind him ready to go for the ball. On the release of the ball, Fred left his man and went for the interception, cutting in front of Alworth. Somehow, Fred made a leaping catch that almost sent him to the turf, maintained his balance while he struggled to stay inbounds and then turned on his fine speed and outran the remaining Chargers who were coming over to lend a helping hand.
I could go on, but I’ll wrap it up with Flores’ Dec. 10 column. The 49ers had played Vince Lombardi’s Packers tough in a 31-21 defeat — they were up 21-10 at the half — and Tom was impressed with an offensive wrinkle they came up with for Green Bay, one that enabled Brodie to complete 13 of 15 passes in the first half (against a defense, I’ll just remind you, with five Hall of Famers):
The Niners came out with a new type of spread formation that gave the Packers fits the entire first half. With both ends tight, the flanker would spread to either side. On that side the tight end would spread out just about five yards and the halfback would slot in between the end and the tackle. This left only the fullback in the backfield in his regular position behind the quarterback.
From this formation the 49ers did several things. They would send the fullback in motion away from the strength, quick-toss to the fullback to the strength, fake a reverse to the halfback and throw a pass or give to the halfback on the reverse.
Clearly, Flores’ talents went beyond quarterbacking and coaching. His analysis in his Monday Morning Quarterback column was far ahead of its time — good enough to pass muster today. Even the Tribune’s diagrams, though primitive, painted a decent picture of pro football in the early ’60s.
From one Hall of Famer to another
Would it surprise you to learn that not one of Dan Marino’s 420 touchdown passes — he held the career record for a while, you may recall — was caught by a fellow Hall of Famer? (Guess I never thought about it, but yeah, I wouldn’t have imagined.) What’s more, Marino isn’t the only QB in Canton who can say that. Today’s entertainment:
Fewest TD Passes by a Hall of Fame QB to Another Hall of Famer (Modern Era)
0 Dan Marino, Dolphins, 1983-99 — Career total: 420.* Hall of Fame receivers: none.
0 Len Dawson, Steelers/Browns/Texans/Chiefs, 1957-75 — Career total: 239. Hall of Fame receivers: none.
3 Fran Tarkenton, Vikings/Giants, 1961-78 — Career total: 342.* Receiver: Hugh McElhenny, Vikings, 3.
6 George Blanda, Bears/Colts/Oilers/Raiders, 1949-58, ’60-75 — Career total: 236. Receiver: Fred Biletnikoff, Raiders, 6.
7 Sid Luckman, Bears, 1939-50 — Career total: 137. Receiver: George McAfee, 7.
9 Sammy Baugh, Redskins, 1937-52 — Career total: 187.* Receivers: Wayne Millner, 7; Cliff Battles, 1; Bill Dudley, 1.
Compare that to this list:
Most TD Passes by a Hall of Fame QB to Another Hall of Famer (Modern Era)
139 Johnny Unitas, Colts/Chargers, 1956-73 — Career total: 290.* Receivers: Raymond Berry, Colts, 63; Lenny Moore, Colts, 43; John Mackey, Colts, 32; Joe Perry, Colts, 1.
112 Sonny Jurgensen, Eagles/Redskins, 1957-75 — Career total: 255. Receivers: Charley Taylor, Redskins, 53; Tommy McDonald, Eagles, 30; Bobby Mitchell, Redskins, 29.
106 Jim Kelly, Bills, 1986-96 — Career total: 237. Receivers: Andre Reed, 65; Thurman Thomas, 22; James Lofton, 19.
98 Terry Bradshaw, Steelers, 1970-83 – Career total: 212. Receivers: Lynn Swann, 49; John Stallworth, 44; Franco Harris, 5.
85 Steve Young, Bucs/49ers, 1985-99 — Career total: 232. Receiver: Jerry Rice, 49ers, 85.
84 Norm Van Brocklin, Rams/Eagles, 1949-60 — Career total: 173. Receivers: Crazylegs Hirsch, Rams, 32; Tommy McDonald, Eagles, 29; Tom Fears, 22, Rams; Andy Robustelli, Rams, 1.
75 Dan Fouts, Chargers, 1973-87 — Career total: 254. Receivers: Kellen Winslow, 41; Charlie Joiner, 34.
65 Otto Graham, Browns, 1946-55 — Career total: 174 (All-America Conference included). Receivers: Dante Lavelli, 57; Marion Motley, 7; Lou Groza, 1.
*Former record holder.
Amazing, isn’t it? Van Brocklin (48.6 percent), Unitas (47.9), Bradshaw (46.2), Kelly (44.7) and Jurgensen (43.9) threw almost half their touchdown passes to Hall of Famers. Now those must have been good times.
The two receivers who grab your attention are Robustelli and Groza. After all, Andy was a defensive end and Lou an offensive tackle/kicker. What were they doing grabbing TD passes?
Naturally, I had to find out the stories behind the stories. What I learned:
Robustelli’s score came in the Rams’ 1954 finale against the Packers. (That’s when teams often pulled stunts like this, in meaningless end-of-the-season games.) The Associated Press described the play thusly:
A surprise pass by Norm Van Brocklin was the key play of the game. The Rams were ahead 21-20 in the third period when Van Brocklin was faced with a fourth down and 25 yards to go. He dropped back – supposedly to punt. Instead he dropped a short pass to defensive end Andy Robustelli, who presumably was in the game to run down under the punt. The 220-pound Robustelli rolled most of the 49 yards for the touchdown.
● A 49-yard touchdown pass to a defensive end on fourth and 25. It doesn’t get much better than that, folks. Green Bay never seriously challenged again. Final score: Rams 35, Packers 27. Here’s the headline that ran in The Milwaukee Journal the next day:
● As for Groza’s touchdown, it was semi-historic. How so, you ask? Well, first of all, he scored on a tackle-eligible play, which was still legal in 1950. Second, near as I can determine, it’s the last such play to go for a TD in the NFL (mostly because it took place, like Robustelli’s score, on the last Sunday of the season).
The next year this neat bit of chicanery was outlawed, and the rule book was amended to read: “A center, guard or tackle is not eligible to touch forward pass from scrimmage even when on end of line” (as was the case with Groza, who, being uncovered on the left side, became an eligible receiver).
Harold Sauerbrei’s recounting of Lou’s heroics in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
“With the ball on the 23, Groza broke away from his [line] post and Graham laid a soft pass between two defenders into Groza’s arms, Lou running 13 yards for the score.”
The fourth-quarter touchdown increased the Browns’ lead over the Redskins to 17, and they went on to a 45-21 victory. Two weeks later, they won their first NFL title.
If you’re wondering how some current quarterbacks might fit into this, Peyton Manning threw 112 TD passes when he was with the Colts to Marvin Harrison and four to Marshall Faulk. Assuming Harrison makes it to Canton, that’s 116 right there, which would put Manning second behind Unitas. But he could add to that number and possibly pass Johnny U. if any of his Broncos receivers — Wes Welker (11), Demaryius Thomas (30) or Julius Thomas (22) — gets voted in. (The same goes for Edgerrin James, who caught 11 scoring passes from him in Indianapolis.)
The Patriots’ Tom Brady also could overtake Unitas. At the moment, his ledger reads: 39 touchdown passes to Randy Moss, 34 to Welker and 49 (and counting) to Rob Gronkowski. Total: 122 (again, if all three wind up in the Hall, which is hardly guaranteed). But the way Gronk is going, Brady could push that figure quite a bit higher.
Source: pro-football-reference.com
Hall of Famer Lou Groza, remembered mostly for his kicking, once caught a TD pass from Otto Graham.
Former NFL quarterbacks as head coaches
The rumblings are getting louder that Jim Harbaugh is on the way out in San Francisco. Jerry Rice is the most recent member of the Niners Family to pipe up. “I have heard some complaints from some players that he likes to try to coach with the collegiate mentality,” the Hall of Fame wideout told Newsday’s Bob Glauber, “and that’s just not going to work in the NFL.”
Boy, that’s a tough crowd in the Bay Area. Harbaugh takes over a team that has missed the playoffs eight years running, guides it to three straight NFC title games and one Super Bowl, and folks are starting to dump on him because (a.) the 49ers are off to a 4-4 start, and (b.) his coaching style is unorthodox by NFL standards.
His “collegiate mentality” has worked just fine up to now — unless you’re going to argue that it was his “collegiate mentality” that caused Kyle Williams to mishandle punts in the 2011
Jim Harbaugh in full throat.
conference championship game, or that it was his “collegiate mentality” that kept his offense from putting the ball in the end zone late in Super Bowl 47, or that it was his “collegiate mentality” that prevented the Niners from winning a fourth consecutive game on the road at the end of last season (formidable Arizona to finish the regular season, then Green Bay, Carolina and Seattle in the playoffs).
Yeah, that “collegiate mentality” is just a killer.
But that’s not the subject of this post. It’s just my way of beginning this post. The subject of this post is: former NFL quarterbacks who become head coaches in the league — and how Harbaugh is one of the few who have experienced much success. Going into Sunday’s game, he’s 45-18-1, postseason included. That’s a .711 winning percentage, far better than most ex-QBs have done.
If there’s anything we’ve learned over the years, it’s that former NFL QBs — despite their inherent genius, sixth sense, Pattonesque leadership ability and whatever other bouquets were tossed their way during their playing days — have no Special Insight into the game. They’re just as capable of turning out losing teams as the next guy, maybe more so.
Check out the regular-season records of the five modern Hall of Fame quarterbacks who have become head coaches in the league:
HALL OF FAME NFL QUARTERBACKS AS HEAD COACHES
[table]
Quarterback\, Played For*,Coached,W-L-T, Pct
Sammy Baugh\, Redskins,1960-61 N.Y Titans\, ’64 Oilers,18-24-0,.429
Bob Waterfield\, Rams,1960-62 Rams,9-24-1,.279
Norm Van Brocklin\, Rams,1961-66 Vikings\, ’68-74 Falcons,66-100-7,.402
Otto Graham\, Browns,1966-68 Redskins,17-22-3,.440
Bart Starr\, Packers,1975-83 Packers,52-76-3,.408
[/table]
*Team he played for longest.
I’ll say it for you: Yikes. Of these five, only Starr coached a club to the playoffs – in the nine-game ’82 strike season.
Lesser-known quarterbacks, it turns out, have done a lot better on the sideline — though, again, none has been Vince Lombardi. Their regular-season records look like this:
HOW OTHER FORMER NFL QUARTERBACKS HAVE FARED AS HEAD COACHES
[table]
Quarterback\, Played For*,Coached,W-L-T, Pct
Jim Harbaugh\, Bears,2011-14 49ers,40-15-1,.723
John Rauch\, N.Y. Bulldogs,1966-68 Raiders\, ’69-70 Bills,40-28-2,.586
Frankie Albert\, 49ers,1956-58 49ers,19-16-1,.542
Jason Garrett\, Cowboys,2010-14 Cowboys,35-30-0,.538
Tom Flores\, Raiders,1979-87 Raiders\, ’92-94 Seahawks,97-87-0,.527
Allie Sherman\, Eagles,1961-68 Giants,57-51-4,.527
Ted Marchibroda\, Steelers,1975-79/’92-95 Colts\,’96-98 Ravens,87-98-1,.470
Gary Kubiak\, Broncos,2006-13 Texans,61-64-0,.488
Sam Wyche\, Bengals,1984-91 Bengals\, ’92-95 Bucs,84-107-0,.440
Harry Gilmer\, Redskins,1965-66 Lions,10-16-2,.393
June Jones\, Falcons,1994-96 Falcons\, ’98 Chargers,22-36-0,.379
Steve Spurrier\, 49ers,2002-03 Redskins,12-20-0,.375
Jim Zorn\, Seahawks,2008-09 Redskins,12-20-0,.375
Kay Stephenson\, Bills,1983-85 Bills,10-26-0,.278
Frank Filchock\, Redskins,1960-61 Broncos,7-20-1,.268
[/table]
*Team he played for longest.
If you want to add the Saints’ Sean Payton (77-43, .642), a replacement quarterback during the ’87 strike, to this list, be my guest. To me, he was a pseudo-NFL QB, but . . . whatever.
Anyway, this group at least has had its moments. Flores won two Super Bowls (1980/’83), Rauch (’67) and Wyche (’88) led teams to the Super Bowl, Sherman’s Giants went to three straight NFL title games (1961-63) and Marchibroda came within a Hail Mary of getting to the Super Bowl with the ’95 Colts (with — you’ve gotta love this — Harbaugh throwing the pass).
Obviously, this is a small sample size. Most former NFL quarterbacks, after all, don’t become coaches, don’t want to deal with the aggravation. They’d much rather pontificate about the game from a broadcast booth or TV studio — or cash in on their celebrity in the business world. And who’s to say that doesn’t make them smarter than the ones who so willingly hurl themselves back into the arena?
Still, Harbaugh, “collegiate mentality” and all, might be the best the league has seen. Does anybody really think, if he leaves the 49ers after this season to coach at his alma mater, Michigan, that pro football will be better for it?
Source: pro-football-reference.com
Harbaugh gets ready to uncork one for the Colts.
Streak-struck
There are two kinds of streaks in sports: the real kind, which go on without interruption, and the regular-season kind, which are suspended for the playoffs and resume — the player hopes — the next year. In Sunday’s 43-21 loss to the Patriots, the Broncos’ Peyton Manning threw two touchdown passes for the 14th straight regular-season game to set an NFL record.
“Going into the game,” The Associated Press reported, “Manning had two 13-game streaks with at least two touchdown passes, and Tom Brady of the Patriots and Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers each had one.”
Of course, if postseason games were included, then that paragraph would have read differently. Brady (2010-11) and Rodgers (the same two seasons) have both had 14-game streaks counting the playoffs – and Manning’s current run of 14 games would only be eight games (since he threw for just one TD in the Super Bowl against the Broncos).
I’m not trying to bust anybody’s chops here. I totally get why the NFL separates the regular season from the postseason for record-keeping purposes. In the playoffs, after all, you’re going up against the best teams every week. They’re not Typical Games.
But I do wish the league paid as much attention to Real Streaks as it does Regular-Season Streaks. I mean, what’s the harm? All it would cost is a few extra pages in the record book. And the benefit is obvious: You’d be acknowledging some performances that might otherwise be overlooked. Better still, you’d be letting the fans decide for themselves whether one streak is better than another.
My reason for bringing this up is that Johnny Unitas threw two touchdown passes or more in 13 consecutive games in 1959 — the Colts’ 12 regular-season games, plus the title game against the Giants. That’s as long as any Real Streak Manning has had. (Peyton had a 13-gamer to start 2004, when he tossed 49 TD passes.)
You know who else had a 13-gamer? Dandy Don Meredith with the Cowboys in 1965 (the last nine games) and ’66 (the first four). I’m still not sure why Meredith was left out of AP’s story. His was strictly a regular-season streak, unlike Johnny U.’s.
Here are the game-by-game breakdowns for Unitas’ and Meredith’s streaks. Given the times — and the less-passer-friendly rules — who’s to say their runs weren’t greater those of Manning, Brady and Rodgers?
UNITAS’ 13-GAME STREAK (1959)
[table width=”125px”]
Opponent,TD
Lions,2
Bears,3
Lions,3
Bears,2
Packers,3
Browns,4
Redskins,2
Packers,3
49ers,2
Rams,2
49ers,3
Rams,3
Giants*,2
Total,34
[/table]
*championship game
MEREDITH’S 13-GAME STREAK (1965-66)
[table width=”125px”]
Opponent,TD
Browns,2
Steelers,2
49ers,2
Steelers,2
Browns,2
Redskins,2
Eagles,2
Cardinals,3
Giants,3
Giants,5
Vikings,2
Falcons,2
Eagles,5
Total,34
[/table]
Note that each threw for exactly 34 scores during the streak. Unitas’ 32 TD passes in the regular season broke the NFL record of 28 set by the Bears’ Sid Luckman in 1943. Johnny U.’s Colts, by the way, won the title that year, and Meredith quarterbacked the Cowboys to the championship game in ’66.
There’s little chance the NFL and its record-keepers will ever come around on this issue, but that won’t stop me from bugging them about it from time to time. That said, something tells me Unitas, were he alive today, probably wouldn’t care much about such a record, being an old schooler and all. In fact, if you ever brought the matter up to him, he’d probably give you a look like this:
Source: pro-football-reference.com
Big Ben bumps Tom Flores out of the record book
What in the world has gotten into Ben Roethlisberger? It’s as if he’s entered another matrix these past two weeks. Throwing for six touchdowns in back-to-back games against the Colts and Ravens? Even nowadays, in the Flag Football Era, that’s extraordinary.
When Roethlisberger tossed No. 12 late Sunday night to Matt Spaeth, he broke the record of 11 TD passes over two games shared by Tom Brady (in his lustrous 2007 season for the Patriots) and Tom Flores (in his less sparkly 1963 season for the Raiders).
Let’s talk about the Other Tom — Flores — for a few paragraphs. That ’63 season, after all, was a turning point for the Oakland franchise. The year before, the Raiders had been by far the worst team in the AFL, going 1-13 under Marty Feldman (who lasted five games) and Red Conkright (who took over for the last nine). In the offseason, owner Wayne Valley tapped a Chargers assistant as his new coach, and that coach — Al Davis — transformed the Raiders into a pro football powerhouse.
In Davis’ first year, Oakland improved from 1-13 to 10-4, winning its last eight. It’s arguably the best turnaround in NFL/AFL history. It was in the final two games, vs. Denver and Houston, that Flores threw 11 TD passes. The final score in the latter was Raiders 52, Oilers 49. (Mike Mercer broke a 49-49 tie with a 39-yard field goal in the last few minutes.)
Here’s a great stat from that game, courtesy of The Associated Press: “All told, the Raiders gained 588 yards Sunday [not counting sack yardage] after going through the first quarter without a first down.” Let’s see somebody do that again (without the benefit of overtime).
But I’m getting off topic. What I wanted to tell you about was what preceded those two magical games for Flores. In 1962, you see, when the Raiders were scraping bottom, he didn’t suit up at all. He was on the Physically Unable to Perform list, or whatever they called it then, after contracting a disease “described as bronchiectasis, a chronic lung condition which requires rest,” the Oakland Tribune reported. “He was told the healing process will take only a few months.”
So Flores sat out the year and, to keep himself occupied, wrote a regular column for the Tribune sports section. And what did the paper call it? Monday Morning Quarterback. (Attention: Peter King.) Here’s the promo the Trib ran in August:
This may well have been the first football X’s-and-O’s column to appear in a newspaper. (I haven’t found an earlier one, and I’ve done a lot of looking.) Up to then, there was a lot of mystery surrounding strategy and tactics. Every once in a while you’d see the diagram of a successful play in the sports pages – or of a new offensive or defensive wrinkle – but beyond that . . . .
Flores, to his everlasting credit, took his job seriously and wrote pieces that were very educational. He was – how shall I put this? – a really good explainer, which is one of the reasons, no doubt, he went on to win two Super Bowls as a coach.
His wheelhouse, of course, was the quarterback position. That’s where he was at his best. On an upcoming game between the 49ers and Johnny Unitas’ Baltimore Colts:
With receivers like [R.C.] Owens, Ray Berry, Jimmy Orr, Dee Mackey and, of course, the great All-Pro Lenny Moore, it’s no wonder most of Baltimore’s offense is through the air. I’d look for a lot of throwing Sunday with Owens and Berry on the short patterns – sidelines, hitches, hooks – and Moore and Orr used more on the longer throws such as sideline and ups, hook and goes, and posts.
This may sound pretty basic in 2014, but in 1962 it was virtually unheard of. You just didn’t get analysis like that. In an earlier column, Flores had discussed these various pass routes. The graphic that ran with it:
All I can say, again, is: not bad for 1962. “Oakland has to make its short passing game go in order to have a better balanced offense,” he wrote. “. . . The short passing game is vital to ball control. Passes like hitches, hooks, shallows, sidelines, swings, screens and flares get a lot of short yardage and help sustain drives.”
Sounds like the philosophy behind the West Coast Offense, doesn’t it?
“Don’t watch the ball so much,” he told his readers. “If you watch the patterns forming, you will see that almost every play has at least one deep receiver and at least one short one, spreading the defense and giving the thrower alternate targets. . . . Defensive linemen are too big and too quick nowadays to try to grind out yards along the ground all the time. The passing game is at least 50 percent of the offense of most teams, and more than that with some.”
It was a wonderfully experimental time for football. Coaches would try just about anything. The year before, the 49ers had used a shotgun offense in which the quarterback – Billy Kilmer in particular – often played much like a tailback in the single wing. In ’62, the Raiders unveiled their own version of it, the “Runnin’ Gun formation.” Here’s Flores column on the subject (complete with diagram):
Flores: “From this set-up you’ll see several things develop. There will be men in motion to either side. Most of the time this will be Red [Conkright]’s so-called ‘runnin’ man.’ In situations where this man is in motion he will probably be involved in a pass pattern either as receiver or decoy.
“Another possibility this offense presents is the almost extinct ‘quick kick’ that was used so often with the old single wing. Since [Raiders quarterback Cotton] Davidson is also a fine punter, this play is a possibility.
“Standing back three yards the QB has an advantage in passing since he can now start looking immediately for receivers. Also, the ball can be centered to either of the deep backs, so they should be able to hit the line faster on running plays.”
Interesting we don’t see more of that today – direct snaps to the running back on quick-hitting plays. Coaches probably figure it’s enough to ask centers to just snap the ball to the quarterback, though centers in the old days would snap it to any of a number of players, including this one:
OK, I’ve had my fun. Anyway, Flores hung up his typewriter after that season and, his lungs improved, returned to the Raiders in ’63. He backed up Davidson for the first five games, then took over the offense and, in a two-week span, threw for 11 TDs. Fifty-one years later, in a much different landscape for quarterbacks, Ben Roethlisberger has thrown for 12. Wonder what kind of sports columnist he’d make.
Source: pro-football-reference.com
Letting prostrate passers lie
It’s been written here and there that Robert Griffin III isn’t particularly beloved by his Redskins teammates. And one of the ways this is measured, on the Beloved Meter, is by whether or not his teammates help him up after he’s knocked down. The Big Lead gave it the War and Peace treatment last season, and ESPN.com’s John Keim felt compelled to address the subject soon afterward.
So I thought I’d share a photo from the distant past, one of Jets center John Schmidt “gently” helping Hall of Famer Joe Namath off the ground.
If a lineman did that today, he’d probably be penalized 15 yards for horse-collaring his own QB. My not-so-subtle message: Honestly, people, can we move on?
College vs. pro
Someday I’ll write a post about Things College Football Players Can Do That Pro Players Can’t (such as throw for 734 yards in a game — only 180 more than Norm Van Brocklin’s 63-year-old record).
The idea dawned on me yesterday while reading about Oklahoma’s 59-14 steamrolling of Iowa State. One of the Sooners’ more impressive stats was this: “Trevor Knight became the first FBS player this season to throw three TD passes and rush for three touchdowns in a game.”*
This got me wondering about whether any NFL quarterbacks had accomplished such a feat. Had Michael Vick ever had a day like that? Randall Cunningham? Bobby Douglass?
A quick trip to pro-football-reference.com brought me the answer: No. Since 1960, at least, no QB has done that. More than a few have come close — 14 have passed for three scores and rushed for two (last: the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers vs. the Broncos in 2011), and two have passed for two and rushed for three (last: the Raiders’ Daunte Culpepper vs. the Dolphins in ’07), but there have been no 3/3 Guys.
Undeterred, I began spot-checking some running quarterbacks from earlier years. Tobin Rote? No. Bobby Layne? No. Otto Graham? Ah-hah. And here’s the kicker: The Browns’ Hall of Famer 
did it in the 1954 championship game against Layne’s Lions. Otto threw for TDs of 35, 8 and 31 yards and ran for scores of 1, 5 and 1 as Cleveland clobbered Detroit, 56-10.
This is from Chuck Heaton’s game story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. (Heaton, by the way, was the father of Patricia Heaton, who played Ray Romano’s wife on “Everybody Loves Raymond.”)
Graham, who expects to wind up his grid activity with the Hula and Pro Bowl games next month, re-established himself as the No. 1 man at his position with his passing and running. Otto, an insurance man and part owner of a commercial sales business in the off-season, ran with all the enthusiasm of his collegiate days at Northwestern on his three scoring bursts.
The 33-year-old T-master sneaked a foot for Cleveland’s third touchdown, went five yards around his own right end on a bootleg for the fourth. He opened the second-half scoring with another plunge from the one-foot line, which killed off any slight hope remaining for the sizable Detroit aggregation on hand to see the Lions bid for an unprecedented third straight pro title.
That’s the other thing. This was supposed to be Graham’s last game. He’d already announced his intention to retire. But he changed his mind the following summer and led the Browns to one last title. In that championship game, against the Rams, he only passed for three touchdowns and rushed for two.
Anyway, it’s comforting to know an NFL quarterback has matched Knight’s feat, even if it was 60 years ago.
*Amazingly, by the end of the day, Notre Dame’s Everett Golson had done the same thing against Navy.
Source: pro-football-reference.com
The shelf life of a QB
Tom Brady broached the subject a few days before the Patriots’ season opener. Asked when he planned to retire, he told a Boston radio station, WEEI: “When I suck. . . . But I don’t plan on sucking for a long time.”
And make no mistake, when Brady starts to suck, he’ll be the first to admit it — like he did after his no-touchdown, two-pick performance in the 2011 AFC title game:
Brady’s remark resonated with Peyton Manning. “That’s a pretty good line,” he said. “I’m kind of the same feel. I don’t have a set number. . . . Yeah, right until you suck — I think that’s a pretty good rule right there.”
With the Patriots and Broncos meeting in Foxboro on Sunday — Brady and Manning’s 16th get-together — it might be a good time to explore the idea of, well, quarterbacks sucking. Bill Simmons touched on it toward the end of his column the other day for Grantland.
“Could a quarterback really play at an All-Pro level at 40 and beyond?” he wrote. “Seems insane. Absolutely insane.
“But with the current rules, why not? Why couldn’t Manning AND Brady knock down that 40-and-over door?”
Actually, the 40-and-over door has already been knocked down. Five years ago, Brett Favre turned 40 in Week 5 and went on to lead the Vikings to the NFC championship game. In fact, he went on to lead them to overtime of the NFC championship game. That’s how close he came to the Super Bowl. It was arguably his greatest season, one that saw him throw 33 touchdown passes, a career-low seven interceptions and post a career-high 107.2 passer rating. And Favre, I’ll just remind you, was the most high-mileage 40-year-old quarterback in history. He’d never missed a start.
So for Manning, 38, and Brady, 37, the bar has already been set. And good luck to both of them trying to match those numbers, should they still be ambulatory at that age. Here’s the short list of quarterbacks who’ve had 30 TD passes, fewer than 10 picks and a 100 rating in a season.
Before Favre there was Warren Moon. In 1997 with the Seahawks, at the ages of 40/41, Moon threw for 25 touchdowns — fifth in the league — in 15 starts and was voted MVP of the Pro Bowl. He was four years older than anybody else in the game.
And let’s not forget the Geezer To End All Geezers. George Blanda was 43 when he put the Raiders on his back for five weeks in 1970 and carried them to four wins and tie — yes, ties
George Blanda, armed and dangerous.
mattered in those days — with his passing and kicking. Granted, he wasn’t the regular quarterback, but three times he came off the bench and threw for crucial TDs. His heroics earned him the Bert Bell Award as the NFL’s Player of the Year.
(When he won POY award, by the way, George said he planned to continue playing “as long as I can contribute to the Raiders’ success and meet with the approval of coaches.” That was the ’70s version, I guess, of “until I suck.”)
Anyway, there you have it: Blanda, Moon, Favre. The “40-and-over door” has already ripped off its hinges. The only question is whether Brady and Manning can outperform these ageless wonders. (And even if they do, George can always say, “Yeah, but did either of them boot a 52-yard field goal with three seconds left to give his team the victory?”)
It is true, though, that, up to now, very few NFL quarterbacks have thrown a pass in their 40s — a mere 17. And just six of them have thrown as many as 100 (Favre, Moon, Vinny Testaverde, Vince Evans, Sonny Jurgensen and Len Dawson). So if Brady and/or Manning manage to have several productive seasons in their 40s, they’ll be breaking new ground.
Indeed, only 10 QBs have thrown as many as 100 passes at the age of 39. Here’s that list. (Note I said “at the age of 39,” not the year “the year they turned 39.” For some guys, “the age of 39” straddles two seasons.)
MOST PASSES THROWN AT THE AGE OF 39
[table]
Year(s),Quarterback\, Team(s),Att,Comp,Pct,Yds,TD,Int,Rating
2008-09,Brett Favre\, Jets/Vikings,523,341,65.2,3\,374,18,19,79.6
1995-96,Warren Moon\, Vikings,469,277,59.1,3\,389,23,14,85.3
2001,Doug Flutie\, Chargers,345,191,55.4,2\,155,9,15,64.8
1974,Len Dawson\, Chiefs,235,138,58.7,1\,573,7,13,65.8
1993,Steve DeBerg\, Bucs/Dolphins,227,136,59.9,1\,707,7,10,75.3
1966-67,George Blanda\, Oilers/Raiders,219,95,43.4,1\,463,13,19,49.7
2002-03,Vinny Testaverde\, Jets,199,124,62.3,1\,399,7,2,90.8
1972,Johnny Unitas\, Colts,157,88,56.1,1\,111,4,6,70.8
1960-61,Charlie Conerly\, Giants,155,75,48.4,1\,029,8,9,63.1
1973,Sonny Jurgensen\, Redskins,145,87,60.0,904,6,5,77.5
[/table]
Manning, of course, will be 39 next season. Brady is two years away. It’s hard to believe, the way they’ve been playing, that they’ll suck by then. It’s more an issue of: Will they still be upright? In the NFL, even with all the safety measures in place, there are no guarantees.