by Mike Siani
Wanting to prove themselves once and for all, Baltimore was eager to face the defending champs.
Colt’s safety Bruce Laird said, “The stadium was absolutely electric and for us in the locker room, we really felt we could beat those guys.”
“We felt like we could be able to set up good second down situations with good running plays, but to my surprise, and to our surprise, we weren’t as effective running the football as we hoped to be,” said quarterback Bert Jones.
Baltimore’s inability to run the football sidetracked their attack, but Oakland fared no better against the Colts’ front four.
Midway through the first quarter, a game that many thought would be a shootout was shaping into a defensive battle, with the offenses struggling as they did anything they could to show their resiliency.
This instance is where Coach Madden took what he had previously learned from studying the great Vince Lombardi.
“I know people used to say we ran to the left because Kenny Stabler was left handed. That had nothing to do with it. It was because Gene Upshaw and Art Shell were over there. I remember I learned this from Vince Lombardi that, if you are fundamentally sound and you work on your fundamentals and you do what you do best and practice it more than they practice against it, you’ll have success even if they know it’s coming.”
Amid a defensive struggle, the Raiders struck first with a touchdown by Clarence Davis.
“It was what we called back then a 15-L,” said Art Shell. “The read was off of my block. Whatever way I ran my guy, Clarence would counter off of that. I remember him breaking through the line of scrimmage and he broke a few tackles getting into the end zone. As a matter of fact, there was a facemask there that they probably should have called but wasn’t. He was determined to get into the end zone and, of course, I was pretty excited, too.”
With nineteen seconds left in the first quarter, Bert Jones threw two passes—one was almost intercepted and the other was deflected by Oakland. At that point he was 0–5 in pass completions.
Former Raiders tight end Raymond Chester had been traded to the Colts in 1973, and saw that his quarterback was struggling.
“It was probably the biggest game that Jones had been in,” said Chester. “He was probably just a little hyper and a little nicked up. We all were.”
Early in the second quarter, the Raiders gained possession near midfield with a chance to extend their 7-point lead and take control of the game. But fate didn’t see it that way. On 3rd and 6, Stabler went back to pass and it was intercepted by Bruce Laird, who ran 61 yards untouched for the Colt score to tie the game at seven all.
“With a quarterback of that experience and caliber in those games, we always try and give them different looks,” said Laird. “So what I did was cheat out a little bit and, when the ball snapped, I kind of flew to the sideline and just kind of made them think that that gap there in the flat would be open. And as soon as I saw him set, I just broke back and made a great jump on the ball. I stepped in front of van Eeghen and I took it 61 yards for a touchdown.”
Stabler commented on Laird’s intelligence.
“He was not a great cover guy, but he was a smart guy. Not tremendous speed, not big, not strong, not fast, but smart. And they sat in zones back there, in disguised zones. He sat back there in one of those zones, and I didn’t see him.”
After that play, Colts running back Don McCauley knew that the team had come together.
“I just remember what a lift it was for the team. It was a 61-yard score and I think what it showed the rest of the team was that everybody came to play—special teams, defense, offense—everybody.”
With Laird’s interception providing a sudden surge of adrenaline, the next six minutes turned into a defensive war of slow destruction.
For the Raiders, every yard, every completion, had become a struggle against this rough and tumble Colts defense.
“They didn’t give you very much,” said Gene Upshaw. “It was always very tough. Stan White was probably one of the smartest linebackers to ever play the game. And I can still see his number 53 standing out there trying to get that edge. You had Fred Cook. You had Joe Ehrmann. You had John Dutton. You had all of those guys that you knew very well.”
“In the first half, we never had field position,” said Ted Marchibroda, the Colts head coach. “We were always deep inside of our 20, and to go 80 yards against the Raiders is a tough assignment.”
“We weren’t doing much,” said Colts running back Lydell Mitchell. “The Raiders really weren’t doing much. The defenses were kind of dominating. And usually that’s a sign of a pretty good football game.”
Surprisingly, it was the Colts’ defense and not the swaggering attack of the silver and black that had changed the tempo of the game.
In the second quarter, Bert Jones’s completion to Freddie Scott was the spark that the Colts’ offense needed. Baltimore then began to successfully pound the ball with Lydell Mitchell. Later in the series on a key third down, Jones shrugged off his slow start and seemingly willed his way to a first down.
“Bert, to me, was such a competitor!” said Colts running back Don McCauley. “And that’s what I loved about playing on the same team as Bert. He was a fierce competitor with the strongest arm that I’ve ever seen.”
Lydell Mitchell even compared Bert Jones to John Elway.
“Bert was very brash, very confident. He reminded me so much of John Elway. Same type of body, built basically the same way. I always said if you took the numbers off their backs, you might not be able to tell the two apart.”
With 1:53 left in the half, Stabler led the Raiders downfield with a flurry of passes while taking advantage of the Colts defense. Mark van Eeghen’s 16-yard catch and run put Oakland in position to tie the game. But a handoff to Davis resulted in a fumble with the ball flying out in midair and the Colts’ John Dutton recovering. The half ended with the Colts leading, 10–7.
At the half, Madden wasn’t thinking speeches. He was just visualizing the adjustments needed for the team to win.
“I think the game was shaping up the way we kind of expected it to,” said Colts tight end Raymond Chester. “We were kind of a no-mistake team, you know, and bend, bend, bend, but don’t break and then wait for an opportunity.”
Upshaw felt the same about his Raiders.
“We left knowing that we had a lot of time to play. We could still score. We had Stabler back there that could find people and get things done.”
According to defensive back Bruce Laird, the Raiders were loaded with talent.
“There’s Art Shell. There’s Gene Upshaw. There’s Snake. There’s Branch. There’s Biletnikoff. There are all these great players. We’re hanging in there. We’re playing well. We gotta do a few things better. We gotta stop some of the big plays. And I kind of think the defense kind of looked over and said, ‘Offense, you gotta get off your duff and start making some first downs.’”
“First half didn’t matter,” said Jack Tatum. “Second half didn’t matter until it got to the end of the game, what was on the scoreboard. So we’re trailing at halftime. It was no big deal. Just had to give us time to work it out.”
Casper felt that the Raiders would stick to the running game.
“I think the game plan was still gonna be Branch, Biletnikoff, and the running game. We had a couple of little plays in there for down inside the 20 that when we got in there which we thought could be effective. But I don’t really think that I was a big part of the game because of the fact that they’re gonna play zones. The way they played, I don’t think the Raiders looked at me as a big part of that game.”
Following the second-half kickoff, Stabler marched the Raiders downfield and capped off the drive with a pass to Casper in the end zone for the score and the lead. Raiders 14, Colts 10.
“I had to step up in the pocket, if memory serves me well,” said Stabler. “Somebody was hanging on my legs as Dave cut across, and I flicked the ball to him for the score
.”
The Colts, however, responded quickly.
On the ensuing kickoff, Colts wide receiver Marshall Johnson ran the ball 87 yards all the way back for the score and the lead. With 10:59 left in the third quarter, the score was: Colts 17, Raiders 14.
Once Baltimore provided Johnson a perfectly formed wedge to follow, Colts tight end Jimmie Kennedy paved the way further by not only taking out Pete Banaszak, but Randy McClanahan as well.
“We knew Jimmie had speed but we didn’t know he had that kind of speed,” said Bert Jones. “I think there was almost divine intervention for him to make that play the way that he did.”
Upshaw remembers Madden’s reaction to that play.
“What I remember about that play is Madden. I mean, that was, to him, a nightmare. Just being on the sideline and just to see his reaction of, ‘How can you allow that to happen after we have so much momentum?’
“Other than John, nobody got really excited—as though it were the end of the game. It’s something that happened, and we had to score and get the lead back.”
Once again, the Colts kicked off and Stabler marched his team toward the end zone. On 2nd and 8, Stabler set up and threw downfield, but it was once again intercepted by Bruce Laird.
“We were just saying to ourselves that this is our time,” said Laird. “I think defensively our feeling was, ‘Okay guys, it’s time for you to start playing. Start making some plays, and let’s get this thing done.’”
The Colts ended up punting and Oakland rushed ten men on the play. Because of that, David Lee’s punt was blocked by Ted Hendricks. Linebacker Jeff Barnes recovered for Oakland around the Colts 16-yard line.
“That wasn’t one of my most classiest blocks,” said Hendricks. “That particular one, I only had one hand out and hit the ball, slapped at it, and it hit my hand and dropped down. That was a pretty big play in that game because we got the ball back at that time.”
A few plays later Stabler hit Casper in the end zone for the touchdown. Oakland 21, Baltimore 17.
“You go out, play, and do what they tell you to do,” said Casper. “You run back on the sidelines and you sit down and get on the oxygen tank. It was a regular defense. They played normal coverages with good players. And you line up and get in your position. You get your right split, your good stance. You do your assignment, and you play like hell, and you’ve got a chance.”
“We knew later in the game that we weren’t gonna be as effective on the ground as what we had hoped,” said Jones. “And so the natural thing to do was to utilize the run pass, or play-action.”
On their first drive of the fourth quarter, Jones and the Colts put their new strategy in motion and began piling up the yardage.
With their passing game established, the Colts now found the running lanes open for the first time all day. By changing up from Mitchell to McCauley to Lee, the Colts staged an 80-yard drive, moving to the Oakland 1-yard line with four chances to retake the lead.
On third down with one yard to go for the score, Don McCauley dove for the end zone but ran into Raider Monte Johnson, who ended up cracking a vertebra in his neck. Johnson was taken out of the game, but didn’t find out about the injured vertebra for about six months.
While the Raiders tended to Johnson, Baltimore tended to a fourth and goal situation just three feet from the end zone.
“There was never a whole lot of conversation about whether or not we should kick a field goal,” said Jones. You don’t get there by kissing your sister.”
On fourth and goal, Jones handed off to running back Ron Lee who dove into the end zone for the score. Colts took the lead, 24–21.
“Obviously they had some reads on us and they were clogging up our strong points,” said McCauley. “And thank God Ron got in. I know it was questionable by everybody whether he was in or not, but I say he was in. I’m sure Ron will give the same answer.”
Once again, Stabler moved his team downfield. Following an interference call on Baltimore in the end zone, the Raiders were first and goal on the one. Stabler gave the ball to Banaszak for the score, and Oakland took the lead, 28–24, with 9:12 left in the fourth quarter
“That’s the best part of a football game,” said Art Shell. “Your adrenaline’s flowing and now you got to make plays. Defense got to make plays. Who’s gonna make the play? So you’re gonna try to make sure that your team is the one making the plays.”
“These guys act like they’re home,” said Lydell Mitchell. “But they just wouldn’t go away. And I guess right then, you say to yourself, ‘Man, this is the makings of a great game.’”
Jones moved his team right down the field, capping the drive with another touchdown by Ron Lee. With 7:54 left in the fourth quarter, the Colts once again took the lead, 31–28.
Jones knew that the Colts could not give the Raiders any opportunities to score.
“Oakland is a team that you want to hold the football on. You don’t want them to have any more opportunities with the ball than what they have to have because they will score on you.”
After the constant back and forth, the Baltimore defense fell like a blanket over Stabler and the Raiders. For the first time since the first quarter, Oakland was held without yardage and gave the suddenly red-hot Bert Jones the football in good field position with a chance to widen their lead.
“We felt great!” said Bruce Laird. “We said, ‘You know, Bert, couple first downs, this and that, you know, maybe another three points. That’s when winners are born.’”
With the lead, Baltimore could either stay with the successful passing game or try and run out the clock. The Colts decided to go back to the run and had their momentum stolen by John Matuszak and the Raiders defense.
“It was almost as though they were playing not to lose rather than trying to play to win,” said Monte Johnson.
“It was not an independent thought of mine. We felt like we needed to eat up some time and move the ball.
“Ted Marchibroda called me and Lydell over and said, ‘Let’s run the football.’”
With another shot to put the Raiders away, Baltimore kept the ball on the ground, running twice and then again when Jones was flushed from the pocket.
“They don’t get a first down then our side of the football started to get a little bit antsy,” said Laird. “I can remember conversations going back and forth with us going on the field to our offensive team. And it wasn’t pleasantries. We were telling them to get a gosh-darn first down, and let’s get out of here.”
Former Raider, now Colt Raymond Chester knew what the Raiders would do.
“I was scared because I knew we were gonna be in the prevent defense and I knew, basically, the kind of coverages our guys were used to playing and how they cover. And I just knew Snake.”
With 2:55 left in the fourth quarter and trailing by three, Stabler and his offense took the field. Stabler hit Davis for 14 yards and a first down at the Oakland 44. After an incomplete pass, history was about to be made.
“We have a pass, and it was called “91-In,” said Madden. “For a 91-In, the two outside receivers, the ‘X’ and ‘Z,’ both ran in patterns. And then on that, the tight end would run a post, which was kind of a clean out. In other words, he would go deep and clean out the middle. And then the two outside receivers would come to the inside of the middle.”
“That play—if you look statistically—that was the most successful play the Raiders ever ran,” said Casper. “Every time we called that play during the season, we gained over nine yards just for calling it.
“So Tom Flores, who was an assistant at that time, noticed when we would throw to the end zone that the safety would be sneaking up on the end and getting awfully close. So that would tell us if the safety was coming up to take away the end, which we could get by him to the post. So what he said was, ‘On 91-In, take a peek at Ghost to the post.’ And Dave Casper’s nickname was Ghost.”
With 2:11 left in the game, Stabler dropped back with Branch wide left an
d Biletnikoff wide right. Stabler threw long and hit Casper on the Baltimore 15-yard line.
“I don’t think I caught a pass on that play all year,” said Casper. “They weren’t gonna let Branch get deep, so they put two guys short and deep on him. And they weren’t gonna let Fred get open. And I’m supposed to run to the post pattern, but he came from the inside covering me. So I did some maneuvers to set him up, and I faked an out and I went underneath him to the post. And I had him going the wrong way, and I was open but by that time, because I was late, Snake had already thrown the ball guessing where I was gonna go.
“When I looked up over my shoulder, I took one look and said, ‘The ball wasn’t going where I was going.’
“I played a lot of outfield as a kid. So I just put my head down real quick, looked to a spot, ran to it, and quickly looked back up. Thank God the ball was coming right down into my hands. If I had looked up a second later, I wouldn’t have seen it.”
The play gained 42 yards to the Colts 14-yard line, but the Raiders had to settle for a field goal by Errol Mann to tie the game. The score was tied at 31, and the game would go into overtime. After sixty minutes and 62 points, nothing had been settled.
Baltimore would win the toss, with the first team to score would win.
Jones moved his team down field, until they reached a 3rd and 8.
“I dropped back and everything was perfect,” said Jones. “Raymond Chester’s route was perfect. My throw was perfect except that it was a little early, and it was about two feet farther than where Raymond was.”
“You know, nobody guarding me but God and the air,” said Chester. “And I remember the pass leaving Bert Jones’ hand. And I looked at it, and it literally was, I don’t know how far over my head it was, but it was like, ‘Wow.’ I remember that feeling of frustration!”
“I don’t know if he would have scored on that play,” said Stabler, “but he would have put us in position to kick for the win. There are a lot of things that will haunt you and that one pass, I think, I will take to my grave wondering, Why didn’t I wait one more second before throwing to him?”
