Monday Night Memories

1974 Bills vs Raiders

BillsZone.com

BillsZone.com salutes 35 seasons of Buffalo Bills memories on Monday Night Football. Stay tuned all week as we recall many great Bills contests on the NFL's brightest stage.

The Buffalo Bills opened the 1974 season with, what ABC Sports producer Roone Arledge dubbed “Mother Love’s Travelling Freak Show”. Monday Night Football came to town with a date with John Madden’s  Oakland Raiders- a team that owned the night during the 1970’s.

Showing the balance that Saban was striving for, OJ Simpson (12 carries-76 yds) and FB Jim Braxton (19 –68) shared the load in the backfield. QB Joe Ferguson opened the scoring with a 4 yard pass to JD Hill in the 2nd quarter. Oakland then scored 13 unanswered points, on the strength of 2 George Blanda FG’s and a 15 yard run by Raider HB Clarence Davis.

Heading deep into the 4th quarter, the game was a tight to the vest defensive battle, with both clubs moving the ball well on the ground. With 1:56 remaining in the game, Ferguson capped of a late drive as he found WR Ahmad Rashad in the End Zone for an 8 yard TD pass. With a 14-13 lead, the Bills looked like they sealed the victory by forcing a Raider turnover deep in Oakland territory.

Disaster struck the Bills, when Jim Braxton coughed up the ball trying to kill the clock. Raider Safety Skip Thomas scooped up the loose ball and streaked 29 yards into the end zone with 1:15 remaining, giving Oakland a 20-14 advantage. The game rested in the hands of second year QB Joe Ferguson, who only had 4 TD passes in his entire rookie year, but had two on the night so far. Ferguson moved the club down the field quickly, as he hit Ahmad Rashad for the second time in 90 seconds- with a 33 yard TD strike. With a 21-20 lead, the Raiders still had life. An architect of many comebacks, Raider QB Ken Stabler moved the Raiders to the Buffalo 33. George Blanda’s 50 yard kick to win missed, and the Bills took their opener in wild style, Buffalo 21 Oakland 20

Monday Night Memories

1980 Raiders vs. Steelers

www.raiders.com

In 1980, Monday Night Football on ABC Sports was entering its second decade.

“In the ten years since it began, Monday Night Football has gone from a brash experiment in sports and sports broadcasting to what many regard as a national institution,” commented Roone Arledge, then President of ABC Sports.

And one of the key factors that had taken ABC’s prime time Monday night series to this exalted status was the brilliant, colorful play of the Oakland Raiders throughout the ‘70’s. The Raiders entered the 1981 season with an incredible 13-1-1 record in the first decade of these Monday Night Football telecasts.

Tom Flores, then head coach of the Raiders, remembers those years very clearly. Well, he should. Flores had a 14-4-0 record on Monday nights during his nine seasons as field boss of the Silver and Black.

“The secret of our Monday night success is hard to pin down,” recalls Flores, “But starting well certainly helped. And it became a tradition for us. Of course, part of the reason is that we had some really great teams in the 1970’s that won a lot of games regardless of when they were played. But our Monday nights really had been something special.”

“You know, the Raiders always played well in big games,” added Flores. “And Monday night, because all the excitement and because you’re the only game in town, are always big games. The whole nation is watching you, and there’s a lot of pride involved.” The Oakland Raiders October 20, 1980 visit to Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium certainly qualified as one of Monday Night Football’s greatest games – and one of the most explosive in series history.

There were 79 points scored – most ever in the 11-year history of Monday Night Football. There were nearly 800 yards in total offense, plus another 258 yards on returns. Five of the ten touchdowns came on plays of 34 yards or longer.

“Man, it was Pearl Harbor out there. It was just bombs away,” said Steelers defensive end John Banaszak after the game.

This Monday nighter in Pittsburgh was big for another reason – both the Raiders and Steelers needed a win. Both were 3-3-0 at this point in the 1980 season, and both had struggled. The Steelers were the defending World Champions and had won four Super Bowls in the last six seasons. Only the Oakland Raiders win in Super Bowl XI in 1976 and that of the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XII in 1977 had kept these Steelers from sweeping six in a row. But in 1980 nothing came easy for Pittsburgh.

The Raiders had little sympathy for their intense rivals from Western Pennsylvania. Oakland had severe problems of their own. New starting quarterback Dan Pastorini had broken his leg early in game five and the Raiders, then 2-3-0, had gone with San Francisco castoff Jim Plunkett at the key QB spot. Plunkett, former Heisman Trophy winner at Stanford and the very first pick in the 1971 NFL draft, had suffered with a weak New England Patriots team in the first half of the foolhardy decade, then been traded to an equally strong 49ers organization. Finally waived in preseason 1978, he had been signed by the Raiders and allowed to slowly regain his form and his confidence. Now, two years later the investment made by Al Davis – labeled “wasteful” at best by many so-called experts – would begin to pay off.

A week before the Raiders invaded Pittsburgh, Plunkett had led them to a 38-24 conquest of the division-leading San Diego Chargers, completing 11 of 14 passes for 164 yards and one touchdown. Kenny King, a first-year Raider astutely acquired by Al Davis in a draft-day trade with the Houston Oilers, had awakened the running game with a 138-yard afternoon, including a then-club record 89-yard scoring bust.

But on Monday night the hometown Steelers provided the early frills for their sellout crowd, jumping to a 10-0 lead. Steeler ace quarterback Terry Bradshaw completed four of his first five passes, finishing the initial possession with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Jim Smith. One offensive play later the Steelers recovered a Kenny King fumble and had possession on the Raiders 19. But the Silver and Black defense stiffened and Pittsburgh coach Chuck Noll was forced to settle for a short field goal and a 10-point advantage with less than six minutes played.

But Raider head coach Tom Flores and his proud warriors had 54 minutes left. This was a Raider organization that had learned to ignore injury, travel, weather, artificial turf and tough competition to concentrate on the job at hand. These Raiders had built a 171-66-11 record since Al Davis took over the faltering franchise in 1963 and first pledged to build the finest organization in professional sports.
 

In just six plays the Raiders drove 85 yards, with the touchdown coming on a 27-yard sweep right by Kenny King. A sack of Bradshaw by Oakland All Pro linebacker Ted Hendricks halted one Steeler possession, but early in the second quarter Bradshaw marched his team 84 yards to put the Steelers ahead 17-7. Midway through the quarter Hendricks intercepted a pass, setting the Raiders up on the Pittsburgh 39. A pass from Plunkett to talented wide receiver Bob Chandler – another of six starters acquired in 1980 trades by Al Davis – covered 37 yards and Mark van Eeghen followed center Dave Dalby and guards Gene Upshaw and Mickey Marvin for the short touchdown to narrow the Steelers lead to just three points, 17-13.

The Raider defense earned the go-ahead touchdown just six plays later. On third-and-12 from his own 45-yard line, Bradshaw dropped back to pass. Defensive end Cedrick Hardman roared in, got the sack, and forced a fumble that defensive end Willie Jones scooped up in heavy traffic and alertly laterated to linebacker Rod Martin. Martin took the lateral 34 yards for the score, putting the visiting Raiders ahead 21-17. Forty-one more points would be scored in the 33:05 left to play under the lights in Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, but the crowd of 53,940 and the many, many millions following the action nationally on ABC Sports would never see these Raiders trail again on this Monday night.

A few minutes later, Ted Hendricks – one of the ten future Pro Football Hall of Famers involved in this game – captured his second interception. In just three plays the Raiders covered the remaining 49 yards, with the touchdown coming on a 45-yard bomb from Jim Plunkett to speedy wide receiver Morris Bradshaw. But there was “no quit” in these Steelers, who scored with just ten seconds left in the second quarter. The teams headed for their dressing rooms at half time with the Oakland Raiders ahead, 28-24.

The Raider offense did not cool off in the dressing room, that’s for sure! Just five plays into the second half Jim Plunkett hit flying wide receiver Cliff Branch for 56 yards and a touchdown. The Raiders now led 35-24.

The Steelers soon closed the gap to just one point, with a 68-yard drive for a touchdown and a 32-yard field goal by Matt Bahr. After three wild quarters the scoreboard showed: OAKLAND RAIDERS 35 – PITTSBURGH STEELERS 34.

“We came to win,” stated receiver Cliff Branch on the Raider sideline. “I’m healthy now and want the ball.”

Branch got the ball. The world-class sprinter caught three passes in the next Raider drive, totaling 60 yards, with the last catch good for 34 yards, a touchdown and a 42-34 lead for the Raiders. For his Monday night efforts Branch finished with five receptions, good for 123 yards.

Oakland ate up the clock in the final quarter with a nine-minute, 15-play march that culminated in a 36-yard field goal and a 45-34 Raider lead that held up til game’s end. This was the Raiders fourth consecutive win over the Steelers and brought the Raiders Monday Night Football record to 14-1-1.
No team had ever before come into Three Rivers Stadium and scored 45 points against Pittsburgh’s famed Steel Curtain Defense.

“It’s a great victory,” said Raider coach Tom Flores. “Any time you beat the defending World Champions on their home field it has to be a super win.”

And just three months later this proud band of Raiders would have a true “super win” in Super Bowl XV and again become the World Champions of Professional Football.
 

RETURN