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The Heidi Game |
George Blanda's Miracle Season NBC had planned to have the Raiders-Jets game serve as a lead-in for their television premiere of "Heidi" on the East Coast. It was a thrilling, competitive game, a duel between quarterbacks Daryle Lamonica and Joe Namath with the lead see-sawing back and forth, but it was also running behind time. With 65 seconds left in the game, the Jets kicked a field goal to take a 32-29 lead as the seven o'clock hour arrived. NBC switched to "Heidi" on the dot instead of showing the final minutes of the game. During those final seconds the Raiders scored a touchdown on a 43-yard TD pass and another touchdown on a fumbled kickoff return to put the game away 43-32. NBC's switchboard was flooded with thousands of calls from irate fans complaining that they'd been prevented from seeing the game's finish. The resulting furor led to the present rule in the NFL's TV contracts that networks must televise games to their conclusion regardless of the score or how long over the allotted time slot they run.
George Blanda's Miracle Season With 11:24 remaining and the Raiders trailing 17-13 in Oakland against the Browns, Raider starting QB Daryle Lamonica was knocked out of the game with an injured shoulder and 21-year veteran George Blanda came in to replace him. Cleveland scored to go ahead, 20-13, with just 4:24 to play. Blanda then led the Raiders on a 69-yard scoring drive, culminating with a 14-yard TD pass to Warren Wells to tie the game, 20-20, with 1:34 left to play. Kent McCloughan's interception at the Oakland 46 with 34 seconds remaining gave the Raiders a chance to go for the win. After penalties on both teams ate up some time, Blanda hooked up with Hewritt Dixon to get down to the Cleveland 37. With just seven seconds left, Blanda nailed a 52-yard field goal (longer than any other he'd made as a Raider) to win the game with a Monday Night Football audience looking on. Blanda went on to lead the Raiders to one improbable win after another with his last-minute heroics. One sequence during this 1970 season saw the Raiders win or tie four games with a total of only eleven seconds remaining when the deciding points were scored.
The Immaculate Reception It was an AFC playoff game, and the Raiders had fought a close battle with the Steelers in a low-scoring game. They had victory in their grasp; they led the Steelers 7-6, there was but 22 seconds left in the game, and the Steelers had a 4th-and-10 at their own 40-yard line. But the Steelers lucked out on probably the most freakish play in NFL history. Terry Bradshaw threw the ball to RB John "Frenchy" Fuqua, who was hit so hard by Raiders safety Jack Tatum that the ball flew back 15 yards in the air. Miraculously, the ball landed in the hands of Franco Harris, who ran 60 yards for a touchdown.
More on the Immaculate Reception It's the 1974 AFC playoffs, and the Raiders are playing the two-time defending champion Miami Dolphins in Oakland. With the Dolphins leading 19-14 in the fourth quarter, Raider QB Ken Stabler hit Cliff Branch with a 72-yard bomb to give Oakland a 21-19 lead. Bob Griese and Miami rebounded with a scoring drive ending on a Benny Malone 23-yard run—Miami 26, Oakland 21, 2:08 remaining.
This one refers to Hall-of-Fame TE Dave "Ghost" Casper in the 1977 double-overtime Divisional Playoff victory over the then-Baltimore Colts at Memorial Stadium. The Raiders trailed, 31-28, with less than a minute remaining in regulation. Ken Stabler hit Casper on a 42-yard post pattern. Casper's over-the shoulder catch put the ball at the Baltimore 14, setting up a 22-yard field goal by Errol Mann to tie the game at 31 and send it into overtime. The Raiders won the game, 37-31, when Casper caught his third touchdown of the day, an 8-yarder, 43 seconds into the second OT. [Raiders.com has an extensive summary of the game, with some good photos to boot, in the Greatest Moments subsection of the History section on the team's site. See Raiders Top Colts in Double-Overtime Thriller.] The Raiders were trailing the San Diego Chargers 20-14. They had the ball on the Charger 23-yard line with only 5 seconds left. Ken Stabler faded back to pass, but was caught by Woodrow Lowe before he could get rid of the ball. In desperation he intentionally fumbled it forward. The ball bounced ahead to FB Pete Banaszak at the 11-yard line. Surrounded by Chargers, Pete decided to kick the ball forward himself rather than try to cover it. It reached Dave Casper at the 5-yard line. Casper kicked it into the end zone and pounced on it, recovering the 23-yard forward fumble for the winning touchdown. The Chargers were furious but the play was legal and stood. It was quickly made illegal, though, following the season, and the rule outlawing it is often called "the Raider rule." This was the defining game in Bo Jackson's short but spectacular career with the Raiders. Before a Monday Night Football audience, Bo rushed for 221 yards and 2 TD's against the Seattle Seahawks. In the second quarter, on 3rd-and-6 from the Raider nine-yard line, Bo took the handoff, swept around left end, burst past All-Pro safety Kenny Easley, and cruised en route to a 91-yard TD run, continuing into the tunnel behind the end zone in the Kingdome. Later in the game, Bo swept left again, this time from the Seattle two-yard line, and ran over much-hyped linebacker Brian Bosworth for the score. Final score: Raiders 37, Seahawks 14. Sources: Patrick MacBeath, Erin Haight (ehaight@u.washington.edu), David Brooks (dbrooks@vertgame.com), various books, NFL.com, Raiders.com FAQ maintainer: David Brooks (dbrooks@vertgame.com) |
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The Raiders complained that the ball had bounced off Fuqua and not Tatum
and therefore was not a legal reception by 1972 rules, but the play stood, allowing the Steelers to advance
to the conference championship. The referees, however, took a very long time to come to this
decision—no one even signaled a touchdown when Harris crossed the goal line. It has been rumored that
the referees made a call to the police before ruling it a touchdown to see if they would be protected from
an angry mob of Pittsburgh fans. The police replied that they had only a few policemen available, and the
referees signaled "touchdown". Again, only a rumor.
Stabler went back to work, leading the Raiders to the Miami
eight-yard-line, where he took the Raiders' final timeout. On first down, Stabler rolled to his left and
while falling forward, flipped a pass to the left side of the end zone as Dolphin lineman Vern Den Herder
clung to his ankles. Running back Clarence Davis, not known for his receiving, outfought several Dolphins
for the ball before crashing to the turf with sole possession of the ball and the winning touchdown,
leaving just 24 seconds on the clock. Final score: Oakland 28, Miami 26.