A Head-to-Head History: The New York Jets and The Miami Dolphins

The New York Jets and Miami Dolphins renew one of the most spirited division rivalries that has produced some of the most memorable moments in the post-merger NFL history.

Miami entered the AFL as an expansion franchise in 1966 just as New York was ascending on the arm of quarterback Joe Namath. The Dolphins appropriately displayed colors of their surroundings and new to professional sports - aqua and orange. The Jets, who were a charter member of the league in 1960 as the Titans, wore kelly green and white. As expected, the established Jets dominated the early series between the teams, winning the first either meetings. The 1967 meeting in New York indicated a sign of things to come as Namath struck through the air with 415 passing yards and three touchdowns. Receivers George Sauer and Don Maynard both had 100-yard receiving efforts.

The AFL-NFL merger in 1970 saw a new era begin for the Dolphins. New coach Don Shula, who had lost Super Bowl III to the Jets as the head coach of the Baltimore Colts, immediately established a winning tradition with a 10-win season and playoff berth, sweeping New York in the process. After splitting the season series in 1971, the Dolphins won 11 of the next 12 games from their AFC East rivals. Included was the worst game of Namath's career, an eight for 24, 96-yard, six interception nightmare as the Jets lost at home 43-0.

Fortunes reversed in 1978 when the Jets revamped their uniforms. The white helmets and green football logo were replaced with green helmets and "JETS" spelled out. New York's new aerial connection was Richard Todd, throwing three touchdown passes, and Wesley Walker catching two of the scores and totaling over 1oo yards receiving in the opening day victory at Shae Stadium, the Jets first victory over Miami in New York since 1969. As the players who lead the Dolphins to three consecutive Super Bowl earlier int eh decade retired the balance of power swung, and the Jets swept the season series through 1980. Entering the new decade, the Jets - Dolphins games became a premier event.

The October 1981 game in Miami saw a back-and-forth offensive circus in which the teams combined for nearly 1,000 yards. Todd threw four touchdown passes, and again Walker was his primary target with another 2 touchdown, 100 yard game. Don Strock took most of the snaps under center for Miami, sharing time with David Woodley (Miami fans referred to this combination as Woodstrock). Nat Moore had a career day with 210 yards and two touchdowns on just seven catches. Neither team scored in overtime and the game ended in a 28-28 tie. The rematch in New York in November was a more defensive controlled game as the Jets came from behind on a late touchdown pass from Todd to Jerome Barkum for a thrilling 16-15 victory that saw fans storm the Shea Stadium field. Miami won the AFC East whit an 11-4-1 record and New York finished second at 10-5-1.

Miami won the first game in New York big, then had a dramatic come-from-behind victory of their own in December in the Orange Bowl. Strock relieved Woodley in the second half and led the Dolphins to a deciding field goal by Uwe von Schamman at the gun for a 20-19 win after Jet kicker Pat Leahy missed afield goal of his won (he also missed an extra point in the first quarter.) The teams met for a third time in the AFC Championship Game on a rain soaked quagmire in the Orange Bowl. Jets head coach Walt Michaels complained the Shula had left the field uncovered to slow down New York's high powered offense. Aside from their dangerous passing game, halfback Freeman McNeil lead the NFL in rushing in 1982. Both offenses struggled and combined for nine turnovers. Miami made the most of the Jets mistakes however, as linebacker AJ Duhe intercepted Todd three times and ran one back for a touchdown in the dolphins 14-0 win. Michaels was controversially relieved of his duties on the flight back to New York, and Miami lost to Washington in Super Bowl XVII.

New faces at quarterback for both teams in 1986 began a new era of offensive fireworks. Week 3 in the Jets new home Giants Stadium (where they now wore their white jerseys under head coach Joe Walton.) Ken O'Brien and Dan Marino put on a remarkable display of passing, combining for a record 884 yards. Walker caught touchdown passes of 65 and 50 yards in the second quarter to give the Jets a 31-21 halftime lead. Marino brought Miami back with a 17-point third quarter for a 38-31 lead. The teams traded touchdowns before O'Brien brought New York down-field and connected with Walker again on a 21-yard scoring pass with no time left on the clock to force overtime. Walker caught his fourth touchdown pass in the extra period to give the Jets a 51-45 win, propelling them to a franchise record nine-game win streak. The 10-1 Jets met the 5-6 Dolphins for a Monday Night Football rematch in November, and the result was shocking, dramatic and reverberating, but also incredibly one sided. Marino was sharp again for the Dolphins, with 288 yards and four touchdowns. Lorenzo Hampton added 148 yards on the ground and two more scores, and the Miami defense forced four takeaways. The end result was a 45-3 loss for New York and the start of a five game losing streak to close the regular season. The Jets did qualify for a Wild Card playoff berth, where they defeated Kansas City before dropping a double-overtime contest to Cleveland in the Divisional Round.

Offensive fireworks were on display again in 1988 when Marino became just the fifth person to pass for 500 yards in a game. The 521 yards were the second most at the time, but unfortunately Marino also threw five interceptions one of which was returned my Erik McMillan for a touchdown, and Miami lost 44-30. Marino and O'Brien again tried to out-duel one another in September 1989 at Dolphins Stadium. O'Brien threw for 329 yards and three touchdowns in the winning effort. Marino was again valiant in defeat, out-compiling his counterpart with 427 yards and three touchdowns, but New York scored the last 14 points of the game in the 40-33 win.

In November 1994 the teams met with first place of the AFC on the line. The 6-5 Jets led the 7-4 Dolphins 24-6 late in the third quarter. Marino again had a prolific effort against New York, totaling 359 yards and four touchdowns (all scores to Mark Ingram.) Back-to-back scoring drives cut the led to 24-21. One last drive by Marino had the Dolphins on the Jets five-yard line with 30 seconds left and the clock running...Marino motioned at the line as if her were going to spike the ball to stop the clock, but instead lofted a pass over cornerback Aaron Glenn to Ingram for the winning score. The Jets then fell into a tailspin, dropping the rest of their games to finish 6-10.

In December 1998 the teams met again with first place on the line. The 9-4 Jets visited 8-5 Miami. New York's defense was up to the challenge this time, as they sacked nemesis Marino five times, intercepting him once and returning a fumble for a touchdown in the 21-16 prime time win. The Jets went on to win their first ever AFC East title with a 12-4 record, while the 10-6 Dolphins qualified for the post season as a Wild Card.

Another prime time match-up occurred on a Monday Night in October 2000 between the two 5-1 teams in Giants Stadium. This game would go down as one of the biggest comebacks in NFL and would come to be known as the Monday Night Miracle.  Miami led 23-7 at the half, with the Jets offense totaling a measly two first downs, and 30-7 after the quarters. Seventeen unanswered points cut the deficit to 30-23. Following a three-and-out by Miami, Vinny Testeverde hit Wayne Chrebet for a touchdown to tie the game 30-30, fans who had been walking down the rotundas out to the parking lots rushed back in to their seats. Jay Fiedler responded with a one play drive - a 46-yard touchdown pass to Brock Marion to regain the lead 31-30. Testeverde responded with a 70-yard drive, capped off with a juggling catch by tackle-eligible Jumbo Elliot to send the game to overtime. Miami received the overtime kickoff and drove in New York territory, but a Fiedler was intercepted and John Hall won the game for the Jets with a 40-yard field goal.

Eight years later the teams met again in Giants Stadium with first place on the line, this time in a Week 17 winner-take-all showdown. Adding a little extra drama to the mix was the Dolphins being quarterbacked by long time Jet stater Chad Pennington, who had been released after the Jets traded for Brett Favre prior to the start of training camp. On opening day in Miami, Pennington had nearly lead the Dolphins to a come-from-behind win against his former team, but a pass into the end zone with three seconds remaining was intercepted, giving New York a 20-14 win.  Neither quarterback compiled impressive statistics, but Pennington played a turnover free game, compared to Favre, who had three passes intercepted. Pennington lead the Dolphins from behind with 10 unanswered points spanning the third and fourth quarters for a 24-17 win and division crown.

Ronnie Brown and the Dolphins wore orange (see picture at the top) in a Week 5 primetime home game against the Jets (a 31-27 Miami win) in 2009.  They met again three weeks later in the Dolphins final visit to Giants Stadium and Tedd Ginn Jr. had a remarkable game. The Jets, who went white-at-home in the navy blue and gold Titans of New York throwback uniforms, broke a 3-3 third quarter tie with a 55-yard Jey Feeley field goal. Ginn subsequently returned the kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. Jason Taylor returned a fumble for a touchdown before Mark Sanchez scored a one yard touchdown, cutting Miami's lead lead to 17-13. Ginn struck again, returning the kickoff 101 yards, and became the first player to return two kickoffs for scores in a single quarter of play, and the Dolphins held on for a 30-25 win.

Big plays and big performances highlight the Jets-Dolphins rivalry, and there are certain to be more to come.  Look for the officials to use pink penalty flags in Sunday's game as Breast Cancer Awareness month comes to a head.

Hog Day Afternoon

Hog Day Afternoon
by Rob Holecko

We resume our look back at past Super Bowls that we are adding to our database by taking a look at Super Bowl XVII.  Super Bowl XVII was played on January 30, 1983.  This was the latest a Super Bowl had ever been played.  The players' strike had resulted in a loss of seven weeks of games during the season and the ninth and final week of regular season games were played in the first weekend of January.  With teams playing shortened schedules, not all teams played the same amount of divisional games, so they abandoned divisions and just seeded the top 8 teams in each conference 1-8 and played a sixteen-team tournament, with the Championship being Super Bowl XVII.

The Washington Redskins and Miami Dolphins reached this game, and the 'Skins rushing attack of John Riggins behind one of the greatest offensive lines ever, known as the "Hogs", and also led by QB Joe Theismann and season MVP K Mark Moseley, won the game 27-17, with Riggins breaking for a touchdown on a key fourth down late in the game.

We are proud to add this game to our database.

Two later Super Bowls were also played on January 30, in 1994, the Dallas Cowboys won their second of two back-to-back championships, beating the Buffalo Bills in Atlanta for the second year in a row in Super Bowl XXVIII

Six years after that, the St. Louis Rams culminated their fantastic 1999 season, also in Atlanta, by stopping Kevin Dyson one yard short of the end zone and defeating the Tennessee Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV.

These Super Bowls also are now in our database.

And now, we are also proud to debut a new segment that will run all week leading up to the Super Bowl.  It's a daily Super Bowl trivia question brought to you by our website historian, Tim Brulia.  It's called, "Do You Know As Much As Timmy B?"  Here's Tim with the first question:

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What four instances did the "home" team of the Super Bowl NOT wear the home jersey that they normally wore that season? Bonus: can you tell me why?

Put your guesses in the comments and look for the correct answer and another question tomorrow!

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Well, we'll be back tomorrow with more exciting Super Bowl related content, including another trivia question and Tuesday is also Media Day, and we'll be unveiling here in the blog the uniforms the Giants and Patriots will be taking the field in Sunday.

Super Bowl XIX

 

Super Bowl XIX

by Rob Holecko

Twenty-seven years ago today, on January 20, 1985, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX 38 to 16.  It was Joe Montana and the 49ers' second Super Bowl in four years, and it was a very memorable game.  It was played in Stanford, California, the closest a team has ever come to playing a Super Bowl in it's home stadium.  It was the first Super Bowl televised by ABC.  President Ronald Reagan, on the day of the inauguration of his second term in office, conducted the coin flip from the Oval Office.

As for the game itself, from Wikipedia:

Instead of the predicted shootout between Dan Marino and Joe Montana, the game was mostly one-sided. The 49ers defense only allowed 25 rushing yards and 16 Dolphins points. San Francisco also intercepted Marino 2 times and sacked him 4 times. The Dolphins set a Super Bowl record for least rush attempts in a game (9).

But in the opening minutes of the game, it seemed that the game would live up to the hype. On the opening kickoff, 49ers rookie kick returner Derrick Harmon caught the ball too close to the sidelines and stepped out of bounds at the San Francisco 6-yard line. The 49ers managed to advance to the 41-yard line but were forced to punt, and Dolphins defensive back Fulton Walker returned the punt 9 yards to the Miami 36-yard line. Then on their first play of the drive, Marino completed a 25-yard pass to Tony Nathan. Five plays later, Miami reached the San Francisco 23-yard line. But on third down, 49ers cornerback Eric Wright tackled wide receiver Mark Clayton 2 yards shy of the first down. Miami had to settle for a 37-yard field goal from Uwe von Schamann.

The Dolphins' 3-0 lead did not last long, as the 49ers stormed down the field on their next possession. San Francisco drove 78 yards in 8 plays, culminating in a 33-yard touchdown pass from Montana to reserve running back Carl Monroe to give them a 7-3 lead. But Miami retook the lead on their ensuing drive. After a 5-yard rush by Nathan, the Dolphins went into a no-huddle offense, preventing the 49ers from making substitutions and keeping their run defense on the field. Marino completed five consecutive passes, hitting Clayton for 18 yards, Mark Duper for 11, Clayton again for 13, and tight end Dan Johnson for 21. On the next play, Marino finished the drive by hitting Johnson for a 2-yard touchdown pass, giving the Dolphins a 10-7 lead with 45 seconds left in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the 49ers began to take control of the game. Bill Walsh switched to a 4-1-6 (or dime defense) to slow down Miami's passing attack, with Keena Turner as the sole linebacker. Miami tried to run against the 4-1-6 alignment, to no avail. Safety Dwight Hicks broke up two consecutive Marino passes, and the Dolphins were forced to punt from their own 10-yard line. Then after taking the ball at the Miami 47-yard line, Montana scrambled for a 19-yard run, and then completed a 16-yard pass to wide receiver Dwight Clark to reach the 12-yard line. From there, Wendell Tyler rushed for 4 yards, and then Montana threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Roger Craig, giving the 49ers a 14-10 lead.

Miami then had to punt again on their ensuing possession, and San Francisco defensive back Dana McLemore returned the ball 28 yards to the 49ers' 45-yard line. After advancing 15 yards with 2 running plays, Montana completed a pair of passes to tight end Russ Francis to move the ball 29 yards to the Miami 11-yard line. Craig ran for 5 yards on the next play, and then Montana ran the final 6 yards to the end zone for a touchdown, making the score 21-10. After the ensuing kickoff, Miami again was forced to punt after 3 plays, and McLemore returned Reggie Roby's 39-yard punt 10 yards to the 49ers' 48-yard line. Montana was sacked for a 5-yard loss by Doug Betters on the first play of the ensuing drive, but he struck back with a 20-yard completion to Craig and a 7-yard run over the next two plays. On the next play, wide receiver Freddie Solomon caught a pass from Montana, took one step, and then lost the ball due to a hit from safety Lyle Blackwood. Blackwood quickly recovered the ball and took off for the 49ers end zone, but field judge Bob Lewis blew the play dead, ruling that Solomon's fumble was an incomplete pass. Bill Quinby, the side judge, who was nearest to the play, did not make any call. Five plays later, Craig finished the nine play, 52-yard drive with his second touchdown on a 2-yard run, increasing the 49ers lead to 28-10.

With about two minutes left in the half, the Dolphins finally managed to get a good drive going on their next possession. Marino completed 7 out of 9 passes, the last one being a 30-yard pass to tight end Joe Rose, to reach the 49ers 12-yard line. But San Francisco's defense tightened up on the next 3 plays, forcing 2 incompletions and a completed pass for no gain, and Miami was forced to settle for Von Schamann's second field goal of the game to cut their deficit to 28-13 with 12 seconds left in the half. Then Miami caught a break as the 49ers botched the ensuing kickoff. San Francisco lineman Guy McIntyre received Van Schamann's short kick and was about to down the ball, but then changed his mind at the last second and decided to return it. This turned out to be a big mistake. McIntyre lost a fumble while being leveled by rookie Joe Carter, and Jim Jensen recovered the ball for Miami at the 49ers 12-yard line. After that, Von Schamann kicked his third field goal on the last play of the half, cutting the score to 28-16. "I can laugh about the play now, but it wasn't funny at the time," McIntyre said after the game. "My first instinct when I got the ball was to fall down. Then I heard everyone yelling, 'Get up! Get up!' So I got up, and here comes someone sneaking underneath me, and he hit the ball."

But any thoughts of a Miami comeback ended early in the third quarter. On the first play second half, 49ers defensive end Dwaine Board tackled Nathan for a 1-yard loss. Then after Marino threw an incompletion, Board sacked him for a 9-yard loss on third down. For the fourth time in the game, Roby had to punt, and again McLemore gave the 49ers good field position with an 8-yard return to San Francisco's 47-yard line. The 49ers then drove 43 yards and scored on kicker Ray Wersching's 27 yard field goal. On the Dolphins' ensuing drive, they were forced to punt again after Marino was sacked twice (once by defensive lineman Manu Tuiasosopo and once by Board). Starting their own 30-yard line after a 5-yard return by McLemore, Montana completed a 40-yard pass to Tyler, followed up with a 14-yard completion to Francis. Three plays later, Craig scored his third touchdown on a 16-yard reception to make the score 38-16. The score proved to be the last one from either team, as the defenses of both teams took over for the rest of the game - especially the 49ers' defense, who intercepted Marino twice.

Overall, San Francisco gained a Super Bowl record 537 yards, breaking the Oakland Raiders record of 429 yards in Super Bowl XI, while limiting Miami to 314, with just 25 rushing yards. San Francisco's 38 points also tied a Super Bowl record set by the Raiders in Super Bowl XVIII.

The 49ers' 288 offensive yards in the first half also tied the Raiders in Super Bowl XI for the most offensive yards in a half during a Super Bowl.

Marino finished the game with 29 out of 50 pass completions for 318 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions. Clayton was the top receiver of the game, with 6 receptions for 92 yards. Walker returned 4 kickoffs for 93 yards and gained 15 yards on 2 punt returns. Nathan was the Dolphins leading rusher with 18 yards, while also catching 10 passes for 83 yards.  Craig had 58 rushing yards, 77 receiving yards, and 3 touchdowns. He was the first player ever to score 3 touchdowns in a Super Bowl, and his 2 touchdown catches also tied a Super Bowl record. Tyler led San Francisco in rushing with 65 yards, and also caught 4 passes for 70 yards. Clark caught 6 passes for 77 yards. Board recorded 2 sacks. McLemore recorded 51 punt return yards, the second most in Super Bowl history.

We are proud to add this game to the Gridiron Uniform Database.  Also today we are launching a new page today, the index of Super Bowl Matchup graphics.  As we add Super Bowl matchups to the website today, you'll find all of them here, you'll see a new link on the front page.  We'd like to thank Mark Young, who a few months ago designed our new banner graphics, for putting together the roman numeral graphics on this page.

Also on this day, five years previous to Super Bowl XIX, the Rams and the Cowboys met in Super Bowl XIV.  This was the game that saw the Steelers put the cherry on the top of their 1970s dynasty, winning their fourth Super Bowl in six years.

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Another On This Day... that we'd like to mention.  Yesterday was January 19, and while there has never been a Super Bowl on January 19, we would like to recognize a particularly memorable game from nine years ago.  As a Buccaneer fan, while I realize that the Super Bowl victory over the Raiders is definitely the crowning achievement of our franchise, it was Ronde Barber's interception return of a Donovan McNabb pass for a touchdown that clinched the NFC Championship against the Eagles, that was the moment from that season that was most memorable.  After having lost at Philadelphia in the playoffs the past two seasons, after having never won a game below forty degrees, to go into Philadelphia and win that game to go to the Super Bowl, was really the best moment ever for the Bucs in their 35 years of existence.

 

Doug Flutie's Drop Kick

Doug Flutie's Drop Kick
by Rob Holecko

from Celebrate Boston:

On January 1, 2006, the New England Patriots were facing the Miami Dolphins. Doug Flutie was in at quarterback while starter Tom Brady was being rested for the playoffs. With 6:10 remaining in the fourth quarter, what looked like a 2-point conversion attempt turned out to be history in the making. As Flutie gathered the snap, he bounced the ball at about the ten yard line, then booted it between the uprights for the extra point. It was the first successfully executed drop kick play in an NFL game since 1941. The January 2, 2006, Boston Globe describes this historic event:

"[It turned] out the Patriots had been practicing it in recent weeks, a result of a conversation among ESPN's Chris Berman, Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and Flutie. Berman remembered seeing Flutie execute a drop kick while playing in the Canadian Football League.

'We had a couple tryouts out there and Doug shanked a couple, but he hit a couple good ones, so I thought if we had an opportunity to do it in one of these last couple of games, we'd give him a shot,' said Belichick, who smiled as Flutie hugged him after the kick. 'I think Doug deserves it. He is a guy that adds a lot to this game of football running, passing, and now kicking. I'm happy for him.'"

Tom Brady, now a legend himself, said about the play, "Doug was so nervous for three weeks because that's been in the plan. I think he was probably more worried about drop kicking than he was about quarterbacking. He was so excited when it went in. I think everyone was. He just adds to his legend."

Although Flutie did not discuss whether 2005 would be his final season, Pats' coach Bill Belichick commented about the drop kick, suggesting that the play was a retirement present of sorts for his veteran quarterback. On May 15, 2006, Doug Flutie announced his retirement from the game at age 43.

Also, "On This Day..", fifty years ago today the AFL played it's first ever Championship as the Los Angeles Chargers played the Houston Oilers.  You can read about this game here in the Pelican Park Eagle blog.

We are proud to add these game to our matchup database, and Happy New Year from the Gridiron Uniform Database.

Record Setting Night

Record Setting Night
by Rob Holecko

Last night, Saints QB Drew Brees broke Dan Marino's 1984 single-season passing mark of 5,084 yards on his final throw of the night, a touchdown that gave him 5,087 yards for the season, with one more game still to play.  The Saints beat the Falcons and clinched the NFC South title.

Throughout the night, during the telecast they referred to the record, giving a countdown of how many yards Brees needed.  They flashed back to 1984 and the Monday Night game at the end of the year against the Cowboys when Marino set the record.  They talked about the evolution of the record, from Sammy Baugh and John Unitas, and then in 1967, in the AFL, Joe Namath became the first to pass for 4,000 yards in a season.  Dan Fouts broke that record three consecutive years, in 1979, 1980 and 1981, and then Marino in 1984 passed for 5,084, a record that has stood since then.

In 2008, Brees got close to breaking the record a first time, throwing an incomplete pass on the final play of the season against the Carolina Panthers and winding up at 5,069 yards.

But this time he closed the deal, and he'll get to add to it next week, possibly they won't rest their starters in the season finale as the Saints still have a chance at a first-round bye, if they can win although they'll need the 49ers to lose to the Rams, possibly a tall order.

It was an exciting night in the Louisiana Superdome Allstate Car Carriers Big Old Round Building Mercedes Benz Superdome, possibly the biggest since the 2009 Super Bowl run, a with it being a Monday Night against the Falcons, it was reminiscent of the 2006 Week 3 game against the MNF Falcons when the Saints re-opened the dome after losing the 2005 season to Hurricane Katrina.

The Saints that year, after a dismal 2005 season went all the way to the NFC Championship game where they lost to the Bears, and three years later won Super Bowl XLIV.

Tom Brady has 4,897 yards going into his finale against Buffalo, so he also has an outside chance of passing 5,000 yards and Marino's mark.

Next week Brees also has a chance of passing Peyton Manning's record of 450 completions in a season, he finished last night with 440.

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"On This Day..."

Last week all the talk (in and around New York anyway) was the Giants-Jets game, but today we will look back to another day where the focus of the NFL was all on the New York teams.  On December 27, 1981, the two NFL Wild Card games were played as the Bills and the Jets faced off at Shea stadium in the early AFC game, and the Giants and Eagles faced off in the NFC game in Philadelphia.

Here's a quick summary of this game from Wikipedia:

Bills defensive back Bill Simpson's interception at the Buffalo 1-yard line with 2 seconds left in the game preserved a 31-27 victory and gave Buffalo their first playoff win since 1965.

The Bills jumped to a 24-0 lead by the second quarter. First New York's Bruce Harper fumbled the opening kickoff while being tackled by Ervin Parker, and Charles Romes returned the ball 26-yards to the end zone. Then after a punt, quarterback Joe Ferguson completed a 50-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Frank Lewis, while interceptions by Simpson and linebacker Phil Villapiano led to a 29-yard field goal by Nick Mike-Mayer and a 26-yard scoring reception by Lewis. However, Jets quarterback Richard Todd threw a 30-yard touchdown to tight end Mickey Shuler, and kicker Pat Leahy added two field goals to cut Buffalo's lead, 24-13.
With about 10 minutes left in the game, running back Joe Cribbs ran for a 45-yard touchdown, increasing the Bills lead to 31-13. But Todd then led the Jets 80 yards in 8 plays and completed a 30-yard touchdown to Bobby Jones. Then after forcing a punt, New York drove for another score, aided by a pass interference call against Bills defensive back Mario Clark that nullified an interception. Kevin Long finished the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to cut the score to 31-27. The Jets got the ball back with 2:36 remaining and then drove 69 yards to the Buffalo 11-yard line, aided by a holding penalty that wiped out an interception by defensive back Steve Freeman. However, Simpson's interception at the 1-yard line halted New York's comeback with 2 seconds left.

Simpson recorded 2 interceptions, while Lewis caught 7 passes for a franchise postseason record 158 yards and 2 touchdowns. Shuler caught 6 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown. Todd threw for 377 yards, while Ferguson threw for 268. Both quarterbacks threw 2 touchdowns and were intercepted four times.

Larry Schmit reports to us in the forum that in this game the Bills' Joe Cribbs wore a gray facemask, while the other Bills wore the correct white facemasks. (see pictures)  Thanks, Larry.

In the other game, the Giants and Eagles faced off.  Here's the Wikipedia run down of that game:

The Giants jumped to a 20-0 lead in the first quarter, but had to withstand an Eagles comeback at the end to hold on to a 27-21 win. In the first quarter, Eagles kick/punt returner Wally Henry fumbled a punt and Beasley Reece recovered the ball at the Philadelphia 26-yard line. A few plays later, quarterback Scott Brunner then threw a 9-yard touchdown to running back Leon Bright (the extra point attempt failed). Later in the first period, Brunner threw a 10-yard touchdown to wide receiver John Mistler, Henry then fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Mark Haynes recovered the ball in the end zone to give New York a 20-0 lead.

In the second quarter, Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski completed a 15-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Harold Carmichael, but it was countered by Brunner's 22-yard touchdown to wide receiver Tom Mullady to give the Giants a 27-7 halftime lead. However, New York was shut out in the second half, while the Eagles opened the third period by marching 82 yards to score on running back Wilbert Montgomery's 6-yard rushing touchdown. Montgomery added another touchdown with 2:51 left in the game, but the Giants were able to run out the rest of the clock to preserve the victory. It marked the Giants first post season victory since 1956.

The Bills and the Giants both scored their first post-season victories in decades that day, and while they would both go on to lose to the eventual Super Bowl participants, the 49ers and the Bengals, the following week, for one day the New York teams were the center of the football world.

The Longest Game Ever

The Longest Game Ever
by Rob Holecko

While Tim's Christmas Eve post yesterday summed up our feelings around here and gratitude to everyone who has helped us make this website be what it is during this first year, those feelings of gratitude are dwarfed by the excitement that we feel in anticipation for how much this site can and will grow in the next couple years as we see just how little we have on the site as compared with what it will be when complete.

To that end we offer another small Christmas present to our visitors.  We have slightly revamped the navigation for the 'Head-to-Head Matchups.'  You will now see on the front page to the left of the web-visitor counter (which by the way is now at 95,000) links which will help you easily find matchups by week, by team, and by year.  Also there are links to the 'Randomly Added', 'All-Time Post-Season' and 'Historical Head-To-Head' matchups.  When clicking on to these pages, you can see truly how little of the vast collection of complete head-to-head matchups we have done, and how much work there is to go.  But, of course all of the yearly graphics, which are accessible by the year and team links down either side of the webpage, are available, and if there is a particular past head-to-head matchup you would like added to the database, just let us know and we'll add it.

Another new feature, to the right of the web-counter, you will now see links to the most recent blog entries, so you do not have to click into the blog to see if and when it has been updated.  I know at times we have updated daily, while at times during the school year we just haven't had time to update it more than weekly, so now you will know wherever something new is there just by a quick look at the front page.  You can also subscribe to the blog here.

Now onto the main subject of today's Christmas Day blog, the "On This Day..."

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"On This Day..."

In 1971, the Chiefs and Dolphins met in an AFC Divisional Playoff game.  The Chiefs had been to two of the first five Super Bowls, having won Super Bowl IV, while the Dolphins were making their second consecutive playoff appearance, in Don Shula's second year.  Both teams were 10-3-1 and had the two best records in the conference, but under the system then teams in the NFL playoffs were not seeded, but merely rotated among the three division winners and one wild card team.  (The same system, which would the following year see the 15-0 Dolphins play on the road in the AFC Championship game at Pittsburgh, would be abandoned a few years later.)  So the top two seeds met in the divisional playoff round on Christmas Day, while the Central Division champion Browns and wild card Colts would meet in the other divisional playoff, the following day.

What makes this game special is that it was tied at the end of regulation, and after a 15 minute overtime period with no scoring, for the first time ever, an NFL game went to a second overtime.  To this day, only four games have gone into a second overtime, yesterday we told you about the 1977 Oakland-Baltimore game, and a game in 1987 between the Jets and Browns and the Panthers-Rams game a few years ago were the other two.

This exciting game is described as follows in Wikipedia:

In the longest NFL game played to date at 82 minutes, 40 seconds (and the Chiefs' last-ever game at Municipal Stadium), Miami kicker Garo Yepremian kicked the winning 37-yard field goal after 7:40 of double-overtime. The Chiefs jumped to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter with Jan Stenerud's 24-yard field goal and quarterback Len Dawson's 7-yard touchdown pass to Ed Podolak. But the Dolphins tied the game in the second quarter with Yepremian's 14-yard field goal and running back Larry Csonka's 1-yard touchdown run. The teams exchanged touchdowns in the third quarter before Podolak scored on a 3-yard run in the fourth period. But Miami quarterback Bob Griese threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Marv Fleming to tie the game. Podolak returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards to the Dolphins 22-yard line before being shoved out of bounds by Miami's Curtis Johnson (cornerback), giving Stenerud a chance to win the game for the Chiefs in the final minute of regulation. But he missed the field goal attempt from 31 yards and the game went into overtime.

Kansas City took the opening kickoff of the first overtime period, but Stenerud 42-yard field goal attempt was blocked. Yepremian also attempted a 52-yard field goal later in the period, but missed. Csonka's 29-yard run in the second quarter set up Yepremian's game-winning score.


Podolak's 350 all-purpose yards (8 receptions for 110 yards, 17 carries for 85 yards, 3 kickoff returns for 154 yards, two punt returns for two yards) in this game remain an NFL playoff record, and is still the fourth highest total in NFL history. "I don't think any one player in a big game, a monumental game like that, had a day like Eddie Podolak had," said Chiefs coach Hank Stram after the game.  Dolphins receiver Paul Warfield finished with 7 receptions for a career postseason high 140 yards, while Dolphins linebacker Nick Buonticonti racked up 20 tackles.

The NFL drew criticism for scheduling games for the first time on Christmas.  The Vikings-Cowboys NFC playoff game was first at 1:00 Eastern, and the Dolphins-Chiefs was the late game at 4:00.  The NFL had previously avoided playing on Christmas, moving both the 1955 and 1960 NFL Championships to Monday the 26th, and in most earlier years, the season was over before Christmas.

Since this game ran so long, it went well into Christmas evening.  The following year, 1972, Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, and the NFL played two divisional playoff games on Christmas Eve.  The next time that Christmas fell on a weekend in 1977, the NFL played the two AFC divisional games on Christmas Eve on Saturday and the two NFC games on Monday the 26th.  

Over the last few decades, as the season has grown longer, and later, and the regular season now stretches into January, the NFL does regularly play games on and around Christmas, but not night games on Christmas Eve, nor a full slate of day games on Christmas Day.  This year, like in 2005, the majority of the day games were moved to early Saturday Christmas Eve starts, with one or two late games on Christmas Day.  

In '05, the Bears played the Packers at 5 PM on Christmas on FOX, followed by the usual ESPN Sunday Night game between Minnesota and Baltimore, and the Packers-Bears will face off again tonight on NBC.  

NFL Network today will be airing a special on this 1971 Dolphins-Chiefs game, sure to be something not to miss.

We are proud to add this game to Gridiron Uniform Database's collection of randomly added single-game matchups.

You can view other randomly added past games here.

Week 15 Uniform Rankings

Week 15 Uniform Rankings

by Tim Brulia

Week 15 and we start to separate the men from the boys, on the field and on the body (er, uniform wise!)

Jaguars-Falcons: Jag rock white/black and the Falcs go red/white. Lot of blackness here. Falcons red saves this from being total blah from my standpoint.

Cowboys-Buccaneers: Cowboys in the standard white/green-blue-silver and the Bucs go red-pewter. This may be just a bit of metallic color overload for me. I think had the Bucs worn the white pants here, it would have made the red jerseys pop a little more. But, this is not really all that bad.

Panthers-Texans: Panthers in the white-white get up and the Texans go with navy-white. A lot of white, but the Texans navy jerseys just look good and make this one a pretty good feature.

Redskins-Giants: OK, I accept that the Skins yellow pants are mothballed for 2011. And doing that, I can deal with this matchup well. Much more traditional and a heaping amount of color, with white, blue, burgundy and gray, trimmed with yellow and red. Soothing to the football eyes.

Dolphins-Bills: Dolphins in white/aqua, Bills in blue/white. White helmets aside, I'm not sure why, but whenever the Dolphins rock an aqua jersey or aqua pants, I get fired up. And the Bills in their very sharp blue jerseys, I find myself quite attracted to this matchup. Satisfaction.

Seahawks-Bears: Hawks in all white with the Bears in navy/white. For whatever reason, this matchup appeals to me. Normally I'd hanker for the Seahawks to go white/seahawk blue here, but not now. I'm quite pleased with this on field look.

Saints-Vikings: Saints go white/gold and the Vikes in standard purple/white. Another time where I might said, gee, I wish the Saints would've black pants here. But the gold works, with black as a nice accessory color. Vikes purple goes well with the color mixture. May not be one of the better uni matchups, but not a yucky one, either.

Bengals-Rams: Bengals go white/black and the Rams in their second time in throwback blue/yellow. Oh do I like this one. Color abounds. Orange, black, blue, yellow, white all come together in fine fashion. It's all good in my neighborhood.

Titans-Colts: Titans in white/columbia blue and the (winning!) Colts in blue/white. There once was an instrumental hit (when I was a kid, hundreds of years ago) called "Love Is Blue," and such is the case here. columbia (light) blue, royal blue, navy blue with a wisp of red on the Titans helmet logo. Somehow, this all comes together in fine form.

Packers-Chiefs: Packers in white/yellow with the Chiefs in red/white. A little seasonal as the Packers green trim goes up against Chiefs red. But a little heavy on the white and yellow for it to be truly Christmasy. Traditional looks by these two. But I'm to be Scroogeish and say it's not working for me today.

Lions-Raiders: Lions in white/silver, Raiders in black/silver. "Silver Bells" anyone? Silver helmets and silver pants for both squads. silver on both jerseys, too. Some contrast with the black and honolulu blue, but I'm not feeling it.

Patriots-Broncos: Pats in white/navy and for the third home game in a row, Broncs in all navy. Loads of navy here. Perhaps too much? Remember, while a home team has to let the NFL know by July 1st what color jersey they will wear, they don't have to tell anyone about what color pants they will wear. Perhaps the Broncs on their hot streak with the all blue decided to give one more shot.

Jets-Eagles: Jets in white/green, Eagles in green/white. Much of a role reversal here, from head to foot. Jets white lid, Eagles green lid. Jets white jersey, Eagles green jersey! Jets green pants, Eagles white pants! Jets white socks, Eagles - um - black socks! For that alone, I give this a plus!

Browns-Cardinals: Browns heading for a full season of WAY (white all year). Cardinals, just like the Broncos, with a hat trick of all dark at home, going red/red. This so deep a contrast (all white vs all red) that I happen to dig this, man.

Ravens-Chargers: Ravens in all white and the Chargers with their second showing in powder blue/white. Ravens haven't worn black pants since week 7 and I think they would have played nicely off of the Bolts POWder blues. As always, the Chargers ratchet up the chart whenever they break out these babies. Just a thought...powder blue tops and navy blue bottoms??? Shock factor: HIGH!

Steelers-49ers: Steelers in white/yellow and the Niners in red/gold. Niners are so hot this season that the transformer blew at Candlestick! This is actually a sharp looking matchup here and shows beyond the shadow of a doubt when we talk about the difference between yellow and gold.

Summing up, I think Week 15 was one of the best weeks for uni matchups for 2011, even if all 16 games featured all dark at home.

Here's the hit parade:

1) Bengals-Rams

2) Browns-Cardinals

3) Dolphins-Bills

4) Ravens-Chargers

5) Steelers-49ers

6) Jets-Eagles

7) Patriots-Broncos

8) Titans-Colts

9) Saints-Vikings

10) Redskins-Giants

11) Packers-Chiefs

12) Panthers-Texans

13) Seahawks-Bears

14) Cowboys-Buccaneers

15) Lions-Raiders

16) Jaguars-Falcons

Check in next week for further review!

~ ~ ~

Thanks, Tim.  And now for our new regular feature, "On This Day..."

On December 21, 1974, thirty-seven years ago yesterday, the two time defending Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins played an AFC Divisional Playoff Game in Oakland, losing on the final play, a miraculous pass from Ken Stabler to Clarence Davis.  

We are proud to add this game to Gridiron Uniform Database's collection of randomly added single-game matchups.

You can view other randomly added past games here.

According to Wikipedia:

With 24 seconds left in the game, Raiders RB Clarence Davis somehow caught the game-winning touchdown pass among "the sea of hands" of three Dolphins defenders. This game eliminated Miami from the playoffs after they had made it to the Super Bowl in each of the last 3 seasons. Also known as the "Lost Game" due to both NBC and NFL Films losing their English copies of the broadcast. It was thought until recently that the only remaining copy was NBC's Spanish version, when NFL Films found their copy buried deep in storage, which they thought was lost in a move in the early 80's.

Bill Tweaks The Dolphins

We are back today after a few days off from the blog, as we took some time to revamp the database update displays.  You will now see a link above that says Database Changes, and if you go there you will be able to see corrections that we've made to the database based on your contributions.  If you go to these pages, you will see a desrciption of the changes, as well as the NEW and OLD images.  One thing you can do is open the two images side-by-side in new tabs (if you're using Firefox -- I don't know if IE has tabs) and click back-and-forth between the two images and see the changes.  If you'll go to Update #13 I challenge you to describe in the blog comments the changes in the 1933-39 & 46 Bears.  This is how detailed and detail oriented our website is, specifically the attention to detail that Bill Schaefer has used in our graphics.  When you see how minute these changes are, you'll see just how serious we take this stuff.  The first person in today's blog comments who accurately describes the change in the 1933-39 & 49 Bears images will win a Kit Kat bar.  Bill and Tim, you're not eligible.

Please continue to join in on the fun debating our database images in our forum.  The Best NFL Uniform Tournament of All Time is taking a week off, but you can still vote on Week 3 matchups if you haven't done so already.  We'll be back next Monday with another round of voting.

Today our Bill Schaefer follows up on his monochromatic white article from last week with a Miami Dolphins tweak:

 ~ ~ ~

Any time I set out to make one of these uniform tweaks I know that I am probably going to rankle some of that team’s faithful.  I know that, but bear with me.

I stated in my last entry my nearly complete and total disdain of mono-white. While there were a few exceptions, most mono-whites fall into a negative perception in my eyes.  One that has always bothered me is the Miami Dolphins.  

I understand the reasoning behind wearing the mono-whites at home as it helps to reflect the sun and heat of South Florida.  I also understand the team colors they use and why.  The aqua is, of course, representative of water while the orange represents the Sun. No problem.  I kept both of these for tradition’s sake.  But why not enhance the use of…say…dolphins?  Performing a Google Image Search on bottlenose dolphins, I came across these 2 photos.

The argument has been made that bears aren’t navy and orange; lions aren’t blue and silver; eagles aren’t green, etc.  I don’t dispute that.  However, cardinals are, well…cardinal red so there is a precedent. I’m just suggesting that another color be brought into the Dolphins’ repertoire – grey.

I may be one of the few who actually liked the silver jerseys that New England wore a few times in the past decade but eventually dropped.  This is partially what I based Miami’s new combos on.

I started by redoing the helmet.  Although the helmet logo has been updated and modernized, does it really need the Sun?  I say no.  Does anyone really think “Miami, brrrrrrr?  We’d better show the Sun so people know it’s hot, sunny, and humid here.” I found a Sun-less alternate logo that I think works much better.  I used a dark grey directly from the crown of a dolphin’s head in the earlier photos for the helmet shell.  I made the dolphin in the logo a slightly darker grey than the helmet just for contrast. The aqua and orange are still used for central helmet stripes with a central orange, flanked by the helmet’s grey as a spacer, and followed by thin stripes of the aqua.  I kept the aqua facemask.

Moving to the jersey, I didn’t want to use the same grey as for the helmet for 2 reasons.  First, if the jerseys were that dark of a shade of grey, they’d never get worn and we’d still be stuck watching Dolphins home games with them wearing white jerseys.  Secondly, looking at the dolphin photos, you can see that, as you look from the top of their heads and their dorsal fins down towards their underbellies, the grey actually lightens several shades.  I’ve made the jersey (and pants) into a lighter shade of grey than the helmet. 

I incorporated some orange and aqua northwestern striping on the sleeves.  I also placed identical thin striping down the legs and on the socks.  I always liked the sharpness and simplicity of the thin pants striping on the old Cardinals and Eagles pants. 

Would this ever get used?  I doubt it.  It’s just the artistic version of someone who’s assembled thousands of uniform combinations and would like to fix what he considers broken.  Next week, the Jaguars.

History of the Buffalo Bills Uniforms Part III

Here at The Gridiron Uniform Database we are continuing our week-long look back at the uniforms of the Buffalo Bills, today looking at the 1974-83 uniforms.  The Bills will be unveiling their new 2011 uniforms this Friday Night. ~ ~ ~

Joe Ferguson quarterbacked
the Bills from 1973 to 1984

     In 1974 the Bills changed their helmet logo, from the "red standing" buffalo to the familiar logo of the "blue charging" buffalo, and they would keep this uniform through the 1983 season.  This style would pretty much be synonymous with the Joe Ferguson years.  The wore the red socks from the 1973 season for just the first year of this style, and then from 1975 through 1980 the uniform was predominately blue.  In 1981 they brought back the red socks and kept them for the last three years of this style.

The royal blue pants really "pop" under the lights after the
sun goes down in a late "4PM start" game at Tampa in 1982

     Throughout this era, they kept the bright royal blue pants, which they introduced in 1973, with the white jersey and wore the white pants only with the blue jersey.
     The Bills made the postseason in their first season in this helmet, going 9-5 under Lou Saban and losing to Pittsburgh in an AFC Divisional Playoff game.  They then had a few lean years, and when Chuck Knox became the head coach in 1978 things started improving.  In 1980 they went 11-5 and won the AFC East, but lost to San Diego in the playoffs.  In 1981 they were a Wild Card team at 10-6, and defeated the New York Jets in the wild card game, before losing to Cincinnati.  They would last wear this outfit (with the white helmet, anyway) during a 8-8 campaign in 1983 under new coach Kay Stephenson.

~ ~ ~

     Today we want to thank for a website mention Jesse Alger and the guys at a Miami Dolphins website, the Finsiders.  They used our graphics in constructing a slideshow of the Dolphins uniforms through the years called "Aqua Through The Years," showcasing how the Dolphins seem to change the shade of their jersey color more often than some teams seem to change their socks.
   
     We do also want to give credit for a slight change in our database to John Smith.  He was mentioning to us that the 1991 and 92 Patriots -- the last years they wore the red jerseys -- were outfitted by Russell Athletic.  He provided us with information that game-worn jerseys in his collection proved this data as well as photos from the era.

     While we do include the manufacturer information with some of the jerseys in the database, it is primarily to describe the detail of the manufacturer logo that appears on jerseys.  For example in this 1993 Patriots detail, we have included the "Uniforms by Apex" detail to describe the detail of the manufacturers logo that appears on the sleeve below the "Flying Elvis" patriot logo.
     In many of the older uniforms, primarily before the mid-1990s, the manufacturer logo did not readily appear on the jersey, it was only on inside tags, or many times on the shirt-tail which would not be visible, tucked into the pants.
     This may be the case with the Russell Athletic logo on the 1991 & 1992 Patriots.  While the manufacturer information is appreciated, if it is not describing an appearing detail of the jersey, it is outside the scope of this database.  If we were to attempt to go back and include manufacturer information on all past jerseys in cases where the logo wasn't visible just for the purpose of including this information, we'd have a lot of work on our hands.
     John did provide us with one item to update, however, and that was that the 1990 Patriots did wear white facemasks, and we have made that change to the database.

The Patriots wearing white face-masks on December 9, 1990 against the Steelers

~ ~ ~  

"Our thanks to Matt Damon,
unfortunately we ran out of time"

     We also have some changes involving the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, which we promise we'll try to get to tomorrow. Also Thursday, we'll have Part IV of our look back at the Bills' uniforms through the years.