Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has taken a great deal of heat from the media and from Cowboys fans after his team’s 19-13 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals last weekend. Much of the furor has been over Garrett’s decision to call a timeout right before his kicker Dan Bailey booted a 49-yard field goal and what would have been the game-winner at the end of regulation. The timeout essentially “iced” his own kicker. Baily then missed the game-winning kick after the controversial timeout and the rest, as they say, is history.
One of the things that I love about the NFL is that something crazy happens every week. Think about it, would the game be as popular as it is if every game played out as predicted or planned each week? No way.
Garrett’s timeout actually reminded me of one the wildest endings in NFL history. The New Orleans Saints were trailing the Jacksonville Jaguars by a touchdown with only seven seconds remaining in the game on Dec. 21, 2003. Backed up on their own 25-yard line, many thought that the Saints would attempt a deep “Hail Mary” pass. Aaron Brooks, the Saints quarterback, thought otherwise and completed a pass to Donte Stallworth at the 50-yard line.
The Saints obviously needed to advance further than the 50. A desperate Stallworth broke a few tackles and cut across field and then lateralled to Michael Lewis at the Jaguars' 33. Lewis ran a few yards before shoveling the ball to Deuce McAllister, who again lateralled to Jerome Pathon, who caught the ball in stride and raced the final 21 yards for an incredible touchdown. All the Saints had to do was kick the extra point and the game would move on to overtime.
Can you see where this is going? As you might have guessed, the Saints kicker John Carney missed the extra point and Jacksonville was able to preserve a 20-19 victory.
You never know what is going to happen in an NFL game. I cannot wait to see what will happen this weekend.
Dallas Cowboys
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Last week I wrote about
Kellen Winslow's "
Fantasy Hall of Fame" performance when he pulled in five touchdown receptions in one game against the Oakland Raiders on Nov. 22, 1981. That receiving showcase actually only tied the NFL record for most TD catches in a game. The first person to accomplish the feat was Bob Shaw of the
Chicago Cardinals who pulled in five scoring grabs against the old Baltimore Colts (a different franchise than current day Baltimore/Indianapolis franchise) on Oct. 2, 1950.
The story of Shaw is rather interesting. I will use this blog to briefly tell his story. He was coached by the legendary
Paul Brown at Ohio State where he earned All-American honors in 1941 and '42. After graduation he enlisted in the Army where he was awarded a Bronze Star with the 104th Infantry in World War II, seeing service in France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany.
Upon his discharge in 1945 he immediately joined the Cleveland Rams where he saw only spot duty for the next two seasons as a receiver and played mostly on defense. A spell of bad luck sidelined him in 1947 and '48 when he cracked a vertebra and suffered a severe neck injury. He battled back, however, to have a respectable year in 1949 with 29 receptions for 535 yards and 6 TDs. He was then traded to the Cardinals for the 1950 season.
It was that year that Shaw really made a name for himself. To go along with his record 5-TD performance against the Colts, he finished the season with 48 receptions for 971 yards (which equated to an eye-popping 20.2-yard average) and a league-leading 12 scoring grabs. His efforts earned him second team All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl selection.
All of a sudden, Shaw was a highly-touted commodity. At the same time the Canadian Football League began to raid players south of their border. Many NFL stars such as Frank Filchock and Jack Jacobs began to travel north for the promise of greater money. Shaw, who had initially resigned with Cardinals to play with the team in 1951, was a target of the Calgary Stampeders. The club's promise to Shaw was to have him become player-coach. The offer apparently was too much for Shaw to turn down and he jumped on his contract with Chicago. The Cardinals were stunned. A great deal on legal wrangling followed but the move stuck.
Shaw remained with Calgary for two seasons before he retired as a player to focus solely on coaching where he enjoyed a fairly distinguished career. Shaw served as the ends coach for the
Baltimore Colts in 1958 when the team won what many refer to as the "
Greatest Game Ever Played" against the New York Giants in that year's title game. He was
Roger Staubach's head coach during the quarterback's time at the New Mexico Military Institute. He also served as head coach with the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders, Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats where he was named CFL Coach of the Year in 1976.
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I have played Fantasy Football every year since the 1991 NFL Season. Each year one of the positions I fret the most about is tight end. There really are only a few players at that position that you can rely on week-in and week-out. As such I usually get stuck with someone that will give me a steady "two-catch, 24-yard performance" each Sunday or Monday. So, having my tight end actually score a touchdown is like winning the lottery.
Why am I telling you this? Recently, Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Kellen Winlsow visited Canton to participate in our "Heart of a Hall of Famer" character education series. The popular program provides students the opportunity to learn first-hand what it took beyond athletic ability for legendary Hall of Famers to achieve success on and off the football field. Winslow did an excellent job but while he was visiting the Hall of Fame I recalled one of the most incredible performances of his career and in NFL history.
No, I am not writing about his legendary performance against the Miami Dolphins in the 1981 divisional playoffs where he battled heat stroke to pull in 13 catches and one TD as well as block a possible game-winning field goal. I am referring to his 13-catch, 144-yard, and five-TD game against the Oakland Raiders on Nov. 22 earlier that season.
Yes you read that correctly, FIVE touchdowns. When will my fantasy tight end deliver five TDs in a game? Winslow's performance that day actually tied an NFL mark held by end Bob Shaw of the Chicago Cardinals who pulled in five scoring grabs against the old Baltimore Colts on Oct. 2, 1950. The only other player to match that effort was Jerry Rice who torched the Atlanta Falcons on Oct. 14, 1990.
In that game Winslow scored four of his touchdowns on passes of 15, 25, 4 and 5 yards from quarterback Dan Fouts. He scored his fifth on a three-yard option pass from running back Chuck Muncie that put the finishing touches on the Chargers' 55-21 blowout of the Raiders. The win, which lifted San Diego to a 7-5 record, put an end to a two-game losing streak and seemed to recharge (excuse the pun) the team for the rest of the year. San Diego would go on to win the AFC Western Division title with a 10-6 record and advanced all the way to the AFC championship game.
As for Winslow, he finished the year as the league's leading receiver for the second-straight season and earned consensus All-Pro honors. His numbers that year alone - 88 catches for 1075 yards and 10 TDs – equal the combined sum of the last three years of fantasy effort by my tight ends…UGH.
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On Sunday night the
New Orleans Saints set a franchise record when they scored 62 points in a drubbing of the
Indianapolis Colts. The next morning we profiled on Profootballhof.com the high-water mark for each National Football League team in terms of
most points scored in a game. All of the point totals are impressive and not surprisingly each team won handily in each game.
The one note that I did find extremely interesting was the point total registered by the
Kansas City Chiefs. Why? The team's 59 points against the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium happened to be the team's first-ever game as the Chiefs.
The Chiefs started as the Dallas Texans in 1960 in the American Football League and won the AFL championship in 1962. Team owner and founder
Lamar Hunt however did not think the Dallas market could sustain two professional football teams (the NFL's Dallas Cowboys also began play in 1960) and quietly began talks to move the team to Kansas City. On May 22, 1963 the move was official.
In that first game on Sept. 7, 1963 future Hall of Famer passer
Len Dawson did all he could to showcase his team's talents to his new community. The All-Pro signal caller put on a masterful performance by completing 12 of 15 passes for 278 yards and five touchdowns. Dawson's main target that day was wide receiver Frank Jackson who hauled in seven passes for 149 yards and two TDs including an 81-yard scoring strike in the third quarter.
The 59-7 final score that day still represents the largest margin of victory (52 points) in franchise history.
Kansas City Chiefs
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