Week 7 Results [GFL]

 

'08 NY Giants vs. '80 Philadelphia

The Eagles vs Giants became as giant of a showdown as could be expected from these great defenses. The scoring was low, and it took over 20 minutes of game time before Jaworski would find Smith in the end zone for the game's first score. The Giants would try hard to claw back, but had to settle for FG's twice before the 4th quarter began. Down by just 1 point, Manning would struggle to find an open receiver inside the red zone, and took matters into his own hands. His 3 yard rushing TD put NY on top, and the 2-point conversion made it a 7-point lead. With 13 minutes of game time to go, Jaworski failed to get anymore momentum against the Big Blue. Giants win 14-7

New York ran for 179 yards on the day, with Jacobs leading the effort with 100 yards in 17 carries. Ward also averaged over 5 yards / carry. The Eagles simply struggled to get their run game going. On the other hand, Manning had a great day for accuracy at 60%, but had only safe / short plays with 129 yards total. Jaworski threw for over 200 yards.

'06 San Diego vs. '84 Miami

The Chargers staged a 4th quarter comeback against the Dolphins, matching Marino's TD throws with rushing TD's of their own. Ultimately, they would fall 1 score shy of the win. Miami's 41-35 win came on the heels of a superstar performance from Dan Marino. Marino had 3 TD passes in the 2nd quarter alone, and a 4th later in the game for 69 yards. At 4 TD's total, Marino had no picks. He threw for 29/44 with an impressive 443 yards - averaging 15.3 / catch. Clayton and Duper each had over 100 yards on the day. 

On San Diego's side, Gates had over 120 yards receiving in just 5 catches. But overall, Rivers' 25 completions only yielded 335 yards. More troublingly, with so many yards per catch, Rivers only was able to match with 1 passing TD. More shockingly, however, was how well San Diego's rushing game did. Tomlinson and Turner both broke 100 yards rushing and accounted for 4 of San Diego's 5 TD's. 

'01 Packers vs. '18 Texans

The Texans and Packers had a great competition, but Houston had several factors contributing to their 31-13 win. Their defense's ability to hold Favre and crew to several FG attempts ultimately paid off big. But Miller also had a great day for Houston, picking up 3 TD's with just 68 yards. Watson essentially just needed to get in range for him, and that he did. Completing just 17 throws, Watson racked up over 280 yards. Hopkins was his prime target with 7 catches for 136 yards.

Favre put up similar yardage, but took more attempts to do it and also threw 2 picks. He spread his offense well, but had very few deep balls as usual. Green Bay's run game was also stopped hard by Houston. 

'80 Buffalo vs. '98 NY Jets

The Bills had all sorts of issues on the road in New York. Scrambling for just 70 yards on the ground, Buffalo had just over 140 passing yards as well with just 1 passing TD. It was the only TD for the team, and came in the 4th quarter.

With almost double the time of possession, the NY Jets came closing to doubling the offense of Buffalo. Chrebet came up big with 7 catches for over 100 yards. Testaverde, with 250 yards in 21 completions, fared marginally better than Ferguson, but it was enough to get the job done over an abysmal Bills team. The help of Martin's 93 rushing yards contributed. 

Final score NY Jets 20, Buffalo 7.

'87 Cleveland vs. '81 Cincinnati

The Browns continue to look for a desperate win, and would have no luck against their division rival Bengals. In fact, Cincinnati staged a 26-0 shutout of the Browns. Cleveland barely mustered 200 yards offense, with Kosar completing just 14 throws. 

The Bengals, despite a whopping 15 penalties, simply had over 41 minutes of possession time. And with that time, they put up 389 yards offense. Anderson completed an amazing 80% of his throws for 266 yards. On the ground, Johnson had 22 carries for 87 yards and 2 TD's. Breech, however, was just as high a scorer - nailing 4 out of 4 FG's. Bengals win 26-0.

'77 Dallas vs. '83 Washington

The Redskins looked to bounce back after last week's loss, but faced a difficult team in the Cowboys. Washington looked good great early on, with Theismann throwing a TD on his first possession. That would be followed up by a Wonsley TD run. Dallas would then nail a few FG's, but Washington would retaliate. Washington led 20-6 at half. Dallas would move a bit quicker in the 2nd half, putting together a couple TD's to increase their score. But Washington was able to meet them. Redskins win 30-20. 

Theisman had 288 yards on the day with just 1 TD. Staubach had 2 TD's, but was outpaced with 3 INT's. With 180 yards from just 10 completions, it was certainly not one of his better days. Art Monk had a big day receiving with 7 catches for 166 yards. 

'70 Detroit vs. '10 Atlanta

Atlanta took a lead in the game from the 1st quarter, with a surprise 45 yard TD run by Turner. Detroit did muster a response, scoring on a TD pass to Sanders. After each team was then left to settle for a FG in the 2nd quarter, giving Atlanta the 3-point edge at half, 13-10. 

Detroit would need to stop Atlanta for an edge, and for the whole 3rd quarter both teams would hit a stalemate. But by 4th quarter, Atlanta would show no signs of slowing down. Matt Ryan would hit Gonzalez for a 20 yard TD throw, and Detroit would answer. But as game time wore down, the Falcons began inching towards the red zone inside the 2-minute warning. In the end, Detroit failed to stop Snelling, who ran for a 5 yard score. Falcons win 27-17.

Atlanta's Turner cranked out over 150 yards in 30 carries, exceeding the 136 total yards for all of Detroit. Munson completed 20 passes for 214 yards, and with 2 TD's looked reasonable. But Matt Ryan clearly had a better day, completing 65% for 252 yards, setting up for several of the rushing TD's gained.          

'08 Carolina vs. '92 New Orleans

The Panthers travelled to Louisiana to face what's been a challenging New Orleans team as of late, but one with holes nonetheless. So it was to the shock of many when the Panthers' high flying offense was held to just 10 points, despite racking up over 300 yards. Delhomme struggled to hit 50% of his throws, and with 220 yards grabbed the team's only TD. 

The shock didn't end there, however; it was the home town fans in New Orleans that would get the most pleasant shock of the evening. In addition to a great defensive performance, against the Panthers, the Saints marched in to a whopping 546 yards total offense. Bobby Hebert had an impressive day, completing 21/26 for over 300 yards and 3 TD's. However, it was the surprise rushing effort of Heyward that would liven up the Saints offense. Running for 106 yards total in 11 carries, he had 2 TD's; each of which was 40 or more yards from scrimmage. Dunbar and Hilliard each added almost 50 yards to that effort, plowing through the Panthers for 232 yards total.

New Orleans wins 42-10

'04 Pittsburgh vs. '06 Baltimore

The Steelers kept their cool against the Ravens in a very low-scoring game. In fact, for 3 quarters, all these teams were able to do was kick the ball. By 4th quarter, Pittsburgh had 2 FG's to Baltimore's 1, so the game was clearly up for anyone to grab. Both defenses had played hard, but as they wore down, Roethlisberger would strike first on a short throw to Randle El. McNair continued fighting, until inside the 2-minute warning when he found Mughelli for a score. Still down 3 points, however, Pittsburgh was able to run down the clock. Steelers win 13-9.

 Neither team did great on the ground because of the strong defensive showings. In fact, McNair also looked better in the air than Big Ben. McNair hit 31 of 44 for 242 yards. But McNair's 3 INT's gave Roethlisberger and crew enough chances at a kick. Ben only threw 1 pick among the 118 yards he had.

'05 Seahawks vs. '74 Cardinals

The Seahawks and Cardinals fought to our 3rd tie yet this season, with each time only able to put up 2 FG's on the board at 6-6. As with Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore, defense was on display. Seattle, despite breaking 100 yards rushing and 250 passing, still had no TD's to speak of for the day. The Cardinals fared just slightly less in their performance. 

With the game coming down to kicking attempts, it was the surprise misses on both sides that had fans pulling their hair out. At 2 for 4, Seattle's Brown missed 2 chances to take a lead. Bakken was just 2/3.

'19 Kansas City Team vs. '15 Denver

The Chiefs faced off against the Broncos in Mile High, and as anticipated, morphed into a Mahomes-Manning shootout. The winner was not easy to predict as one would expect. With the Chiefs leading at halftime after a pair of rushing TD's, the Broncos would take over in the 3rd quarter on a combination of rushing and passing efforts. 

Down by 1 TD, Mahomes would start finding some momentum in the 4th quarter, and after hitting Hill twice for TD passes in about 5 minutes of play - would see the Chiefs on top again. They would be able to ride this lead out and come home with the hard-fought KC win, 28-21.

Manning saw an unprecedented 6 INT's against his efforts, but still completed 23 passes for 238 yards and 1 score. Mahomes completed 26 for 276 yards, with 2 TD's.  The Broncos D was in full gear to stop several of those INT's from becoming scores, but at some point it was just too much. 

'94 San Fran vs. '16 New England

After riding a high last week and delivering the Rams their first loss, San Fran was looking forward to challenging the GOAT and his robotic Patriots team. Despite some good plays by Young, San Fran would struggle to get anywhere near the red zone, while Tom Brady lit up the score board with TD throw after TD throw. Grabbing a pair in the first quarter to Edelman and Gronk for 21 and 68 yards each, he would toss a 3rd one in the 3rd quarter to Hogan for 51 yards.

By that time, Young found his stride and hit John Taylor for 72 yards. But Brady was not slowing down, and tossed up a 4th TD throw early in the 4th quarter. Down by 3, Young had a tough road ahead of him. He would find Rice for another TD halfway through the quarter, but the Patriots kept him out of threat range from there one. Niners lose 28-14.

Brady completed 28/38 for 396 yards, with an astounding 4 TDs and 1 INT. His offense was spread well, but Edelman led with 9 catches for 99 yards. For the Niners, Rice had 11 for 106.

'79 Tampa Bay vs. '00 Oakland

The Raiders had a great time at home with the Buccs, beating them on all sides of the ball in a 44-21 slaughter. The Bucs had just 3 TD's, 2 of which were rushes by Bell. With 21 carries for 92 yards, Bell did well, but it was Kaufman for the Raiders who had a whopping 104 yards in just 10 carries with 1 TD. The usually spry Wheatley was held to just 46 yards.

Williams had some big plays in the air, with a 69 yarder to Hagins. In fact, overall he averaged an amazing 20 yards / catch in just 11 completions. But those 11 made up 1/3 of his attempts, and his 3 INT's to 1 TD helped give points to Oakland along the way.

Gannon, on the other hand, completed 66% for 247 yards, with 3 TDs and 1 INT. Rison was his surprise lead receiver, with 8 catches for 118 yards.

'06 Bears vs. '99 Rams

After last week's loss to San Fran, the Rams were looking to get back on track with a win. They would find it harder to do than they expected against a hungry Bears team. After a rushing TD on each side in the 1st quarter, however, the Rams would score back-to-back TD's by Warner, 1 by air and 1 by ground. With 5 minutes left, Grossman would get in a rhythm of his own, however, hitting receivers in the end zone back-to-back before halftime.

Tied in the 2nd half, the Bears would receive and Grossman would almost immediately score on a 30 yard pass to Bradley. Now at 3 scores in a row, the Bears seemed unbeatable, until the Rams recovered a blocked kick and took it into the endzone for another tie. But with a late 3rd quarter FG by Chicago, the 31-28 lead would loom over St. Louis. And while it would take some time for Warner to get moving, he was able to line up for a Wilkins FG halfway through Q4. Splitting the uprights, the game was now in anyone's hands

After a 4-and-out for Chicago, it was up to the Bears to stop the Rams. But as the 2-minute warning approached, Warner got his crew close enough for a 2nd Wilkins FG, which went good. Chicago didn't have enough time to recover. The Rams win 34-31. A missed FG on behalf of Gould became the talk of the town in Chicago.

With such a shootout on offense, each team easily racked up over 500 yards total. Jones and Benson gave a good effort for Chicago, breaking 120 yards. Faulk led with just 87 yards, but was followed closely by Holcombe with 47 and Kurt Warner himself stacking up 44 yards. On the receiving end, Bruce was the biggest target for Warner with 11 catches for 105, but all eyes were on Desmond Clark, who cranked out a record performance with 9 catches for 203 yards, a longest of 52 and 1 TD.