Cheating Is Encouraged

WHEN IT COMES TO professional football lore, momentous events such as “The Immaculate Reception,” “Sea of Hands,” “Ghost to the Post,” and the “Holy Roller” are few and far between. For a team to experience even one of these bizarre plays would be considered incredible, but for a team such as the Oakland Raiders to experience four bizarre events, well that’s phenomenal . . . but then so were Raiders of the 1970s.

NBC Sports’ top play-by-play telecaster, Curt Gowdy, called the 1974 AFC playoff game between the Oakland Raiders and the Miami Dolphins “the greatest game I have ever seen.”

The 52,817 present in the Oakland Coliseum knew they had witnessed an extraordinary event. Forty million television viewers shared their view.

In the early ’70s, the Miami Dolphins were as close to perfection as any NFL team could be. Following two consecutive Super Bowl titles in ’72 and ’73, the Dolphins were intent on capturing a third. However, in 1974, Miami wasn’t the only team flying its colors proudly.

The radio station that carried the Raider games in the Bay Area had promoted the game as one for which fans should wear black, carry black, and wave black. The Coliseum was transformed into an ocean of black.

“I have never heard any louder cheering in the Coliseum than when we came out to be introduced,” said Raider executive Al LoCasale. “The stadium left the ground.”

“When we came out for that game there was more excitement in the stadium than I had ever heard before,” said Madden. “Everyone had a black handkerchief and they were waving them. They were wired. We were playing the Dolphins. I’m excited and the team’s excited.

“Miami’s wide receiver Nat Moore received the short kick at the Miami 11-yard line, started up field, broke to his left and went unstopped and untouched 89 yards to the end zone for the score.

“So it’s 7–0 with only fifteen seconds off the clock and the fans haven’t even sat down yet!”

The Raiders’ fortunes went from bad to worse when their explosive passing attack failed to ignite. But while the offense let opportunities slip away, the Raiders’ defense took a firm hold on the Dolphins’ elusive running game. And when the first quarter ended, the opening kickoff return remained the only score.

The Raiders stuck with their passing game and the all-out assault from the end zone eventually paid off. Charlie Smith pulled clear of Miami’s man-to-man coverage, reached up, and pulled in a perfect pass from Stabler to complete a 31-yard touchdown play. The score was now tied at 7 apiece. And as the game wore on, the Raiders continued to focus their attention on the Dolphins’ secondary.

Miami came right back to put three points on the board on a 33-yard field goal by Garo Yepremian with 1:01 remaining in the half. Miami left the field leading 10–7.

With 11:43 remaining in the third quarter, Stabler went long to Biletnikoff from 40 yards out, but Freddy’s circus catch along the right sideline at the goal line was signaled by the referee to be out of bounds.

Madden then called for a repeat performance and this time Biletnikoff scored. Raiders 14, Dolphins 10.

“The ball’s not always going to be perfect. The whole thing about being a receiver for me was: you gotta keep going. You may not be successful that one time. You may have to wait to make up for a mistake. Being either a success or a failure in a matter of seconds was always intriguing for me.”

Trailing for the first time, 14–10, Don Shula refueled his team’s competitiveness.

A 29-yard interference call on 3rd and 7 aided Miami and allowed a Paul Warfield TD to put the Dolphins back on top, 16–14. However, in the fourth quarter, the Raiders answered the score with a 72-yard touchdown reception by Cliff Branch. This gave Oakland the lead once more but, with time becoming a factor, Miami called upon its punishing running attack to eat up both the yardage and the clock while on its way to the Raiders end zone.

With 4:54 left in the game, Stabler threw to Cliff Branch, who was on the Miami 27. Branch dropped to the ground to make the catch, but because he was untouched by Dolphin defenders, he got up and ran from the surprised defensive backs to complete a 72-yard score. George Blanda kicked the extra point, and the score was now Raiders 21, Dolphins 19.

Larry Csonka muscled his way to the Oakland 23 and, on the next play, rookie running back Benny Malone ran 23 yards into the end zone to give Miami the lead once again, 26–21.

“I was concerned because there was so much time left. I knew that Stabler had the capacity to take the ball down the field . . . and he did.”

“When you get in a pressure situation where everything is riding on a single player, there’s no one that you’d rather have involved in that play than Kenny Stabler. He has the uncanny knack of putting the ball between people and between hands and just being able to slip things in there from all different angles and that’s just what he did.”

With time running out, Stabler dashed Miami’s hopes of a third consecutive title in dramatic fashion.

The following is an excerpt about what happened next from announcer Bill King’s broadcast of that game.

Here he is, fading, looking, looking, looking, he’s under the gun, he throws . . . it is caught! Touchdown, Clarence Davis! Unbelievable! Davis took it away from the Miami defenders with 26 seconds to go. What a finish! Stabler had to loop the ball up because he was hit as he threw. It looked like he had lobed it into the promise land for Miami. But no! Davis got their first and it was the Raiders’ promise land!

“There was still enough time for Miami to score. Griese began to move his team down the field. With 13 seconds left in the game, and on second down from his own twenty, Griese threw a 30-yard pass to midfield and I intercepted. I ran over to John and gave him the game ball.”

Oakland’s 28–26 win brought out emotions characteristic of only the greatest of games.

Carl Taseff was a Miami assistant coach at the time. He remembers Shula’s response to the loss.

“After the game, Don just cried. He said he was so disappointed for the guys’ sake.”

“This game was the toughest loss I have ever had to endure. It’s the game I sleep with almost every night, and will forever.”

“That was the toughest game I’ve ever been in, and the toughest loss I’ve ever been through. It was a kick in the balls.”

“We were stunned and disappointed,” said halfback Jim Kiick. “They were like enemies. Everybody disliked Oakland as a team. Basically the Raiders were disliked by everybody. But we had mutual respect for them. Yeah, they were all crazy, but I guess that’s why they were so good.”

“The ball was supposed to go to me. It was a tight end delay. I banged against Miami linebacker Doug Swift, but he just grabbed me—a very smart guy. I’m trying to slap him, get rid of him, fight him off, but he figured it out. So Snake had to go the other way.”

“It was one of those freak things. From where I was standing I was sure that Stabler was going down.”

“I think that play represents the attitude of that team,” said Stabler. “You find a way to win. It doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t matter who, as long as you get it done. You trust that somebody will make a play—and they did.”

On a warm Christmas Eve, 60,000 Colts fans postponed holiday travel to see their team play football in a decaying shrine to fan loyalty in Baltimore, Maryland.

And if you ask anyone who was there in 1977, they might swear they saw the last autumn sun shine across Memorial Stadium. And they’ll remember the game: 76 minutes, 68 points, and nine lead changes. They will remember the last great Colts battle before everything changed—a time that will live forever on the gridiron of Baltimore past.

It was the 1977 AFC Divisional playoffs, where the Raiders and the Colts slugged it out for nearly four hours. The contest would be decided in double overtime, and would be forever remembered for one critical play: “The Ghost to the Post.”

Just before the game Madden said, “We have our work cut out for us. We have got to be solid. This tournament thing is so final, there is no tomorrow. It’s just one day, one game and that’s the way it has got to be.”

Colts coach Ted Marchibroda said, “I think we are as ready to play this one as we ever have been. It will be the type of game that will take a total team effort. They [Oakland] are the type of club that can beat you on offense, they can beat you on defense, and they can beat you with their specialty teams. They are just an excellent football team in all aspects of the game. They do not have any weaknesses.”

In 1975, the Colts had emerged from the AFC’s cellar to become one of the league’s most talented teams. Led by quarterback Bert Jones, their offense was one of the game’s most powerful while their defense featured a young and formidable pass rush.

Though Baltimore captured three consecutive division titles, by 1977 both the Colts and their fans were eager for the team to ascend to a World Championship.

Championship games were one thing the Oakland Raiders were familiar with after topping Minnesota in Super Bowl XI the previous year. For Oakland, winning was second nature.

Wanting to prove themselves once and for all, Baltimore was eager to face the defending champs.

Colt’s safety Bruce Laird said, “The stadium was absolutely electric and for us in the locker room, we really felt we could beat those guys.”

“We felt like we could be able to set up good second down situations with good running plays, but to my surprise, and to our surprise, we weren’t as effective running the football as we hoped to be,” said quarterback Bert Jones.

Baltimore’s inability to run the football sidetracked their attack, but Oakland fared no better against the Colts’ front four.

Midway through the first quarter, a game that many thought would be a shootout was shaping into a defensive battle, with the offenses struggling as they did anything they could to show their resiliency.

This instance is where Coach Madden took what he had previously learned from studying the great Vince Lombardi.

“I know people used to say we ran to the left because Kenny Stabler was left handed. That had nothing to do with it. It was because Gene Upshaw and Art Shell were over there. I remember I learned this from Vince Lombardi that, if you are fundamentally sound and you work on your fundamentals and you do what you do best and practice it more than they practice against it, you’ll have success even if they know it’s coming.”

Amid a defensive struggle, the Raiders struck first with a touchdown by Clarence Davis.

“It was what we called back then a 15-L,” said Art Shell. “The read was off of my block. Whatever way I ran my guy, Clarence would counter off of that. I remember him breaking through the line of scrimmage and he broke a few tackles getting into the end zone. As a matter of fact, there was a facemask there that they probably should have called but wasn’t. He was determined to get into the end zone and, of course, I was pretty excited, too.”

With nineteen seconds left in the first quarter, Bert Jones threw two passes—one was almost intercepted and the other was deflected by Oakland. At that point he was 0–5 in pass completions.

Former Raiders tight end Raymond Chester had been traded to the Colts in 1973, and saw that his quarterback was struggling.

“It was probably the biggest game that Jones had been in,” said Chester. “He was probably just a little hyper and a little nicked up. We all were.”

Early in the second quarter, the Raiders gained possession near midfield with a chance to extend their 7-point lead and take control of the game. But fate didn’t see it that way. On 3rd and 6, Stabler went back to pass and it was intercepted by Bruce Laird, who ran 61 yards untouched for the Colt score to tie the game at seven all.

“With a quarterback of that experience and caliber in those games, we always try and give them different looks,” said Laird. “So what I did was cheat out a little bit and, when the ball snapped, I kind of flew to the sideline and just kind of made them think that that gap there in the flat would be open. And as soon as I saw him set, I just broke back and made a great jump on the ball. I stepped in front of van Eeghen and I took it 61 yards for a touchdown.”

“He was not a great cover guy, but he was a smart guy. Not tremendous speed, not big, not strong, not fast, but smart. And they sat in zones back there, in disguised zones. He sat back there in one of those zones, and I didn’t see him.”

After that play, Colts running back Don McCauley knew that the team had come together.

“I just remember what a lift it was for the team. It was a 61-yard score and I think what it showed the rest of the team was that everybody came to play—special teams, defense, offense—everybody.”

With Laird’s interception providing a sudden surge of adrenaline, the next six minutes turned into a defensive war of slow destruction.

For the Raiders, every yard, every completion, had become a struggle against this rough and tumble Colts defense.

“They didn’t give you very much,” said Gene Upshaw. “It was always very tough. Stan White was probably one of the smartest linebackers to ever play the game. And I can still see his number 53 standing out there trying to get that edge. You had Fred Cook. You had Joe Ehrmann. You had John Dutton. You had all of those guys that you knew very well.”

“In the first half, we never had field position,” said Ted Marchibroda, the Colts head coach. “We were always deep inside of our 20, and to go 80 yards against the Raiders is a tough assignment.”

“We weren’t doing much,” said Colts running back Lydell Mitchell. “The Raiders really weren’t doing much. The defenses were kind of dominating. And usually that’s a sign of a pretty good football game.”

Surprisingly, it was the Colts’ defense and not the swaggering attack of the silver and black that had changed the tempo of the game.

In the second quarter, Bert Jones’s completion to Freddie Scott was the spark that the Colts’ offense needed. Baltimore then began to successfully pound the ball with Lydell Mitchell. Later in the series on a key third down, Jones shrugged off his slow start and seemingly willed his way to a first down.

“Bert, to me, was such a competitor!” said Colts running back Don McCauley. “And that’s what I loved about playing on the same team as Bert. He was a fierce competitor with the strongest arm that I’ve ever seen.”

“Bert was very brash, very confident. He reminded me so much of John Elway. Same type of body, built basically the same way. I always said if you took the numbers off their backs, you might not be able to tell the two apart.”

With 1:53 left in the half, Stabler led the Raiders downfield with a flurry of passes while taking advantage of the Colts defense. Mark van Eeghen’s 16-yard catch and run put Oakland in position to tie the game. But a handoff to Davis resulted in a fumble with the ball flying out in midair and the Colts’ John Dutton recovering. The half ended with the Colts leading, 10–7.

At the half, Madden wasn’t thinking speeches. He was just visualizing the adjustments needed for the team to win.

“I think the game was shaping up the way we kind of expected it to,” said Colts tight end Raymond Chester. “We were kind of a no-mistake team, you know, and bend, bend, bend, but don’t break and then wait for an opportunity.”

“We left knowing that we had a lot of time to play. We could still score. We had Stabler back there that could find people and get things done.”

“There’s Art Shell. There’s Gene Upshaw. There’s Snake. There’s Branch. There’s Biletnikoff. There are all these great players. We’re hanging in there. We’re playing well. We gotta do a few things better. We gotta stop some of the big plays. And I kind of think the defense kind of looked over and said, ‘Offense, you gotta get off your duff and start making some first downs.’”

“First half didn’t matter,” said Jack Tatum. “Second half didn’t matter until it got to the end of the game, what was on the scoreboard. So we’re trailing at halftime. It was no big deal. Just had to give us time to work it out.”

“I think the game plan was still gonna be Branch, Biletnikoff, and the running game. We had a couple of little plays in there for down inside the 20 that when we got in there which we thought could be effective. But I don’t really think that I was a big part of the game because of the fact that they’re gonna play zones. The way they played, I don’t think the Raiders looked at me as a big part of that game.”

Following the second-half kickoff, Stabler marched the Raiders downfield and capped off the drive with a pass to Casper in the end zone for the score and the lead. Raiders 14, Colts 10.

“I had to step up in the pocket, if memory serves me well,” said Stabler. “Somebody was hanging on my legs as Dave cut across, and I flicked the ball to him for the score.”

On the ensuing kickoff, Colts wide receiver Marshall Johnson ran the ball 87 yards all the way back for the score and the lead. With 10:59 left in the third quarter, the score was: Colts 17, Raiders 14.

Once Baltimore provided Johnson a perfectly formed wedge to follow, Colts tight end Jimmie Kennedy paved the way further by not only taking out Pete Banaszak, but Randy McClanahan as well.

“We knew Jimmie had speed but we didn’t know he had that kind of speed,” said Bert Jones. “I think there was almost divine intervention for him to make that play the way that he did.”

“What I remember about that play is Madden. I mean, that was, to him, a nightmare. Just being on the sideline and just to see his reaction of, ‘How can you allow that to happen after we have so much momentum?’

“Other than John, nobody got really excited—as though it were the end of the game. It’s something that happened, and we had to score and get the lead back.”

Once again, the Colts kicked off and Stabler marched his team toward the end zone. On 2nd and 8, Stabler set up and threw downfield, but it was once again intercepted by Bruce Laird.

“We were just saying to ourselves that this is our time,” said Laird. “I think defensively our feeling was, ‘Okay guys, it’s time for you to start playing. Start making some plays, and let’s get this thing done.’”

The Colts ended up punting and Oakland rushed ten men on the play. Because of that, David Lee’s punt was blocked by Ted Hendricks. Linebacker Jeff Barnes recovered for Oakland around the Colts 16-yard line.

“That wasn’t one of my most classiest blocks,” said Hendricks. “That particular one, I only had one hand out and hit the ball, slapped at it, and it hit my hand and dropped down. That was a pretty big play in that game because we got the ball back at that time.”

A few plays later Stabler hit Casper in the end zone for the touchdown. Oakland 21, Baltimore 17.

“You go out, play, and do what they tell you to do,” said Casper. “You run back on the sidelines and you sit down and get on the oxygen tank. It was a regular defense. They played normal coverages with good players. And you line up and get in your position. You get your right split, your good stance. You do your assignment, and you play like hell, and you’ve got a chance.”

“We knew later in the game that we weren’t gonna be as effective on the ground as what we had hoped,” said Jones. “And so the natural thing to do was to utilize the run pass, or play-action.”

On their first drive of the fourth quarter, Jones and the Colts put their new strategy in motion and began piling up the yardage.

With their passing game established, the Colts now found the running lanes open for the first time all day. By changing up from Mitchell to McCauley to Lee, the Colts staged an 80-yard drive, moving to the Oakland 1-yard line with four chances to retake the lead.

On third down with one yard to go for the score, Don McCauley dove for the end zone but ran into Raider Monte Johnson, who ended up cracking a vertebra in his neck. Johnson was taken out of the game, but didn’t find out about the injured vertebra for about six months.

While the Raiders tended to Johnson, Baltimore tended to a fourth and goal situation just three feet from the end zone.

“There was never a whole lot of conversation about whether or not we should kick a field goal,” said Jones. You don’t get there by kissing your sister.”

On fourth and goal, Jones handed off to running back Ron Lee who dove into the end zone for the score. Colts took the lead, 24–21.

“Obviously they had some reads on us and they were clogging up our strong points,” said McCauley. “And thank God Ron got in. I know it was questionable by everybody whether he was in or not, but I say he was in. I’m sure Ron will give the same answer.”

Once again, Stabler moved his team downfield. Following an interference call on Baltimore in the end zone, the Raiders were first and goal on the one. Stabler gave the ball to Banaszak for the score, and Oakland took the lead, 28–24, with 9:12 left in the fourth quarter

“That’s the best part of a football game,” said Art Shell. “Your adrenaline’s flowing and now you got to make plays. Defense got to make plays. Who’s gonna make the play? So you’re gonna try to make sure that your team is the one making the plays.”

“These guys act like they’re home,” said Lydell Mitchell. “But they just wouldn’t go away. And I guess right then, you say to yourself, ‘Man, this is the makings of a great game.’”

Jones moved his team right down the field, capping the drive with another touchdown by Ron Lee. With 7:54 left in the fourth quarter, the Colts once again took the lead, 31–28.

Jones knew that the Colts could not give the Raiders any opportunities to score.

“Oakland is a team that you want to hold the football on. You don’t want them to have any more opportunities with the ball than what they have to have because they will score on you.”

After the constant back and forth, the Baltimore defense fell like a blanket over Stabler and the Raiders. For the first time since the first quarter, Oakland was held without yardage and gave the suddenly red-hot Bert Jones the football in good field position with a chance to widen their lead.

“We felt great!” said Bruce Laird. “We said, ‘You know, Bert, couple first downs, this and that, you know, maybe another three points. That’s when winners are born.’”

With the lead, Baltimore could either stay with the successful passing game or try and run out the clock. The Colts decided to go back to the run and had their momentum stolen by John Matuszak and the Raiders defense.

“It was almost as though they were playing not to lose rather than trying to play to win,” said Monte Johnson.

“It was not an independent thought of mine. We felt like we needed to eat up some time and move the ball.

“Ted Marchibroda called me and Lydell over and said, ‘Let’s run the football.’”

With another shot to put the Raiders away, Baltimore kept the ball on the ground, running twice and then again when Jones was flushed from the pocket.

“They don’t get a first down then our side of the football started to get a little bit antsy,” said Laird. “I can remember conversations going back and forth with us going on the field to our offensive team. And it wasn’t pleasantries. We were telling them to get a gosh-darn first down, and let’s get out of here.”

“I was scared because I knew we were gonna be in the prevent defense and I knew, basically, the kind of coverages our guys were used to playing and how they cover. And I just knew Snake.”

With 2:55 left in the fourth quarter and trailing by three, Stabler and his offense took the field. Stabler hit Davis for 14 yards and a first down at the Oakland 44. After an incomplete pass, history was about to be made.

“We have a pass, and it was called “91-In,” said Madden. “For a 91-In, the two outside receivers, the ‘X’ and ‘Z,’ both ran in patterns. And then on that, the tight end would run a post, which was kind of a clean out. In other words, he would go deep and clean out the middle. And then the two outside receivers would come to the inside of the middle.”

“That play—if you look statistically—that was the most successful play the Raiders ever ran,” said Casper. “Every time we called that play during the season, we gained over nine yards just for calling it.

“So Tom Flores, who was an assistant at that time, noticed when we would throw to the end zone that the safety would be sneaking up on the end and getting awfully close. So that would tell us if the safety was coming up to take away the end, which we could get by him to the post. So what he said was, ‘On 91-In, take a peek at Ghost to the post.’ And Dave Casper’s nickname was Ghost.”

With 2:11 left in the game, Stabler dropped back with Branch wide left and Biletnikoff wide right. Stabler threw long and hit Casper on the Baltimore 15-yard line.

“I don’t think I caught a pass on that play all year,” said Casper. “They weren’t gonna let Branch get deep, so they put two guys short and deep on him. And they weren’t gonna let Fred get open. And I’m supposed to run to the post pattern, but he came from the inside covering me. So I did some maneuvers to set him up, and I faked an out and I went underneath him to the post. And I had him going the wrong way, and I was open but by that time, because I was late, Snake had already thrown the ball guessing where I was gonna go.

“When I looked up over my shoulder, I took one look and said, ‘The ball wasn’t going where I was going.’

“I played a lot of outfield as a kid. So I just put my head down real quick, looked to a spot, ran to it, and quickly looked back up. Thank God the ball was coming right down into my hands. If I had looked up a second later, I wouldn’t have seen it.”

The play gained 42 yards to the Colts 14-yard line, but the Raiders had to settle for a field goal by Errol Mann to tie the game. The score was tied at 31, and the game would go into overtime. After sixty minutes and 62 points, nothing had been settled.

“I dropped back and everything was perfect,” said Jones. “Raymond Chester’s route was perfect. My throw was perfect except that it was a little early, and it was about two feet farther than where Raymond was.”

“You know, nobody guarding me but God and the air,” said Chester. “And I remember the pass leaving Bert Jones’ hand. And I looked at it, and it literally was, I don’t know how far over my head it was, but it was like, ‘Wow.’ I remember that feeling of frustration!”

“I don’t know if he would have scored on that play,” said Stabler, “but he would have put us in position to kick for the win. There are a lot of things that will haunt you and that one pass, I think, I will take to my grave wondering, Why didn’t I wait one more second before throwing to him?”

The Raiders received possession and started to move the ball on the Colts, going 41 yards in nine plays and putting themselves in position to win the game on their first drive of overtime . . . but it was not to be. The field goal was blocked by defensive tackle Mike Barnes and the Colts took over on the Raiders’ 32.

Unfortunately for the Colts, their offense remained stagnant. Since taking the lead midway through the fourth quarter, they had run 17 plays for just 27 yards, while being held to just one completion and one first down.

Baltimore once again punted. Stabler chipped away the yardage, was sacked for a major loss, and then on 3rd and 19 at the Colts 45-yard line, Stabler hit Branch on the 26-yard line for a first down.

“That was the real backbreaker because without that 19-yard reception, they would have had to punt and it would have given us another possession,” said Don McCauley.

Oakland worked their way down to the 13-yard line when time ran out and the game would now go into double overtime.

“I knew that we could kick the field goal because we were in field goal range,” said Madden. “But if we kick the field goal then we have one chance to win the game. If we throw a pass, if it was a play pass, a pass to Dave Casper in the end zone in the corner, we have a chance there because if we complete that, then we win the game. If we don’t complete it, then we have another chance to kick the field goal. So it just made sense to me that before we settled on the field goal to try a shot at the end zone.”

At the start of the second overtime, Banaszak bulldozed his way for three yards. On the next play, Stabler dropped back and threw his forty-second pass of the day to Dave Casper—a 10-yard touchdown to give the Raiders a 37–31 double-overtime victory over the Baltimore Colts.

“We go into the locker room and in the locker room, we’re watching to see who we were going to have to play,” said Madden. “And Denver won. So we started thinking right away about Denver.”

Against the Broncos, Oakland’s reign as champions came to a close. But within three years the Raiders would reload and in Super Bowl XV, Oakland captured their second of what would be three world championships in an eight-year span.

As for the Colts, the decline was swift and devastating. Injuries and contract disputes decimated the ’78 season. Crowds began to dwindle, and on March 28, 1984, what once seemed unthinkable became real. The beloved Colts left Baltimore for Indianapolis.

For the men who played and the fans who watched it, the battle on Christmas Eve was the last great moment before everything changed.

New rules regarding pass blocking would alter the way the game was played, and franchise movement would affect where it was played. The how remains constant, though. And the desire brought forth through 76 minutes of football on that day is a tribute to a game sometimes forgotten, sometimes ignored, but forever remarkable.

From 1968 to 1977, the Chargers went 18 straight games without beating the Raiders. Finally, in their second meeting of the ’77 season, San Diego broke the streak. And in ’78, when the breaks started going their way, it seemed certain that the Chargers were about to win their second in a row over the Raiders.

But if one were to review the stats of the game, there would be no doubt that Oakland was on the losing end. Generally, if your quarterback throws for three interceptions, you’re going to lose. Typically, if your opponent’s time of possession doubles your time of possession, you’re going to lose. And more often than not, if you fumble on the last play of the game, you’re going to lose.

The Raiders’ opening drive showed promise until Mark van Eeghen fumbled and Chargers defensive tackle Louie Kelcher recovered the ball on the San Diego 10-yard line.

Even though Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts managed to march his team down the field, the 28-yard field goal attempt was blocked by the Raiders, who then took over at their own 20.

The Raiders went three and out and the game seemed as though it would turn into a punting contest, as neither team was having success in moving the ball down the field.

When the Raiders got the ball back late in the first quarter, Stabler was picked off and the interception was returned to the Oakland 35-yard line. A few plays later, six-four tight end Pat Curran caught a deflected pass from Dan Fouts for a 14-yard score. The extra point was good, and San Diego led 7–0 early in the second quarter.

Stabler hit Casper for a 6-yard touchdown and Mann’s PAT was good. The Raiders tied the game at 7–7 with a little over twelve minutes to go in the first half.

The ball continued to change hands several times before Chargers running back Hank Bauer ran the ball up the middle from the one for a score. The extra point, however, was missed, which would prove to be a critical mistake. Score: San Diego 13, Raiders 7.

The third quarter proved uneventful for both parties. A holding penalty shattered the Chargers’ first possession of the second half and Stabler’s second interception of the game ended a Raiders drive.

Stabler was picked off once more in the third quarter but thanks to a strong defense, the Chargers were forced to punt.

In the fourth quarter, Hank Bauer rushed for two yards into the end zone to give San Diego a 20–7 lead with just over twelve minutes left in the game.

A few possessions later, Stabler hit wide receiver Morris Bradshaw for a 44-yard score, shortening the Chargers’ lead to 6 with a little over eight minutes left in the game.

The teams traded punts until Stabler started hitting his targets. Marching down the field, Bradshaw, Banaszak, Chester, and Biletnikoff all did their part. Finally, an incomplete pass from Stabler to Chester stopped the clock with 10 seconds left to play.

What happened next was best described by Raiders announcer Bill King. His call would become legendary.

Stabler back, here comes the rush, he sidesteps, can he throw? He can’t! The ball, flipped forward, is loose, a wild scramble, two seconds on the clock, Casper grabbing the ball, it is ruled a fumble, Casper has recovered in the end zone, the Oakland Raiders have scored on the most zany, unbelievable, absolutely impossible dream of a play!

After linebacker Woodrow Lowe hit Stabler and the ball flew forward, and Banaszak flipped it ahead, Casper fell on the ball in the end zone after bending over and kicking it while trying to pick it up. As the referees signaled “touchdown,” Casper stood up with the ball in his arm, practically devoid of emotion, stunned.

Madden is on the field, he wants to know if it’s real, they said “yes, get your big butt out of here,” he does.

There is nothing real in the world any more, this one will be relived . . . forever.

Despite a protest from the Chargers sideline, referee Jerry Markbreit ruled it a legal play.

But the game was not over. It was tied and the extra point still had to be kicked.

“We played lousy,” said Madden. “We should have never been in that position. I was mad at the team. I just thought we were terrible. We stunk out the joint that day.”

“We had beaten the Raiders up and down the field all day,” said Chargers linebacker Jim Laslavic.

“They get down to the final seconds and in typical Raiders fashion they’re still in it. There was a feeling on the sidelines to get these final ten seconds out of the way and begin celebrating. But it didn’t happen that way.”

“On that particular play I do remember that my responsibility was to block the linebacker if he blitzed.”

“Linebacker Woody Lowe beat whoever was supposed to block him,” said Stabler. “He came pretty clean and he got to me just as I began to set up. And that’s when everything took place.”

“I was able to get my hand on Kenny,” said Lowe. “Kenny was backing away. I thought he tried to flip or throw the ball underhanded. I thought it was an incomplete pass. I thought I was the hero of the game to be honest, but it was just the opposite.”

“I remember looking back at Kenny and Woody Lowe had him around the arms,” said Banaszak. “Kenny couldn’t raise his arm up to throw the football and I hollered, ‘Snake! Snake!’ So he kind of flicked it. I couldn’t get to it but it was rolling end over end in front of me.”

“Pete goes to pick it up, but if he picks it up and gets tackled, the game is over,” said Madden. “So he can’t get tackled with the ball.”

“Banaszak picked up the ball and started to get tackled, so he just launched the ball up in the air.”

“At the time, I thought it was a smart thing to do to just get my hands on the ball and push it forward and keep it alive,” said Banaszak. “If I would have jumped on it, the Chargers would have jumped on me and that would have been the game.”

“Now Dave Casper comes in the front,” said Madden. “The ball is now on the two-yard line. Dave knows if he recovers the ball on the two-yard line and is tackled the game is over!”

“I’m on the two- or three-yard line and the ball comes, so I just ran out there and try and pick it up, and I flub that. Now I’m scrambling on the ground watching the ball underneath me and I see a white stripe go by and I actually just fell on top of it. I didn’t dive on it. Actually my greatest contribution was standing in the middle of the field.”

Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts can’t believe that the referees didn’t see what really happened.

“It still blows my mind how the referees could not see what it was or see exactly what happened. But Woody Lowe clearly got a sack on Stabler and he shoved the ball forward. It wasn’t a fumble; he threw the ball. If you ask Banaszak what he was doing, he was advancing the ball illegally. If you ask Casper, he had to push it across the line and fall on it for the touchdown.”

“I would assume, with Banaszak, Kenny, and Casper that they wouldn’t pass a lie detector test!” said Biletnikoff.

“I fumbled it on purpose,” Stabler admitted honestly after the game. “Yes, I was trying to fumble.”

In the locker room, San Diego’s Jim Laslavic had this to say about the Raiders.

“In typical Oakland Raiders fashion, if you can’t beat somebody the right way, you cheat!”

Note: During the off-season, the league added a provision to the rulebook about fumbles after the two-minute warning that allows only the player who fumbled the ball to advance it. As such, the rule change will forever prevent the Holy Roller from happening again.

“And it was one of those things that maybe you can’t do that. But the rules say that you can do that, so you can do that, and if you don’t want to do that, then go change the rule, and that’s what they did, they changed the rule. Now you can’t do that anymore.”

Markbreit’s decision to uphold the play was absolutely correct by the rules in place at the time. However, that would soon change.