Rewatch: Broncos v. Seahawks 11/25/84

For my next rewatch, a huge game at Mile High with a playoff atmosphere. The 11-1 Broncos, riding a 10-game win streak, hosting the 10-2 Seattle Seahawks, with the winner gaining control of the AFC West with three games to go. For a game like this you would expect none other than Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen in the booth for NBC. And yet…it’s Marv Albert and John Brodie in the booth for NBC. I had to do a little research to find out that Dick and Merlin had done NBC’s Thanksgiving broadcast of the Patriots and Cowboys three days earlier and so were apparently off on Sunday. I feel like these days the networks make their top crews do double-duty.

Fortunately, Jerry Seeman was on hand as the referee, so that leant a little bit of gravity to the ensuing battle.

Air is already a precious resource at altitude, and the Seahawks quickly took what remained of it when Dave Krieg went deep to Daryl Turner on the game’s first play for an 80-yard touchdown. The 1984 Broncos had a lot of strengths but also a tendency to give up a lot of passing yards and that would be on full display in this game. 

Marv and John highlighted during the broadcast that the Broncos were in a bit of a youth movement. Franchise legends Randy Gradishar, Riley Odoms, and Rick Upchurch had retired after the 1983 season. The 1984 Broncos featured a league-high 14 rookies. The rookie class of 1984 helped lay the foundation for the success enjoyed by the team throughout the rest of the 1980s. Andre Townsend, Clarence Kay, and Randy Robbins each played in three Super Bowls with the Broncos. Tony Lilly, Gene Lang, and Ricky Hunley each played in two.  No Hall of Famers in that group, but it was a solid draft in terms of building depth. 

Despite falling behind early, the Broncos kept it close thanks to their bend-but-don’t break defense, and managed to go into halftime with the score tied at 10.

In the third quarter, a Krieg hooked up with Steve Largent for a 65-yard completion which set up Seattle’s second touchdown of the day, but on Denver’s ensuing possession, a Gerald Willhite 63-yard catch-and-run set up a Gene Lang touchdown to make it 17-all. 

Seattle put together a 70-yard touchdown drive that concluded early in the fourth quarter. Krieg got Steve Foley to bite on a fake and hit Largent for the go-ahead touchdown.

Seattle and Denver were the top two teams in the NFL in takeaways in 1984, but through three quarters of play there had been only one turnover. 

That changed on the next possession. Elway dumped off a pass to Clarence Kay, and the ball slipped through his hands and fell to the ground. Anyone who is decently versed in the rules of football would immediately recognize this as an incomplete pass. Yet, somehow, the officials ruled it a FUMBLE. Without question, the call would have been overturned with instant replay. Unfortunately, that provision didn’t exist in 1984. The Seahawks quickly took advantage of their good fortune and converted the ill-gotten turnover into a field goal and a 10-point lead with seven minutes remaining. 

Clarence Kay's phantom fumble

The Broncos quickly responded, as Elway needed just two minutes to get the Broncos into the end zone, with Gene Lang again finding paydirt. Rich Karlis came on for the extra point. His kick was low and wobbly but made it just inside the left upright. 27-24, Seahawks.

The Broncos defense forced a Seahawks punt, and the Broncos take possession with three minutes remaining. Elway finds Willhite for 17 yards, and then again for 14. Then he hits Steve Watson for 22. After he scrambles for a a 13-yard gain, the Broncos find themselves at the Seattle 14 with 1:17 remaining. Plenty of time to get the winning touchdown, but they manage only the eight-yard line. Karlis comes on to attempt a tying 25-yard field goal. Should be a chip shot, right? Unfortunately, no. Karlis hits the right upright on the kick and it bounces back onto the field. The Seahawks take possession and run out the clock and head back to Seattle with an 11-2 record, tied atop the AFC West with the Broncos. 

Karlis famously got the flak for missing the kick, but it’s hard to say that the blame for the loss falls on him. Seattle’s only had the three-point lead due to the atrocious officiating call just a few minutes earlier. 

Uprights and officiating aside, it just wasn’t the Broncos day. The hallmark of the 1984 Broncos defense was takeaways, and they had none in this game. They got burned on the first play of the game. Dave Krieg passed for 404 yards and three touchdowns. Steve Largent had a career day, catching 12 passes for 191 yards. 

Fortunately, the Broncos were going to get another crack at Seattle in week 16.

Who Will it be Now?

 A lot of fans are nervous about the Broncos’ head coaching search. I'm kind of not. There's nowhere to go but up after last year.

The big name candidates appear to be out of it and I’m happy about that. Shelling out big cash or draft compensation for Jim Harbaugh or Sean Payton only to yield power to their tremendous egos is not the direction I had in mind. Not that I'm being consulted on the hire... but perhaps I should be.  

DeMeco Ryans, the 49ers defensive coordinator, is rumored to be the leading candidate but they can’t hire him until the conclusion of the 49ers season which might still be a couple of weeks away if they advance to the Super Bowl. I’m a little bit nervous given his limited experience and the Denver's recent run of bad luck with first-time head coaches. I heard that ownership really likes the 49ers model, but that reminds me of back in 2009 when the Broncos thought hiring Josh McDaniels would bring them Patriots-like success.

I haven't heard much speculation that current Broncos defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero might get the promotion to head coach. I guess he already turned down the interim position when Nathaniel Hackett was fired although I don't know how that plays into this decision. I might be more inclined to be excited about the Ryans hire if Evero was staying on as the defensive coordinator. Because I've had enough with head coaches who insist on calling their own plays. Just delegate it to the coordinator and focus on being the head coach. Please!

The problem with Ryans and Evero is that they have options. Jobs with the Texans, Cardinals, and Colts are also still open. Ryans has ties to Houston so he's also a leading candidate there. Evero has also interviewed with all three teams.

Jerry Rosburg, who finished out the year is the interim head coach, is definitely interested. The team terminated his contract the other day but it was unclear if this was just a technicality or if it meant the team was not interested in him coming back next season.

I was most interested in Dan Quinn as he follows more closely the John Fox/Gary Kubiak mold which brought the Broncos a lot of success from 2011 to 2016. All who had previous experience and success as a head coach in the NFL. But apparently Quinn chose to stay in Dallas so he's no longer an option.

Jim Caldwell also fits that mold, having had success as a head coach both with the Colts and the Lions. And a lot of NFL experience. The drawback would be that he's 68 years old and hasn't had a coaching job the last three years.

David Shaw, most recently the head coach at Stanford, is apparently a sleeper in this race. He has some experience in the NFL with the Raiders and the Ravens, but he's been at the collegiate level the past 17 seasons. The transition from college to the pros is often rocky for coaches, so I'm not sure how I feel about his candidacy.

The only other known candidate to interview is Raheem Morris, who was the Rams' defensive coordinator the past two seasons. He has head coaching experience with the Buccaneers and Falcons, though without much success. I've heard almost no buzz on him being near the top of the Broncos' list.

It seems like it's headed in the direction of Ryans, but if he takes another job then who knows. With Quinn out of the picture, I guess I'm hoping for Caldwell. He wouldn't be the long-term solution but hopefully would stabilize things and break the string of losing seasons. 

Every Time I Won Free Tickets to Something, Part 1

It was the summer of 1988. As a kid, I was a week or so from starting 7th grade out to Cap. As a nation, we were three weeks from the summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. As a family, we were in Denver for some reason, probably school shopping or a temple trip.

One thing we did a lot while driving around Denver was listen to 850 KOA news/talk. For the uninitiated, KOA is the 50,000 watt voice of the west. We did not have such things as talk radio in the valley. We were limited to KGIW of Alamosa and KOB out of Albuquerque which supplied us with all the Gloria Estefan and Billy Ocean we could handle.

We were driving around one afternoon and they announced they were giving away tickets. The men’s Olympic basketball team was on a national tour before heading overseas and the seventh of eight stops would be the following night at Denver’s McNichols Arena. 

Every contest has its parameters, and this particular competition was limited to the younger demographic. They wanted to give two tickets to someone 14 and under. I was super into basketball at the time but probably would have never taken the initiative to call on my own. I was an out-of-towner, after all. These city folk certainly weren’t going to give the tickets to a kid from the valley.

But my parents gave me the nudge so I went into Emma’s house and picked up the phone to give it a shot. I don’t remember all the details but I remember being on hold for what seemed like a very long time and occasionally someone would get on and give me an update. The reason why I was holding for so long was because I was going to have to go on the air and tell the hosts why I should get the tickets. I didn’t have a very good answer, just a generic “because I really like basketball” but apparently they weren’t picky because they gave me the information to go down and pick the tickets up at the station the next day. 

One of the main mid-day shows on KOA at the time was a therapist somewhat in the vein of Dr. Laura which wasn’t of particular interest to me but my parents loved it. Anyways, upon arriving at their offices we may have ridden up the elevator with her. I don’t remember exactly how that conclusion was reached but it provided a little bit of fun for the adults to talk about later. 

So my dad and I went to McNichols Arena that night, August 24, 1988. This was the last Olympic team restricted to amateur athletes. The most famous name among them was “The Admiral” David Robinson, who would return four years later as part of the 1992 Dream Team. It was still pretty exciting as these were some of the top collegiate players at the time including Danny Manning of the national champion Kansas Jayhawks.

Their opponent was “NBA all-stars” although that term was used a little loosely. This  wasn’t Magic Johnson and Larry Bird we were talking about. The roster changed depending on the city the game was taking place in, and so this night’s team was heavy on Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz players. We were treated to a competitive and entertaining game - it went to overtime with the Olympians prevailing 105-103. 

Later out to Cap, I recounted this experience to my new student council peers and basically they thought I was making it up. I guess that’s the way my whole life has been - just a collection of experiences far too fantastic to be believable.

Rewatch: Broncos at Lions 10/7/84

Live from the Pontiac Silverdome it's Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy bringing you the 1-4 Lions and 4-1 Broncos! I'm a little bit interested to know if there was ever a Broncos game on NBC in the mid-to-late 80s that wasn't called by either Criqui and Trumpy, Enberg and Olsen, or Charlie Jones and whoever he was paired with. I'm sure there was but it must have been rare because I don't remember.

The quality of this recording was not great and neither was the game. But I'm still thankful to have been able to watch it.

Lions QB Gary Danielson was kind of off to a hot start statistically in 1984. They mentioned how he came into the game with zero interceptions on the year. That's about to change...in a big way. 

Broncos get an early touchdown drive and then after the Lions' Billy Sims bobbles a pitchout and it pops in the air with help from Louis Wright, Rulon Jones grabs it and rumbles in for a touchdown to make it 14-0 which would be all the Broncos would need to win this one.

Rulon Jones reaches for loose ball

Kind of a brutal second quarter. Lions center Steve Mott suffers what turns out to be a season-ending injury late in the first half and has to be carted off. After the 3rd or 4th Lions turnover, John Elway goes deep to Steve Watson for a TD and a ref gets plowed over at the goal line by a Lions DB.

The Lions were really aggressive at the end of the first half - bringing in their backup QB, Mike Machurek, to throw a hail Mary with under 30 seconds remaining. I don't feel like we'd see that today.  In any case, Dennis Smith picks it off for the 5th turnover.

Not much happened in the second half. Neither offense was doing much of anything. The Broncos couldn't move the ball and the Lions couldn't hold onto it. Ken Woodard picked off a pass and returned it for a touchdown, the fourth interception of Danielson on the day, to put the Broncos up 28-7.

The only thing that was suspenseful about this game was the turnover count. I knew before watching that the Broncos defense set a team record with 10 turnovers in this game, but we passed the two minute warning and they were only at 8. How was this thing going to happen?

Here's how. Machurek is back in the game at QB and throws two interceptions in the final minute to give him three on the game, nearly matching Danielson's total. First, Tony Lilly picks him off, but then fumbles it back to the Lions on the return. Then Karl Mecklenburg comes up with an interception and has some running room. It looks like he has a chance to go the distance for the Broncos' third defensive touchdown of the game, but is brought down after a 63 yard return on what turns out to be the final play of the game.

Other Broncos defenses have received more acclaim, such as the Orange Crush of the late 1970s and the No Fly Zone of 2015. However, the 1984 unit was special in its own way and has kind of been forgotten through the years. Although they gave up a lot of yards, they only allowed 15 points per game on the season, which ranked second in the NFL that year. 

But their trademark was turnovers. Thirty-eight years later, this unit still holds team records for total takeaways in a single season (55), turnover differential (+21), most recoveries of opponent fumbles in a season (24), most defensive touchdowns in a season (8), most yards on interception returns in a season (510), and most turnovers in a single game (10).  Additionally, they hold the team single-season sack record with 57.

Winding Up the 2022 Broncos

Last month I wrote a post exploring the potential of the 2022 Broncos offense to be the worst in franchise history. And after 12 games, they were right on target. However, the trend reversed somewhat in the final five games.

Now we're at year end I thought it worthwhile to see how they wound up on a few of the metrics.

Points per game. They were at 13.8 after 12 games, but after averaging 24 points over their final five games, they raised the season average to 16.8 per game. That lifts them above the 14.0 average of the 1966 team as well as three others, so this wound up as only the fifth-worst average in team history.

Total touchdowns. They only had 14 through 12 games, but somehow scored 15 in their final five games to get them to 29 on the season. Still not great, but well beyond the franchise's low mark set in 1971.

They failed to reach 18 points in only one of their final five games (the Christmas day debacle), which was enough to match them with the 1966 team for the most sub-18 point games in a single season. However, the 1966 team played three fewer games.

Three squads shared the record for lowest high point game with 27, shared by the 1971, 1982, and 1992 teams. The 2022 Broncos beat that mark twice in the final five games, including in the season finale, when they topped 30 for the first time all season. 

It is notable that the defensive and special teams units scored zero touchdowns in 2022. I haven't verified if this is a first.

They still finished last in the NFL in total points. So although not the worst in team history, it was the worst in the league for this season.

Although this was a discouraging year and I was pretty down on my team for most of all of it, the win over the Chargers on Sunday felt really good. I'm glad they could end the season on a high note.

The Broncos achieved a couple of milestones with the victory. It was the 500th win in the team's 63-year history, and also the 300th home win. And they avoided a couple of bad footnotes - if they had lost it would have been the first 13-loss season in team history and the first time being swept by the AFC West.

Rewatch: Broncos at Raiders 10/28/84

Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen welcomed us to the L.A. Coliseum along with the 90,000 plus in attendance. They purported that it was the largest crowd to see an NFL game to date that season, although it appears a 49ers-Raiders game from earlier that season eclipsed it by a few hundred.

Both teams were 7-1 entering the game, but both starting QBs were on the sidelines due to injury for this one, so it was Gary Kubiak vs. Marc Wilson. 

The Broncos didn’t have a great first half and trailed 12-0, but the Raiders’ sloppy play kept them in the game. 

First, a Raiders interception of Gary Kubiak was nullified by a roughing the passer penalty, then the Raiders’ Greg Pruitt muffed a punt which the Broncos recovered and turned into three points. On the ensuing drive, Marcus Allen fumbled it away, and the Broncos kicked another field goal to make it 12-6 at halftime. 

When Jim Nantz and Phil Simms were teaming up for CBS broadcasts of Broncos’ games in the mid-2000s, Nantz would often bring up Simms’ Super Bowl MVP performance when the Giants beat the Broncos. I always found it a little annoying. Well, it turns out Nantz didn’t invent the technique of flattering your broadcast partner. Dick Enberg never seemed to miss an opportunity to bring up Deacon Jones and the famed Rams defensive line that Olsen was a part of. 

In the second half, the two teams traded touchdowns, but the Broncos botched the extra point after their touchdown to make it 19-12. The missed point after was partially due to an injury to Denver guard/long snapper Keith Bishop who was not on the field for the attempt.

The rest of the game was a series of events that often left me thinking, “I know the Broncos pull this out in the end….but how?”

The first of these came on a Raiders’ punt. The ball bounced past Broncos returner Zach Thomas and the Raiders pounced on it inside the Broncos 10 yard line. However, the ruling on the field was that Thomas did not touch the ball. The instant replay on the broadcast was inconclusive - the video quality was just not good enough back then and there wouldn’t be any provision in the rules for a replay review by the officials until 1986. Dick and Merlin suggested that Thomas may have touched it based on how he reacted after it got past him, but nevertheless the Broncos kept possession. 

A few minutes later, Chris Bahr had a chance to put the Raiders up by two scores but missed the field goal. However, Sammy Winder fumbled moments later to give the ball right back. From this point, the Raiders were attempting to run the clock. If they could manage at least a field goal on the drive, they would lead by 10 with two minutes to play, an almost insurmountable margin. However, Dennis Smith stripped Marcus Allen, and the Broncos recovered at the Raiders 15. 

The Broncos marched downfield, and Kubiak hit Steve Watson for six points. If the Broncos hadn’t missed the earlier point-after try, they would have been in a position to take the lead. Keith Bishop, though injured, came in to snap the ball for this extra point. Rich Karlis connected, and the game went to overtime tied at 19. 

The Broncos’ luck seemed to run out when Malcolm Barnwell beat Louis Wright for a 41-yard completion early in overtime to get the Raiders in scoring position. Dick & Merlin wondered aloud if Tom Flores should send out the field goal unit right away. However, they opted for another play and Mike Harden stripped Frank Hawkins of the ball, and the Broncos recovered. 

After the teams exchanged punts, and the Broncos moved into position for a game-winning field goal, but Karlis missed from 44. Raider Shelby Jordan patted Karlis on the helmet following the miss. 

The two teams again exchanged punts, with the Broncos’ punt coming with only 1:18 remaining.

However, this one also bounces off Greg Pruitt, and the Broncos’ Roger Jackson recovered. 

When Pruitt muffed the punt at the end of the first half, there was a non-call for interference on Ricky Hunley. This time, however, the refs flag the Broncos because Pruitt had signaled for a fair catch. 

At this point the game seems destined to end in a tie. However, just moments later Marc Wilson is intercepted by the same Roger Jackson who just had his heroic fumble recovery nullified. The Broncos run a single play to set up Karlis for a 35-yard field goal attempt, and with Keith Bishop again coming in to snap the ball, Karlis boots it through as time expires. 

Jackson’s interception was the Broncos’ seventh turnover of the game. Although not a team record, the Broncos have not had that many in a single game in the last 38 years. 

This game is the one that hooked me on the NFL as a kid. I’m so thankful for the miracle of YouTube making it possible for me to go back and watch again. Otherwise the main memories I had retained from childhood were Kubiak hitting Watson for the touchdown in the fourth quarter and Karlis getting the helmet pat after missing the field goal. It wasn’t the best played game and was a little short on star power with Elway on the sidelines. But it certainly had everything else you could ask for as a fan. Heated rivalry? Check. Historic venue? Check. Legendary broadcasters? Check. Twists and turns? Check. Controversial calls? Check. Late game drama? Check.

Rewatch: Chargers at Broncos 12/9/84

For my next rewatch, I perused the games that came up in a YouTube search for “1984 Broncos” and decided that the Chargers/Broncos tilt from 11/11/84 made sense if I wanted to keep it in a chronological order.

However, there were several things said early on in the broadcast that had me confused. There was a lot of playoff talk, such as the Broncos were on the brink of clinching the AFC West. In Week 11? Then they were doing score updates from around the league and the Chiefs were just polishing off a 34-7 upset win over the Seahawks. But during my rewatch of the 11/4/84 Broncos game there had been several updates on a Seahawks rout of the Chiefs. Surely they didn’t play in back-to-back weeks?

It was then that I realized that the video was mislabeled. I was watching the Week 15 Chargers/Broncos matchup. I suppose it was an easy enough mistake to make on the titling as both of the teams’ games from 1984 ended with an identical final score. 

The outcomes of their two games would lead you to believe these teams were pretty evenly matched - both were decided by a field goal - yet the Chargers were headed for a last-place finish in the AFC West while the Broncos were in control of their own destiny for the AFC West title when the game kicked off. This Broncos team had a tendency to play tight games - seven of their 14 games to date had been decided by three points. 

In the first half, the Broncos set a team record with their 51st sack of the season. They finished 1984 with 57 sacks and the record still stands today.  

The Broncos didn’t do much offensively early on. Four first quarter drives resulted in two punts and two turnovers, which the Chargers converted into a pair of Rolf Benirschke field goals. However, after Benirschke missed a 53-yarder that would have made it 9-0, the Broncos responded with a drive that resulted in a Rich Karlis field goal that cut the Chargers’ lead to 6-3.

Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen were on the call for this game and one of the main story lines they had to work with was the barefoot kicker Karlis, who was coming off consecutive games in which tying field goal attempts had bounced off the upright in losses to Seattle and Kansas City, dropping the Broncos’ record from 11-1 to 11-3. But after the Broncos put together a drive in the final two minutes of the half, Karlis was good on a 50-yard attempt as time expired to tie his career long and seemed to prove he wasn’t shaken by the unfortunate misses.

The Broncos put together an efficient eight play, 85-yard drive in the third quarter that ended with Sammy Winder scoring on a 4-yard run to give them their first lead of the game at 13-6. Earlier in the game Winder went over 1,000 yards for the season, the first 1,000 yard rushing season for the Broncos since Otis Armstrong in 1976. The seven-year drought remains the longest for the Broncos since they joined the NFL.

The Chargers responded with a long drive that gave them first and goal at the Broncos 1-yard line. Two rushing attempts at the end of the third quarter and two more at the beginning of the fourth resulted in zero yards, and the Broncos took over on offense after the successful goal-line stand. However, Winder fumbled on the second play and San Diego recovered. This time, they tried a pass and scored to tie the game at 13. 

The Broncos offense responded with another long drive which included a 4th & 1 conversion and Merlin Olsen’s retelling of the story from earlier in the season in which Broncos WR Clint Sampson was “hit so hard in the Buffalo game they thought initially he might even be dead.” The Broncos got to the San Diego 5 but Elway was sacked and fumbled on a third down blitz. The Chargers recovered, their fourth turnover of the game. 

Although the 1984 Broncos set a franchise record with a +21 turnover differential that still stands today, they were -4 in this particular game. 

However, the Chargers didn’t capitalize, and the Broncos again drove deep into Chargers territory. Karlis came on to boot his third field goal of the game with just over two minutes remaining and put together the Ghost of Uprights Past once and for all. San Diego quarterback Dan Fouts didn’t play in this game and with USFL-bound Ed Luther leading the two-minute drill, the Chargers went nowhere. 

During the final minutes of this game, NBC showed updates of the Rams’ Eric Dickerson going over 2,000 yards for the season and breaking O.J. Simpson’s regular-season record.

Karlis and Benirschke post-game

Cameras focused on the two kickers, Karlis and Benirschke, on the field after game. Apparently they were good friends and Benirschke had helped Karlis through a rough couple of weeks. 

The Broncos’ victory tied them for the AFC West lead with Seahawks at 12-3, and the two teams would play the following week for the division title. The Chargers record against AFC West opponents dropped to 0-7, and they would finish 0-8 after a week 16 loss to Kansas City. Yet they would finish the year with a 7-9 record due to a 7-1 record outside the division.