Rewatch: Dolphins at Broncos 9/29/85

This is the AFC Championship matchup between Dan Marino and John Elway that we didn't get nine months earlier after the Broncos were upset by the Steelers. 

It’s certainly playoff weather. Although we’re only a little more than a week removed from summer, Denver got 8 inches of snow and hit a record low temperature for September at 17 degrees Fahrenheit. At game time it’s 29 degrees and there are piles of snow at either end of the field. 

The game had received the annual “Orange Sunday” designation although it turned out to be more of a White Sunday in retrospect. And as one might expect, NBC’s lead crew of Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen were on hand. 

Touché 

The Broncos are first on the scoreboard. Rulon Jones forces a fumble on the Dolphins’ third possession and recovers at the Miami 25. The offense cashes in with Gene Lang scoring on a 10-yard run. 

However, momentum quickly swings back to the Dolphins. Marino hits Nat Moore for a 69-yard touchdown to tie the game. The Dolphins are back in scoring position again after a sack of Elway, a punt, and a 15-yard late hit penalty on Steve Busick. Another touchdown by Moore is nullified by penalty, but the Dolphins still get the field goal to take the lead. 

In the second quarter, Elway connects with Butch Johnson and Lang for big gains, and then Sammy Winder scores on 7-yard run with 5:32 left before halftime to make it 14-10, Denver. 

Dolphins get pinned back on their own 14 on the ensuing kickoff, but Tony Nathan hauls in a Marino pass and rumbles 75 yards before being brought down by Ken Woodard. The Broncos D rises up and holds the Dolphins to just a field goal, retaining a one-point lead. 

However, the Broncos can't move the ball so Marino gets to run the 2-minute offense, which results in a TD pass to Joe Rose to put the Dolphins in front, 20-14. 

NBC is flashing baseball scores. The Kansas City Royals lost 6-3 to the Twins, putting them a game back of the Angels with a week left in the season. Dick tells us that they’ve got a four-game series with the Angels starting tomorrow. The Royals wind up taking three of four in that series, win the AL West by a game, and go on to win the World Series. It seems a little unusual to hear commentary on pennant races during an NFL broadcast, but this was a very long time ago. 

It’s not halftime yet. The Broncos get inside the Miami 40 on a pass interference penalty and then Elway scrambles to get them in field goal range. Rich Karlis comes on to kick a field goal but hits the left upright and it bounces back onto the field, no good. We’ve seen this before, haven’t we?

But there was a flag on the play. Twelve men on the field for the Dolphins, so the Broncos get five yards and another attempt for Karlis. This time the kick glances off the right upright, but goes through. They don’t keep stats on it but you have wonder where Rich ranks on the all time list for hitting the upright. The successful try narrows Miami’s lead to 20-17 at the half. 

The Broncos go 82 yards in 10 plays to open second half, with Winder scoring his second touchdown of the game to put the Broncos back in the lead. Karlis converts the extra point to make it 24-20. But wait…there is a penalty on number 67, Dean Miraldi, for illegal motion. I probably wouldn’t even be including the detail of the extra point except this time Karlis misses. So the lead is only three. In this back-and-forth game, will that come back to bite the Broncos?

The teams each take a turn with the ball, and then the Dolphins drive to the Broncos 46. It’s 3rd-and-9. Marino finds the legendary Vince Heflin for the first down and he spins away from Louis Wright and Steve Foley and takes it all the way. Heflin is only in action because Mark Clayton left the game with an injury. Mark Duper didn’t play at all and yet Marino is shredding the Broncos pass defense. He finishes this game with 390 yards and 3 touchdowns.

The Dolphins get the ball back after the Broncos fail to move it, and with the aid of a pair of pass interference penalties on third downs, they get into easy field goal range and extend their lead to 30-23.

But the Broncos get a nice kickoff return from Vance Johnson, and aided by a 15-yard penalty on the Dolphins, they set up at midfield to begin their next drive. There are still 8 minutes left on the clock, and plenty of time for the Broncos to tie this one up. However, shortly after Dick runs down the NBC Sunday night lineup of Punky Brewster, Silver Spoons, Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the NBC Sunday Night Movie, which is “First Blood”, Winder fumbles and it is recovered by Miami.

Miami can’t move the ball and Mecklenburg drops Marino for a sack on third down to force a punt, but precious time has ticked off the clock.

The Broncos move downfield quickly and a pass to Butch Johnson gets them a first-and-10 at the Miami 16. However, they stall there and settle for a field goal rather than going for it on fourth and long. Probably the right move. They’ve cut it to 30-26 and there are still three and a half minutes to play. Dick and Merlin say that Dan Reeves is gambling on his defense. 

The gamble on the defense turns out to be a good one, but the gamble on the special teams - not so much. The Broncos surrender a big kickoff return to Lorenzo Hampton, who brings it back almost to midfield. Even though the Broncos defense forces a three-and-out, Reggie Roby pins the Broncos deep with a punt. So with a 1:39 remaining, the Broncos are 97 yards from the opposing end zone and need to get all of it - remember that missed extra point? 

Elway completes a couple of passes but is then intercepted to end the final threat. Marino is the victor in Elway-Marino I. 

This seems like it will be the first of many duels between these two quarterbacks from the 1983 QB draft class and that they will battle for AFC supremacy for years to come. And yet, Elway-Marino II won’t come for another 13 years, and they will retire having met only three times in the regular season or playoffs. Contrast that with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, who met 17 times during the 15 years their careers overlapped. 

It might be the weirdest scheduling quirk in sports history and isn’t limited to just the playing careers of Marino and Elway. This game was the only meeting between the Dolphins and Broncos between 1976 and 1997 - a span of 22 seasons. In those days, due to the irregular size of divisions, teams weren’t guaranteed to meet every four seasons the way they are now. Schedules were partially a function of how you finished in your division the prior season. For example, because the Broncos finished first in the AFC West in 1984, the teams from the AFC East that went on their slate in 1985 were the Dolphins (1st in 1984) and the Colts (4th in 1984). Even when the formula shifted from 1st-4th and 2nd-3rd matchups to 1st-3rd and 2nd-4th matchups, the Broncos and Dolphins still didn’t align. Jim Kelly, another member of the 1983 QB class, met Elway head-to-head six times, and his Bills played in the same division as Marino’s Dolphins.

The craziness extends beyond the regular season. One would think that Elway and Marino would have crossed paths in the postseason on a frequent basis. They would have faced off in the 1983 and 1984 playoffs but for the fact that the Broncos didn’t win their first playoff game either time. And then from 1985 to 1996, the Broncos and Dolphins never qualified for the playoffs in the same season, although one or the other qualified every season in that span (with the exception of 1988). It wasn’t until the 1998 season, Elway’s final year, when they finally crossed paths in the postseason. Oddly enough, Elway-Marino III came only three weeks after Elway-Marino II. The whole thing is just bonkers!

What I’m trying to say in so many words is that this Week 4 game is one of the hidden gems in Bronco history, although no one fully realized how special at the time. And despite the cold, it was an exciting, well-played game. Only three turnovers between the two teams. Time of possession was dead even - 29:59 to 30:01. Six lead changes. A 300-yard passer, a pair of 100-yard receivers (Nathan and Moore) and a 100-yard rusher (Winder). 

In 1984, the Broncos didn’t lose their second game until Week 13, but it’s only Week 4 of the 1985 season and they have already dropped their second game. At 2-2, they’re in a four-way tie for second place in the AFC West behind the 3-1 Kansas City Chiefs. 

Rewatch: Broncos at Falcons 9/22/85

This is a game that I probably didn’t get to see back when it was originally broadcast. At the time, we received our television signal from Northern New Mexico via aerial antenna, so the stations were all out of Albuquerque. We usually got the Broncos games, especially if they were in the 2 PM slot. But Albuquerque was truly Dallas Cowboys territory, so on occasion we were deprived of the Broncos game if there was a conflict. At the time, NBC had rights to inter-conference games in which the AFC team was the visitor. On this week it so happened that both the Broncos and Cowboys were slated to play in the early slate of games. And since in both cases NBC had the broadcast (the Cowboys were hosting the AFC Browns), the Broncos game took a back seat in New Mexico.

This game was called by Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy. Sometimes Criqui just calls him Trump. Not sure how that would go over today.

Broncos take the lead when rookie Vance Johnson hauls in a short pass from Elway and then takes the pass 63 yards for a touchdown.

Even though they got the big play, Elway seems a little off his game and is intercepted twice in the early going. The Falcons return the second one for a touchdown to tie the score.

The game is tied at 14 when Elway finds Watson for a 40-yard gain to the Atlanta 1, and Sammy Winder scores to put the Broncos back in front. Falcons QB Steve Bartkowski attempts to execute a two-minute offense, but under pressure is intercepted by Louis Wright, and the Broncos take their lead into halftime. 

This turns out to be the Broncos’ last appearance at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, which is an interesting venue for football. This being a September game, a good portion of the playing surface is dirt due to their shared arrangement with the Atlanta Braves. Multi-purpose stadiums are now a thing of the past, but were fairly commonplace in the 1980s - nearly half of NFL teams shared their stadium with a baseball club, including the Broncos.

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium

The football setup in Atlanta is clearly not ideal. As seen in the picture above, the near sideline runs from third base to first base, so if you're sitting behind the dugouts or home plate you are a long ways from the football action. In other multi-purpose setups the sideline typically runs parallel to one of the baselines. The far sideline is not quite as bad although a little irregular. Seats near the goal lines are closer than those on the 50-yard line.

Even though their stadium is half-empty, the Falcons have not given up the fight. On the first play from scrimmage in third quarter, Bartkowski goes deep to Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, who has beaten Mike Harden. White Shoes hauls it in for a 62 yard touchdown. He breaks out his wobbly-kneed funky chicken dance and gets flagged for taunting although it is pretty benign by today’s standards. 

The Broncos retake the lead on a couple of Rich Karlis field goals, but a short punt by Chris Norman puts the Falcons back in business with primo field position at the Denver 40. Moments later, Bartkowski finds White Shoes for another touchdown and there is another end zone dance and another flag. The Broncos defeated two 1970s Houston Oilers legends the prior week, but can they defeat a third?

The Falcons take a 28-27 lead on the extra point, and with 15 minutes and 7 seconds remaining, it is still anyone’s game. 

However, things quickly swing back in Denver’s favor. Elway goes deep for Clint Sampson and pass interference is called at the Atlanta 30. On top of that, the Falcons are flagged an additional 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct. The 57 yards of combined penalties set the Broncos up on the Atlanta 15, and they score moments later on a 2-yard run by Gene Lang to retake the lead.

The Falcons start moving the ball again and cross midfield. They have a 3rd and 4 from the Denver 42 and Bartkowski throws deep but Wright has good coverage. So it’s 4th and 4 with about 10 minutes still left in the game. It would seem to make sense to punt it in this situation and pin the Broncos back in their own end. Maybe they force a turnover or get a defensive stop and get the ball back. There is still plenty of time on the clock and they are only down six points. 

But for some reason the Falcons decide to go for it on fourth down. Maybe they had no faith in the defense and figured the only shot they had at winning this game was to simply outscore the Broncos. Bartkowski hits White Shoes on a short pass over the middle but Steve Foley brings him down about two feet shy of a first down. 

The Broncos take over at their own 38 and almost immediately wind up in 3rd & long and it looks like the strategy might pay off for the Falcons. They blitz, but Elway gets it off to Vance Johnson, who makes a nifty grab on the sideline just past the first-down marker and gets his feet down in bounds. The second nice play of the day for Vance and it appears the kid has a future in orange. The Broncos wind up with a field goal and go up 37-28.

The Falcons take one more shot. Bartkowski completes a deep pass to Stacey Bailey but the ball is knocked loose by Tony Lilly and recovered by Harden. The Broncos run some time off the clock and then Elway goes for the kill shot, finding Butch Johnson for the 31-yard game-clinching touchdown. It was Elway’s third TD pass of the game and his ninth of the season. The Broncos wind up with eight scoring drives in the game and the 44 points is the highest single-game output thus far in Elway’s young career.  

The Broncos improve to 2-1 on the season, putting them in a four-way tie atop the AFC West.