Rewatch: Oilers at Broncos 10/6/85

Compared to last week’s Freeze Bowl, this is ideal fall football weather - 70 degrees at kickoff. 

The Oilers and the Broncos actually swung a trade of draft picks for the 1985 draft. Denver moved up from the 36th overall pick to the 31st selection by sending their fifth round choice to Houston. 

With that 31st pick, the Broncos grabbed Vance Johnson from the University of Arizona, who according to the broadcast was the fastest player in the draft with blazing 4.3 speed. He’s already had an impact in the young season, and that trend continues early on in this game. He has a 30-yard punt return to set up a field goal, and minutes later nearly scores on a reverse. He’s brought down short of the goal line after a gain of 14, but Sammy Winder scores to give Denver an early 10-0 lead. 

The Broncos have a short field on their next possession, but can’t take advantage. Rich Karlis misses a 52-yard attempt, breaking his streak of 13 consecutive regular-season makes. His last regular season miss was hitting the upright on the game-tying attempt in Kansas City last December. 

The Oilers were bad in 1984 - losing their first 10 en route to a 3-13 finish. But talent reinforcements have arrived. They had the 3rd and 11th overall picks which garnered DT Ray Childress and CB Richard Johnson, as well as DE Richard Byrd with the 36th pick swapped from the Broncos. Also coming on board is former Heisman winner Mike Rozier, although he’s already played a full season in 1985 by compiling 1,727 combined rushing/receiving yards for the USFL’s Jacksonville Bulls. 

They mention that Phil Niekro won his 300th game. He's the fourth of five pitchers to reach the milestone during the 80s, although only five have joined the 300 club since 1990. I'm in the middle of a book on sabermetrics that talks about what a misleading pitching stat wins are, but it's a remarkable achievement nonetheless.

The Broncos execute a nifty 4-play, 82-yard drive. Elway picks up a 3rd-and-5 with a 36-yard pass to Clint Sampson that gets them to the Houston 41. On the next play, Elway pitches to Winder, who hands it to Butch Johnson on a reverse, who flips it to Elway. The defense is not completely fooled, but Elway still manages to hit Steve Watson for the touchdown on a pass that travels 50 yards in the air.

The Oilers have to punt on the first drive of the second half. With their fifth-round draft pick acquired from the Broncos, they selected BYU punter Lee Johnson. This is his sixth of seven punts in the game, but is showing the ability that will earn him a two-decade career in the NFL, averaging 45 yards on the day. The Broncos convert a third-and-10 on a pass interference penalty, and an Elway to Clarence Kay TD pass gives them a 24-3 lead. 

Houston gets their first touchdown of the day on a 67-yard pass from Warren Moon to Butch Woolfolk, who uses a combination of speed, elusiveness, and lot of missed tackles by Broncos to find the end zone. Mile High Stadium is filled with boos, although maybe they were saying Boooooooouuutch.

Another pass interference penalty on the Oilers combined with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike for kicking the flag gets Denver back in scoring range. Elway tosses to Vance Johnson, who uses nifty footwork along the sideline to sprint for a 29-yard touchdown to restore the Broncos three-touchdown margin. It’s Elway’s third touchdown pass of the game, which gets him to 12 on the season. 

Vance tiptoes the sideline on the way to end zone

After Elway is intercepted by Keith Bostic for the second time in the game, Mike Moroski comes on in relief of Moon. Today, Moon is in the Hall of Fame, but perhaps we forget that it was not a slam dunk that his 1984 move from the CFL to the NFL would be a successful one. He had a very rough start with the Oilers, entering this game with a 4-16 record as a starter and now he’s benched trailing by 21 points. 

Creative fans

But the change seems to give the Oilers a boost. A field goal cuts it to 31-13, and as the fourth quarter begins the Broncos have a 4th and 1 at the Houston 40. The ball is snapped to Elway before he’s expecting it and for a brief moment it appears the Oilers have stopped them. But a flag was thrown because  center Bill Bryan saw Houston jump offsides and snapped it early. The Oilers are upset by the call and are penalized an additional 15.

The Oilers were good in the 70s and will be good again in the 90s, but were not particularly good in the mid-80s. From 1982-1986 they went 16-57, a winning percentage of just .219. Their offense is not good and the defense is aggressive but stupid. At this point they have been penalized 14 times for 173 yards. 

However, Elway is intercepted for the third time so the Broncos come away with no points. Avon Riley, who had taken off his helmet to yell at referees just a few minutes ago, comes up with the ball and aggressively plows into Gerald Willhite on the return, lowering his shoulder and landing an uppercut under Willhite’s chin. Another 15 yard penalty for Houston. The Oilers do get a touchdown to cut it to 31-20 but get no closer. 

On this same day, the Raiders beat the Chiefs and the Seahawks beat the Chargers. The four-way tie for second in the AFC West is now a four-team logjam atop the division, with the Broncos, Raiders, Seahawks, and Chiefs all holding 3-2 records.