Welcome to Monday Night Football! It’s the Broncos' first appearance in prime time since the Blizzard Bowl against the Packers 13 months earlier. And it’s also the first-ever matchup between Joe Montana and John Elway.
The 49ers are the defending champs but are in danger of falling three games behind the Rams in the NFC West. Meanwhile, the Broncos are temporarily a half-game ahead of the Raiders, who lost the day before.
The 1985 ABC crew was Frank Gifford, Joe Namath, and O.J. Simpson. This will be the only season (thankfully) for this particular trio. Joe is sporting a nice cabbie hat though.
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| Wind chill of nine for this showdown |
The 49ers drive into Broncos territory before stalling and give up any field possession gained when Max Runager launches a 1-yard punt, so the Broncos take over at the 40.
The home crowd is clearly amped as you can hear the GO! BRONCOS! cheer. Which is kind of a relic. When did that fall out of fashion? Now all they do is IN-COM-PLETE.
The Broncos go three and out but Chris Norman, the league's leading punter, pins the Niners deep in their own end.
Dennis Smith sacks Montana and the 49ers punt again, this time from their own end zone, and the Broncos get great field position at the Niners 37, and cash in on an Elway to Gene Lang TD pass on a 3rd and goal.
The two teams again exchange punts, and after Norman's punt is partially blocked, Frank says the kicking game is going to play a major role tonight. If only he knew.
The 49ers finally put together a drive that stalls inside the Broncos' 10. Ray Wersching boots a 26-yard field goal to get them on the board and in the process becomes 49ers all-time scoring leader.
After another exchange of punts, the Broncos have the ball again. They run a flea flicker and Elway connects with Vance Johnson for 51 yards and first-and-goal inside the 10. Elway then connects with Steve Watson for a touchdown and Broncos lead 14-3.
I remember watching this game as a 10-year-old. This would have been my first time watching the Broncos in prime time. I was allowed to stay up until halftime. I remember being frustrated that they kept pronouncing Karlis as Carlos. They were all doing it but Joe Namath was the worst offender.
O.J. Simpson says MACK-lenburg even though the others were correctly using Mecklenburg.
Judging from the pronunciations and some other things, it was pretty obvious watching this game that the prep that Broadway Joe and the Juice put into this was pretty minimal. It might have been the first Broncos game they’d seen all year. And I’m not sure that Frank was much better. Elway? Well, we’ve heard of Elway!
A bad snap on punt results in 49ers taking over inside Broncos 5, and it seems certain that the 49ers will now be able to narrow the gap.
It’s very loud at the south end of Mile High. A Montana pass to Earl Cooper on second down in back of end zone is ruled incomplete. “Brilliant!” Frank says twice, before it's ruled not a catch. ABC's replay facilities have been knocked out so they can’t take another look at it. The third-down pass is off Roger Craig's fingertips at the one-yard line. Bill Walsh decides to go for it on fourth down. OJ says he doesn’t think the world champs can feel good about themselves if they can't get it in from the two. Frank says it could be the ballgame if they don't get it in. And they don't get it in as Craig is knocked off his feet before he reaches the goal line.
San Francisco gets the ball back and put together a nice drive but wind up facing another fourth down inside the Broncos’ five-yard line. This time Bill Walsh decides to send in Wersching for the chip shot field goal.
And then comes one of the more famous moments in Broncos’ history. Fans have been pelting the field with snowballs and just as the ball is snapped to holder Matt Cavanaugh, a snowball hits directly in front of him. The distraction causes him to bobble the ball, and the kick never gets off. And thus, the “Snowball Game” was born. Though I kind of still remember it as the “Carlos Game.” The officials don’t intervene, Frank and Joe do some finger wagging at the Denver fans, and the Broncos head to halftime with an 11-point lead.
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| The snowball causes havoc on Niners attempt |
The Broncos get the ball to start the second half, but have to punt. Montana connects with Mike Wilson on a deep pass, only his fourth catch of the year. A couple of plays later, Montana again finds Wilson, this time for six points.
Under pressure, Elway gets intercepted. The 49ers again drive deep into Broncos territory. However, the Denver D is again tough around the goal line. The Niners kick a field goal to cut the lead to one with 7:28 left in the third. It seems like the momentum is beginning to shift to the 49ers, but then there is a long stretch where not much happens. I certainly didn’t miss very much being sent to bed at 8:30 MST.
The 49ers come up with a goal line stand and stop the Broncos on 4th and goal from the one-foot line. Karlis later misses a field goal and that’s about it for Denver’s scoring opportunities.
There is a lot of punting in this game and I was wondering if they made a special emphasis on Monday Night Football to track the punts up into the stadium lights. I don’t feel like that’s a thing on most broadcasts, but the lights aren’t on for most broadcasts.
The 49ers take the lead for the first time with 3:46 remaining on another Wersching field goal.
Broncos have a third and 13 from their own 27 and it’s not looking great. They played the world champs tough but just weren’t able to pull it out, even with the help of a snowball.
But then Elway goes deep for Watson. He is covered by Dwight Hicks, who never sees the ball. It hits him in the back and the penalty flag comes out. The Broncos are back in business.
OJ analyzes the Broncos’ 2nd and 10 play and says " a guard out there...Billy..uh..Byron." Another instance of the crew’s lack of familiarity with the Broncos. He was referring to center Billy Bryan.
OJ thinks they should run it on 3rd and 10 and Frank agrees. Ronnie Lott comes free and is in hot pursuit of Elway. What comes next is a pretty remarkable play, one that I don’t think shows up on any Elway highlight reels. He’s basically running backwards, and is probably just a split second from being sacked by Lott, when he flings a pass from the 45-yard line to Steve Watson at the 22, who takes it to the 10 for the first down. If had been sacked on that play, they’re out of field goal range and facing 4th-and-25. If he had thrown incomplete, the Broncos’ only shot is a 48-yard field goal attempt by Karlis, on what has been kind of a shaky night for kickers. I don’t feel like the broadcasters were effusive enough about this whole turn of events.
We have the two minute warning, the Broncos run a few plays, and Karlis boots a routine 24-yard field goal to put the Broncos back in front, 17-16, which will turn out to be the final score. The 49ers get the ball back but can do nothing with it.
Frank says the Denver fans are great except for the few yo-yos that throw snowballs.
The Broncos are 7-3 and now in sole possession of first place in the AFC West for the first time in the 1985 season.
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