Rewatch: Broncos @ Raiders 11/17/85

It’s Marv Albert and Bob Griese welcoming us to a rainy LA Coliseum for a showdown between the 8-3 Broncos and the 7-4 Raiders. Sammy Winder is out for the Broncos with injury and Lyle Alzado is out for the season for the Raiders. The Broncos are also missing Gene Lang.

The game starts with three consecutive three-and-out drives before the Broncos put together an 11 play, 74 yard drive which culminates in a 16-yard TD pass from John Elway to Steve Watson. 

Fulton Walker returns the kickoff to the Raiders 39, and then Marcus Allen rips off a 61-yard TD run. He changes direction before finding daylight, a move reminiscent of his Super Bowl XVIII gallop. After commercial, they give us a replay showing the umpire threw a pretty nice “block” on Karl Mecklenburg, who probably would have made the tackle for a short gain. 

Allen with the ball and an opening

 

Mecklenburg in good position for tackle - one problem

Umpire goes down, Allen breaks free

 

Vance Johnson fumbles the kickoff and the Raiders recover. However, Steve Foley intercepts for Broncos moments later to nullify the advantage. The Broncos then embark on a 16-play, 78-yard drive featuring Gerald Willhite, who scores after hauling in a shovel pass from Elway two and a half minutes into the second quarter. 

Jerry Seeman is the referee for this game. He was probably the most recognizable zebra of the era, at least for me. "Why does Jerry Seeman always look so happy when he calls the penalties?" Marv asks.  We were all asking that question at the time. 

The legendary Jerry Seeman

The Broncos are up 14-7 and have pretty much dominated the game to that point. Raiders QB Marc Wilson hasn’t completed a pass and most of their offense came on the run by Allen. 

But Wilson gets hot on the next drive. The Raiders need only 6 plays to cover 68 yards and utilize their BYU connection as Wilson finds Todd Christensen for the touchdown, who slips on the wet field after the catch. 

I’ve always kind of wondered why you can’t tell it’s raining during the broadcast of a game even if the announcers say that it is pouring down. I guess it is various reasons ranging from the camera distance from the field to lighting to angles. Also this game was transferred from a decades-old VHS recording. In this game, evidence is provided in the dirtier-than-usual uniforms and the puddles on the Coliseum track surrounding the field. And there were a lot of empty seats for this game. Attendance was only 63K at the Coliseum compared to 91K for Broncos-Raiders a year earlier.

Ray Guy shanks a punt late in the second quarter, giving the Broncos possession at the Raiders 42. The Broncos quickly turn that into points, with Elway throwing back across the field to Clarence Kay for his third TD pass of the game. Broncos take a 21-14 lead into half.

Denver gets the ball to start the second half with a chance to extend their lead. However, they fail to move the ball and punt it back to LA. Wilson executes a quick drive which results in a touchdown to tie the score at 21.

The Raiders run a surprise onside kick, with Chris Bahr recovering his own kick. The Raiders have found their groove and put together another drive, highlighted by a 19-yard pass to Marcus Allen on a 3rd-and-3 which is LA's fourth consecutive third down conversion of the second half. The Broncos finally get a third down “stop” when they hold the Raiders to a nine-yard gain on a 3rd-and-10. The Raiders go for it on 4-and-1, giving it to Frank Hawkins, who picks up the first down. Two plays later, Wilson bootlegs for a TD to give the Raiders their first lead of the game. 

The Raiders are getting a ton of mileage out of the NFL films tune "The Raiders" but I didn't realize that was the title until I looked it up. They played it in the stadium numerous times throughout the game. In the process, I found this nice compilation of NFL films music here. 

The Broncos go three-and-out for the second consecutive drive and put the ball back in the hands of Marc Wilson. Marv mentions that the steady drizzle has stopped and seconds later Wilson throws his third interception of the day. Louis Wright's 24-yard return gives Denver good field position. Elway leads a 10-play drive that ends in a three-yard touchdown run by Steve Sewell and it's tied at 28 with 12 minutes left to play.

They mention that Bob Griese is giving up Thanksgiving at home to work the telestrator for NBC's braodcast of Jets-Lions the coming Thursday. Clearly NBC saw him as a rising star in the booth, as he would also be assigned to work Super Bowl XX with Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen at season's end. However, he jumped to ABC in 1987 and established himself calling college football. 

They flash a graphic that the Broncos are 8-1-1 all-time in overtime games, with their only loss coming back in 1978. 

Bob wonders aloud if it is true that the Broncos have won two games in overtime this year without their offense being on the field. Marv goes along to get along and says "that's right" but it's actually not. Although they did win the Week 11 game against the Chargers on a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown, the offense did run several plays in overtime in the Week 7 victory over the Seahawks.

Perhaps both teams resigned themselves to overtime, as neither is able to penetrate the opposition's 40-yard line until the Broncos punt with 35 seconds left in the game. Fulton Walker gets a big return to midfield, and a pass from Wilson to Allen gets the Raiders to the Denver 42. With 6 seconds left, Bob repeats his errant assertion that the Broncos won two games without their offense going on the field in trying to explain that you don't want to mess with the Broncos in the extra period. But then Wilson connects with Jessie Hester to the Denver 22, who gets out of bounds with one second on the clock, and it looks as if the Raiders will be able to escape with a win in regulation. However, Bahr's kick is wide right, leaving the game tied.

The Raiders win the toss to start overtime. On a 2nd-and-9 play from the 35, Wilson completes a pass to Dokie Williams. Mike Harden misses the tackle, then Williams breaks free of a cluster of three Broncos and next thing you know it’s a 42-yard gain. Tack on a 5-yard facemask penalty on Steve Busick, and the Raiders are inside the Denver 20. They run a couple of plays and Chris Bahr comes on for another try. This time he kicks it through and the Raiders claim the victory in a game that lasted three hours and thirty-eight minutes. This game continues what has been a common theme for the 1985 Broncos - strong starts and then hoping for the best in the second half. In this game, it didn't work out. Only 106 net yards for the Broncos in the second half compared to 256 for the Raiders.  

It seems like I should remember this game more than I do. It went right down to the wire and then into overtime, would wind up having a huge effect on the outcome of the divisional race, and it was against the Broncos' hated rival. But I was 10 years old at the time so who knows what I was doing.

November 1985 was actually a super memorable month in NFL history. This game came only six days after Redskins QB Joe Thiesmann’s leg was snapped on Monday Night Football against the Giants. And the Bears were on a roll, pushing their record to 12-0 with a 36-0 shutout of the Falcons, setting up a post-Thanksgiving Monday Night showdown in Miami against Bob Griese's old team. Of course, the Dolphins would go on to defeat the Bears and preserve the legacy of the 1972 Dolphins, the only team to go undefeated for an entire season.