CBS Sports: NFL 1979-Week 16-Washington Redskins @ Dallas Cowboys: 1st Half

Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat Plus

If you look at the 1979 Redskins, not a deeply talented team with great players at every position. Their leading receiver Danny Buggs, caught 46 passes the whole season. They were primarily a power run ball control football team on offense, led by the great fullback/tailback John Riggins. With a short passing game where they threw a lot to their running backs. And a team on defense, that was solid against the pass and somewhat weak against the run, that caused many turnovers. They along with the Tampa Buccaneers were the surprised teams in the NFC in 79. Two teams expected to not do much of anything going into the season and they both won 10 games.

The Dallas Cowboys in 79, were defending NFC champions as well as NFC East champions. And were looking to get back to the Super Bowl and perhaps were the favorites going in. They were once again very good on both sides of the ball. QB Roger Staubach, at 37 and in his last season, was perhaps still the best quarterback in the NFL at this point. And he still had the great Tony Dorsett and Robert Newhouse at running back. And Tony Hill and Drew Pearson and Bill Joe Dupree as his receivers. And they still had the Doomsday Defense. With Randy White, Ed Jones, Harvey Martin and Larry Cole upfront. They were still a very good football team.

But one of the things that made the Redskins-Cowboys rivalry great in the 1970s and 80s and I believe the best rivalry in the NFL at this point, was that both teams didn’t need to be great on paper and deep in talent for the games to be great. Both teams didn’t even have to be good for these games to be great. The 3-13 Cowboys, beat the defending Super Bowl champion Redskins in 1988. And that is just one example. And this is an example of that, where the Redskins had a good record in 1979, but didn’t have great personal. But had enough good players and a few great ones and great coaching to make this team play better than their talent perhaps says they would. Which is why the Redskins played so well against the Cowboys in 79.
CBS Sports: NFL 1979-Week 16-Washington Redskins @ Dallas Cowboys-First Quarter

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Andrew Glover-CBS Sports: NFL 1976-NFC Final-Los Angeles Rams @ Minnesota Vikings: 3rd Quarter

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat Plus

1976 was probably the Rams best opportunity to beat the Vikings in the NFC Final. This was an aging Vikings team that no longer had that dominant defense that they had before, with all of their great defenders in their early or mid thirties and even older than that. The Rams were still a fairly young, but veteran team, that Chuck Knox put together in Los Angeles. That had probably one of the top four defenses in the NFL, that also had one of the better running games in the NFL as well.

But Chuck Knox was called Ground Chuck for a great reason. He ran the ball probably 35-40 times a game and at least sixty-percent of the time, or more. And didn’t utilize his other weapons on offense in the passing game. And unless you’re blowing away the defense consistently in the running game and getting big plays from that and big runs and scoring touchdowns, which the Rams didn’t do much in this game, you’re going to struggle against tough defenses. That the Vikings still had in 76, that also were good and balanced on offense.

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NFL Films: NFL 1979- Week 16: Washington Redskins @ Dallas Cowboys: Short Video

Source:80s Football Cards– with highlights of the Redskins-Cowboys from 1979.

“1979 Week 16 – Redskins vs. Cowboys “The Double Comeback” HD”

From 80s Football Cards

How different would the Redskins future had look had the Redskins won this game and won the NFC East as a result. Which is what this game decided in 1979 and then the Redskins would’ve made the playoffs.

The Redskins win this game, John Riggins probably doesn’t sit out in 1980 and Jack Pardee doesn’t get fired. Do the Redskins win the Super Bowl in 1982? Of course we’ll never know. But the future of the Redskins would’ve been very different with Bobby Bethard and Jack Pardee running the show instead of Joe Gibbs.

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NFL Films: Pat Summerall- A Life Remembered

Source:NFL Films– Pat Summerall & John Madden, as the lead announce team on FOX NFL Sunday.

Source:The Daily Press  

“Spanning an NFL career that lasted 50 years both on the playing field and broadcast booth, Pat Summerall dies at the age of 82.

Legendary television announcer Pat Summerall died on Tuesday at the age of 82. In the days before cable and Red Zone, NFL Sundays were spent with Summerall and John Madden, first on CBS, then on Fox. His distinctive, deep voice and understated style perfectly contrasted with the bombastic Madden to make the pairing an all-time NFL favorite.”

From Pig Benis 

As Pat Summerall’s former partner at CBS Sports and FOX Sports during the NFL season John Madden said: “Pat Summerall was the voice of the NFL. The best whoever was and is when it comes to calling NFL games, because he had a great voice and also because he knew what he was talking about. He was the play by-play announcer with an analyst’s voice because he not only could see what was happening, but he knew what it meant because he use to play the game himself. So you were getting an insiders look not just from the analyst, but the guy calling the game.

Pat Summerall was just like Frank Gifford when he did play by-play for ABC’s Monday Night Football. Frank Gifford not only being a great announcer, but a Hall of Fame player for the New York Giants and a teammate with Pat Summerall.

I also feel lucky to be able to hear Pat Summerall as the lead play by-play announcer when I did. He and John Madden became partners and CBS Sports lead announcers for the NFL on CBS in 1981 or 82. Which meant they got the top game in the National Football Conference every week.

My first year watching football was in 1982 just as the Redskins my team were starting their big run in the 1980s winning two Super Bowls in that decade and three NFC Championships. So I got to see Summerall and Madden calling a lot of Redskin games that decade.

When I was growing up, it seemed like every Sunday at one point Summerall and Madden were calling the Redskins game and they were either playing the Giants or Cowboys or Eagles on Sunday afternoon at 4PM. And if they weren’t playing at 4PM they were the Monday Night or Sunday Night game.

A big reason why I fell in love with football so early in life was because I was fairly athletic early on as a kid and enjoyed playing football for fun, as well as the Redskins being so good early on. But also because I got to hear the best broadcast duo of all-time calling so many Redskins games.

When I think of Pat Summerall I think of the voice of the NFL and especially the voice of the NFL when it came to intros to games and a lot of those intros involved Redskin games. Again I feel lucky to of heard him call so many Redskin games, because he would do the intro almost as if he wrote it himself. It seemed so natural to him and his ability to deliver when it came to calling game action. Or talking about the NFL seemed so natural which is why he is the voice of the NFL. And while he be missed because there will never be someone as good and as talented calling NFL games.

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CBS Sports: NFL 1977- Super Bowl 12- Denver Broncos vs Dallas Cowboys: Full Show

Source:NFL– the Cowboys at their best under Tom Landry.

“Cowboys Dominate the Broncos in Super Bowl XII | NFL Full Game. In honor of Super Tuesday the NFL presents Super Bowl XII, the Dallas Cowboys dominate the Denver Broncos.”

From NFL

I hate to admit this as a Redskins fan and I doubt Eagles and Giants fans like to admit this as well, but the 1977 Cowboys are one of the top 5-10 teams of all time because of how dominant they were on both sides of the ball. Which is what they showed in this game against the Broncos where the Broncos had shots at a bunch of takeaways early in the game but failed to take advantage of any of them. And weren’t able to do much offensively for the whole game even pulling their starting QB Craig Morton.

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