The Games That Changed the Game Read online

  After losing to Pittsburgh again during the ‘73 regular season, an angered Oakland squad vowed that it would avenge these back-to-back defeats by cramming the ball down the Steelers’ throats. The next time they met, the Raiders were going to run and then run some more behind their storied offensive front known as “the Iron Line.” The left side of the unit included tackle Art Shell, guard Gene Upshaw, and center Jim Otto—all eventual Hall of Famers. When the two teams met in Pittsburgh in the ‘73 divisional playoffs, the Raiders ran the ball an astounding 55 times for 232 yards, crushing the Steelers, 33–14. It was nearly as lopsided the next year, when the Raiders traveled to Pittsburgh in the third week of the regular season. Oakland attempted only a dozen passes all day, while rushing for nearly 200 yards in a 17–0 whitewash. It was the first time the Steelers had been blanked at home since 1964, a span of 146 games.

  “They shut us out,” lamented Greene. “You pitch a shutout on your opponent’s home turf, and you start thinking you’re a Super Bowl team. That loss could have shattered our hopes and confidence. This was the same team that beat us so bad the prior season in the playoffs—they booted us right out. Oakland had become our nemesis.” Russell was worried that the problem went beyond simply being overmatched. “Losing the game to the Raiders in Three Rivers was rough,” he conceded. “They were obviously a very good team, and they appeared to have figured out our offense. That was a crushing loss. We came out of that thinking, We’ve got to revamp this whole thing.”

  Andy was referring specifically to Pittsburgh’s lackluster offense, which did eventually make a significant change by installing Terry Bradshaw as the starting quarterback. But change was also coming on the defensive side of the ball, and it happened almost by accident. During a Thursday practice session, Greene experimented by dropping into his stance at a 45-degree angle, instead of head-up. “This offset alignment was something Joe developed himself, out of frustration,” said Russell. “He hated to get blocked and wanted to make plays. So it occurred to him that, because he was so quick, he should just line up inside, between the center and the guard, tip his shoulder sideways, and when the ball was snapped, he’d just dart through that hole. He was supposed to line head-up on the guard. He jumped in the gap between the guard and center, tilted his body, and just blew through that gap, and it was devastating. It was a beautiful thing to see.”

  “I discussed it with George Perles,” recalled Greene, “and he said, ‘Hey, let’s just line up in the doggone thing.’ We found out that with my lining up in it, I could demand a double-team. The only way you can command a double is to not let the center overblock you, get in across your face. When we did that, I was able to maintain my position and make the guard block me. If he didn’t block me and went to the backer, then I could get in the backfield. And if the guard and center double-teamed me, then Lambert was free to make the tackle.” This new alignment, called the “Stunt 4-3,” was a godsend for the undersized middle linebacker. “Jack looked like a basketball player,” noted Ham. “I’m not sure there weren’t times he got down to around two hundred. That’s pretty light. In the Stunt 4-3, guys couldn’t get a real good shot at him. And Jack had great leverage. He knew how to take on a two-hundred-sixty-to two-hundred-eighty-pound center or guard coming out at him. At that kind of weight, it’s difficult to make it through the season. But with Greene’s help, he was able to do it.”

  Chuck Noll loved Greene’s tilted-nose alignment after just one day of practice. “It started out as a pass technique,” he recalled, “but we found out it really screwed up the offensive blocking. It’s an aggressive defensive play, because our front four isn’t sitting and reading the offense. Instead they’re the ones making things happen.” And few defensive coordinators of the day were as open minded in their thinking as Carson. Most of them would likely have rejected Joe’s idea as too radical. But Bud was willing to adapt, and Greene should also be applauded for his unselfishness.

  “The key to all of it was Joe, because he could have said he wanted to be an up-the-field rusher,” said Ham. “But he bought into the scheme, and that’s what made it work. Joe made sure there wasn’t much distance between himself and the offensive line—he was really crowding in the neutral zone and didn’t allow linemen to pull out. It eliminated a lot of their running plays. Joe would take a real physical beating when he did this. It created a domino effect that made our defense better.”

  Exactly when the Steelers began running the Stunt 4-3 is open to debate. I discovered NFL Films footage of Mean Joe as a tilted nose in late-November games against both the Saints and Oilers. The history link on the official team website claims that the formation was unveiled in the second-to-last game of the regular season, when the Steelers beat the Patriots to clinch the AFC Central. Greene says he first lined up in it during the ‘74 divisional playoffs against the Bills. Woody Widenhofer cites its launching point in the AFC championship. “We really didn’t put that scheme in until right before the title game with Oakland,” he claimed. “It was the first time the Raiders ever saw it, so they weren’t well prepared for that at all.” No matter who’s right, Widenhofer was correct about one thing: Oakland would have surprising difficulty dealing with Pittsburgh’s defense in the AFC championship. And at least part of the reason why may have stemmed from the Raiders’ subconscious belief that they were already on their way to the Super Bowl.

  On the day before the Steelers trounced Buffalo, 32–14, in the divisional round, the Raiders rallied during the final seconds to beat the defending world champion Dolphins in the legendary “Sea of Hands” playoff game. Because it had been billed as “Super Bowl VIII ½,” most observers all but awarded the Lombardi Trophy to the Raiders. Russell recalled how completely the Raiders had been swept up in the euphoria. “Madden was quoted as saying, ‘When the two best teams in football, Miami and Oakland, get together, great things will happen.’ ”

  Years later, Madden was still disturbed about the way he and his team handled their win over Miami. “It was not a championship game; it was just a playoff game. We were so excited and so happy about stopping their streak and beating the Dolphins. I got carried away, and I think the players got carried away,” he reflected, “because beating Miami was big. They were the only team that had ever gone undefeated. To beat a Shula team in a playoff, coming off a second straight Super Bowl win—we thought we had won a championship. I still look back at that, and I think I made a mistake in letting our celebration go on too long. Because the next week, we had to play the Steelers in the real championship game. I think that lesson was, ‘We haven’t done anything yet.’ Because when it’s a playoff game, and you’ve got a championship game the next week, it can’t be anything else other than just a game.”

  The response from Franco Harris was typical of the entire Steelers team: “The Dolphins-Raiders game, I have to admit, was a great game with two great teams. But when Oakland already accepted the crown and said that they’re the best, that didn’t sit well with us. Even though they beat us earlier in the season, it was like, ‘So what? We weren’t at our best at that time. We’re now a new team, with new spirit.’ “ A few days after beating the Bills, the Steelers gathered to begin preparations for their title game in Oakland. Chuck Noll got up to address the entire squad, which was usually a matter-of-fact lead-in to the week’s preparation. “A lot of guys didn’t pay a whole lot of attention, because usually Chuck’s style was very businesslike,” remembered Ham. “He could’ve been the chairman of the board of a company, holding a management meeting. For Chuck to go out and say what he did grabbed the attention of that entire room, because it was so unlike him to do this.”

  Joe Greene was sitting in the front row as Noll began his speech. “He didn’t raise his voice. But his voice did change when he said, ‘The best team in the NFL didn’t play yesterday, and the Super Bowl wasn’t played yesterday. The Super Bowl is going to be played in two weeks, and the best football team in the league is sitting here in this room.’ It was out o
f character for him to say things like that, but it was right on the money. It was what we needed.”

  “You could feel the level of confidence rise in that room—from all the players,” recalled Mel Blount. “Chuck never said anything like that. But I guess it was something that he saw out there in the Raiders’ celebration after beating the Dolphins. That was one of many turning points for the Steelers. He just came right out and said it with such conviction. After that, we had great practices all week.”

  As the team boarded its charter flight to California, Franco Harris made a promise. “I knew we were going to come back a winner,” he said. “And it felt good. I told my teammates, ‘After the game, when we get back, it’ll be early in the morning. We’ll have steak and eggs at my place.’ That’s what I told them. ‘Steak, eggs—and champagne.’ ”

  1st Quarter: 3 Raiders Offensive Possessions

  When the Raiders won the toss, they elected to receive, which made perfect sense. They’d led the AFC in total offense, relying on a near-perfect statistical balance of running and throwing. “You can’t play a team like Pittsburgh and just do one thing,” observed Madden. “You have to mix the run with the pass, and you have to have confidence when you do run.” In its most recent games against the Steelers, the Silver and Black had piled up huge rushing numbers. Why would today be any different? “Madden wanted to dominate the sticks,” said Russell. “He wanted to move the ball on the ground. And I always felt Stabler never cared how many yards he threw for. He was quite content to hand that ball off the whole game if it worked.”

  The fun began on the first play from scrimmage. “The ball is sitting right there, and Ernie Holmes steps over it,” said Greene. “Ernie says, ‘Eugene! Upshaw!’ Upshaw finally turns around because he was in the huddle. Ernie looks at him and says, ‘I’m gonna kick your ass!’ The rest of us cracked up when we heard this, but when they snapped the ball, it was on. Ernie played a lot of great games, but this one really got his juices flowing.”

  Stabler handed the ball to Clarence Davis, who glided left, behind Upshaw. The next thing you see in the film frame is Holmes leaping over the fray into Davis, joined a split second later by two other Steelers defenders. Oakland picked up 4 yards on the carry, unaware that this would be the longest run it would make all day. At the bottom of the pile, Ernie was still busy. “I saw Upshaw at a football camp a few months later,” recalled Widenhofer. “He said to me, ‘Who is this Holmes? That guy’s crazy! First play of the game, he spit right in my face!’ Ernie was wired up. He was ready to play that game.”

  On the next play, Greene lined up in the Stunt 4-3 formation for the first time. This time Davis ran to his right, but with Greene tying up two linemen, J. T. Thomas and Lambert had a clear path and made the stop after only a 1-yard pickup. Facing third-and-5, Stabler called his first pass. Aligned again in the tilted-nose position, Greene teamed with Holmes on a looping stunt. It forced right guard George Buehler to come off Greene and react to Holmes. This gave Joe plenty of outside leverage on Jim Otto. He slammed the veteran Raiders center to the turf with one hand, then crashed through the middle to sack Stabler for an 11-yard loss, forcing an Oakland punt.

  “We always claimed Greene was offside when he lined up in the gap that way,” said Flores. “He was tilted inward and was such a great player that he usually penetrated. Once that happens, it blows up your double-teams or single blocks, because you have to worry he’ll be in the backfield.” Bud Carson could not have been more pleased with his defense’s first series, but unfortunately for Pittsburgh, the unit was back on the field in short order. Rookie Lynn Swann fumbled the punt return, and the Raiders recovered at the Steelers’ 41, so the defense would have to start from scratch.

  Given a reprieve, Oakland began with another run. This time it was fullback Marv Hubbard, but he was squashed by Greenwood and Lambert for no gain. On second down, Stabler dropped to throw, looking for nine-year veteran and perennial All-Pro Fred Biletnikoff, just in front of the Oakland bench. As the ball arrived, Thomas pushed in and nearly intercepted the pass. Both Fred and Madden screamed for a pass interference call, but the officials ignored them. The afternoon was young, but this marked the second time that Bilet-nikoff had been disturbed by a Pittsburgh defender. “I’d been in a Pro Bowl with Fred and saw him putting this tar on his chest and arms,” remembered Russell. “He just sprayed it all over himself. It was incredible. He could pick up a ball, and it would stick to his elbow. So during warm-ups before the championship game I said, ‘Hey, Fred! Don’t come near our bench. We have some buckets of feathers. If you come over there, we’re going to tar and feather you with all your Stickum.’ I gave him this look of mock seriousness, as if I was really concerned for him. But I was just joking. I made the whole thing up. We didn’t really have a bucket of feathers. Now, whether that had any impact on the game, I don’t know. But he never ran his signature comeback route toward our bench, I know that.”

  With third-and-ten coming up, the Steelers went to “nickel” coverage, removing Lambert from the lineup and replacing him with rookie safety Donnie Shell. It was a strategy that Carson would return to several times throughout the day. Even with the extra defensive back, Stabler was able to complete his throw over the middle to wide receiver Cliff Branch for a first down at Pittsburgh’s 28. It would be the only first down the Raiders would pick up until late in the half.

  Oakland again called a running play to the left, with Banaszak on the carry, but Dwight White smothered him for only a short gain. The next play was also a run to the same side, this time by Davis. Holmes overpowered Upshaw, reached out with one hand and grabbed Davis, slowing him long enough for Lambert to tackle him after only 2 yards. “On those great Steelers teams, I think Ernie Holmes was probably their most underrated player,” claimed Madden. “You think of the guys who played on that Steel Curtain line, but Ernie gave us more problems than any of them.” On this particular day, Holmes was sporting his trademark haircut: What little hair remained on his shaved scalp was contoured in the shape of an arrow. Ernie claimed the design helped him stay on a straight path to ballcarriers—and it seemed to be working quite effectively so far against the Raiders.

  Facing third-and-5, Stabler looked for Branch on a square-in, but Glen Edwards knocked it down just as the ball arrived. The Raiders settled for a 40-yard field goal by George Blanda to take a 3–0 lead. They wouldn’t score again until deep into the third quarter. But the Steelers offense didn’t exactly set the place on fire during its first possession either, punting after three plays. Three-and-out would be a recurring first-quarter trend. On each of Oakland’s next two possessions, the Raiders were off the field after little more than a minute, thanks to Pittsburgh’s suffocating run defense.

  “We did a lot of stunts and con games in the ‘74 championship,” revealed Widenhofer. “We created a new line of scrimmage on almost every run. The Stunt 4–3 created a situation for Lambert where he could go in untouched and make plays. Greene was a cock-nose so that neither the center nor guard could block him by themselves. So what you have is two guys blocking Greene, and Lambert running free.” To add to Oakland’s bewilderment, Carson occasionally mixed in nickel coverage from a 3-4 alignment, swapping Holmes for extra linebacker Loren Toews. “We did this primarily to give the Raiders a different look, just to mix things up,” said Widenhofer. After one quarter of play, Oakland’s offense was both confused and abused. In fifteen minutes, it had generated all of 15 net yards.

  2nd Quarter: 2 Raiders Offensive Possessions

  Throughout the first half, the Steelers ran the ball much more efficiently than their Raiders counterparts, but they didn’t have much to show for it. Kicker Roy Gerela, named to the Pro Bowl that year, missed a 20-yard field goal after one sustained drive. However, he later connected on a second try from about the same distance, tying the game at 3–3. Despite the score, the Steelers were winning the battles of both field position and time of possession.

  Even with repeated failures in
their running game, the Raiders kept plugging. “We had to try to run,” said Madden. “You can’t just throw on every down. If you give their defensive line a credit card to rush the quarterback, then you make it a lot tougher on yourself.” Four of their drives in the first half began with runs, and the trend continued even on second down. I charted four second-and-long situations in the first half where Oakland handed off the ball to a back. The results weren’t pretty: Those carries gained 1, 2, 1, and 1 yards. Something else I saw was that, no matter what, the Raiders were committed to running left. “What they did was untraditional,” observed Dwight White. “Most teams run to the right. Most people are right-handed, so it’s easier to run to the right than to the left. Not the Raiders.”

  In previous games against Pittsburgh, this strategy had worked. “They knew it was coming, but we still had success because we did it better than they defended it,” said Madden. “I know a lot of people used to say we ran to the left because Kenny Stabler was left-handed. That had nothing to do with it. It was because we had Art Shell and Gene Upshaw over there. That’s why we ran to the left.” Oakland’s left was Pittsburgh’s right side, which meant that White, Holmes, and Russell were getting the brunt of the action. “One time during that game, Ham came in the huddle, and he was so bored,” noted Russell. “He said, ‘Let me take a few shots over on your side.’ The challenge was there for the three of us to see if we could defeat their best players.”

  Through virtually the entire first half, the Steelers were winning that challenge—handily. And they weren’t just dominating Shell and Upshaw; Pittsburgh’s front was clobbering the entire Oakland offensive line. “They changed things up from earlier in the year,” conceded Otto. “There were some plays I was assigned to block Lambert, but if he was keeping me from making my route cutoff point, I couldn’t get to him in time. We’d try to switch off so the guy closer could block Jack, and I’d take Joe Greene. There were decisions that Buehler or Upshaw and I had to make pretty quickly. We might get one, but not both of them.” Buehler was growing particularly discouraged. “I know I got conservative in what I was doing,” he lamented. “I was thinking too much instead of reacting. I never did lose my pregame jitters.”