A WEEK IN HISTORY
We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving which means it is a time to be thankful, so I would like to thank everyone who reads this article as well as all the others on the site and for all the people who listen to the podcast. It helps affirm what we are doing because pretty much all we are doing is having fun while talking about football with the side benefit of helping you in your league, so the fact that anyone listens and reads us is amazing. Even though we are right on the cusp of the jolliest of seasons, it isn’t quite the right time yet to bring out all the yuletide adornments and sing songs about reindeers and Saint Nick, even though many of us are bursting at the seams to do so. However, it is always time to go back to the past and look at seven of the greatest moments in NFL history. This week we will explore those mighty moments from 11/19-11/25. Get to the choppa’!
* Games not played in the eleventh week of that season but between 11/19-11/25 as a result of the schedule changing over time.
#7* Nov. 19, 1978: Miracle at the Meadowlands. In a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants, Herman Edwards returned a fumble for a touchdown and the win. The Eagles beat the Giants 19-17 as a result and helped them sneak into the playoffs later on where they would lose to the Atlanta Falcons by one point. The fumble occurred on a botched handoff between Joe Pisarcik and Larry Csonka on their own 26-yard line in a play that arguably never should have happened. The Giants could have easily kneeled down to run the clock out but decided against that for whatever reason and the rest is history.
#6* Nov. 20, 1983: Butch Woolfolk rushes 43 times in a game. In a game in which the New York Giants shut out the Philadelphia Eagles 23-0, the Giants had a ground heavy offense setting the record for most rushing attempts in a game. Since then, two other people have tied the record with James Wilder doing it a year later in 1984 and Rudi Johnson doing it in 2003. Only one person has more rushing attempts in a game at 45 and that was Jamie Morris in 1988 versus the Cincinnati Bengals. Much like the rest of the world, it seems the NFL got sick of the Black Eyed Peas song “Let’s Get it Started” because after the release of that song, there are only 7 players out of the top 50 on the rushing attempts list past 2004, so it appears as if teams were no longer runnin' runnin', and runnin' runnin' to the same degree as they were before.
#5* Nov. 21, 1925: Red Grange signs with the Chicago Bears. One of the greatest college players to ever play, Grange also known as “The Galloping Ghost” and “The Wheaton Iceman”, transitioned to the NFL. He quickly became a part of the brainstorming tour for the NFL and established a legitimacy to the league while also raising awareness to the sport across the country. He went on to become a two-time NFL Champion and a two-time All Pro. Among his many other accolades, he is a charter member of both the NFL and College football hall of fames and is arguably one of the most important figures in the history of football.
#4* Nov. 22, 1945: Jim Benton goes for 303 yards. Setting the NFL record for most receiving yards in a game, Benton and the Cleveland Browns threw all over the Detroit Lions in a 28-21 victory. They would finish the season with a 9-1 record and go on to beat the Washington Redskins in the playoffs for the NFL Championship but would move to Los Angeles for fear of losing revenue to the incoming Cleveland Browns. It is the only time a team has moved to another city after winning the championship. Benton became the first player to catch for over 300 yards in a game and only six people in the history of the NFL have 300 or more receiving yards in a game. There are three players who have more yards than him in a game. Stephone Paige got 309 in 1985 vs the Chargers, Calvin Johnson got 329 in 2013 vs the Cowboys and standing atop the list, Flipper Anderson got 336 in 1989 vs the Saints.
#3* Nov. 23, 1989: The Bounty Game. On a Thanksgiving game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys, the Eagles shut out the Cowboys 27-0. It was the Cowboys second of three shut out losses on the season where they went 1-15. After the game, Cowboys coach Jimmie Johnson accused Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan of putting bounties on his players. It was the first of a two-game series referred to as the Bounty Bowls. In this first game, Johnson alleged that bounties were taken out on two of his players who had been former Eagles members. The two players were the kicker, Luis Zendejas and the quarterback Troy Aikman. Ryan played it off after the game, and Johnson was able to joke about it years later. This was the original Bounty Gate.
#2* Nov. 24, 1991: Washington Redskins 12-0 record is broken. In a game against the Dallas Cowboys, the Washington Redskins lost their first game of the season in a 24-21 victory for Dallas. The Cowboys would eventually suffer a humiliating 38-6 loss against the Detroit Lions in the playoff, while the Redskins went on to win the Superbowl against the Buffalo Bills. Both teams had over 10 wins with the Cowboys going 11-5 and the Redskins going 14-2. The Redskins lost their two games that season by a combined total of five points and were one of the most impressive teams to ever win a Superbowl. The Cowboys would go on to win three Superbowls after this year, but after 1995, neither have gotten as far as the NFC championship.
#1* Nov. 25, 1951: Browns get 209 penalty yards in a game. In a game between the Cleveland Browns and the Chicago Bears, Cleveland managed to get a tremendous win over the Bears despite the record number of penalty yards with a 42-21 victory. In a feat almost more impressive than the amount of penalty yards achieved, the Browns somehow beat the Bears by twice their points and had 516 yards of offense to the Bears 237. There are only three teams in NFL history to record over 200 yards of penalties with the Oakland Raiders getting exactly 200 in 2016 and the Tennessee Titans getting 212 in 1999. Remarkably, all three of those teams won their game and often in convincing fashion. The Titans had the closest of the three, with a 14-11 victory, but the Raiders won 30-24 and had over 625 yards of offense. Maybe teams should rack up the penalty yards because four out of the five teams with the most penalty yards in a game won that game, so it seems to act as some type of glitch in the matrix or cheat code that the game just can’t handle.
