Reviewing Raiders Famous Plays
The Raiders have probably had more famous games and plays with names than any team in NFL history.
There was “The Heidi Game” in 1968, “The Sea of Hands” in 1974, “Ghost to the Post” in 1977, “Old Man Willie” in 1977, “The Holy Roller” in 1978, and “The Mistake by the Lake” in 1981.
Of course, on the negative side, there also were “The Immaculate Reception” in 1972 and “The Tuck Play” in 2002.
The Raiders were playing Joe Namath and the New York Jets at the Oakland Coliseum in 1968 when NBC broke away from the game that was running long in the fourth quarter because it was a time in the Eastern time zone for the children’s classic movie, “Heidi.”
The Jets took a 32-29 lead on Jim Turner’s 26-yard field goal with 1:05 remaining in the game, but then the Raiders scored two dramatic touchdowns to win, 43-32.
First, Daryle Lamonica hit running back Charlie Smith with a pass across the middle, and Smith turned upfield and ran the rest of the way for a 43-yard touchdown to give the Raiders a 36-32 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Earl Christy of the Jets fumbled when hit by several Raiders at the 10-yard-line. The ball squirted back to the two, where running back Preston Ridlehuber recovered for Oakland and scored another touchdown nine seconds later to make the final score 43-32.
In 1997, “The Heidi Game” was voted the most memorable regular-season game in pro football history.
Sportswriter Bob Valli wrote in the Oakland Tribune: “Television missed one of football’s most exciting and exhausting minutes of emotion. In that minute, Oakland fans saw despair turn to delirium.”
The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins seemed to be on their way to a third and held a 26-21 lead over the Raiders in a 1974 divisional playoff game in Oakland.
However, the Raiders drove to the Miami eight-yard-line, but quarterback Kenny “The Snake” Stabler seemed about to sacked by Dolphins defensive end Vern Den Herder before throwing a desperation pass toward running back Clarence Davis in the end zone.
Davis, who had famously bad hands, was surrounded by three Dolphins but somehow caught the pass for a touchdown with 25 seconds left and the Raiders pulled off a 28-26 upset.
“Clarence Davis couldn’t catch a cold, but he makes the big catch to win it in the last 30 seconds,” defensive tackle Manny Fernandez of the Dolphins said. “It was probably the only catch he ever made in his career.”
During the 1977 playoffs, the Raiders were trailing the Baltimore Colts, 31-28, in the final minutes when Stabler sent tight end Dave “Ghost” Casper on a post pattern, but safety was camped in the middle of the field, so Casper veered to the outside.
Stabler read the move and threw the ball in that direction, with Casper making an incredible catch of a ball that seemed to be overthrown for a 42-yard gain. That set up Errol Mann’s game-tying, a 31-yard field goal to tie the game.
The Raiders won, 37-31, on Stabler’s 10-yard scoring pass to Casper 43 seconds into the second overtime.
“Snake had already thrown the ball, guessing where I was going to go,” Casper said. “When I looked up over my shoulder, I took one look and said, ‘The ball isn’t going where I’m going.’ … I don’t think I caught (another) pass on that play all year.”
In the final quarter of Super Bowl XI in 1977, 37-year-old Raiders cornerback Willie Brown told safeties Jack Tatum and George Atkinson to cover his back because he felt quarterback Fran Tarkenton was going to throw a sideline pass to wide receiver Sammy White, and Brown was going to go for the interception.
Brown cut in front of White, picked off the pass, and ran 75 yards for a touchdown that clinched a 32-14 victory.
“Old Man Willie, he’s going all the way,” chortled legendary Raiders play-by-play announcer Bill King.
In a 1978 game at San Diego Stadium, the Raiders were trailing the San Diego Chargers, 20-14, with 10 seconds left and Stabler was being sacked by linebacker Woodrow Lowe, which virtually would have ended the game.
So Stabler flicked the ball forward, trying to make it look like a fumble, running back Pete Banaszak knocked the ball closer to the goal line, and Casper batted and kicked the ball into the end zone before falling on it.
Incredibly, officials called it a touchdown, the Raiders won, 21-20, and the play went down in history as “The Holy Roller.”
After staying mum for years, Stabler finally said: “I mean, what else was I going to do with it? Throw it out there, shake the dice. ... It was our only chance.”
During the 1981 playoffs, the Raiders held a 14-12 lead over the Cleveland Browns at Memorial Stadium on the shores of frozen Lake Erie, but quarterback Brian Sipe had the Browns at the Oakland 13-yard-line with 41 seconds left in the game.
Instead of trying to set up a game-winning field goal, Sipe instead threw a pass intended for tight end Ozzie Newsome in the end zone, but Raiders safety Mike Davis cut in front and made a lunging, game-saving interception on what has been dubbed “The Mistake by the Lake.”
Said Davis, another Raider with notoriously bad hands: “I hit my head on the frozen turf. It might have been the hardest hit in my life. When I stood up, I was a little spacey, but I knew what I had done.”
Raiders fans would rather forget “The Immaculate Reception” and “The Tuck Play,” so why spoil a fun story?
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