Raiders, Dolphins Were Super After 1970 Epic
The Miami Dolphins were on their way to becoming one of the greatest teams in National Football League history. This team would capture Super Bowls VII and XVIII while winning 18 consecutive games during the 1970s.
However, the Oakland Raiders would make the Dolphins wait another year to reach the Super Bowl in a memorable American Football Conference Divisional playoff game in 1970 on a muddy field at the Oakland Coliseum.
The Dolphins were heavily favored with a 10-4 record, while the Raiders got into the playoffs with an 8-4-2 mark, but in those days, home field in the playoffs was not determined by the record was alternated between conferences from year to year.
So the Raiders had their rabid fans, who filled the Coliseum despite losing to the Dolphins, 20-13, at the Orange Bowl in Miami earlier in the season when brilliant quarterback Bob Griese threw two touchdown passes to gifted wide receiver Paul Warfield as the Silver and Black fell to 0-2-1.
However, the Raiders finished the season on an 8-2-1 surge.
“Playing against the Dolphins again, we were just trying to stay alive and get to the next round of the playoffs,” Raiders quarterback Daryle Lamonica recalled. “Even though we lost to them earlier in the season, we felt we were right with them and had a chance to win.
“Of course, when I was with the Raiders, we always believed we had a chance to win.”
This playoff game started much like the first meeting between the Dolphins and Raiders, with Griese throwing the first of his two touchdown passes to Warfield from 16 yards as Miami took a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter.
However, the Raiders returned to take control of the game as Lamonica, who passed for 187 yards and two touchdowns, hit Fred Biletnikoff with a 22-yard pass to make for a 7-7 tie at halftime.
Then future Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown picked off a pass by Griese in the third quarter and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown to give the Raiders a 14-7 lead, but they were looking for more.
Early in the fourth quarter, Lamonica dropped back to pass on third-and-12, the man known as “The Mad Bomber” unleashed a deep pass to wide receiver Rod Sherman, who had beaten cornerback Curtis Johnson, and Sherman caught it for an incredible 82-yard touchdown, splashing through mud and water untouched all the way.
Sherman’s only reception of the game gave the Raiders a 21-7 lead late in the game.
“They had been covering Rod close for the whole game and we felt he could get open deep, and he did,” Lamonica said.
Added Sherman: “Daryle threw me the ball and I caught it. I just made sure I didn’t slip and fall down because it was pretty treacherous out there.”
It was a little reminiscent of Sherman catching a 15-yard touchdown pass on fourth down from quarterback Craig Fertig to give USC a 20-17 victory to cost Notre Dame the 1964 National Championship.
In this game between the Raiders and the Dolphins, Griese kept the Dolphins alive with a seven-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Willie Richardson with 4:28 left. Still, the Raiders recovered the expected onside kick and made a fourth-down stop in the final minute.
The Raiders lost, 27-17, to the Baltimore Colts the following week in the AFC Championship Game, but there were Super things to come during the 1970s for the Dolphins, not to mention the Silver and Black.
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