Championship Notebook
By The Gold Sheet
Wow...the New Orleans Saints, one step from the Super Bowl? Who Dat, indeed!
Forgive us for devoting more space than usual to one of the four remaining teams in contention for the Super Bowl. But, if nothing else, witnessing the Saints progress to the penultimate weekend is something of a landmark event, given that New Orleans is one of the few remaining NFL franchises never to reach the big game.
Well, sort of. The Saints once did reach the Super Bowl, but only on the big screen, not in real life. An underrated 1969 flick entitled Number One depicted New Orleans progressing all of the way to the Super Bowl, and featured several original Saints as themselves, including star wideout Danny Abramowicz and the veteran defensive end, giant Doug Atkins, not to mention the one and only Al Hirt, the famed local trumpeter, who was also a minority partner in the Saints during their formative years. And should Drew Brees steer the real Saints to the "Supe" on February 7, we might forever have to retire our favorite "Charlton Heston remains the only QB ever to take the Saints to the Super Bowl" line, one that we have often used in our annual.
The movie was based around Heston's character, veteran (washed-up?) QB Cat Catlan, who, in typical Hollywood fashion, had more things to worry about (including the usual vices, drinking and women) than enemy defenses. Although the flick didn't threaten to gain any Academy Award nominations, we've seen worse sports movies, and the supporting cast behind Heston was a rather distinguished one, including Bruce Dern, Jessica Walter, and Diana Muldaur, not to mention Hirt and those original Saints, Abramowicz and Atkins. In fact, we were just talking about the old movie a few months ago with legendary New Orleans Times-Picayune sports columnist Peter Finney, who recalled the production of Number One and regaled with his own tales about those exciting days when the actual filming took place. Like Finney, we couldn't believe that 40 years had passed since Number One's release...and that the Saints still hadn't reached the Super Bowl. Until, perhaps, this weekend.
Having been publishing since 1957, we have seen all of the AFC and NFC title games since the 1970 merger, as well as the previous championship gives in the NFL (at least from 1957) and AFL (from 1960). Some of pro football's all-time classic games have occurred in the conference championship round, and over the past two years we've rated the best of those since the merger, with the classic '81 NFC title game between Dallas and San Francisco, featuring "The Catch" by Dwight Clark in the 49ers' pulsating 28-27 win, ranking on top. Our top five was rounded out by the exhausting 2006 AFC title game in which Peyton Manning's Colts rallied from an early 21-3 deficit to finally collar the Patriots in the last minute and win by a 38-34 count; "The Drive" authored by Denver's John Elway in the '86 AFC title game at Cleveland, won in overtime by the Broncos, 23-20; "The Fumble" game in the subsequent '87 AFC title game rematch, again won by Elway's Denver over Marty Schottenheimer's Browns, 38-33; and the Falcons' 30-27 overtime white-knuckler in the '98 NFC title game at Minnesota. But since we've been publishing, we think the most memorable of these conference/pre-merger league title games came in the 1967 NFL title clash at Green Bay, the Packers' famed "Ice Bowl" win over the Cowboys by a 21-17 count at Lambeau Field. And it's a game in which we believe some of the real heroes of that day have been overlooked by a sports media that have instead continued to shower accolades on Vince Lombardi's Packers.
That's because we've always believed the better team that day at Lambeau Field was actually Dallas, even though we'd have a hard time convincing anybody other than Dan Reeves, Don Meredith, Bob Lilly, and any other old Cowboys of the same thing.
Remember, the conditions were deplorable that New Year's Eve afternoon in Green Bay, with the temperature dropping to -16 and field eventually freezing solid. Dallas' big play offense was having much more trouble dealing with the elements, and when the Pack had jumped to an early 14-0 lead thanks to a pair of Bart Starr-to-Boyd Dowler TD passes, Tom Landry's team could have been excused for throwing in the towel. Instead, the Cowboys gallantly made a game of it, not only clawing back thanks to a TD and field goal set up by their defense, but soon dominating the contest. And when Dan Reeves hit Lance Rentzel with a clever 50-yard halfback option pass for a TD on the first play of the 4th quarter, Dallas had amazingly surged ahead by a 17-14 count. Indeed, Green Bay had done little from early in the 2nd quarter until midway in the 4th Q, when finally moving into range for a potentially-tying 40-yard FG by Don Chandler that missed badly. When Starr got the ball back for one last drive beginning at his own 32-yard-line with 4:50 to play, the field had almost completely frozen over, at that stage giving an enormous edge to the Green Bay offense, which at least knew where it wanted to go on its plays; by that time the Cowboy defenders might as well have been wearing ice skates, having trouble keeping their footing, forced to react rather than their usual anticipate and attack mode that had stymied Starr & Co. when the traction was a bit better earlier in the game. Starr was able to methodically move the Pack downfield, mostly using short passes mixed with occasional runs featuring Donny Anderson and unsung star Chuck Mercein, although the Cowboys eventually made what was looking like a heroic goal line stand in the last minute. Until, that is, Starr sneaked across from the 1-yard line with 13 seconds to play to give the Packers a 21-17 win, on a play G Jerry Kramer (who famously took credit for the winning block instead of C Ken Bowman, who was just as instrumental on the play) appeared to jump before the snap, but was not whistled.
The only ongoing regret we have about the game remains the disappearance, save for a couple of early plays, of the original CBS telecast, described in the first half by the legendary Ray Scott (then announcing Green Bay's games on CBS) and in the second half by Hall-of-Famer Jack Buck (then Dallas' CBS play-by-play man), with Frank Gifford providing color analysis throughout. Scott and Buck had similarly split the play-by-play duties for CBS in the previous year's NFL title game at the Cotton Bowl (with Buck doing the first half and Scott the second half on that occasion), won dramatically by the Pack, 34-27. You'll have to trust our word that Buck, in particular, was never in better form, especially when describing the Packers' game-winning "Ice Bowl" drive. Radio play-by-play from both the Cowboys (featuring Bill Mercer) and Packers (featuring Ted Moore) broadcasts remain in their entirety, although neither capture the drama of the event as well as did Buck's CBS commentary, which has sadly been lost.
Nonetheless, the combination of the stakes of the game, the elements, the drama, and the storied combatants (in what was Lombardi's last season as Green Bay's coach) continue to enhance the memories of the "Ice Bowl" and rightfully place it as perhaps the most memorable game in NFL history. Even if we believe, 42 years later, that the better team might have lost that day.
As we enter conference championship weekend, we would be remiss if not offering a reminder about past results, which historically have been rife with lopsided scorelines and should offer caution to handicappers whose initial instincts are often to side with a top-quality team in what is a rare underdog role. Although we have been treated to some compelling conference title games in recent years (indeed, there's only been one romp in the past six conference title games, that being the host Bears over the Saints, making their first-ever conference title appearance, in the 2006 NFC Championship), the fact is that there have been countless one-sided affairs in this round over the decades. Almost half of the conference title games since the 1970 merger (38 of 78) have been decided by 14 points or more.
Following is a list of point-spread breakdowns of AFC & NFC Championships since 1970.
Favorites/Underdogs (one pick 'em): 42-33-2
Favorites straight up: 50-27
Favored by 1-3 points: 12-9
Favored by 3 1/2-6 1/2 points: 12-12-2
Favored by 7-9 1/2 points: 14-4
Favored by 10 or more: 4-8
Home teams straight up: 52-26
Home teams vs. spread: 44-32-2
Home favorites vs. spread: 36-25-2
Home underdogs vs. spread: 8-6
Home pick'em vs. spread: 0-1
Overs/unders (since 1986): 26-20
MARGINS OF VICTORY
1-3 points: 9
4-6 points: 10
7-10 points: 11
11-13 points: 10
14 or more: 38