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This Day In Sports…September 23, 1973:
Four field goals by George Blanda lead the Oakland Raiders to a 12-7 win over the Miami Dolphins, who suffer their first loss after the previous season’s 17-0 record. That snapped the Dolphins’ 18-game winning streak, the NFL record at the time—Miami hadn’t lost since falling to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XI. Blanda, at the age of 46 and appearing in his 300th pro game, booted one field goal in each quarter. And rookie Ray Guy, appearing in his second pro game, helped a dominating Raider defense by averaging 49 yards on six punts.
The game was played at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Cal’s home field, because the A’s had a home game scheduled at the Oakland Coliseum, and that had preference (from the list of things that could never happen today, as in, the NFL schedulers couldn’t make sure the Raiders weren’t at home that day?). Oh well. The matchup of AFC powers, including Miami coach Don Shula vs. Oakland coach John Madden, drew 74,121 fans to Strawberry Canyon.
During the legendary winning streak, Miami had not faced Oakland—in fact, they hadn’t met since the 1970 NFL Playoffs. So the Raiders were anxious to re-introduce the Dolphins to their brand of defense, and it was stellar. Miami matched it, though. Star quarterbacks Daryle Lamonica of the Raiders and Bob Griese of the Dolphins threw for 63 and 90 yards, respectively. Oakland’s plan was to rely on its running game to chew up the clock, and Marv Hubbard and Charlie Smith carried 20 times apiece and combined for 168 yards.
The Raiders held the Dolphins to 195 yards of total offense and didn’t allow them to score until 1:07 remained in the game on a touchdown pass from Griese to Jim Mandich. Miami had the last laugh, though, beating Oakland 27-10 that December in the AFC Championship Game before going on to defeat the Minnesota Vikings 24-7 in Super Bowl XIII.
Blanda will forever be a great story. He had started his career as a quarterback, kicker and occasional linebacker in 1949 with the Chicago Bears and retired after the 1958 season following a testy relationship with team owner George Halas. When the AFL was born in 1960, he returned to football to quarterback the new Houston Oilers. He signed with the Raiders in 1967 as a backup to Lamonica (and kicker, of course) and finished his career there. Blanda played in his last game at the age of 48 in the AFC Championship Game and booted a 41-yard field goal in Oakland’s 16-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. As a quarterback, he went 1-for-3 that final season.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
