Week 3: MVP's

OFFENSE	DEFENSE	Special Teams
Don Shy	Spider Lockhart	Bobby Howfield
73-STL	71-NYG	73-NYJ

Week 2: MVP's

OFFENSE	DEFENSE	Special Teams
John Brockington	Jim Carter	Mike Mercer
73-GB	73-GB	70-SD

Week 2: Giant Upset...

The mighty Eagle aeriel attack landed in Yankee Stadium with designs on soaring past the poor New York defense. Instead New York's shaky vertical game took control and Fran Tarkenton had one of his better performances (17-29-171-2td-2int). As usual Tark was hurried, batter and sacked he managed to toss 2 TD passes to Joe "Glory Days" Morrison, while inside the Red Zone. This was no small feat considering Tark turned the ball over 3 times inside the RZ the previous week vs NO.

New York had a comfortable 14-3 lead early in the 4th when the Eagles got it in gear when Norm Bulaich caught a 2 yard toss from Roman Gabriel on a gutsy 4th down play call. With 9:43 remaining in the game a nail biter was in the making. Both teams exchanged possessions and it came down to 4th and 16 on the Giants 45, when Philly elected to punt. Smelling a herring the Giants snuffed out the fake punt attempt (a pass from Tom O'Nell to Tom Bailey). New York got a first down when Tarkenton called a play action pass and hit Rich Houston for 16 yards. Philly had no time outs and New York was content to let the clock run out.

Both teams were able to run the ball. Bobby Duhon lead all runners with 86 yards on 14 carries, which was 2 yards more than Philly's Tom Sullivan

Week 2: PACKERS RUN PAST SAINTS 41-21

Early mistakes, and the inability to contain the Packer running game spelled doom for the New Orleans Saints today. Green Bay amassed 299 yards on the ground today as both John Brockington (23-141) and McArthur Lane (19-140) was the workhorse of the Packer offense. The Packers only threw the ball 12 times in the game and a majority of those passes were early in the 1st quarter as they tried to get Jerry Tagge in a groove after last weeks pitful performance. The former Husker went 8-12-114 yard and his success without a doubt was due to the potent running game. Saints QB Archie Manning (23-38-240) had a decent day but much of that yardage came late in the game with the game well in hand.

Thanks to some early New Orleans gifts the Packers cashed in and led 20-0 at halftime. Green Bay got the ball first in the second half and went 80 yards in 10 plays also using 6:10 of the clock to go up 27-0 and basically at that point the game was no longer in question. Saint fans could be seen leaving ripping the sacks they had used to cover their heads during the game. Saint fans for years have been keeping the paper sack companies in business by donning the traditional paper sacks over the head at Saint games.
Although they managed to end with 21 points on the board the offense did not get untracked until midway through the 3rd quarter. By that time it was to late. To show how dominate the Packers were on the ground in the 4th, they only went to the air 3 times the entire second half.

The Saints ended the game with 3 turnovers, and 9 penalties. All contributed to the lopsided score. Bill Keller was totally snake bitten in this game as the dice rolls continually fell the Packer way. Not much anyone can do when things like this happen. He called a great game but just didn't get the results in the end.
New Orleans and Green Bay now are both at 1-1 on the young season and with teams of this caliber a 4-3 record will likely be good enough to finish 1st in the division.

-contributed by Bill Vogt-

Week 1: MVP's

OFFENSE	DEFENSE	Special Teams
Roman Gabriel	Bruce Taylor	Bruce Gossett
73-PHI	73-SF	73-SF

Week 1: The Saints came marchin' in...

In a league featuring "bad" football the 1971 edition of the New York Football Giants didn't disappoint. Committing 5 turnovers (3 in the red zone) sealed Big Blew(it)'s fate. Tarkenton was scrambling for his life all day and when he wasn't eluding tacklers he was either putting the ball on the turf or tossing it to a guy wearing gold and black. Archie Manning didn't exactly light up the skies either, but he did throw one huge TD pass to Danny Abramowicz in the 3rd quarter to put his team up by 17, a lead the Giants never would threaten.

In this type of venue it's tough to say if the defenses were dominant or the offenses were downright putrid. There were 15 punts on the day between the 2 teams. Punters Tom Blanchard (NYG) and Julian Fagan (NO) both needed to have their right legs surgically reattached once the contest ended. Tucker Fredrickson had 56 yards on 14 attempts to lead all gainers on the ground. His numbers were indicative of how poor both offenses really were.

Week 1: A Tale of Two Halves - 49ERS WIN 25-20

Remember those great college stadiums where during the game you would hear the home crowd fans chanting back and forth from one side of the stadium to the other. At Oklahoma games one side will chant "Boomer" while the other side will come back with "Sooner". Well today at Candlestick Park the crowd was pretty thin and in fact, you could count all the 49er fans on one side and the Packer fans on the other without using a caclulator. The shouting war got into it about midway through the first quarter as you could hear the San Francisco fan yelling "WE SUCK" and then the Packer fans would come back with "WE SUCK MORE". Hard to argue with those opinions trust me. The first half of this game was a blunder fest for the 49ers, and the Packers put on a display of why they only won 5 games in 1973. All in all though the Packers did manage to build a 20-7 lead at halftime thanks to John Brodie's fumble on the 49ers own 34 in the first quarter, then another fumble by "Sure hands" Brodie in the second quarter and finally a failed fake punt that resulted in Green Bay getting the ball and taking it all the way down to the 49er 10 yard line. It's not hard to score points even for a pathetic offense like Green Bay's when you only have to go less than a half of a leangth of the field. Hell, the Packer O is so bad that even with the gifts that San Fran gave them they had to settle for 2 field goals instead of what should have been touchdowns which would have given them a commanding 28-7 lead. Not these Packers though, hell I could throw better than Packers QB Jerry Tagge (15-29-142-2 INT.). He done a fine job though of throwing the ball to those red shirts. I guess he thought he was still at Nebraska. Hey, don't get me wrong but I love my Packers win or lose. I'm just a saying, "I am sure glad all these teams are on even playing fields." There is a bright spot for this team, I do have a good running game with John Brockington (29-136), but he will be dead tired by game 3 with all the carries I will be giving him. In the second half, it was truely a magnificant 49er domination. Ed called whale of a game in the second half. Although in truth he was as handcuffed as I was in offensive ability. He put together a impressive drive to start to the second half and had to settle for a field goal which pulled him within 20-10. John Brodie (15-33-221-2TD's.) actually started hitting his receivers even when they was double covered. A feat that Packer QB Tagge should never try even in his sleep. Did I mention that actually on the opening drive San Fran did actually score a TD, but for some reason a 49er decided to hug a Packer lineman and was called for holding. "Holding, I was just wanting to give him a hug for even having to be associated with that team in Green and yellow" said gaurd John Watson. In the 3rd quarter alone, San Fran held the Packer offense to almost nothing. I don't even know why Packer Punter Ron Widby even bothered to come off the field. Heck on second thought, maybe the Packer O should have just stayed on the sidelines. After another Widby punt, the 49ers kicker Bruce Gossett added a 37 yard FG to pull within 7 at 20-13. After the kickoff, the Packer offense took the field and low and behold it didnt' take them long to exit the field. In fact Mr. Tagge himself guided the team right off the field after he threw a INT to Bruce Taylor who took it to the Packer 25 on the very first play from scrimmage on the drive. "I didn't see him" said Tagge. Well no Sh*t sherlock was the reply from a near-by cheerleader. Once again the 49ers had to settle for a FG, actually they likely would have scored a TD but since Ed and I had a crash right after he converted a 3rd and 4 when we got back to the game, he was facing 4th and 4. Even SAT felt sorry for my offense and tried to cheat for me. So anyway it is now 20-16 in the 4th and I am holding out hope that just once I can cover more than 10 yards to kill some clock. Well wishing was what it turned out to be, cause the well was dry and the 49er defense had become nothing but a brick wall in the second half. After a 49er punt pinned the Packers at its own 2, nothing magic about the call as I thought, hell surely Brock can get it out of the end zone and give me some breathing room. Well Ed had me keyed and Brock was so damned tired he even carried a pillow to the huddle with him. "Don't give that damn ball to me, I'm having a hard enough time just standing up". Well in all my wisdom, I give him the ball, and he gets tackled in the end zone for a safety. 20-18, hey at least I still have the lead. On the ensuing free kick, Chester Marcol kicks it out of bounds setting the 49ers up at midfield. To this day I am mind boggled how any kicker can kick the ball out of bounds when he is standing in the middle of the field when he kicks. Crooked leg I guess. After a bone head offside penalty by the Packers, Brodie throws an incomplete pass then goes right back to Gene Washington but this time connects for a 45 yard strike. The Fat lady was beginning to hum. With one last chance and very little faith the Packers get the ball back. Scared to death to call the pass due to having the best QB in the land (Sarcism) I figured I would mix it up, run, run, run, run, run oh and pass. Actually to be truthful I passed more than I mentioned on this drive, but surely everyone gets the picture. Thanks to Ed backing off a little with a zone defesne it opened up some good gains with the screen and short passes. That is when Mr. HUSKER could actually hit a receiver that was actually his and not one wearing red. After getting down to the SF 19 yard line, with still over 1 minute to go the chance was there to still pull this game out. During this drive Tagge had gone 5-5 in passing, but the next two passes doesn't even come close to the receiver, well at least not one in green, and then on 3rd down he throws a screen that was sniffed out big time by Ed and company (great call by the way Ed) which nets 1 yard. Now it is 4th and 9, and everyone knows it is going to be a pass. The 49er defense brought the pressure and caused Tagge to panic and once again he thought he was in college at Nebraska and tucks the ball to run. BAM, no gain MR HUSKER. Game over. Hey anyone need a QB? Now in all seriousness, I had a great time playing Ed. He called a truely excellent 2nd half and in truth we both struggled to capitalize on turnovers. Just remind me to not do a 1973 replay with these Packers soon.



-contributed by Bill Vogt-

The Draft Is Done...

Well first off how do you pick a bad team ? I think consciously we all know how to pick a good team, but how do we pick a bad team that we think will be good when playing against other bad teams ??? The answer is, we just don't know. We don't ! You can pick 12 bad teams and sim a season 100 times and you'll get each team winning it all. Because they are all so bad the results are just so unpredictable. My suggestion is: go with your heart and pick your favorite team and let them give you agita ! Pictured on the left is Joe Willie Namath during one of his many injury filled early 1970's seasons when the Jets traditionally finished at or near the bottom of the division.


Here are the results:



NFC: 1973-PHI (Andy), 1971-NYG (Marc), 1972-NO (Keller), 1973-STL (George), 1973-GB (Vogt), 1973-SF (Eddie)

AFC: 1971-CIN (Howie), 1970-SD (Stu), 1974-KC (Miller), 1973-NYJ (Scott), 1971-DEN (Mike), 1972-BAL (Wayne)

Good luck to all, and to all a good night !