1975 12 20 NFL GOW Vikings at Bills

[Music] Buffalo New York and rich Stadium blanketed in white brings the mind roasting chestnuts sleigh bells hot chocolate and snowmen it is in every sense a winter wonderland [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] though the majority of the 55,000 hardy souls who braved 20-degree temperatures buffeted by 15 mile an hour winds our Buffalo Bill backers they have a chance to see not only the hometown team but also the visiting Minnesota Vikings go after some truly remarkable records if Viking quarterback francis asbury Tarkenton can spin two touchdowns spirals through the snowflakes he will surpass Johnny Unitas record of 290 touchdown passes in his career though ad Marinero is obviously the object of someone's affection it is his running mate in the Viking backfield who today is chasing an unique accomplishment pro football's Triple Crown number 44 Chuck Foreman currently leads the NFC in receiving and scoring and with a big game could also take the third leg of the crown with the rushing title also with 18 touchdowns thus far Orman has an outside shot at Gale Sayers record of 22 touchdowns in one season but the man who has the real shot at sayers record is OJ Simpson the juice already has 21 touchdowns in 1975 so he needs only one to tie two to better the all-time mark four touchdowns in a season Simpson's longshot is his pursuit of his own one season rushing record with 244 yards he will top his incredible 2003 yard year of 1973 most people probably braved the blizzard to see Tarkenton Foreman and Simpson go after their records or maybe they just came out to rich Stadium to monkey around in the snow a bit as the Buffalo Bills meet the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL game of the week [Music] as the game began the field that the grounds crew had worked so hard to clear was already piling up snow again making the footing uncertain at best for Buffalo quarterback Joe Ferguson the footing led to an interception where JD Hill could not complete his pattern and was not where Ferguson expected him to be [Music] Bobby Bryant's interception and run back put Minnesota in excellent field position and Tarkenton rather than throw difficult passes that requires a good timing that this field did not permit instead threw only short passes parkington's passes were even more safe in that if the intended receiver could not catch the pass no one would and when his receivers held on they made good yardage against the league's most forest 'passed defense Tarkington as usual made great use of his running backs Chuck Foreman and Ed Marinero number 49 who between them are the first two running backs on the same team to combine for over 100 receptions and have caught almost half of Tarkenton spaces for the entire season Tarkington passes accounted for 40 yards of the 60 yard drive that Forman finished with a four yard smash around right in looking at Foreman's run from up top we can see there was a hole over right tackle the forum and then broke outside and broke three tackles making his run much more than a mere four yard touchdown run Foreman's 19th touchdown of the year brought him to 999 yards rushing he would soon go over 1,000 and the Vikings led seven to nothing the bills were unable to move on their second series of the game when Simpson made fakes worthy of a 50-yard run but wound up with - nine yards when Terry Brown came from his safety spot to nail OJ down Simpsons two thousand yards never seemed so far away but more importantly with Simpson under wraps Ferguson was forced to throw more often and a second period interception set up another Viking score when Ferguson hit the only man who was open biking defensive back Terry Brown Simpson and the rest of the highest-scoring offense in the league would be held in check for most of the half but Minnesota's score would not come easily for the bills much maligned offense got tough after the turnover [Music] Tarkington short passing game was stopped at least this once and tark himself was stopped by blitzing bulldogger thom ruhe but faced with a third and twenty Tarkenton put up a clutch pass in John Gilliam silent until now made an unbelievably clutch catch looking at the play from player level we can see the Gilliam was racked up by Ike Thomas and Tony Green who shipped the ball loose and the Gilliam reclaimed it before he or the ball hit the ground [Music] several plays later Foreman got touchdown number 20 of the season and the Vikings had used to Ferguson interceptions to put two touchdowns on the board but the Vikings points weren't all Buffalo mistake views in the first period Tarkenton had moved the Vikings 67 yards following a punt on a third and 10 he sent Foreman number 44 swinging left but this time he ignored him stepped up in the pocket and hit Jim lash for a first down later in the drive tark was screening again but again ignoring his running backs and hitting tight ends to void from the seven foremen first over right guard and headed for touchdown number 21 [Music] but Foreman came out of the pack without the ball fortunately for the bike slash recovered the fumble in the endzone for a touchdown Minnesota had its third touchdown of the game and on a replay we can see why Foreman did not also get his third touchdown of the game when PAP two may hit Foreman the ball popped out buffaloes Tom Roode had a chance to save the bills but lash beat him to the ball the Vikings had 21 points before Buffalo ever got on the board though moving in the face of one of pro football's best defenses the Bills offense would once again perform their specialty they have often outscored the number of points that their defense gives up and on three plays they moved 57 yards on his top pass to Reuben gap Ferguson had noticed as you can see here that biking middle linebacker Jeff seaman was not in the middle so Ferguson on the very next play popped one to Paul Seymour for 18 more yards from the Viking 20 for Ferguson tried Simpson and the bills were on the board at halftime the bills trailed 21 to 7 Foreman had reached 1,000 yards Tarkenton still needed 2 touchdowns to break Unitas record and Simpson by virtue of his touchdown had tied sayers record of 22 touchdowns in a season [Music] trailing by 14 at the start of the second half Buffalo attempted to get back in this game Oh J Simpson who touched the ball only ten times in the first half shredded the left side of the Vikings defense on two consecutive carries [Music] [Applause] with Minnesota over conscious of OJ's assault on the right his backfield partner Jim Braxton gratefully accepted the huge opening that awaited him on the left as the bills moved into Viking territory successful on the ground Buffalo had no luck through the air as this third down pass to Paul Seymour attests [Music] after John libeled missed a long field goal attempt Minnesota took possession of the football [Music] [Applause] Buffalo's drive had ended in futility in Minnesota was soon to end any doubts as to the outcome of this game on this frostbitten day by driving the length of the field and scoring two touchdowns in the space of just over three minutes [Music] number 33 Brenton McClanahan playing in place of Ed Marinero who pulled a hamstring bustle in the second quarter got the drive off on the right foot by bullying 15 yards straight up the middle of the bills beleaguered defense [Music] after a pass from Tarkenton to Jim lash was just fairly incomplete the focus fell on Chuck Foreman put his team record of 1,000 yards already accomplished in the first half Foreman was concentrating on his two other personal goals the first triple crown in NFL history and Gale Sayers touchdown record of 22 at this point Foreman had 20 [Music] after personally taking the ball to the one-yard line Foreman got touchdown number 21 his third of the game but even more significant it was the 290th career touchdown pass thrown by Fran Tarkenton and as we see it again with Foreman fighting his way into the end zone two of the great records in pro football were in jeopardy at the same time [Music] trailing now by 21 points the luckless bills turned the game into a route by fumbling on the next series [Music] Minnesota had the ball right back and the Tarkenton Foreman combination went right back to work carving up the Buffalo paper-mache defense for a rare moment the scenario departed from the ubiquitous Foreman when Tarkenton through to Jim Lodge for 15 yards at the six [Music] Poorman was not in the game at the time for he had been hit by one of the many snowballs swirling through the air in fact the Vikings seem to have more difficulty dodging snowballs or more precisely ice balls than they did avoiding the opposing team Foreman was properly angry about the situation or though he missed only two plays he suffered from blurred vision the rest of the game at one point a snowball hit Tarkenton on the helmet as he was throwing and he tucked in the ball thinking it was a lineman's hand hitting his helmet but Foreman and the bikes got revenged the best possible way from the six Fran Tarkenton rolled right and threw to Foreman went in for touchdown number four but the play and the day belong to Fran Tarkenton where it was touchdown pass number 291 breaking the record held by the man that most considered to be the greatest quarterback of them all let us relive the historic moment when Johnny Unitas record was broken [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] with the score risen to 35 to 7 there was only one last piece of business at hand for the bills that was accomplished on their first play from scrimmage when OJ Simpson took a pass from Gary Moran gee for 64 yards and the touchdown that broke the record set by Gale Sayers in 1965 at the tail end of a dismal disappointing season the Buffalo Bills at at least persevered to gain the one goal that meant so much to each of them the record books will now read most touchdowns in a single season hojae's Simpson 20 December 1975 [Music] with the game already decided in the third quarter Oh Jay sat out most of the final period his achievements for 1975 already assured the NFL rushing title with 18 63 yards and 23 touchdowns most ever in a single season the record almost was broken by Chuck Foreman who came close with a furious flurry four touchdowns for the game which gave him 22 for the year and tied him with sayers for second place in the record books there was some action in the fourth and final quarter but no further scoring Buffalo coach Lou Saban could only watch futile e as his bills behind backup quarterback Gary Moran G threw the ball often and long and almost always without success on the Minnesota side of the field a scene was one of joy and laughter the Vikings had won their 12th game their quarterback Fran Tarkenton had earned a cherished spot in history and Chuck Foreman scored four touchdowns and had what must be a new record for sharing a record the shortest time for one play after earning his 22nd touchdown Oh Jay Simpson scored his record-breaking 23rd so in the wind and snow of Buffalo's Orchard Park the Minnesota Vikings left the frozen field pelted with snowballs but victorious in the warmth of the locker room there was only well wishes for Tarkington and his teammate Fran Tarkenton better than anyone else put the day's record-setting events in proper perspective it'd have been nice if we got chucked the the record well I've never got down close enough again to getting the ball to get in there you know it's too great Blair Simpson informing it was a I think there's an interesting highlight the second half to watch the two battles but that's with the record and OJ got it I just found the credit for it he made two super runs against touchdowns now how about your own reaction on setting a new touchdown pass record for the NFL actually I'm just lettuce done and behind this and and don't to live the whole offseason with when you're gonna break it are you gonna break it in that type of thing so I'm glad that it's it's done and over with [Music] you

Channel: Classic NFL

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Id: MtyX4tOxBfE

Length: 21min 29sec (1289 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 08 2018