@@classicnfl8200 I remember them two teams in one year played in the NFC championship 🏆 game 🎯 & the Rams won a low scoring game. Any chance of you finding the game 🎮 ?
I am 55. This game was played when I was 15. It seems like just yesterday. The next day we drove over to Crystal River to catch sea trout in the Gulf. We talked about the game and the hopes the Bucs would win the NFC that season. My how time flies. That was more than 40 years ago. I was in the 10th grade. Now I teach high school. In 40 more years, I will be 95 if I live that long. And it will pass just s quickly.
02:01:40 This is how it was in the NFL, circa 1980... A quarterback completing 50% of his passes was what you were shooting for. Not 60%, or 65%... I liked the fact it was harder to pass. Different rules.
It definitely makes you appreciate what Montana, Marino, and Fouts accomplished. I love all football, old and new, but watching some old terrible quarterbacks and just awful passing offenses can be frustrating. Yes, the rules were different and it was much harder to pass, offenses today are way, way more sophisticated than back then, but overall I’m constantly struck by just how much better quarterbacks are today. A bottom 10 qb today is probably a top 12 qb then. I mean seriously... Plunkett, McMahon, Ferragamo? Plunkett couldn’t keep his job today. McMahon, even if healthy would be bottom 10 today and Ferragamo would be unemployed.
@@WEK-kh8gd It was a different time too. Bring those old QBs up in the current game/system who knows how their skills translate. It would be interesting to see how a modern QB would look like in 1980 as well with the offenses being run at the time. Take Marino: His all time best season passing % would put him in like 30th place for 2020 #s. Also, the most INTs in 2020 was 15, which Marino matched or exceeded 10 of his 17 years in the league. It is just so hard to compare skillsets.
@@patrickm7483 Yes, it is an apples to oranges comparison because there are so many differences. I still watch the NFL but the late 70's early 80's were awesome days in the NFL. That is just my bias. I will admit though that the kickers these days are WAY better than they were back then. The kicking game was pretty cringe especially on my Rams...
Forget Al Michaels and Cris Collingsworth on today's Sunday night games on NBC - Frank Gifford, Don Meredith and Howard Cosell on ABC's Monday Night Football were the champs in sports broadcasting in my view. And with RU-vid they're bringing back these now late great announcers from the 1970s to the early 1980s. May God bless Frank, Don and Howard! And may God bless the now departed NFL players in this era like Lyle Alzado, Walter Payton and others.
He left for the money the Montreal Allouettes of the CFL were offering. That team in 1981 wound up being so big of a bust that the Allouettes folded after the 1981 season and were replaced for a while by the Montreal Concordes. (The current Montreal Allouettes franchise is actually the former Baltimore CFL franchise).
Walt Gekko He came back to the Rams in 83' and the another playoff win over Dallas. He got hurt in 84' and the Rams replaced him with Jeff Kemp. They then traded him to Buffalo. All that being said he was clearly better than Haden.
Ray Malavasi operated on a caste system when it came to players. Haden was more of the experienced but Ferragamo was more durable and he kicked his ass in the preseason. Haden was a better passer but never recovered from injuries. Yet, Malavasi gave have him the job.
@@bernieudo4399....you said a mouthful there buddy! He was building a championship team paying the money to his players... After he died ( murdered) the Rams sunk to the second lowest payroll in the league
This was the Bucs' first-ever regular season appearance on national TV, on the heels of their first winning season and playoff berth in 1979. Their first Monday night game was the following month, a 23-0 loss to the Bears.
I lived in St.Pete from 1980 to 94.those uni's Tampa Bay had were great.the swashbuckler on the helmet was refered to as Bucco Bruce.they need to get rid of those halloween outfits they wear now and get back to the Old School look.
@@WaltGekko - That isn't completely correct. It was Al Davis that protested the Buccaneers uniforms when they changed their uniforms from the creamsicle / bucco bruce era to the ones they wear now. Al didn't like the darker colors or the new helmet logo saying they were too "similar" to the Oakland Raiders.
The Creamsicles look cool now but in 1997 they *had* to make a break from that era. Hugh Culverhouse is on the short list of worst owners in NFL history and for most of the '80s and '90s that team made the 2000-10's Browns look like a model organization.
I always thought Troy Aikman threw a lot like Feragamo, obviously much more successful. But I recently heard Troy say that Feragamo was one of his QB heroes. Their throwing motions are very similar.
2 of the best defenses going back then. The Rams vs Bucs a good rivalry. Both teams had respect for the other, reminiscent of the Oilers vs Steelers rivalry. Tampa had loads of young talent. Their problem was development. McKay, while a brilliant gameday coach, lacked in his weekly prep. Whicj is one reason why the Bucs looked so bad in a lot of their losses after the 0-26. Doug Williams if the Bucs would've constructed their offense around his skills may have been a long term QB. Of course they still would have had to pay him, but I believe part of that reason was most games Williams looked rather pedestrian. Wasn't Williams fault, the USC I-Formation offense you would think could be right for Williams, but McKay kept it so basic it was easy to shut down the passing lanes and spread over n under zone coverage choking off slants and double moves to go deep on the corners.If you watch closely the Bucs recievers absorbed a lot of punishment because the offense never dictated where the defense should line up on matchups they created.I'm getting too technical, but most know what I'm saying. These were good Tampa teams, and I like John McKay, but if tge Bucs would've had a true inovative offensive mind (ala Bill Walsh, Don Coryell, or Joe Gibbs) the sky would've been the limit. Those Bucs teams from 1977 - 82) could've got some things done, and they did 2 Division titles, 3 playoff appearances, 1 Championship Game appearance, maybe they get more done. The NFC was in major transition those years and thats when you gotta make hay. This game was a good example of everything I discussed.
After a second quarter TD in a 1978 game against the Bucs, the Rams offense only got three field goals the rest of that game, only got a defensive TD (INT by Jim Youngblood) in a 1979 regular season game, three FG's in the 1979 NFC Championship game, and three FG's this game. After a scoreless first quarter in a 1984 game, this made 15 straight quarters before the Rams ever scored an offensive TD against the Buccaneers again.
A wrote a letter to Ricky Bell when I was a kid telling him he was my favorite player. I was so surprised when my mom got the mail one day and handed me this big envelope with a personalized autograph photo from Ricky Bell! I still have it after all these years! RIP Ricky!
Sure wish the Rams had run out the clock at the end of the first half. Those three points they handed the Bucs turned out to be big. Felt bad for Tampa Bay's Randy Crowder. He never played in another NFL game.
The sombrero selling out. I remember sitting in the bleacher seats with about a foot for each person for many bad games. The Red's minor league stadium next to it was even worse. Stadiums now are so fancy, but it costs more than $3 for a ticket.
Rams missed Wendel Tyler & Hacksaw Reynolds who had joined Fred Dean with the 49ers. Sean McVay's grandfather helped engineer this pilfering for the DeBartolo criminal syndicate and the NFC was about to return to an era dominance and QB prominence.
Some bad offensive decisions cost the Rams dearly in this game as the defense played it's heart out. The Rams would recover from 0-2 start to finish 11-5 but won't win the NFC West for the 1st time since 1972 as they finish behind Atlanta, so the Rams would have to play the NFC Wild Card Game vs Dallas in Dallas and the Cowboys win 34-13
....And The Dallas Cowboys would win the NFC Divisional Playoff game . Go to the NFC championship 🏆 game 🎮 vs the 49ers. Only to lose to the 49ers & the 49ers would play ▶️ their first of two Super Bowls against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Also on Sunday night games. Meredith wanted a reduced schedule and didn't want to work all 20 games that ABC aired each season at this point. Tarkenton also took Cosell's place when Cosell was working baseball postseason games.
Apparently Meredith felt his contract called for 14 games and such he only worked that number of games and as a result didn't usually do the midweek specials and a few Monday night games during the season
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease post the 1986 Steelers-Bengals Monday Night Football game! Contains the greatest fake punt in NFL history. No footage of the play by Jeff Hayes anywhere.
Remember this game clearly. This was actually a Thursday night MNF special . There were a handful of these each season. Sometimes Thursday , sometimes Friday, sometimes Saturday, and sometimes Sunday night. It was a very very special to have one of these extra games. Dandy Don would not be at some of these extra games. Fran does a great job in my eyes.
@@chrissnyder3430 Wrong... I had no problem with Fran. The only thing is that the other guys - ( Howard, Frank and Dan ) that Fran wasn't as colorful. Compared to Oj he was great!
@@PerpetualArt Lol. Ok, everyone except you and that guy in the corner over there. O.J. had a huge ego and never met a comment that he could agree with unless it came from O.J. I used to laugh when he would attempt to sound intelligent to impress Hollywood im sure. I still too this day think Costas would intentionally make him miss his cue or go off script to watch him give the deer in the headlight look.
@@chrissnyder3430 Hey, you know I respect your opinion, but compared to todays commentators Fran isn't actually that bad... So its me, the guy in the comment above, and the guy in the corner for Francis! So its like 10 million to three I think... Bob Costas was just so damn good at his job. I mean those NBC/AFC TV programs were really good back in the 80s and to a certain extent the early 90s. Then Football started to change in 94 with free agency.
@@PerpetualArt 10 Mil to 4! I'm with you, Fran was ok, maybe not great but a good offset to the other guys. I think what you want is a good mix of different talents in the booth, the analyst, the stat guy, maybe a clown (Merideth) and a former player, this was Fran. Compared to what was coming down the road (Dennis Miller??) including now, this was a great mix!
Both Pat Haden and Vince Ferragamo slightly better-than-average they both had their moments but they were never really consistent for a career and neither one of them were really good enough to get the Rams over the hump
Rams fan from that era, I agree 100%. Pat Haden was my idol then (I was just a kid) but I give Ferragamo credit for making the big play towards the end of the game to beat the Cowboys in the '79 divisional. That is what we have always been missing until Kurt Warner and Matthew Stafford were finally able to do it to get us the SB. So many great teams and not much to show for it due to so-so QB play...
Imagine how much better Williams would have been for us if he were more accurate. League avg at this time was 54-55% ...his avg while here was about 45%. It didn't help that our offensive game plan was not conducive for success. Bad passing schemes.
Kind of a garbage win by the Bucs if we’re being honest. That pass interference call was very soft. On the other hand, the Bucs got tricked into spiking the ball on 4th down on a last minute drive against the Steelers a few weeks later... so I guess that evens out.
Coach John McKay had a classic line after a particularly ugly Buccaneer loss. Someone asked him what he thought of his team's execution, he said, "I'm all for it."
@1:16:22 Howard, "This is frankly a dull game we've all agreed to that." What honesty and how many brown noising PC, corporate whipped talking heads in the current environment would make a statement like that today. Cosell was a gem and a true broadcaster. I don't care if you loved him or hated him he provoked a response and emotion which is something that today's broadcasters (former players or not), can not do and their is nothing worse than no emotions. I would rather be hated, booed and criticized than to elicit no response. Most are so afraid of saying anything unpopular out of fear and its BORING!!
