Air Coryell: The Revolutionary Offense Always One Step Away From Glory | NFL Throwback 

Wait. He's not?

@@muhammadfarhan581 right? ridiculous. Just for his offensive schematics alone, he should be in. What he gave to the game we are clearly benefiting from today. The schemes you see today were invented by guys like Sid Gillman and Don Coryell. That's not an opinion

Damn that's crazy, I had just assumed he was inducted some time ago.

@@glong86 Unfortunately not SMH.

How many super bowls has the coryell offense won? At least 10. He and Sid Gilman both moved offensive football forwards.

Easily

Then they would be the greatest show on Turf

@@MF_DOOMer The Greatest Show On Turf was a clone of Air Coryell. Several of the coaches on Dick Vermiel's staff (and Vermiel himself) were Don Coryell's padawan learners: Jim Hanifan, Ernie Zampese, Mike Martz, Mike White, Brian Scottenheimer, Jack Ramsdell.

@@Jelperman Exactly

Also Ling time Raiders fan. The Chargers of this Era were a threat. I am just glad the Raiders seemed to have their # when it came to play offs. Even though I hate the Chargers I respect these Chargers. I wonder what would have happened if they played the 49ers in the super bowl instead of the bengals

@@kyledamron same here.... wished the chargers would have went

Man I didn't know Madden was one of Coryells disciples...that man made put out great coaches out that went on to win Superbowls. With out the I formation and west coast offense what would football look like. This man was the Steve Jobs of football

@@tasiwilsonmusicdon’t forget joe Gibbs was on the Chargers staff among many other coaches

Lynn Swann

He followed it up with a 75 yard pick 6 off Bradshaw on the Steelers opening possession in the AFC Championship Game.

Intercepted 4 ppasses and block a FG and returned it 57 yards. I’d say that performance is an all-timer

Yes, he did the damn thing

@@JulianWavy yessir. 1975- current

Aye aye, sir.

Since '06

San Diego Chargers... not that LA Chokers of Dean Spanos

Not a charger fan. However that was a hell of an offence. Fours muncie John Jefferson Wes chandler

Love the passion!

I totally agree..those doors being opened in those cold temperatures only when air Coryell had the ball was a definite plus for the Bengals.

SPTO The 5 Yard "Chuck" Rule adopted in 1978 made Air Coryell possible.

Andrew Sheehy Point taken, Coryell exploited it more than other coaches until Walsh and Gibbs also exploited the rules to their advantage. The Steelers also opened up their playbook as well but not nearly to the great extent that Coryell did.

Coryell himself was a deciple of Sid Gilman whose other proteges were Al Davis and Bill Walsh, among others. As his final coaching job, Gilman was Dick Vermeil's OC in Philadelphia. Vermeil comes into play later. Coryell himself had more proteges like Joe Gibbs, Ernie Zampese, and Al Saunders. Zampese was the Chargers OC after Gibbs went to the Redskins. When Zampese became OC of the Rams in the late 80s Norv Turner and Mike Martz were assistants, which is where they would pick up the offfense. Turner's version was a little more simplistic and less aggressive, but if you look at playbooks from both Coryell and Turner, the verbage and passing trees were pretty much the same. When Vermeil came out of retirement to coach the Rams he wanted to install a full Coryell system, but didn't have the personnel. By '99, however, they did. And they had Mike Martz. Look up NFL coaching trees sometime. It's pretty fascinating how most NFL coaches can be traced back to just a handful of men. It's also a crime neither Coryell or Zampese are in the hall of fame. Both men are so instrumental on how NFL offenses are today.

That's true, interestingly enough Gilman was an offensive coordinator for the Bears during Jack Pardee's last year there. in '77.

I did also. I need to go to my storage to find the games I have on VHS 😀

By the grace of God I too am a SD native. Also as a lifelong fan the joke is "when they lay me to rest I request 6 chargers as my pallbearers so they can let me down, one, last, time" happy new year!

If

@Manu Ginobilis Bald Spot;I hear you,because I BECAME a Chargers fan for LIFE in 1979 when my older brother,the biggest"Steel Curtain"fan ever continually boasted on the Steelers,to the point that one day I declared:"Man,I'm so sick of you and them Steelers,that the FIRST team I see that beats them,will be"MY team"for LIFE!! 2 weeks later we "played sick",stayed home from church,watched the Oilers/Bills game,until we became convinced that the Oilers were going to win,with a 24-13 lead late in the 3rd quarter,switched to the other game where I saw a team I'd never seen before with lightning-bolts and yellow pants ABUSING the Steelers 28-0 in the 4th,en-route to a 35-7 rout at Jack Murphy Stadium!!! From THAT moment I was hooked on this team,as my brothers face turned a sickly yellow in disbelief!!

I think the 1979 Chargers was the most potent of all Chargers teams ever. Slightly more powerful than the 80-82 Chargers. It was a shame they lost to the Oilers

Tells you how fluid football seasons can really be.

@@ArmandoXGG It was that defense in '79 that separated them from the other charger teams. The defense faded badly in the 3 years that followed. Trading Fred Dean was the dumbest move ever and played a key role in the 49ers 2 SB's in '81 and '84.

I'm not even a chargers fan and I do 2. I used to visit San Diego a lot as a kid. Love San Diego

I wish they'd leave la. I wish they'd leave California for somewhere small west coast, like Alaska or Oregon. These would be revolutionary relocations and would be beloved franchises.

@@ryanchungus8972 Agreed. Portland is certainly large enough in terms of population, Anchorage might be on the small side. Nebraska could be another option. But still crazy that they left San Diego, a city far richer than any of these alternatives, and many times their size. I predict the Chargers will return to SD at some point.

@@hd-xc2lz nfl is dead now lmao. They care more about BLM than they do football

@@ryanchungus8972 So why do you care about relocation options?

The passes Jefferson dropped in the end zone haunt me to this day.

I agree, that was the ball game in a nutshell. After that lucky touchdown. For the rest of the game we was one touchdown behind all game. It was sad!!! I was at that game.

" The Missing Rings...SD Chargers"....

Q Jefferson in the 2000s too. Rivers,Gates,LT all in their prime and no Super Bowls.

only didn't have a SB because their Defense was soo horrible. Idiot owner traded away their best defensive player to San Francisco.

@@w41duvernay Not necessarily true. Yes, the trade is true and it sucked, but 1979 Chargers where the #2 scoring Def and "Big Hands" Johnson and Louis Keltcher where sack leaders for some time. Other teams came into San Diego KNOWING they had to score NOW (every time they touched the ball) or get embarrassed. The Chargers where constantly facing the other team's 2 minute offense from the 1st snap. No game of field position, it was facing the other team's very best effort on offense right from the whistle. The Defense wasn't spectacular, but not nearly as bad as advertised so much as the other team's offense being in super high gear before the game started as they were in fear of being embarrassed and shown up by the Air Coryell offence. - I heard this about 3x from opposing coaches and QBs. If the Charger's D was in any other team or city, they would have been respectable. Not easy to go up against every team's best effort on every play, facing a team's do-or-die offense from the 1st second of the game.

The 81 draft gave SD a low first round choice...on the board James Brooks. Or Mike Singletary! One preface the perfect Cornell player was Joe Washington who the chargers traded away to get Lyell Mitchell in 79 . Think about that.

Nothing. NFL defences were clueless on how to stop the pass back then.

Funny thing is Jefferson and Chandler were the true Show Stoppers that got everyone excited. Both are hall of famers in my mind and heart 💓

Thank Nike ..A HACK at uniforms desines.

Joe Griego if anything they should go back to the powder blues. They're considered the best looking jerseys in pro sports for a reason.

@@casimiriii5941 The powered blue Chargers jerseys are OVERRATED the Air Coryell blue & gold uniforms are by far the best in Chargers team history.

NIKO SAMUELS not at all. Powder blue and yellow all day every day. P.S. you have a right to your opinion, but than so do I. And since they're both just opinions, why don't we respect them and just leave it at you have a different preference than me. I mean there's really no reason you should feel a need to devalue my opinion (saying that they're overrated) in order to confirm your opinion to yourself.

@@casimiriii5941 I stand by my statement take care.

Aw stop it was plenty of receivers having highlight reels before them especially the raiders the cowboys the Steelers

1984 Dolphins @ Chargers Chargers win 34-28 in overtime. Dan Marino 28 of 40 338 yards 2tds 1ints Dan Fouts a career high 37 of a career high 56 for 381 yards 4tds 1int 1984 Raiders @ Chargers Raiders win 44-37. Marc Wilson 24 of 37 332 yards career high 5tds 1int Dan Fouts 24 of 45 410 yards 3tds 3ints 1985 Raiders @ Chargers Chargers win 40-34 Marc Wilson 18 of 32 297 yards 3tds 2ints Dan Fouts 26 of 41 436 yards 4tds 1int 1986 Season Opener Dolphins @ Chargers Chargers win 50-28 (Final victory for legendary head coach the late great Don "Air" Coryell) Dan Marino 23 of 36 290 yards 3tds 0ints Dan Fouts 23 of 35 293 yards 3tds 0ints I have all of these games on DVD & love watching them over & over.

They had their own name

Gary Evans lol@ it won’t be a secret anymore. Don was the best. 👏👏👏👏👏👏

I’m so sorry for not remembering the correct spelling of the great coach Don Coryell’s name. I knew it didn’t look right when I wrote it. My only excuse is I haven’t seen it written down in quite a while.

Gary Evans This proves to me that Elliott used to love watching the Chargers during their time when Coryell was the coach.

"The missing rings...SD Chargers" is MUCH better with Fouts, Winslow, Bauer doing the narration

@@kendallevans4079 Thank you Kendall but i've seen it ten times or more. I do love the fact that those teams got some recognition through the missing rigs series. I need to hear the announcers live calls, some music, the whole bit. Give me some Tom Kelley Chargers radio calls, some network tv calls, all of it. This is light years better than the Missing Rings doc for me.

@@kch7051 Fail! This is from the horses mouth (Fouts, Bauer, Winslow) it doesn't get any better than that! What the F does an announcer know? They are all "homers" anyways. BTW I was born in 1957 so I've been around some great teams like the 80's Raiders who made a living spanking your Bolts yearly!..I lived in SD during the 80's and had to listen to all my co-workers drivel. They had a exciting offense and almost zero defense!

Back then QBs were told that if your receiver was covered, throw it to him anyway and let him fight for the ball.

Bradshaw usually had 2-3 real stink fests per season but was unbeatable aside from those. The stink fest usually showed up in bad weather or when he was surrounded by 2nd teamers due to injuries like that SD loss. He would try and do it all and totally implode.

Quarterbacks back then through a lot of interceptions

You are absolutely right, it was like watching magic.

not greatest arm? dude he blasted that ball like crazy for several yards... better than Brady & Manning

God bless you eagles fan. I was at the 1980 chargers home game vs Eagles. 22-21 for SD. We should have been their in NO to play you. Enjoy your team. Alas the guy who owned it all left us in the dark.

yurolson never thought I’d hear those words before 2017, that definitely would’ve been a fun super bowl

Not in 79 they didn't...

One of the greatest days/moments was that 35-7 game. The colors, the way the fall light hit the stadium - everything was awesome. Clarence Williams dropped a 4th gtr td pass that would have made the score 42-7

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qdavOAYDJlw.html

The same dropbacks Troy Aikman did.