By TJ Troup
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| Dick Vermeil |
The first in-depth research I did was in the area of pass interceptions, and more specifically how often did a team won when someone returned an interception for a touchdown.
There have been more interceptions returned for a touchdown on November 5th than any other day in pro football history.
Let's journey back to 1950 and the Green Bay Packers visiting the former AAFC Baltimore Colts.
When you study film of this Colt team you see a bunch of rag-tag players that are not destined for long careers in the league. Green Bay leads 21-14 entering the 4th quarter, but the Colts rally to win 41-21 and three of the touchdowns are interception returns.
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| Kenny Moore |
This past Sunday the Colts of Indianapolis earned a win over Carolina as Kenny Moore twice galloped (that's what the Colts do) to the promised land with interceptions. Not sure if Mr. Moore watched vintage film of the Colt victory in 1950.
The Baltimore Ravens began the 2000 season winning five of their first six games, and everyone took notice of a defense that would go on to rank with the best of all time. The Ravens stumbled through a three-game losing streak, and on November 5th in Cincinnati, the offense finally came alive, while the impregnable defense continued to play outstanding team defense in the 27-7 win.
The Ravens would continue to win and ran the table all the way to a Super Bowl victory. November the 5th, 1978, and the 4-5 Philadelphia Eagles take on a Packer team that is 7-2 and leading the NFC Central. This day is the turning point in Eagle history as the victory over Green Bay sparked the Eagles to win enough to earn a wild-card berth in the playoffs.
For many years the NFL put out a pre-season magazine in those days called Prolog (they are insightful and in-depth) and the write-up on Philadelphia gives us the title for today's narrative. 
Coach Dick Vermeil had built this team into a group of hard-bitten men who took no prisoners. Finally, on a personal note—was honored to coach at both Riverside City College and Fullerton Junior College, and was very fortunate to be part of teams at both schools that won a bowl game.
This coming Saturday the two 9-0 teams meet to decide who is the league champion. No doubt the game will be a hard-hitting and eventful contest. Next week will finally give an evaluation of where we are at in the NFL for the 2023 season.
the 1950 Colts (not "my Boston/NYYanks/Texans" Colts) were "rag-tag indeed"....no doubt Mr. Goska's play by play of the Packer game is not one of his "go-to" nostalgic reads...their 462 points allowed in a 12 game season was the league record for a long time...I mentioned in an earlier post that the 70-27 mugging by the Rams was actually an IMPROVEMENT on their exhibition score of 70-21 against Crazylegs and Co.....as awful as this team was, they were actually populated with some HoFers...Tittle at QB, Art Donovan at DT, Wayne Millner was an Asst. Coach....they also had the legendary Hardy Brown for 4 games (including according to PFR a missed extra point attempt ), and Jim Owens, the long-time Washington Husky coach who led that school to 3 Rose Bowls....an additional oddity: George Blanda (HoF) is listed as playing one game for this team (albiet with no stats recorded); again, PFR has him on your Bears roster for 11 1950 games, 1 Colt, then back to Chicago in 1951 for the whole 12 game season....is there/what's the story here?
ReplyDelete....have enough film to evaluate the Colts of '50, and as for the questions you ask Jim....Hardy Brown played sparingly, and not very well in the four games. the o-line was pathetic, and the rotation at offensive end had one slow receiver after another on the field, including Art Spinney who was an excellent guard later for YOUR COLTS. Halas did a lend lease, and opening day Blanda kicked off for the Colts....then back to the Bears. Thus for one game you had Blanda, Burk, and Tittle on the roster, and each of them threw how many touchdown passes in a single game?
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