Memorable NFL Weeks

[CSKreager]

We've had great NFL games, NFL seasons.... but what are some of the standout NFL weeks where so many games/moments/importance took place in a single week of action?

One I recall well was week 11 1994, where there were a LOT of games between teams that had winning records at the time:

9-1 Dallas at 8-2 San Francisco
5-4 Chicago at 7-2 Miami
Cleveland at Philadelphia, both 7-2
7-2 San Diego at 6-3 Kansas City
5-4 NY Jets at 5-4 Green Bay
5-4 Buffalo at 6-3 Pittsburgh

And there was also the gigantic Patriots comeback over the Vikings when Bledsoe set still standing single game record for completions and attempts (45-70)

[Rupert Patrick]

Week 16 of the 1979 season is another memorable one, which had:
-The Washington Dallas double comeback game
-The Tampa Bay Kansas City Monsoon Bowl which gave the Bucs their first division title
-The Oakland Seattle game where the Raiders were fighting for the wild card only to come up short
-Cleveland needing a win and losses by Oakland and Denver (both wound up losing) only to be upset by the Bengals although the Browns had a chance to pull it out in the end
-Minnesota and New England played a great game 27-23 Pats although Tommy Kramer threw 61 passes, completing 16 of them to Rickey Young in Jim Marshall's final game
-In a battle which gave the AFC West to the winner and a wild card to the loser, San Diego hung on to defeat Denver 17-7

Another great week was Week 1 of the 2002 season, where we had:
-In the Thursday Night opener, a FG by Jose Cortez in the final seconds lifted the 49ers over the Giants
-The Texans in their inaugural game going into Dallas and defeating the Cowboys
-Chicago coming back with two TD's in the final six minutes to upset Minnesota
-The Saints beating the Bucs in OT on a botched punt attempt in the end zone that turned into a pass attempt that was intercepted in the end zone for the winning score.
-Chad Morton of the Jets taking the opening kickoff of OT to the house to defeat the Bills.
-Tennessee getting two fourth quarter TD's to beat the Titans
-Indy holding off the Jaguars in Colts territory as time expired for a three-point victory
-The Dwayne Rudd helmet throwing incident as time expired, giving the Chiefs enough yardage for Morten Andersen to attempt a game winning FG to beat the Browns 40-39.
-The Packers beating the Falcons 37-34 in OT as Ahman Green rushed for 155 yards.
2002 might have been the greatest opening week ever.

[BD Sullivan]

Week 8 in 1970
*Tom Dempsey's 63-yard FG for N.O. beats Detroit
*George Blanda's 52-yard FG for Oakland beats Cleveland, continuing the Blanda magic.
*Cincinnati blows out Buffalo to start their seven-game winning streak that got them to their first playoff berth--Lemar Parrish returned a kickoff 95 yards for one score and a blocked field goal 83 yards.
*Miami loses to Philadelphia for their third straight loss. From there, they won six straight to earn THEIR first playoff berth.
*Los Angeles manages a 10-10 tie with Atlanta when Willie Ellison caught a four-yard TD pass with two seconds left.
*The NY Giants won their fifth straight with a 23-20 victory over the Cowboys, scoring on a 15-yard TD pass to Ron Johnson with three minutes left.

[Gary Najman]

Week 13 in 1983 had two of the most exciting OT games ever:

- Green Bay at Atlanta (Falcons CB Kenny Johnson returned two Lynn Dickey picks for TDs, one in the 4th quarter and the other for the winning score in overtime, 47-41).
- Kansas City at Seattle (the Seahawks won 51-48 in OT, but Bill Kenney had one of his best games with over 300 yards passing and 4 TDs. Curt Warner ran for over 200 yards and 3 TDs for the Seahawks).

Also, Houston at Tampa Bay, at 1-11 each, was surprisingly a good game., With the Bucs' winning 33-24.

[Todd Pence]

I've always cited week 15 of the 1983 season as one of the greatest football Sundays ever. Consider the highlights:

Saints hold off Eagles in OT to keep their playoff hopes alive
Seahawks keep playoff hopes alive when apparent Giant game-winning TD pass is nullified by penalty
Redskins and Cowboys in highly anticipated clash of NFC East powers when both were 12-2 at the time. Tight game turns into rout when Cowboys unravel following second half fourth down snafu. Skins go on to Super Bowl, Dallas doesn't win again in '83.
Chargers take Chiefs in old-style AFL shootout, 41-38. The '83 season featured no less than ten games in which each team scored at least 35.
Cardinals upset Raiders to give them their last loss of the season.
John Elway adds injury to insult when he engineers three-TD fourth-quarter comeback against Colts team he had earlier refused to play for,
One-win Oilers upset Browns to cripple their playoff hopes.

This sterling football weekend, however, ended on the most anticlimactic note possible - The Monday Night matchup to cap it off was one of the worst ever, offering up the Bay of Pigs in a 12-9 all field-goal match.

[74_75_78_79_]

I've always cited week 15 of the 1983 season as one of the greatest football Sundays ever. Consider the highlights:

Saints hold off Eagles in OT to keep their playoff hopes alive
Seahawks keep playoff hopes alive when apparent Giant game-winning TD pass is nullified by penalty
Redskins and Cowboys in highly anticipated clash of NFC East powers when both were 12-2 at the time. Tight game turns into rout when Cowboys unravel following second half fourth down snafu. Skins go on to Super Bowl, Dallas doesn't win again in '83.
Chargers take Chiefs in old-style AFL shootout, 41-38. The '83 season featured no less than ten games in which each team scored at least 35.
Cardinals upset Raiders to give them their last loss of the season.
John Elway adds injury to insult when he engineers three-TD fourth-quarter comeback against Colts team he had earlier refused to play for,
One-win Oilers upset Browns to cripple their playoff hopes.

This sterling football weekend, however, ended on the most anticlimactic note possible - The Monday Night matchup to cap it off was one of the worst ever, offering up the Bay of Pigs in a 12-9 all field-goal match.

And on the Saturday before, a certain someone's 'final stand' in the final NFL game at Shea. That was a heckuva week for all the reasons you state. The only memory I have of that Sunday, however, was Washington at Dallas.

How about Week #14, 1980?

*Began on a (of course rare at the time) Thursday Nighter. Oilers 6 Steelers 0 at the Astrodome. Technically the 'Burgh, now at 8-6, was still in the race but many including Steeler players see that as the game that ended things for them in '80 hence the Dynasty.

*Falcons 20 Eagles 17 at the Vet which would essentially end up being the battle for top-seed in the NFC. Really, really wanted to see entire game but had to go Christmas shopping with my Mom and grandmother that afternoon. Didn't catch it until the very end. For years after the fact I would mistakenly remember it as a game that went into OT.

*Rams and Bills however did go into OT at Rich, Bills winning in a 10-7 slugfest.

*Dallas handing World Champs-to-be a 19-13 loss at Oak-town in a game that seems to be historically forgotten. Would have liked for it to be mentioned on the America's Game ep. Apparently it was a good one with no one scoring in the 4th Q. Would like to see a recording.

*Big Redskins 40-17 upset over SD!

*Cards playing eventual playoff spoiler to Lions, outscoring them 10-0 in the 4th to post a 24-23 final.

*Bears 61 Packers 7 at Soldier! Vince Evans' career-performance, perhaps (18/22, 316, 3 TD, 0 INT)?

*Montana's "coming out" party vs Saints in that Monster comeback!

And on the following night...John Lennon

[nicefellow31]

Week 16 of the 1979 season is another memorable one, which had:

Another great week was Week 1 of the 2002 season, where we had:

-The Texans in their inaugural game going into Dallas and defeating the Cowboys

Good list of games but I wanted to point out that the Texans inaugural game against the Cowboys was played in Houston

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/b ... 080htx.htm

[7DnBrnc53]

Week 16, 1981

1. On Saturday, the Giants beat Dallas to secure their first playoff berth in 18 years, and the Dolphins beat Buffalo in a winner take all game for the AFC East at the OB.
2. On Sunday, you have the Jets defeating the Pack to wrap up their first playoff spot in 12 years. Also, the Broncos take a severe blow to their playoff hopes with a 35-24 loss to the Bears at Soldier Field (in Alan Page's last game).
3. The Chiefs defeat the Vikings 10-6 in the last game in Metropolitan Stadium.
4. The Colts and Pats play the Stupor Bowl in the Junkyard (a.k.a. Baltimore Memorial Stadium). Colts win, and Pats get #1 pick and Kenneth Sims.
5. On Monday Night, San Diego defeats Oakland 21-10 to wrap up the AFC West.

[74_75_78_79_]

Week 16, 1981

1. On Saturday, the Giants beat Dallas to secure their first playoff berth in 18 years, and the Dolphins beat Buffalo in a winner take all game for the AFC East at the OB.
2. On Sunday, you have the Jets defeating the Pack to wrap up their first playoff spot in 12 years. Also, the Broncos take a severe blow to their playoff hopes with a 35-24 loss to the Bears at Soldier Field (in Alan Page's last game).
3. The Chiefs defeat the Vikings 10-6 in the last game in Metropolitan Stadium.
4. The Colts and Pats play the Stupor Bowl in the Junkyard (a.k.a. Baltimore Memorial Stadium). Colts win, and Pats get #1 pick and Kenneth Sims.
5. On Monday Night, San Diego defeats Oakland 21-10 to wrap up the AFC West.

Can't forget that 'NFC Central championship' game, Bucs winning at Pontiac. Really liked that Lions team. For a long time afterwards I would keep forgetting that they didn't make playoffs. Even after giving Niners all they could on New Year's Eve two years later, I respected this squad more.

Recently caught an old NFL on NBC pre-game with Bryant Gumble for this very week; Chicago's "Alive Again" opening theme music. Went over basically all you covered: Alan Page, 'stupor bowl' (interviewing Colts fans at a local bar), last game at the Met, Joe Piscopo doing a short in front of a USA map with the helmets of all visiting teams attached to each host city. He made a crack on last year's "boring" announcer-less Jets/Miami game. There was a short on injuries hosted by Len Dawson (Klecko amongst those interviewed) that ended with a montage of collisions from various games to Olivia's "Let's Get Physical", James McAlister short on his cleaning business career (Al Stewart for background music), and Pete Axthelm making a 'Jimmy the Greek' out of himself by picking Pats -6, Lions -6, and Packers +3 1/2. I really wish there were still pregame shows such as this one and NFL Today on CBS. Look back fondly on both equally.

And then you had the lineup for Monday Nights!

[Todd Pence]

As a digression, if you were asked to make a selection for the single greatest college football regular season Saturday of all time, I don't think you could do much better than October 15, 2005.