Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Here are some thoughts after watching all the NFL Films 'week in review' videos from the 1984 season...

Miami Dolphins - they were the headline story of the year with Marino. The Niners were almost like a footnote. The AFC East was terrible, and its not surprising to me that the Dolphins lost to the two AFC West teams they played (Raiders & Chargers). The Dolphins were fortunate to go 14-2 with little run game or defense. The Colts and Bills were particularly bad, with both teams at the bottom of the league in both offense and defense. The Colts had a SS named Mark Kafentzis who showed up in a few highlights...I don't remember the guy at all. He was a backup in 82 & 83, started almost the entire 1984 season, and never played again.

Rich Karlis & Neil O'Donoghue - both of these guys were involved in game-winning FGs seemingly every week, and both were incredibly inconsistent. Karlis had a 3 week stretch at the end of the year where he missed a 20-yarder on the last play against Seattle and Denver lost 27-24, the next week he hit the upright on the last play and Denver lost to KC 16-13, and then he made a 28-yard FG on the last play against SD to win the game 16-13.

Cleveland Browns - Rutigliano decided to keep his pass-happy scheme despite having Paul McDonald as his QB. McDonald would take almost every snap in 1984, and then not attempt a pass in 1985. The Browns offense was terrible...Ozzie Newsome led the team with 89 receptions and the second place guy was Brian Brennan with 35, and Brennan didn't even start until the end of the year. The Browns regular WRs were Ricky Feacher and Duriel Harris (!), who were both old and had matching bright white double-bar (thin) facemasks that looked ridiculous.

Louis Lipps - this guy was really something in 1984. Paired with John Stallworth, that tandem was so good that Mark Malone appeared to be a competent QB. Lipps was a great punt returner, too, and had two spectacular seasons before getting hurt in 1986 and becoming average.

AFC West - tough but weird division. Broncos weren't that good, but ended up winning a lot of close games with Elway and won the division at 13-3. Both Denver and Seattle got a ton of turnovers on defense, which perhaps inflated their records. The Raiders probably had the most talent but had QB issues. Even the Chiefs and Chargers played tough against the NFL elite.

Roy Green - his 1984 season was probably the closest thing to Elroy Hirsch's 1951 season in terms of big plays in big moments. It seemed like every week Roy Green would catch a long bomb from Lomax to score the winning TD.

Vikings and Les Steckel - yeah, the Vikings might not have had an abundance of talent, but to finish behind the miserable Bucs and Lions is inexcusable. Not sure why they were so bad unless everyone just quit on Steckel after the first couple games.

Mike Quick - had some bad timing in that he came after the Vermiel days and before the Randall/Buddy Ryan days. He was really talented and had many spectacular catch-and-runs in 1984.

Chicago Bears - things I remember about this team...Rusty Lisch couldn't throw a spiral, they signed Greg Landry to start the last game of the season, had 11-sack game against Archie Manning & the Vikes. Things I didn't remember...Bob Avellini actually started 1 game (0 TDs, 3 INTs, 1 loss), and the Bears actually had a 12-sack game against the Lions, taking down Eric Hipple 7 times and some rookie QB from Columbia named John Witkowski 5 times. On the year, Witkowski had 13 completions and 11 sacks.

Hokie Gajan - some highlight reel plays turned in by Hokie for an otherwise drab New Orleans offense. Hokie averaged 6.0 YPC in 1984, and had YPC of 5.0 and 5.1 in two of his other three seasons.

Joe Pisarcik - played 5 years in Philly and had two rushing TDs...both on bootlegs in the same 1984 game against the Pats. Pisarcik had 5 career rushing TDs.

Bryan wrote:some rookie QB from Columbia named John Witkowski 5 times. On the year, Witkowski had 13 completions and 11 sacks.

First starting QB for the London Monarchs. Luckily, for them, they realized the mistake quick and turned to Stan Gelbaugh.

Green and Quick exploded as deep threats but just couldnt overcome injuries as their careers went further along. I can still remember John Madden for CBS telling viewers that Green looked like a modern version of his own great deep threat receiver with the Raiders, Warren Wells, who I had first read about in Football Digest.
Imagine what Cardinal's fans had to go through when both Green and talented big-back, OJ Anderson went down with major injuries in 1985 ?

When I read the comments, You could see how mediocre the AFC was becoming by 84. The 70's Steelers were dead (even though the 84 version made a fluke run to the AFC Title Game), and the Raiders weren't quite the same team that they were the year before. Not surprising that it took 13 more years for that conference to produce a champion.

A team that should have done better in the AFC in the 80's (but didn't because of shaky drafting) was the Jets. They passed on several good football players from 1981-87, like Eric Wright, Russ Grimm, Tootie Robbins, and John Offerdahl. Also, just so you didn't think I forgot, they made the biggest draft mistake in team history (and one of the biggest in NFL history): Passing on Dan Marino.

Bryan wrote:Here are some thoughts after watching all the NFL Films 'week in review' videos from the 1984 season...

Miami Dolphins - they were the headline story of the year with Marino. The Niners were almost like a footnote.

As I recall that was something that motivated the 49ers in the S.B. because they knew they had a good team and they resented all the publicity that the Dolphins got (also I saw a video a while back that explained that Bill Walsh thought the Dolphins' LBs were slow and that his team could exploit that - with passes to his RBs, as I recall).

Bryan wrote:Vikings and Les Steckel - yeah, the Vikings might not have had an abundance of talent, but to finish behind the miserable Bucs and Lions is inexcusable. Not sure why they were so bad unless everyone just quit on Steckel after the first couple games.

My memory of Les Steckel is that he was an ex-Marine and the players didn't care for his (training? disciplinary?) methods in the least. So your comment on the team quitting on him probably isn't misplaced.

Bryan wrote:Hokie Gajan - some highlight reel plays turned in by Hokie for an otherwise drab New Orleans offense. Hokie averaged 6.0 YPC in 1984, and had YPC of 5.0 and 5.1 in two of his other three seasons.

Poor Hokie Gajan. He had his career ended by injury in a game against the Seahawks (must've been '85 or '86).

Bryan wrote:Joe Pisarcik - played 5 years in Philly and had two rushing TDs...both on bootlegs in the same 1984 game against the Pats. Pisarcik had 5 career rushing TDs.

That's too funny. Reminds me of Mark Bavaro - apparently he didn't like Buddy Ryan in the least and made no secret of that fact (unusual for the usually taciturn Bavaro) so imagine how surprised he was when he ended up in Philly to end his career!

Another thoughts on the 1984 season:
-Art Monk (receptions), Roy Green (yards) and Mark Clayton (touchdowns) all broke receiving records for a single NFL season, but maybe the top WR that year was John Stallworth, who was NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
-The Cowboys had a mess at QB, with Gary Hogeboom starting the season and Danny White reclaiming the job later that year.
-The only SNF game of that year was a Saints-Cowboys matchup at Dallas that started late because of a presidential debate. The Saints (with Richard Todd at QB) were leading 27-6, but Todd was injured and replaced by Ken Stabler, whose fumble late in the game was recovered by Jim Jeffcoat for the tying TD and Dallas won in OT. It was Stabler's final game.
-Dallas missed the playoffs for the first time in 10 years by losing to the winless Bills in Buffalo (with a great game by rookie RB Greg Bell), and then losing their final two games of the year (at home against Washington, and at Miami in the final MNF of the year).

One oddity from 1984 was Green Bay losing seven of its first eight and then winning seven of its last eight. Their final record was spot-on -- they were absolutely average -- but the route they took sure was weird.

The first season without John “the Voice of God” Facenda doing any narrations of any kind!

NFC East was quite the division race! Swamp Fox’s Eagles were odd-man-out but had their share of respectable moments! Not only did they take it down the field on their first two possessions at 10-0 Miami to go up 14-0 on them (thus, maybe, “writing the book” on them), but earlier on in Week #4 were only down, 14-9, to San Fran in the 4th quarter. They split with the G-men in Week #8 and then with Washington four weeks after that making them now 5-6-1. But Jaws breaking his leg at Busch the following week further assured no playoffs for the Birds thus sending them on a closing 1-3 skid!

The Cardinals lost at RFK, 29-27, in an underrated Classic! Had StL simply won, they would not only had been the division winner at 10-6, but would have been 2ND-SEED hosting da Bears in the divisional!

In ‘Year One’ after Terry, the '84 Steelers are an interesting study in inconsistency! Finish 9-7 but beat the Rams, win at San Fran being the only team to beat them (Weegie Thompson winning Lott’s respect with his blocking of him throughout the game), win at Raiders in the finale to clinch the division/playoffs-period, and of course eliminate 13-3 Denver at Mile High!

Being that the Raiders were on a 6-game win-streak vs the ’Burgh going into that late finale (blasted them the previous New Years Day, 38-10) the now 8-8 Bengals (having started 0-5), who just beat Buffalo in the early game, must’ve thought they had the division in the bag!

74_75_78_79_ wrote:The first season without John “the Voice of God” Facenda doing any narrations of any kind!

In the NFL Films Games of the Week games still narrated by Harry Kalas (until 1986, by 1987 theses highlights, my favorite, were discontinued) they brought new music by Sam Spence which, IMHO, was not of the same level and quality that the earlier pieces. I thought after a while that they had change composers or than they were not allowed to use the earlier Spence´s tunes, but Spence still composed for NFL Films until 1989 or 1990.

You could see the signs and what was starting to form with the Bears in 1984, but I don't think anyone could've predicted what they became in 1985. There was so much tumult and instability at the QB position, and other than home run hitter Gault, they were paper thin at receiver.