More "Name the Team" trivia

[Bryan]

Looking for the franchise and the year this happened....

Team #1
*Had a player with 1700+ combined kick/punt return yards
*Had a player who caught a pass in his 117th consecutive game
*Gave up 50+ points one week, and zero points the following week

[Brian wolf]

Eagles?

[racepug]

Eagles sounds correct and I'm going to guess. . .1983.

[Brian wolf]

I thought it was Carmichael and the Eagles but that defense didnt give up 50 points in a loss, so it has to be another team. I thought the 84 Chargers but they allowed a TD against the Bears after giving up 52 points to the Steelers the week before.

[Mark]

The 1981 Cardinals gave up 52 one week and shut out Buffalo the next. Stump Mitchell had over 1700 KO & punt return yardage. Not sure about the second one. Did Mel Gray have that many? I guess I can check out his game logs.

[Mark]

OK, Wikipedia says Mel Gray had 121 consecutive games with catches from 1973 to 1982.

[Bryan]

The 1981 Cardinals gave up 52 one week and shut out Buffalo the next. Stump Mitchell had over 1700 KO & punt return yardage. Not sure about the second one. Did Mel Gray have that many? I guess I can check out his game logs.

This is correct! 81 Cards were very ridiculous. Buffalo was a pretty good team in 1981....weird that the Cards could shut them out. Stump Mitchell set the NFL record for most return yards in one season, primarily because the Cards defense was great at giving up points. The Mel Gray thing was completely unexpected to me. I looked at his game logs to confirm, and I was amazed at how many 1 catch games he had in that time span. It would be like Joe Dimaggio having a 56-game hit streak by getting 1 hit each in 56 games.

[Brian wolf]

I had no idea Mel Gray was that consistent catching passes, even if it werent a lot. A deep threat that could have his own HOVG case had he scored another 12-15 TDs, I believe ... This team had talent though they were in the NFL's toughest division. Hart and Lomax may not have been the best QBs but they could get hot throwing the ball with running games helping them ...

[74_75_78_79_]

Team #2

This team, from their opening day win, was above-500 the entire season.

In their win later that season, that placed them at their season-peak W/L-record-wise, a player on this team returned the opening kickoff more than 90 yards for a TD. This wasn't the first time in his career that he returned an opening kickoff for a TD - and that one was also for more-than-90 yards.

And he also scored a punt-return TD in his career. That one was for more-than-90 as well.

Outside special teams, he did not start in a single game this entire season but he did score one TD on offense - a TD catch.

The one who threw him that TD pass also did not start a single game this season either, and it was his only TD pass that he threw this season. Also, up until three years prior to this very season, he played on a rival of this team.

Name the team.