Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [101]
With a running back on whom he could rely for twenty-plus carries per game and an offensive line, newly dubbed the “Hogs,” plowing open huge holes, Joe Gibbs’ run-heavy, ball-control offense excelled. Washington went 8-1, cruised through the playoffs, and earned a berth in Super Bowl XVII. In those three playoff wins, Riggins averaged thirty-two carries and 148 yards per game: the greatest cumulative postseason rushing effort in NFL history.
“I thought it was awesome,” Hall of Fame football writer Ray Didinger remembered three decades later.
I don’t think that in terms of history, it’s really given its due. At the time it was . . . I think there’s no question that that [performance] put him in the Hall of Fame. But I do think that when people look back and talk about great postseason performances, it’s hardly mentioned at all. It does kind of get lost—which it shouldn’t.
How many running backs in the history of the NFL have their best years in their thirties? It doesn’t happen. . . . That’s the amazing thing, is that he played as well as he played, and accomplished what he accomplished with that kind of workload as a thirty-three-year-old man.
On January 30, 1983, Washington battled the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII. The Redskins’ hopes for a first world championship in forty years did not get off to a rousing start. David Woodley’s seventy-six-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Cefalo midway through the first quarter gave the ho-hum Dolphins offense an early lead. And while the Redskins had been proficient at gaining a first-quarter lead, then playing keep-away thanks to a stout defense, the Dolphins owned the lead and dictated the game’s tempo from the outset.
“In our first couple of offensive series, I think we were just caught up in playing in the Super Bowl. It was hard not to be excited,” left tackle Joe Jacoby remembered. “[Quarterback Joe] Theismann was probably a little hyper, but I’d say that was true for all of us. We moved the ball pretty well, but we were forced to punt when we let them sack Theismann a couple times on third down. Then all of us calmed down and began to play much better.”
Late in the second period, a touchdown pass from Theismann to Alvin Garrett gave the Redskins their first touchdown, and Washington looked to head for halftime content with the 10-10 score. But while Theismann, Riggins, and the Hogs celebrated their impressive eleven-play, eighty-yard touchdown drive on the sidelines, Dolphins kick returner Fulton Walker stunned every one of the 103,667 patrons at the Rose Bowl.
The second-year defensive back accepted the ensuing kickoff at his own two-yard line, found a seam along the left side, and raced untouched into the end zone. The first kickoff return for a touchdown in Super Bowl history gave the Dolphins an unexpected 17-10 halftime lead.
“I almost swallowed my tongue when I saw Walker’s run,” linebacker Larry Kubin said. “When you see a play like that, sometimes you wonder if fate isn’t smiling on the other side of the field.”
As the second half unfolded, Kubin’s fear did not manage to spread across the Redskins’ sidelines.
“Nobody panicked. We knew what had to be done and we were ready to do it,” said guard Russ Grimm.
Early in the third quarter, a trick play—a forty-four-yard reverse to Garrett—buoyed the Redskins with a first and goal inside Miami’s ten-yard line. But after a short Riggins run, two passes failed to produce a touchdown, and Washington settled for a short field goal.
Not long after that missed opportunity, Theismann threw an interception and almost threw another: near his own goal line, Theismann himself broke up Dolphins lineman Kim Bokamper’s attempt to haul in a pass batted down at the line of scrimmage. And when a flea-flicker from the Washington offense resulted in Theismann’s second interception of the half, the game plan simplified.
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