Golden Football Magazine
NFL Championship Games
Super Bowl XI - Oakland Raiders vs Minnesota Vikings: First Half
Note: The gray boxes contain asides that provide interesting material but could be skipped
without losing the continuity of the article.
Part 1 - Pregame | Part 3 - 2nd Half
Rain during the week left the Rose Bowl turf a bit wet, but sunshine bathed the record Super Bowl crowd of 103,985.

Quarter 1

Oakland won the toss and elected to receive. Carl Garrett returned Fred Cox's kick 23y to the 34. To no one's surprise, the Raiders ran left immediately, but DE Alan Page stuffed Davis for just a 1y gain. That would not deter Stabler & Compa­ny because they loved their matchups on the left side.
TE Dave Casper 6-4, 230 >> RLB Wally Hilgenberg 6-4, 230
LT Art Shell 6-5, 265 >> RDE Jim Marshall 6-4, 220
LG Gene Upshaw 6-5, 255 >> RDT Alan Page 6-4, 245
FB Mark van Eeghen ran left to the 39. On 3rd and 5, QB Ken Stabler faded back and had time for TE Dave Casper run a down out to the right sideline. getting a few steps on OLB Matt Blair. One of the most accurate passers of his day, Ken hit Dave in stride for a 25y gain to the Minnesota 36. Davis tried to run wide around RE, but DE Carl Eller knocked him out of bounds after a gain of 4. Davis then burst through a big hole at LT to the 15 where S Paul Krause tackled him.
FB van Eeghen recalled: "The blocking scheme we came up with for the game was so simple that it had to be boring to play against us. Basically we just used a weak-side running attack. I would lead at the weak backer Wally Hilgenberg, our LT Art Shell would block their RT Alan Page - or they'd work in combination - and our C Dave Dalby would take care of their MLB Jeff Siemon. And all game long we ran just two plays for Davis and ... (his backup) Carl Garrett. Just two plays. It was just a FB lead on the weak backer and Davis following him through."

Clarence Davis runs free.

Doug Sutherland chases Davis.
Garrett was stopped cold for a loss of 1 by MLB Jeff Siemon. Then from slot left, Stabler was pressured and had to throw the ball away as the Vikings covered Casper well. FB Pete Banaszak, who usually came in when the Raiders reached the red zone, was stopped after a gain of 2 around LE by RLB Wally Hilgenberg. K Errol Mann was only 4-of-11 on FGs for the year replacing George Blanda, who had finally retired at age 48 after the 1975 season. Mann tried a 29-yarder that hit the left upright and bounced away. 4-of-12.
Madden said afterward: "The first drive set the tempo. It was our most important. We thought all along we could move the ball. The first drive proved we could. We knew then it was going to be O.K. I said, "Oh bleep" when we missed the FG, but it wasn't so bad. It wasn't so good, but it wasn't so bad. We were moving the way we wanted. Kenny knew we'd be right back. I knew we'd be right back."
When Biletnikoff left the field with the Raiders' offense, another of his eccentrici­ties kicked in. Equipment manager Dick Romanski recalled that Freddie nervous­ly chewed gum throughout the game. "Every time he came out of the game, he had to have new gum. He was superstitious. He'd want spearmint sometimes, Juicy Fruit another. It was always three sticks. I'd mix 'em all up and he wouldn't know the difference."
But that wasn't enough. The WR's hands were so covered with Stickum that he couldn't peel the paper off the sticks of gum himself. So Romanski did that for him and put the gum in Fred's mouth.

Jeff Siemon and Vikings defense stuffs runner.
From the 20, Fran Tarkenton lobbed a pass to Chuck Foreman out of the back­field at the right sideline for a gain of 5. Foreman tried to run up the middle, but ILB Monte Johnson smashed him down after a gain of just 1. When Tarkenton led Foreman too much on a down and out on the left side, Minnesota had to kick. Neil Clabo punted 46y. Another Neal, Colze took it on the 29 and returned all the way to the Vikings 47. But a clipping penalty put the ball back to the 19.
Oakland's 3-4 alignment was ideally suited to counter Tarkenton's short passes to his backs. OLB Villapiano: "When they hooked, we hooked with them. The way Tarkenton scrambled, we weren't going to sack him anyway, so we didn't lose anything by having only three linemen." When Minnesota flanked Foreman wide to force a LB to cover him, S Tatum covered him instead.
The Raiders again started with Davis off LT, this time for 4y. Then van Eeghen carried up the middle for 5, and Banaszak followed suit for 3 and a first down at the 31. Next, Stabler took to the air and threw to Biletnikoff, who made a diving catch on a comeback on the right sideline for 9y. Then the Vikings drew the line and stopped Banaszak for no gain and Davis for a loss of 1 to force a punt. Ray Guy boomed a 51-yarder that Leonard Willis returned 5y to the 16.

van Eeghen leads Davis.
Tarkenton began by bootlegging to the right and hitting Foreman back on the left for 16y to the 32. But runs by Brent McClanahan for 2 and Foreman for 1 put Minnesota in another passing situation. Tark threw deep for Sammy White, but CB Willie Brown stepped in front to intercept but let the ball go through his hands. Colzie fielded Clabo's punt but could not get loose for any yardage on the return at the Oakland 26.
Following van Eeghen's 3y run, Stabler tried to force the ball to Biletnikoff on the right sideline in double coverage. Ken was fortunate the ball wasn't intercepted. On 3rd and 7, Davis swept LE for 5 to bring on Guy and an opportunity for the Vikings to display the superiority of their special teams. Ray's record of never having a punt blocked in his career ended. After a low snap slightly delayed Guy's rhythm, and Fred McNeill burst in from the punter's right past van Eeghen, who whiffed on the block. The ball shot to the 3, where McNeill recovered it to com­plete his possible game-changing play.
It was Minnesota's 15th blocked kick for the season. The Vikings had blocked three kicks in their 24-13 victory over the Rams in the NFC Championship Game, returning one of them 90y for a TD.
Guy: "What was I thinking when it was blocked? It's not something you can print. I was mad. God, was I mad."
van Eeghan: "Yours truly takes some responsibility for the blocked punt. My job was to check the middle-to-out for guys going afer the kick, and I overly checked the middle. I really should have gotten a shoulder or arm on Fred McNeill as he rushed in, but I couldn't get back to him in time, because for some reason I had taken an extra step to the middle. Was that a shock? Oh, my God, you bet it was. When I heard that thud, I can't tell you how sick I felt. Our punting team came off the field really upset and wondering what the hell just happened. We hadn't scored in the first quarter and now all of a sudden they're at our 2-yard line and we're thinking, 'What's wrong with this picture?' But the game turned around in a hurry."
McNeill was an example of Grant's bias toward veteran players who wouldn't make mental mistakes. Although Fred was 10 years younger than Hilgenberg and much more athletic, Bud stuck with Wally, whom the Raiders were run over all afternoon.

Fred McNeill blocks Ray Guy's punt
The Raiders coaching staff had made an important change in their goal line de­fense for this game. ILB Monte Johnson was designated to call the defensive signals at the line of scrimmage. It would prove to be a wise decision.
Johnson was famous for the amount of time he spent watching the next oppo­nent's offense on his home projector. "During my prep for the Super Bowl, I no­ticed their offense had a tendency in the goal line, how they lined the backs up, how they determined which side of the center they'd run the ball. At one point we were practicing short-yardage defense, and I went to (assistant coaches Bob) Zeman and (Don) Shinnick, and I said, 'Guys, trust me and allow me to call the defense on the line of scrimmage in short yardage.'
They said, 'Why would we ever do that?'
I said, 'Let me tell you what I've seen."
They watched a number of reels. They went to Madden and said, 'This is what we want do do.' John says, 'Sure.'"
When the Vikings blocked the punt, Madden recalled what Al Davis had told him the night before after John expressed supreme confidence his team would win. "Don't ever talk like that, John. You know better than to talk like that." So maybe the coach did jinx his team. Just before Johnson and the defense took the field for the goal line stand, John told Monte, "Don't let me down."
Jack Tatum: "This is a time when a defensive team either folds or goes out on the field and changes the momentum. The Vikings were thinking about a TD or, at the very least, a FG and the lead. But the defensive team started thinking turnover.
With a chance to take their first lead in any of their four Super Bowls, the Vikings sent Foreman up the middle, but Johnson's alignment was ready for him. 6-9 275 lb behemoth Charles Philyaw stopped Chuck for a 1y gain. Then Brent McClana­han took a handoff over RG, but DT Dave Rowe and LB Phil Villapiano slammed into the runner and knocked the ball loose. Willie Hall recovered for the Raiders at the 3. The Oakland defense hurred off the field, jumping and yelling, slapping hands, and hugging each other. Meanwhile, the Vikings had to fight against think­ing, "Here we go again." It was their ninth fumble in Super Bowls, their sixth lost one, and the third lost inside the opponents' 10.
Villapiano: "It was like I knew what was going to happen before it happened. ... I knew in that situation the Vikings liked to pull out their WRs and put in two OTs - load up the line, drill you off so some back would come runnin' through. We called it their Jumbo formation. I'd studied the film. I knew that they only had two plays all year out of that formation ... runs to my side. I said to myself, 'You got two plays? I can stop any two plays.'" As Johnson called the formation with his back to the Vikings, Villapiano saw White and Rashad leave the field. "Jumbo! When they went to Jumbo, I'd go inside the offensive tackle. The idea was we'd jam the holes, we'd pinch. We called it Jumbo Pinch. I say to Matzoh Ball (John­son): 'Jumbo! Jumbo!' We got 'em where we want 'em! ... On the preceding play I went in high and was sandwiched by Ron Yary and Stu Voigt. On the second down, I went in low and when I came up there was McClanahan getting the ball. I drove my head right through there. My helmet hit right on the ball. I could feel the ball pop out as I was rammin' my head down. Then I kept pushing McClana­han back, because I knew the ball was somewhere, and I couldn't get it, so I pushed his hands away from it."
When Jack Tatum came off the field, he told Madden that Villapiano was acting "goofy."
"When we were in our huddle down there near the goal-line, he was saying 'Now we got 'em where we want 'em.'"
So John walked over to Phil was sitting on the bench.
"You all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"The guys told me you were saying, 'Now we got 'em where we want 'em.'"
"We did have 'em where we want 'em."
"We did? On our 3?"
"Yeah, down there, they couldn't throw any deep passes, they weren't going to run any sweeps or any reverse, they were just going to run up the middle. I got in there, the ball popped loose, and we got it. We had 'em right where we wanted 'em."
"Yeah, you're right," said Madden. "We did have 'em right where we want­ed 'em."
Rowe: "Monte Johnson called a slant by the line, and it was a great call. That set the tone for the entire game."
Vikings Director of Player Personnel Jerry Reichow recalled: "That was a major, major play. It killed us. It just took the steam out of us. All four of those games we had a major fumble. Every doggone one. They turned games around."
Just trying to gain some room to punt, Stabler handed to Banaszak twice for a total of 3y. After a timeout to care for injured TE Warren Bankston, the Raiders got much more than they anticipated when Davis knifed through LT thanks to great blocks by Banaszak, Casper, Shell, and Buehler, cut to the outside, and rambled 35y before Krause corraled him at the 41. The play, called 17 Bob Trey-0, had worked just as it had been drawn up.
Years later, Madden laughed as he recalled: "Bob Trey-O. That play there was a lot bigger play than we expected. To be honest with you, we were backed up, and we were just trying to get out of there, get away from the goal line to give Guy some room for comfort. ... But that whole series was a big turning point."
Krause
, slowing down at age 34, played so deep that "We couldn't find him in the film," said Buddy Ryan, the Vikings D-line coach. "He played 15y deep. That's why we were able to run the weak side so well," said Oakland assistant Flores. "Cripes, you'd run 10y before he'd show up." Krause would be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the basis of his 81 career interceptions.
van Eeghen
: "The slow start wasn't necessarily upsetting, but the blocked punt had been major for all of us, and now so quickly our anxieties were laid to rest with the fumble and the run off the goal line.... Isn't it ironic? Somebody blocks our punt and it turns the game around for us."
Paul Krause: "We score early and it's a different ball game. It was early in the game, I know. You still have to play the remaining game. But when we didn't score, it changed the whole complexion."
Alan Page: "They were in a formation where they ran the same play every time, and we knew it. Or at least we should have known it. I can remember coming out of the huddle, thinking, 'We're going to stop this one dead.' After that, the air went out."
Out of the shadow of his goalposts, Stabler threw three straight passes. The first one went to Garrett coming out of the backfield over the middle for 11y and ano­ther first down. Then he threw long to Biletnikoff down the left sideline, but the ball hung and was almost intercepted by one of the two defenders. But if a long pass didn't work, an intermediate range throw should. So on the next snap, "The Ghost," TE Casper, raced past Hilgenberg to the left sideline to take the pass, then cut back to the Vikings 23. Stabler now called three straight runs off the left side - van Eeghen 5, Davis 4, and Banaszak 6 - to gain another first down. END OF FIRST QUARTER: RAIDERS 0 VIKINGS 0
The Raiders gained 172y in Q1 to just 25 for Minnesota.

Quarter 2

From the 8, Banaszak gained just 1 off LT before Stabler tried to loop the ball to Casper in the back of the EZ. The pass sailed too high, and Dave couldn't come down with it inbounds. On the next snap, Eller put a good rush on Stabler, who again tried in vain to hit Casper. So Mann booted a 24y FG. Raiders 3 Vikings 0 (14:12)
van Eeghen: "It was very important to score first. We felt that even if we weren't dominating them, we were playing very well and hadn't had any points to show for it. So to get three on the board was nice."
Madden yelled at Stabler when Ken joined him on the sideline. "The offense came off, and I was really pissed," recalled John. "My thought process was imme­diate: 'Gotta get seven ... Don't want too many threes.' So Stabler put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'John, don't worry. There's plenty more where that came from.' He was like a little kid. It kind of calmed me down. I thought, 'We are moving the ball, and he is right, and there is plenty more where that came from.'"
Guy kicked off to Willis, who returned from the 8 to the 18. Hoping that this Q2 would be their best of the game as it had been for the regular season, Tark rolled right and threw too high to White on the right sideline. Then Foreman took a draw play handup and shot up the middle for 6. On 3rd-and-4, Fran went back to pass but handed to Chuck on a delay but the maneuver didn't fool the Raiders. LDE John Matuszak stuffed the runner for no gain. Clabo's punt went only 32y before being downed at the Oakland 36.
Tatum: "The Viking offense started to look like a ballet with a one-two-three-kick routine."

Stabler well protected.
With Bobby Bryant respecting Cliff Branch's speed by laying off of him, Stabler stepped back and fired left to Branch who gained 8 before Bryant made the tackle. Needing only 2 for the first down, van Eeghen gained 3. Stabler copied Minnesota's reverse, handing to Davis who ran around the right side for 6. Branch caught a quick pass in the middle, but MLB Jeff Siemon downed him after a gain of only 2. With the Vikings massed at the line on 3rd-and-2, Stabler hit Casper, who rumbled 19y to the 26 before Siemon made his fourth tackle in the last five plays.
Stabler: "The Vikings' pass defense was rated best in the NFL, having given up only eight touchdowns all season and an average of just 4.3 yards per comple­tion. But it didn't look that tough to me. The secondary played all zone defense, and that was my game. My line gave me the time to read and slice up zones."
Branch: "We knew the Vikings weren't going to let me beat them deep. Fred and Dave just had a phenomenal game. They got man-to-man coverage when I got the double coverage."
Garrett cut off LT behind a pulling Upshaw and wiggled and squirmed through tacklers for another 1st down on the 13. Then Carl gained 4 behind Dalby's block. Staying with the hot hand, Kenny gave the ball to Garrett again, around RE to the 6. On 3rd-and-2, Stabler took the snap, hustled back, and hit Biletnikoff on slant-in to the right. Fred leapt and caught the ball just inside the goal line as Nate Wright knocked him out of bounds on the 1. With the defense digging in for a run, Stabler faked a handoff to Garrett, then threw to Casper, who lined up at LE and sneaked out to the left for a wide open reception. It was Ken's fifth completion in five attempts on the drive. Mann added the PAT. Raiders 10 Vikings 0 (7:10)
Bud Grant said afterward that Biletnikoff's catch at the one may have been the critical play of the game. "You've got to make those plays in a game like this. They did, we didn't."
van Eeghen
: "Cliff, our biggest deep threat, was a decoy on his long routes be­cause we were trying to establish ball control and Kenny wasn't throwing much downfield. But Cliff caught a few short passes, including a couple on that drive. Of courser, Freddy was Freddy. He had been quiet, but then when we needed him on a thrid down from inside the 10, he made a great catch and did some fancy footwork before going out of bounds to set up a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line."
Hilgenberg remembered looking over at the Raiders' bench after the blocked punt. "You could almost see the fear in their eyes. But they made it a ten-point turnaround. Just as they had gone from a real low to a real high, we knew we had lost a tremendous opportunity. The momentum swing was so great, I don't think we ever came back from that."

Dave Dalby blocks for Stabler.
Willis returned Guy's kickoff 20y to the 25. Foreman ran over the right size twice, gaining 7, then 6. The second carry resulted in a fumble that Sammy White recov­ered for Minnesota. But the play was nullified by a holding penalty against RT Ron Yary. Playing 2nd-and-13, Tarkenton scrambled around to his left and threw too low to White coming back for the ball. Tark then faded straight back and, with time to throw, fired down the left sideline to a racing Rashad, who stretched but lost the ball off his fingertips. Clabo punted to Colzie on his 10. A meandering return put the ball on the 35.

Amad Rashad loses long pass off his fingertips.
Three straight runs - Davis 5y up the middle, van Eeghen 3 off LT and 9 through the center made it 1st-and-10 on the 18. That set up a pass, Stabler throwing low to Biletnikoff running a post pattern from the right. Fred caught the ball just off the ground as he slid down at the 1. This time Stabler did call for a run, fooling the Vikings by sending "gritty goal line runner" Banaszak through RT for the TD. Mann shanked the EP to the right. Raiders 16 Vikings 0 (3:33)

Biletnikoff makes sliding catch at the 1.


Banaszak scores Oakland's second TD.
van Eeghen: "The passing game started working because Minnesota was having such trouble stopping our running game. ... Minnesota's defense had four men on the line and three LBs and was very predictable. If we put our TE, Casper, to the right, they they had to honor that because he was so dangerous. So that became their strong side and we'd then go back and run to the left, their weak side."
Mark was upset when Madden sent in Banaszak to replace him near the goal line. "When John took me out, he said to me, 'Mark, listen, I want you to know. Pete's winding down. He's almost done. He's been with me for a while. You'll get another shot. I want Pete to have a touchdown.' I said, 'I'm with you.' It was personal with John, and I more than understood it."
White took the kick on the 6 and ran to the 25. Desperately needing a score befor halftime, Tarkenton got the ball in the hands of his best player. First, he threw to Foreman in the left flat for 5, then handed to Chuck twice for 3 and 7, Villapiano making both tackles. Tark scrambled right and tossed to Foreman for 5. But the Raiders were guilty of holding to nullify the play and make it 1st-and-10 at the 45. Fran threw three more passes, to Rashad for 7 - his first completion to a WR - and two incompletions to White, one down the middle and a long one down the left sideline. Clabo's punt was downed on the 6 with 1:42 on the clock.
Force a three-and-out while using your remaining timeouts, and the Vikings might have another shot at scoring before intermission. van Eeghen burst up the middle for 11 but had less success on his next two carries - 2y and no gain. The Vikings called a timeout with less than 30 seconds left. Not chancing a pass with so little time left, Stabler handed to Davis for 3 around LE before Minnesota used its final timeout. Guy punted 41y to Willis who tried to get around the coverage but gain­ed zero. To make matters worse, a clipping penalty put the ball on the 22. The half ended with Tarkenton connecting with Foreman on a crossing route for 26y to at least pad the halftime stats.
END OF FIRST HALF: RAIDERS 16 VIKINGS 0
The Vikings had not scored a single point in the first half of their four Super Bowl games, being outscored 51-0 in the first thirty minutes.
The Raiders controlled the ball for 21:30 of the first half, made 16 first downs to Minnesota's 4, and outgained the Vikings 288-86.
Shell: "I felt at halftime we had total control of the football game. But we warned each other during halftime that we're playing a great team. They're not going to give up."
van Eeghen
: "The offense was playing well and the defense was shutting out a strong Vikings offense. The defense harassed their star RB Chuck Foreman, with Tatum picking him up across the line, and he didn't have a big game as either a runner or receiver. And Skip Thomas and the safeties took their best receiver, Sammy White, completely out of the game. White didn't make a catch in the entire first half. So Fran Tarkenton didn't have anybody he could go to on the ground or through the air, which obviously makes it tough on a QB."

Super Bowl XI halftime show
Walt Disney Productions produced the halftime show, which had a theme of "peace, joy, and love." Disney used the show to introduce the members of its newly revived Mickey Mouse Club as Mickey Mouse-shaped balloons soared to the skies and vocalists sang the "Mickey Mouse Club March."
The crowd played a major role in the show. As the Los Angeles All-City Marching Band played "It's a Small World," the fans held up colored placards distributed to them during the first half while dancers on the field unfurled colored streamers around a giant globe.

 


Carl Garrett


Ken Stabler fires downfield.


Matt Blair


Casper cruises.

Clarence Davis on the loose.


Jeff Siemon


Fred McNeil


Errol Mann


Dick Romanski


Chuck Foreman


Monte Johnson


Tarkenton tries to pass over Willie Hall.


Neil Clabo


Neal Colzi


Charles Philyaw


Phil Villapiano


Ron Yary


Stu Voight


Sutherland tries to get to Stabler.


Floyd Rice tackles Gerald Willis on kickoff return.


Otis Sistrunk rushes Tarkenton.


John Matuszak


Banaszak runs in Q1.


Carl Garrett runs in Q2.


Garrett jumps over Alan Page.


Otis Sistrunk looms over Tark.


Stabler back to pass