Oakland Raiders Vault: The “Sea of Hands” Game, 1974
Dec 27, 2013; Alameda, CA, USA; General view of an Oakland Raiders helmet at press conference at Oakland Raiders Practice Facility. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The 0-3 Raiders face off with the 1-2 Dolphins in London this Sunday is a meeting between two teams looking to turn their fortunes around. The Raiders, obviously, are trying to win their first game since November 17th of last year, while the Dolphins are looking to even their season up and outperform last years’ 8-8 mark. Neither franchise has been particularly successful in 21st century: obviously the Raiders haven’t seen the postseason since the Super Bowl loss after the 2002 season; the Dolphins have just one playoff appearance in that time.
This was not the case when the two teams met in the Divisional round of the AFC Playoffs in December of 1974. Back then, these were two of pro football’s premier franchises going head to head for the right to advance, and it ended with one of the most exciting finishes in NFL history.
Background
The Miami Dolphins had entered the American Football League as an expansion franchise and posted four consecutive losing seasons in their first four years of existence. In 1970, their first year in the NFL, the Dolphins had hired youthful former Colts coach Don Shula, who helped the team improve immediately from a 3-10-1 record in 1969 to a 10-4 record and a playoff appearance in 1970, where they lost to the Raiders in the Divisional round. They would go on to become the first dynastic team of the post-merger era. In 1971 they finished 10-3-1 and won the AFC only to lose in the Super Bowl to the Dallas Cowboys. Then in 1972 the Miami Dolphins recorded the only true perfect season in NFL history: they won all 14 regular season contests, the beat the Browns and Steelers to advance again to the Super Bowl, where they defeated the Washington Redskins, 14-7. No team has since managed to accomplish this, and only one has even come close. The 1973 Dolphins only slipped slightly from their 1972 mark, going 12-2 in the regular season and defeating the Raiders in the AFC Championship to advance to Super Bowl VIII, handily defeating the Minnesota Vikings 24-7. The Dolphins, by the time they reached the 1974 playoffs, were the kings of the NFL: they were 57-12-1 in regular season play over the last five seasons, had won three straight AFC titles and two straight Super Bowls with a playoff record of 8-2 over that five year stretch. The 1974 Dolphins, like many championship teams of the era, still had most of their perfect 1972 team together and were led on offense by future Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese, a quarterback who epitomized the term “game manager,” and powerful mustachioed fullback Larry Csonka, who had led the team in rushing every year since 1970. The team’s defense had earned the collective nickname the “no-name defense” and was led by five time Pro Bowl (and one-time Super Bowl MVP) safety Jake Scott – who was also a dangerous punt returner – and middle linebacker Nick Buoniconti, who had been an AFL All-Star six times (five with the Patriots) and an NFL Pro Bowler twice. The Dolphins were not as dangerous offensively in 1974 as they had been in previous years, due in large part to injuries to running back Mercury Morris (who was also the Dolphins’ primary kickoff returner) and future Hall of Fame wide receiver Paul Warfield, but still managed to finish 3rd in the NFL in scoring offense and 11th in total offense. The Miami D was still as capable as ever, finishing eighth in the league in total defense and sixth in the league in scoring defense, recording 33 takeaways, including 8 interceptions by Jake Scott.
More from Las Vegas Raiders News
- Raiders news: Free agent TE Foster Moreau diagnosed with cancer
- Las Vegas Raiders: 2023 NFL Draft will make-or-break David Ziegler Era
- Raiders news: Jimmy Garoppolo offered a different kind of deal
- Raiders 2023 NFL Draft: Trading down for an elite DT on Day 1
- Raiders 2023 NFL Draft: Will David Ziegler trade his top-2 picks again?
The Raiders by 1974 had been one of the most continuously successful franchises in pro football, having not had a losing season since 1964 and appearing in the playoffs in six of the previous seven seasons. Their AFL success had translated to the NFL, but they had not been able to get over the hump, having only appeared in one Super Bowl (SBII) and losing it badly to the Lombardi Packers. They had lost two AFL Championship games and two AFC Championship games in that time, as well as a heartbreaking loss in the 1972 Divisional round against the Steelers after a blown call on a freak tipped-ball pass play. Immaculate something. Their 1973 Raiders season had ended in the AFC Championship game with a loss to the Miami Dolphins, and the Raiders were out for revenge. The 1974 Raiders were led by quarterback Ken “The Snake” Stabler, who had been MVP of the league that year, throwing 26 touchdowns to only 12 interceptions as the Raiders finished their year with the 2nd ranked total offense and 1st ranked scoring offense on the way to a 12-2 record. Raider receiver Cliff Branch had the most productive season of his career in 1974, catching sixty passes for almost 1100 yards and a league-leading 13 touchdowns. Future Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff had added another 42 receptions and 7 TD’s and a rookie TE named Dave Casper has caught four passes all year…three of them for TD’s. On the ground, the Raider attack was led by running backs Marv Hubbard (865 yards, 4 TDs), Clarence Davis (554 yards, 2 TDs), and short-game specialist Pete Banaszak (272 yards, 5 TDs). Hubbard and Davis had each contributed eleven catches to the Raider passing offense in 1974, but backs being pass-catchers was a rarity in the NFL at the time, and Davis in particular was known as a player who “couldn’t catch a cold.” The Raider defense in 1974 was of course the “criminal element” defense of the time, led by the infamous “Soul Patrol” secondary of George Atkinson, Jack Tatum, Skip Thomas and Willie Brown, who had combined for 15 interceptions on the year. The Raider defense was vicious, intimidating, and opportunistic: they had recorded 41 takeaways in the 1974 regular season. The Raiders’ 12-2 mark was their best regular season since their 1967 Super Bowl run out of the AFL, and they were gunning for their long-awaited first Super Bowl championship under head coach John Madden.
The 1974 Divisional playoff would pit the reigning champ and team to beat in the NFL against the NFL’s bad boys, a team that had finished just short too many times in the past and was looking to make things right after having their season ended by the champs the year prior. The game would not disappoint.
The Game
In the era before heavy team merchandising and an emphasis on wearing team apparel to games, the Raiders and their local radio broadcast partner promoted the game as what we would now call a “blackout,” not in the TV sense but in the sense that the fans were exhorted to wear all black to the stadium. Nearly 53,000 fans were in attendance, and many of them answered the call to wear black, giving the stadium crowd a certain aesthetic. That crowd would be stunned nearly silent early on as Dolphins rookie Nat Moore took the opening kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown, giving the Dolphins a very early 7-0 advantage. The two teams would then trade scoreless possessions for the remainder of the quarter, the Dolphins holding the 7-0 lead as the second period began.
On their second possession of the second quarter, the Raiders finally got something going on offense. After starting the drive going 33 yards on 4 plays – including a 10 yard run by Clarence Davis – Stabler found running back Charlie Smith open deep for a 31 yard touchdown pass, tying the score at 7-7. The Dolphins responded with a field goal drive of their own, keeping it on the ground in the soggy, damp Oakland conditions. The run-focused drive, capped by the field goal, ate a big chunk of clock and the Dolphins led at halftime, 10-7.
Early in the 3rd quarter, Stabler hit Biletnikoff on a deep 40-yard strike along the right sideline of the end zone, only to have it ruled out-of-bounds. Not to be denied, Stabler came back to the same play from 13 yards out a few plays later, and this time Biletnikoff made an unbelievable one-handed catch on the pass with a Dolphins defender all over him, getting his feet down just in time. On a magnificent catch by the Hall of Famer, the Raiders had taken a 14-10 lead over the Dolphins midway through the third quarter. The Dolphins responded with two scoring drives of their own. The first, set up by a huge 29-yard pass interference penalty, ended in a 16-yard Griese to Warfield TD strike, putting the Dolphins ahead 16-14 after Bubba Smith blocked a Garo Yepremian extra point attempt. The Dolphins put together another drive to get a field goal early in the fourth quarter, pushing their advantage to 19-14 as the clock began to tick down.
Skip to 6:33 to see Biletnikoff’s amazing TD grab:
With under five minutes to play, the Raiders – who had struggled to move the ball since the Biletnikoff TD – started at their own 17 yard line. After an 11-yard out to Biletnikoff moved them to the 28, Madden and Stabler unleashed the vaunted Raider vertical game: Stabler heaved a long bomb to a streaking Cliff Branch, who had to stop and come back to the underthrown pass. As he fell to the ground with the ball, the Miami defenders ran past him, and he was able to jump quickly to his feet and turn on his sprinter speed to beat everyone to the goal line. A George Blanda extra point gave the Raiders a 21-19 lead with 4:37 left on the clock.
Skip to 0:13 to see Branch’s 72 yard catch and run:
The Dolphins came right back, however. After the Dolphins drove the ball down to the Raider 23-yard line in a little more than two minutes, running back Benny Malone took a pitch to the outside, made four Raiders miss, and scored a go-ahead touchdown with just over two minutes to play. The Dolphins were now up 26-21 and time was running out for Ken Stabler and the Raiders. The issue was very much in doubt. After a good return on the ensuing kickoff, Stabler and the offense got started at their 32 yard line, needing to go 68 yards in exactly two minutes.
Knowing the Dolphins would be looking for the vertical game, the Raider offense started off conservative: a six yard pass to tight end Bob Moore followed by a short run. Then Stabler went back to his go-to man: a deep hook to Biletnikoff gave them 18 yards and a first down, followed by the Raiders first time out of the half. Coming out of the timeout, Stabler hit Biletnikoff again on a deep crossing pattern for another 20 yards over the middle, then lined up with the clock winding down to one minute and hit Branch on a quick out for four yards to kill the clock as Branch headed out of bounds with 53 second remaining. On the 2nd down play, Stabler hit backup WR Frank Pitts over the middle, who made a great recovery on a bobbled catch on the Miami 14-yard line to bring up 3rd and 1. The Raiders used their second time out with 41 seconds to go in the game. On 3rd and 1, the Raiders handed to Clarence Davis, who ran behind a great Marv Hubbard block and future hall of famers Jim Otto, Art Shell and Gene Upshaw on the left side of the line to pick up six yards and give the Raiders 1st and Goal from the 8. Stabler called the final timeout with 35 seconds remaining on the clock with their season on the line.
Stabler snapped the ball and dropped back looking for Biletnikoff, who was well covered. Stabler hesitated in the pocket, giving Dolphins end Vern Den Herder enough time to get around right tackle and force Stabler to roll toward his left and up in the pocket. Den Herder got his arms around Stabler’s legs and began pulling him to the ground as Stabler launched a wobbly pass at Clarence Davis, who was running toward the front of the end zone to mirror Stabler and was surrounded by no fewer than three Dolphins defenders. In one of the most memorable plays in Raider and NFL history, Clarence Davis, a player who had a reputation for “hands of stone,” caught Stabler’s fourth TD pass of the game in a “Sea of Hands” and put the Raiders ahead with 24 seconds left in the game, creating a wild scene as the Oakland crowd erupted. A Phil Villapiano interception of a Bob Griese pass two plays later would seal the victory, and the crowd stormed the field as the clock ran out, much to the ire of Dolphins players like Manny Fernandez.
Stabler had played a game for the ages: 20-30 for 293 yards and 4 TDs. His favorite target, Fred Biletnikoff, finished with eight catches for 122 yards and a touchdown; Cliff Branch added another 84 yards on just three receptions to go with his touchdown. Stabler had been perfect on the final Raider drive, completing all 6 of his passes. Clarence Davis, the hero of the final play, had led the Raiders in rushing with 59 yards on 12 carries, including the key six-yard run that had given the Raiders 1st and goal.The Raider defense had surrendered over 200 yards rushing to the Miami offense, including 114 yards to Larry Csonka and another 83 to Benny Malone, but had only surrendered the two touchdowns and had held the Dolphins to 81 net passing yards. The Dolphins, worried about the physical and fast Raider secondary and the damp conditions, had not thrown the ball aggressively: Griese had attempted 14 passes all game, and completed only 7.
The Aftermath
The Dolphins would miss the playoffs in 1975, 1976 and 1977 but would make seven playoff appearances between 1978 and 1985, including two more AFC Championships. They lost both Super Bowls. They would also get to the playoffs nine times between 1990 and 2001, Don Shula would retire after the 1995 season as the winningest coach in NFL history – his record of 328 regular season wins as a head coach still stands today. Larry Csonka would leave the Dolphins after the 1974 season, but would retire as a Dolphin in 1979. Jake Scott and Nick Buoniconti both left after the 1976 season. Bob Griese would end his career in Miami after the 1980 season. The loss in the “Sea of Hands” game was the end of the Dolphins mini-dynasty, and that year would mark the beginning of another.
Unfortunately, that dynasty would not be the Raiders, either. The Raiders would fall to the Pittsburgh Steelers the following week in the AFC Championship game in front of their home crowd, giving up three fourth quarter touchdowns to Pittsburgh to lose 24-13 after having a 10-3 lead at the end of the third period. The Steelers would go on to win the Super Bowl that year. In 1975, the Raiders would drop the AFC Championship to the Steelers again. Finally, the great Raiders of the 70’s got the title they deserved in 1976, beating the Vikings 32-14 in Super Bowl XI. The Raiders, still with Cliff Branch and Gene Upshaw but without most of the names from the 1970’s teams, would go on to win two more Super Bowls in the early 1980’s under Tom Flores. Pittsburgh would ultimately establish themselves as the “team of the 70’s” with four Super Bowl victories in that decade.
Live Feed
FanSided
This Sunday, the struggling Raiders and Dolphins meet for the fourth time in five seasons. The Dolphins have won the last four meetings, a streak dating back to 2008. The last meeting was a forgettable 34-14 blowout by Miami that wasn’t really as close as the score suggests. The two teams, so different in 1974, are very similar now nearly 40 years later. Both have a young quarterback that they think will become their franchise guy for the forseeable future, both are led by head coaches whose jobs are on the line. Both teams have mix of young talent and proven vets on the team, though the Raiders roster is a bit more seasoned. Both teams need a victory to avoid falling further into early season holes, but especially the 0-3 Raiders. They will represent the NFL brand internationally in London, but lets hope we don’t need a last-ditch pass to a brick-handed running back to seal this one.