The Miracles Of George Blanda :: Raiders History

In 1970, the onfield exploits of George Blanda captured the hearts and immaginations of those young and old.

Whether they were Raiders fans or even football fans was of no importance. The miracles of George Blanda in 1970 captivated the entire nation.

Miracle #1 occoured against the Pittsburgh Steelers on October 25, 1970 in the Oakland Coliseum

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AN OLD SURPRISE FOR STEELERS

By Bob Valli

Tribune Sports Writer

Daryle Lamonica loused up the Pittsburgh Steelers, he didn’t play.

“We spent a week preparing for Lamonica and we saw him for less than a quarter,” moaned middle linebacker Chuck Allen after the Steelers had taken a 31-14 pasting from the Oakland Raiders yesterday.

George Blanda is the guy who did in the Pittsburgh defense. The Steelers had allowed a single game high of 19 points until yesterday.

The 43-year-old veteran was throwing touchdown passes when most of the Pittsburgh players, particularly those in the secondary, still were on a liquid diet. He flipped three more yesterday to turn a 7-7 game into a rout.

“Blanda defiantly threw us off,” added Allen, Pittsburgh’s most experienced and a veteran of AFL football. “He’s been around long enough (21 years) to know what to do and we just didn’t play our normal game on defense.”

Allen also said he mixed up the secondary coverage, switching from zones to man-to-man.

“But we got burned a couple of times on blitzes, Blanda did it to us,” he conceded.

Safety Ocie Austin, from Utah State via Berkeley, agreed his side got a new look from the Old Man.

“We didn’t see any film footage of Blanda,” he explained. “And we young guys didn’t know what to expect from him. He read us well and got the ball to the open man. I think we might have had a better game against Lamonica. At least, we know his tendencies.”

Austin, however, claimed Blanda’s first touchdown pass, a 44-yarder to Warren Wells was illegal.

“Wells shoved off on our corner, Mel Blount. It was offensive pass interference. Blount was playing the interception and Wells pushed him out of the way,” he said.

The beef was legitimate. Wells admitted he used his hands on Blount.

“Yep, I nudged him a little,” said Wells. “I was hoping the officials didn’t see it.”
Mean Joe Greene, a menace to the Raiders in a September exhibition in Oakland, criticized himself and credited Blanda for Pittsburgh’s poor showing.

“I had a bad game but the Raiders were a much better team than the one we played six weeks ago. Blanda’s a smart quarterback. He gets rid of the ball real quick and he knows what to call. He picked us apart.”

The Steelers also complained that penalties hurt them. They were assessed 168 yards and once faced a fourth-and-64 play at their own nine-yard line. They also had a touchdown nullified by an illegal procedure call.

But Oakland was also penalized and also had a six-pointer called back because of holding.

Coach Chuck Noll, however, was more concerned with the yards marked off against his side.

“Those penalties killed us,” he said. “We lost momentum when our touchdown was called back. After that, the Raiders got ahead and maintained ball possession.”

Terry Bradshaw, who threw to Dennis Hughes for one score and had a 67-yarder to John Fuqua cancelled out, had hoped to beat Oakland with a running game.

“We wanted to run and we did run early in the game,” said the rookie quarterback. “But after we fell behind, our game plan got away from us and we had to switch to passing. I threw four interceptions what do you say? It was very poor reading on my part.”

Up next for Oakland was the hated Kansas City Chiefs. While the attention was given to the brawl ignited by Ben Davidson's hit on Len Dawson while he lay on the ground defenseless. George Blanda's second miracle ensured the Oakland Raiders would maintain an AFC Western Division unbeaten streak would reach its sixteenth game.

WHEN TWO WRONGS RIGHT FOR RAIDERS

By George Ross
Tribune Sports Editor

Remember you old man’s woodshed admonition: “Two wrongs don’t make a right”?

Hank Stram is yelling all over Kansas City today “The hell they don’t” after two wrongs made things right for the undeserving Oakland Raiders.

From Hank’s standpoint the crooks escaped punishment and the good guys took the rap.

Hadn’t his quarterback made the call of the day and made the play of the day, bootlegging the football for 19 sweet yards on third down to retain ball control on Oakland’s 29 with a minute to play and a 17-14 lead?

Then came the wrong-doing.

1. Ben Davidson, roaring in pursuit, buried his hat in Len Dawson’s back a little bit late, good for a 15-yard penalty which would nail the coffin lid on the Raiders.

2. But brave and foolish Otis Taylor jumped Big Ben in swift retribution and launched a glorious free-for-all seen nationwide in living color. Mr. Otis Regrets, but there’s a penalty for fighting, too, and the calls offset each other.

The rest is a nightmare to hank, who blew his cool, chased the officials to their cubicle, and kicked on the door demanding an explanation he claims he never got after the Raiders came back for a lovely field goal and a 17-17 tie which projected them into a slim half game lead of the Western Division.

Hank was slumped in unbelievable frustration when the questions –quiet and tentative-came his way.

“What was the call? I still don’t know. Nobody would explain it. But Otis was thrown out of the ball game and the play was nullified,” he said.

“Yes I went over to the officials off the field and tried to find out what happened,” he said. “No I didn’t find out.”

Referee Bob Finley, who did issue a post game report on the two penalties in what could be called a “continuing action foul,” drew some further Stram fire.

“Remember the time we got beat by Boston?” he asked the Kansas City people in his cubicle. “There were five people moving on that play and he didn’t see it. The same official. He didn’t see anybody move on that field goal. Five people moved and he didn’t see it.

He said, “I have no idea” when someone asked if an appeal was possible.

Dawson, who wasn’t hurt on the play and didn’t seem particularly incensed about it, said “I always anticipate it and try to protect myself,” when running with the football.

It’s a point upon which Davidson later commented on the plane trip home.

“It wasn’t a case of the quarterback being in the backfield looking around and getting hit, he was a ball-carrier on a bootleg. He was out there to be tackled. I actually thought he hadn’t been touched down. No one was on him and he continued to go forward and I didn’t hear a whistle,” Ben said.

“Nobody ever told me you’re just supposed to tag a guy in that situation,” he added. “It worked out good. I’ll help my team any way I can, and if that’s bad for my reputation, that’s part of football.

Otis Taylor, who’d been a hero of the contest in setting up Kansas City’s first touchdown with a great 56-yard catch to the Oakland four, the a go-ahead score on a 13-yarder with just 5:14 left in the game, hadn’t foreseen the turnaround consequences of piling into Davidson.

“It really wasn’t a fight, from my standpoint,” he said. “All I’m doing is protecting my quarterback, protecting somebody who’s got to lead us seven-eight more games.”

“I was right there beside him and I saw Davidson hit him with a dirty shot. It’s a shame. He was down and gets the helmet right in the middle of the back,” he continued.

It could have been all over for him with just that one lick.

“So I went for him (Davidson), just grabbed him to hold him down, and I asked him why he would do something like that.”

“Then everybody came out on the field and started a big rhubarb and they put me out of the game. Why they put me out? Everything is over,” he lamented.

Well, it wasn’t, quite.

There were those 46 few seconds remaining to Daryle Lamonica to start something from his own 20, and the Raider QB went to work.

Lamonica, playing with a back he’s like to have traded for Dawson’s, passed five times, completing four and gained 39 yards, battling the clock right down to the last eight ticks, from which the Raiders asked their grand old toe to put them in first place.

Let Morris Stroud, the 6’9” Kansas City end, describe George Blanda’s clutch kick from his point of view as he leaped in front of the cross bar 48 yards away from where Blanda’s toe smacked into it:

“I got close to it. I figure my hand was six inches above the cross bar as it went over, and the ball was out of reach a foot. It was a perfect field goal,” he said.

By the time professional football's grand old man had worked his third miracle it wasn't just a sports blurb, it was front page news!

While he won the game with the field goal pictured above, had he not movd the squad into position from his role under center, Cleveland would have enjoyed a nice flight back to Northern Ohio as the winner. Instead George Blanda, according to Radio announcer Bill King had been elected "King of the World" and Cleveland went home a 23-20 loser.

BLANDA THE QUARTERBACK

By Blaine Newnham
Tribune Sports Writer

”Deep down, I think he likes to be known as George the quarterback,” said Dave Grayson, “he’s a quarterback No. 1 and a place kicker No. 2.”

Ironically, the 52-yard field goal that George Blanda kicked to fold up Cleveland, 23-20, Sunday diminished the importance and brilliance of the 69-yard drive he engineered to tie the game.

It should not be overlooked, nor should the games during his career at Oakland with his arm, not his foot.

A 43-year old place kicker is a novelty, but a 43-year old quarterback is a phenomenon unequalled in American sport.

“I’ve felt this year he looks stronger throwing the ball than in the four seasons he’s been with the raiders,” said his coach, 34-year old John Madden, who joined the Raiders the same year as Blanda.

“As a quarterback, he has the number one thing I look for. He has confidence in himself and the team has confidence in him. Nobody says ‘Oh, my god, we’re dead when Daryle gets hurt. They know George can do it,” Madden continued.

In the last two and one-half seasons with the Raiders, he has thrown 12 touchdown passes in 50 completions, or a touchdown in every four passes he completes.

He started once, back in 1968 against Denver when Lamonica was hurt, and completed 14 of 26 passes four 295 yards and four touchdowns.

Already this season, Blanda has had to quarterback the club in three different games and the Raiders have scored five times under his direction.

“I was watching films of our game against Denver last night,” explained Madden. Remember when Daryle was hurt throwing the 51-yard pass to Freddie (Biletnikoff). George came in, handed the ball to Charlie Smith and we scored from the 11. Just like that.”

Besides the Denver game, Blanda’s best day was perhaps in the 1969 exhibition game against the 49ers when he came in to get 22 points in seven minutes as the Raiders rallied to win, 42-28. He threw three touchdowns and a two-point conversion.

“He’s throwing the ball now as well as he did 10 years ago,” said Grayson, the league’s premier free safety who played against George for five years when Blanda set AFL records at Houston.

Now Grayson must face the old master in practice, which is just fine with Grayson.

“He’s tough to beat,” Grayson continued. “That experience really pays off. He calls damn good plays, exploiting any weakness you might have. He works, picks and then-wham-he lets you have it. Your always off balance.”

Grayson pondered Blanda’s success for a moment and then went on.

“I’ve seen him throw a pass into the end zone that one time went over the goal posts it was so high and the next time he threw it on a line, hitting the guy right between the numbers.

“With some quarterbacks, you can anticipate the arc of the pass which allows you to get to the defender. George won’t allow you to outguess him. Some quarterbacks get in a groove but George can sense when he’s getting in a groove and get himself out of it.”

So far this season, Blanda has completed 14 of 24 passes for 250 yards and four touchdowns. Not bad for a guy who was playing pro ball when the helmets were leather.

Typical of his contribution, George was called on against Denver last year in the Coliseum when Lamonica was hurt with 12 seconds left in the first half. The ball was on the 11-yard line and the Raiders led 14-7.

Blanda threw for a score to Charlie Smith and Oakland blew open a tight game and never looked back.

What makes George keep going?

“George is highly competitive,” continued Grayson. “It makes no difference whether he’s playing cards, golf, or football, he doesn’t like to lose. I think his desire to win keeps him going.”

Blanda is no physical culturist. He enjoys most of the pleasure accorded a man his age although he keeping physically fit in the off-season playing golf and handball.

“He’s mentally ready to play and that’s 99% of it,” said Grayson.

George is always mentally involved in the game, whether he’s playing or not,” said linebacker Duane Benson. “On the sidelines he watches the defense and always knows what’s going on.”

Benson too, attributes Blanda’s longevity to his intense competitive spirit.
He’s a gambler that always wins, that’s the way I see it,” said Benson. “I remember him getting into a card game with Bill Laskey on a trip to New York. Laskey had 43 cents and Blanda bet him $5 he could win it from him it took the entire five-hour trip but he did.”

It appears George will once again draw the reserve role for Sunday’s game in Denver. Lamonica’s bruised shoulder was better last night and he is expected to practice later this week.

But if Daryle can’t make it, George will be ready to take over. Bet on it.

ANCIENT SAVIOR’S ONE-LEGGED MIRACLE

By George Ross

Tribune Sports Editor

Time and George Blanda are doing strange things to John Madden, coach of the Oakland Raiders at the tender age of 34.

“This old horsehockey about being the youngest coach in pro football is over now, I guarantee you,” he said after watching his ancient savior work another miracle as time died.

“With George Blanda this is getting to be old hat. People ask ‘Are you surprised?’ and hell, you can’t be surprised any more,” he continued. Then in response to a question about Blanda’s kicking range:

“With Blanda you learn not to think in those terms,” he said. “When it’s fourth down and you’ve got five seconds you got to kick it and you have to believe it’s in his range.”

“And the guy- 43 or 44 or however the hell old he is – is an amazing guy and he doesn’t cease. He comes in there and throws touchdown passes, kicks 50-yard field goals…I don’t know. It’s just what you have to get done,” he continued. “He’ll do it.”

The coach, who wasn’t old enough to play with the big kids when George was being drafted for the pros, had a right to think history was an instant replay, going right down to the wire two weeks in a row with ageless George.

“When I saw that big Jack Gregory jump George and start a shoving match, I was sure of it,” he said. “I could see a guy throw a flag, then a guy jumping on top of our guy, and away we go.”

But, even without a free for all to top it off, the 23-20 win over the stubborn Cleveland Browns was another all-league clutcher.

“If you got heart trouble this is not the place to be,” guard Gene Upshaw said after the ball game. “Stanford appreciates this; they get a lot of practices on cardiac arrests out of this place.”

If so, Blanda must have a pump like an astronaut. He didn’t seem to think the 52-yard field goal was all that much, glad though he was to see it boom over the yellow crossbar.

“I always feel we can make anything we try, he said. “If that’s what it takes next week again, and we’re put in the same position, I just hope the Good Lord is with me and I get as lucky again.”

But George, who looks like a good bet to be good from the 50 the day he turns 50, may feel his winning 52-yarder spoke his own little rebuke to management.

He’s not sure why they were not among the cardiac arrest risks, hardly daring to believe.

“No I don’t kick that long in practice,” he said. “Very seldom do they let me kick beyond the 50. We tried some and we were unfortunate that we didn’t make them so they…well, they just don’t want you to try from back there unless you absolutely have to.

It’s better to punt, and get the field position than to try from back there,” he explained the coaching point of view, “because you can get one blocked a little easier on a long field goal. You usually kick it lower from back there.”

Theories, schmerories, with the game going in the books as another tie-thanks to Ol’ George who’d got them that just a minute and 27 seconds earlier with a TD, his first miracle of the day- George took his best shot and the fans went ape.

They had roared with cheers when he came in early in the fourth quarter when Daryle Lamonica was decked by a pair of big Browns, cheered him lustily as they had greeted Gentle Ben Davidson during pre-game introductions. With the kick they exploded into 54,463 individually-pitched bellows.

The players themselves, old pros and young rookies, swarmed George like so many college kids, and Madden rushed into the swarm of black-jerseyed studs to pound as many backs as he could reach.

Even among the Raiders, George is something special.

“This guy almost embarrasses you, the way he’s out there running the wind sprints with us, yelling all the time, coming in to pull it out,” said captain Jim Otto, a mere kid though he’s a 10-year veteran himself.

How many ways can you say “amazing, simply amazing.”

Blanda was, he said, more confident of this 52-yarder with :07 on the clock than he was last week lined up with :08 left and a 48-yard kick to make.

“In Kansas City I was on the sidelines, really chilly, and I came in cold after having time to think about it,” he said. “But when your in the game you’re concentrating on playing, your warm and your loose. I knew what I had to do and I concentrated on it.

“I didn’t kick it any different than the one in Kansas City…Well, maybe I put a little more rear-end into it,” he said.

Rookie quarterback Kenny Stabler, who held the ball for George in the absence of Lamonica, leaped straight into the air when the long-range shot cleared the bar amply, but he said later it was his second thrill of the day.

“I was impressed even more with what Blanda did before the field goal, maneuvering the team into position to kick it,” he said.

Indeed, with the Cleveland rush holding the advantage knowing George had to on his 69-yard touchdown drive and on his scrambling, banging need to utilize the last 34 seconds to get within field goal range, the grizzle-bearded gent earns the Oscar.

“It’s tough, really very tough, to beat a guy on pass protection play after play when he knows your going to set up and throw the ball,” Upshaw said from a lineman’s standpoint.

There’s no way your going to beat a guy down in and down out every play of every game, but we like to think we can and that’s what we strive for,” he said. It’s tough to be perfect, to protect your quarterback your quarterback then, because those other guys are professionals too.

We got the job done. I figure we won more than they did, we kept them out when we had to,” he said. “We won the game.”

A big game. But Old George deserves the last word even on that:

“I’ve played in many big games and I’ve had many thrills,” said the man who’s in his 21st season of professional football. “But this one’s over with. It’s what you can do tomorrow that’s really important.

“Every game to us is important. We’re planning to win our division and get into the Super Bowl and we’ve got to win every week, regardless if it’s my kick or whoever does what,” he said. “I’m just happy in this one I could contribute something.”

After three miracles in consecutive weeks, the world was waiting for what Blanda would do next

November 15, 1970

BLANDA READY IF DARYLE ISN’T

The Oakland Raiders can save George Blanda a little anxiety and their television rooters a whole lot more today with a routine victory over the Denver Broncos.

Although the Raiders command a half-game lead over Kansas City in the closely-knit American Conference Western Division, they’ve needed Blanda’s last second heroics to stay up there.

And it may be no different today in the rarified atmosphere of Detroit’s Mile High City where last year the Raiders slugged out a hard-fought 24-14 win in a snow storm.

The Raiders were greeted last night by a five-inch layer of snow that dusted downtown Denver and temperatures dropped into the 20’s during the night.

A warming trend was forecast for today’s game and the field was reported in excellent condition, covered since Thursday with a tarp.

Oakland rules a six-point favorite in the game, which will be televised back to the Bay Area at 1 p.m. PST, despite not winning this season away from the friendly Oakland Coliseum. The Raiders’ road record is 0-2-2 compared to a perfect 4-0 at home.

It appeared the raiders will not activate defensive back Willie Brown for the game. He has not played since the first Denver game when he separated his shoulder.

Denver is the AFC’s leading defensive team and are still very much alive in the Western Division, just a game back from Oakland. But they’ve lost three of their last four games and need a win to turn things around.

Blanda may be needed again as a quarterback if Daryle Lamonica can’t withstand the Broncos’ publicized rush which features two ex-Raiders, Richard Jackson and Dave Costa.

Lamonica expressed doubt about his durability after bruising his left shoulder last week against Cleveland.

If called upon, Blanda has a good track record against the Broncos. It was two years ago that Blanda, then 41, started for Lamonica and threw for 295 yards and four touchdown passes.

Last year he fired a touchdown pass at the end of the first half when Lamonica was hurt and gave the Raiders a 21-7 lead from which they never looked back.

The Broncos have not beaten the Raiders since 1962 and show only a tie in 1964 in the last eight seasons on the plus side.

Still, besides leading the league in defense, the Broncos have Floyd Little, the AFC’s leading rusher. Little broke a 54-yarder against Oakland in the Raiders 35-23 victory earlier in the season and later had an 80-yard touchdown run against the 49ers.

In addition, fullback Willis Crenshaw will play against the Raiders this time. He missed the earlier game with an injury.

Today’s game has been a standing-room-only sellout for over a month, the earliest sellout of this kind in Denver history.

As you may have guessed the would would see Blanda's next exhibition of football heroism, at the expense of the visiting Denver Broncos.

From the November 16, 1970 edition of the Oakland Tribune.

COACH LETS GEORGE DO IT

By Blaine Newnham Tribune Sports Writer

“I just had a feeling,” said John Madden. “He’s done it three weeks in a row and I thought he could do it again.”

By now, even the 700 million red Chinese who normally don’t care about such things must know that George Blanda did it again.

There were 1,000 people jamming the long corridor at the Oakland Airport last night who knew. One group hoisted aloft a “Blanda For President” banner and another which stated “George Did It Again.”

What George did this time was move the Raiders 80 yards in the final three minutes of play and threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Fred Biletnikoff to beat the Denver Broncos 24-19, in Mile High Stadium yesterday.

Although Blanda, on cue, entered the game with the Raiders trailing 19-17, Madden had wanted to send him in midway through the fourth period when the Raiders were ahead, 17-12.

But then rookie Alvin Wyatt fumbled a punt on the Oakland 34 and the Broncos moved in for a go ahead touchdown. Enter Blanda, with time nipping at his heels again.

“I thought George might have the hot hand,” continued Madden. “It wasn’t that Daryle wasn’t doing well, it’s just that I thought George might give us a lift.”

Lamonica had thrown two touchdown passes to give the Raiders a 17-6 edge at the end of the third period but he was having trouble with his bruised left shoulder.

“I know he wasn’t 100 percent and that had to have some bearing on my decision,” Madden said. “But mainly, I just had a feeling about George.”

And why not? The 43-year old savior has turned around games against Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Cleveland and Denver on consecutive weekends and had drawn national attention as the standard bearer of the Geritol generation.

So the Raiders are still on top of the Western Division with a 5-2-2 record, a half-game up on Kansas City. They host San Diego Sunday at the Coliseum before heading East for games at Detroit and New York.

“It’s just part of our act,” said Kenny Stabler, the young quarterback standing next Blanda as a horde of reporters pressed him back into his dressing stall.
For Blanda, scoring the winning touchdowns with 2:28 left was hardly heart-stopping. His big field goals of 48 and 52 yards came with just three seconds remaining.

But his drive to glory had one crossroad this time that called for a miracle as big as any he’s worked this season.

Here’s the situation: It’s third down and 12 at the Raiders own 18, with three minutes left in the game. And the blitz is on by one of football’s most vicious band of assassins.

Blanda had just thrown incomplete on a deep pass to Warren Wells so Madden, unhesitantly, sent in Rod Sherman to replace Wells.

Sherman drove Denver defender Cornell Gordon up the field and cut over the middle and Blanda fired a strike that Sherman pulled in for a 27-yard gain. It was a clutch play, without it write it finis.

Blanda dropped back on the next play, stepped on Hewritt Dixon’s foot as the protective cup was forming and then, off balance, under threw a deep pass to Wells.

Wells came back on Gordon, caught the ball and completed a 34-yard gain to set up the winning throw to Biletnikoff.

Blanda explained the play:

“I knew the blitz was on and they would have to cover Warren man on man. There was no other way. They did rush hard and I just had to throw it in Warren’s direction.

“But there are things that could happen. Warren could catch it behind him, there could be an interference call or Warren could come back for it. I figured the odds were pretty good.

Somebody asked Blanda about stumbling over Dixon.

“I honestly don’t remember. I haven’t got time to worry about those things. I set up shorter than Daryle and maybe that’s what caused the confusion. I really don’t care if it wasn’t a good looking play, it was a big play. And that’s al that counts.

Wells knew the pass would be short when he looked back to see the rush on Blanda.

“I knew George wasn’t going to be able to set up in the cup. I thought he’d be off balance and the ball would be short. My man didn’t see that I was able to come back for the pass,” said Wells. Who had opened the scoring for Oakland on a 36-yard pass from Lamonica in the first period.

There were a lot of big plays and most of them were made by reserves, guys pressed into action.
“George was great,” continued Madden. “But don’t overlook what Jimmy Warren and Duane Benson did. They both came in and intercepted passes, Jimmy getting two and Duane one.”

Warren so outstanding replacing injured Kent McCloughan that he got the game ball. His second interception followed the Raiders winning touchdown and ended any hope Denver had to pull it out.

Both McCloughan and linebacker Bill Laskey suffered twisted knees but neither injury was thought to be serious. Both players expressed optimism and Madden said there would be no x-rays taken.

The Broncos lost cornerback Bill Thompson late in the first half with a knee injury that may require surgery. In addition, it was learned that starting quarterback Steve Tensi had been bothered by tendonitis in the elbow of his passing arm which contributed to his poor showing (two interceptions among numerous bad passes). Pete Liske replaced him just before the half.

For a while, a short while, it appeared the Raiders had the game wrapped up when Dixon raced 46-yards with a screen pass, giving Oakland a 17-6 lead very late in the third period.

Lamonica made a brilliant call on third and two. Denver brought in an extra defensive lineman, mounting a five-man forward front, and dropping one linebacker.

Daryle dropped back, the big front flowed through and Lamonica flipped the ball out to Dixon who got key blocks from Jim Harvey and Gene Upshaw, on safety Paul Martha to go the distance.

Denver came back with the help of two big Oakland penalties to score, Liske throwing to Jim Whalen from the 10 to make it 17-12. It should have been 17-13 but Bobby Howfield missed the extra point.

In the end, that miss gave the Raiders the opportunity of winning it with Blanda’s field goal but George used his arm instead.

After Wyatt fumbled, Liske passed 19 yards to Mike Haffner to the Oakland 19 and Ben Davidson drew a roughing the passer penalty that moved the ball to the Oakland 8.

Bob Anderson gained six yards to the one and the Liske dove in for the Denver touchdown, setting the stage for Mr. Miracle.

Following the fifth and final miracle, there were buttons reading "Blanda For Mayor" being handed out in the parking lot. While MVP quarterback Daryle Lamonica was being overlooked as the result of his understudies mastery over every National Football League franchise that he faced, Lamonica was all to happy to pin one of those buttons on his sweater before leaving the Oakland Coliseum.

Charlie Waller, head coach of the San Diego Chargers had wished publically that Blanda would start so his defense could give him a stiff test. His appearace as a place kicker sent the Chargers home a 20-17 loser.

RAIDER COUNTDOWN: 12-11-10-9-8- BLANDA

By George Ross

Tribune Sports Editor

Daryle Lamonica couldn’t take a chance that Pat Haggerty had ever passed a course in lip-reading to qualify for his referee’s stripes and Official NFL whistle.

“I took him by the arm and asked ‘Is that the official time on the scoreboard, 28 seconds?,” Daryle asked the ref.

“He said it was so I told him ‘Watch my lips’, the Raider quarterback described the next-to-last-act of the weekly special drama “Kick In Time,” starring the worlds oldest gridiron thespian, George Blanda.

“I let the clock go to eight seconds, and he didn’t have to watch my lips. I yelled it in his ear, ‘TIME OUT,’ Lamonica added. “The crowd was making a lot of noise; I guess they were getting a little nervous.”

Blanda wasn’t. Lamonica wasn’t. Jim Otto-who centered a high snap earlier-wasn’t. And the Oakland raiders lead the Western Division of the American Football Conference by a full game, 6-2-2 to Kansas City’s 5-3-2 and San Diego’s 4-4-2.

Blanda’s 16-yard field goal was a piece of cake when compared to the pressure jobs of the past four games. He drilled it, leaped into the air, and he and Lamonica embraced and were crushed into a now familiar pile of sweating Raider bodies.

A rerun script growing old but nonetheless gripping had defeated another contender, sending the improved San Diego Chargers home 20-17, cussing officials Blanda, Lamonica, Biletnikoff and everything on the East end of the Bay Bridge.

In 10 minutes, official clock time, it was history.

“These games are all tough,” Coach John Madden explained. “We’d like to take a couple hours off just to think about what just happened here today, but, because we’re playing the Detroit Lions on Thurday, we have about 10 minutes off. We practice tomorrow (today) we leave for Detroit Tuesday (tomorrow) and we’ll be looking at their film tonight (Sunday) at about 7:00 o’clock.

But he did recount some of the game for those who might have watched in disbelief.

Someone wanted to know precisely what he told Blanda as he sent the 43-year-old kicking marvel in to win his ball game.

“I just patted him on the bleep and said ‘Go Kick It,’” Madden related, ruining several tapes being prepared for post-game radio interviews.

Reporters, some of them sporting “Blanda For Mayor” buttons, surrounded the nations most famous trucking executive and asked him the kinds of questions that live through the second edition of the day after.

No, he said, he didn’t think about the possibility of missing.

“I never really think about missing,” he said. “I’m always optimistic that I’m going to make whatever I kick.”

But you missed a couple in the first half a realist offered.

“You had to bring that up,” George said with a laugh. “If I made everything I kicked they couldn’t pay me enough to keep me around here.”

And Lamonica, who had held for the winning field goal after masterfully getting the Raiders from their own 27 to the enemy nine in the last 4:27 of the fourth quarter, put down any critique of his kicker.

“Those two we missed were a matter of inches from the 43 and the 41,” he said. “One of them hit the upright and I thought the second one might have been good. It was close, real close.”

Lamonica completed 14 of his 23 passes for 213 yards and directed a total offense of 396 yards against the Chargers, who threw a lot more prevent defense and zone coverage at Oakland than they had before.

Fred Biletnikoff, who caught six of Daryle’s passes for 115 yards and figured strongly in three scoring drives, thought the QB had one of his better days.

“Several times he audibilized into a trap or quick hitting play that broke for good yardage,” Fred said. “He was reading their defense real well and called good patterns that zone stuff they were using.

“We’ve been seeing a lot more zone, maybe 75% of the time,” he added. “They were doubling on Warren Wells with two defensive backs. When they doubled on me it was with a linebacker dropping off, a lot more of it than in the past, especially down inside the 40. We were just working to get around him to the inside, finding the open spot.”

It was Lamonica’s last drive, in which, he whipped the coverage by firing a clutch pass to Biletnikoff, by sending Charlie Smith and Hewritt Dixon through good holes in the Charger line, and by legging off a 13-yard run of his own when the coverage took away three receivers, which sent the 54594 home newly-singing Raider praises.

“I went to the sideline during a time out and talked over the strategy with coach Madden,” he said. “We agreed we should do running the ball, and I did just that. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t going to pass. You’ve got to look at the defense; that dictates. But once I got inside their 20 there’s no way I was going to put the ball in the air.

“The field goal from there was as good as a TD, a winning play,” he said. “You throw it in the end zone and it gets intercepted or batted around, you second guess yourself forever, From where you were, it was like kicking an extra point.”