It was perhaps the finest collection of talent in NFL history - and in 1974 nearly no one knew it. For five seasons, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Chuck Noll had meticulously built the team in his own image - tough and physical. In 1974, he added a draft class that included four future Hall of Famers. By the postseason, the team that would become the decade's best was ready to arrive. The Steelers rose to the top of the football world by upsetting the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX. It would be the first of four world championships in six years. Join NFL Films as they retell the story of the '74 Steelers. America's Game uses exclusive interviews from Andy Russell, Franco Harris, and "Mean" Joe Greene to recount Pittsburgh's rise from obscurity to dynasty.Its hard to say with the cheapest tickets going for almost $200 that those people got their money's worth. They did get it, if you can put a price on awe-inspiring football. Some people are calling this #1 OU vs #5 Texas the greatest game they have ever seen. I still think the OU vs Boise State bowl game 2 years back was better because of all the trick plays plus the amazing comeback.
Texas started out looking like they were in trouble in the first half. They were trailing for the most part and couldn't score at will like the Sooners seemed to be. The play that kept their morale strong was when Jordan Shipley returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. That sparked the team to keep their heads up and keep fighting.
Their were plenty of crazy plays such as when in the first half a ball was tipped from one receiver to his teammate receiver in the end zone. Also OU was just short of the goal line when they scored their first touchdown, but the refs called it a touchdown anyway. It was on a third down and Texas could have held them to a field goal if it weren't for that.
The Sooners and Longhorns could not seem to get the ground game running for most of the game. OU averaged 1.8 yards a carry while Texas had 4.6 in the game. This was in part to Texas Running Back Chris Ogbonnaya busting a big 62 yard run just short of the end zone.
This was definitely a passing fan's game. There was over 664 yards passing between these sworn rivals. Texas kept trying to establish the run and it almost cost them the gain. Both teams seemed to give up on the run by the fourth quarter.
The amazing thing was that Sam Bradford of OU had 5 touchdowns and 387 yards passing. Two interceptions tainted his stats slightly. But it must be depressing to work that hard and come up short of a victory. You almost had a sense if their were ties this should have been one of them.
This game is going to be an instant classic viewed over and over. It had two Heisman caliber quarterbacks and two teams ranked in the top 5 from the same conference. I doubt I will see a better game this year in college football. It was high scoring and hard hitting with plenty of trick plays and fake punts by Coach Stoops. It had something for everyone, and then some.
Clarke Baldwin is a journalist who has worked for Dallas Morning News and other publications. You can find his site at Super Media Blog and this article at 2008 Red River Shootout Game.
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