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Lawless
All About Brad!
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Registered: Jun 2003
Local time: 11:06 AM
Location: Freezing in Colorado
Posts: 27144
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Marv Levy
"The Colts' comeback against the Bucs was really remarkable because it was against the best defensive team in football and the defending Super Bowl champions in such a short period of time. But naturally, I was a first-hand observer (and head coach) of the Bills' come-from-behind victory over the Houston Oilers in the 1992 playoffs. We played the game without Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Cornelius Bennett -- three of our stars -- and came back from a 35-3 deficit with around 22 minutes left in the game.
"So what was I thinking during the game? We were devastated when we found ourselves down 28-3 at halftime. Here we were, AFC champions, being humiliated at home in the playoffs. There was no great pep talk like you'd see in the movies. Halftime is only 12 minutes long; I really only had three minutes to make adjustments. The only thing I recall saying to our players was, 'You are two-time defending AFC champions. When you walk off the field 30 minutes from now, don't let anybody say that you quit or gave up.' Whether it meant anything to them or not, I don't know, but on our first possession of the second half, the ball went off of one of our tight end's hands and the Oilers ran it back for a touchdown to make it 35-3. On the kickoff, the kicker flubbed it and somehow hit one of our front five players and they nearly recovered the ball. We got it though, and we scored on the next play. Then we recovered an on-side kick, scored quickly and got back in the game. In seven minutes we scored four touchdowns and had 31 points going into the fourth quarter.
"It must have been in that team to do such a feat because just one year later during the regular season we came back from a 26-0 halftime deficit against Indianapolis, considered the third-greatest comeback of all time. Coincidentally, one man who's been a vital part of both comebacks (the Bills/Oilers and last week's Colts/Bucs) is Bill Polian. He was our GM in Buffalo at the time and now he's in charge of the Colts. Bill's a good friend, a great guy, he speaks well and has great enthusiasm. And he has two amazing comebacks to look back upon.
"I do a lot of exercising, and sometimes I'm feeling serene and my mind wanders and that pleasant thought comes back to me. It was beautiful -- a remarkable event. You have to coach for 47 years to have a few moments like that occur, and it's one that I very much treasure."
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10-11-2003 10:03 PM
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Lawless
All About Brad!
offline
Registered: Jun 2003
Local time: 11:06 AM
Location: Freezing in Colorado
Posts: 27144
|
Gil Brandt 
"For me, the best comeback I've ever witnessed happened in December 1972, in the Cowboys' NFC Divisional Playoff game against the 49ers at Candlestick. We were down 28-13 going into fourth, and Roger Staubach, who had been hurt and not played during the season because of a training camp injury, came off the bench to play. We were down by 15 until we kicked a 45-yard field goal to make it 28-16. Then with less than two minutes to play, we scored to make it 28-23, on-side kicked and scored again with 52 seconds remaining to give us the lead. And then we almost lost! The 49ers, with John Brodie, came back and completed a pass that would put them in field goal position, but offensive tackle Cas Banaszek was called for holding and it took them out of field-goal range. The final was 30-28 and it put us in championship game."
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10-11-2003 10:03 PM
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