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| Ahmad Rashad(28) makes the game-winning catch as time expires to give the Minnesota Vikings the win in the "Miracle at the Met". |
When you things miracles in sports in 1980, the "Miracle on Ice" where the United States men's hockey team shocked the Soviet Union comes to minds of nearly every sports fan.
But if you go up to Minnesota and ask them about a "miracle" in sports in 1980, they will talk about the "Miracle at the Met" that the Minnesota Vikings pulled off on December 14, 1980.
Minnesota entered the game with a 8-6 record, but could clinch the NFC Central Division title and a spot in the playoffs if could beat the visiting Cleveland Browns at Metropolitan Stadium, or "The Met", in Bloomington, Minnesota.
If the Vikings won, it would give head coach Bud Grant his 11th division title in 13 seasons as the head coach of the Vikings.
But this division title would have special meaning for Grant as stars like quarterback Fran Tarkenton, running back Chuck Foreman, and the famed "Purple People Eaters" defensive line with defensive tackle Alan Page and defensive ends Carl Eller and Jim Marshall, who had helped the Vikings to four Super Bowl appearances during Grant's reign as Minnesota head coach, were either retired or with different teams.
If there was a new face of the Vikings, it was quarterback Tommy Kramer, who was only in his fourth season with Minnesota, but had earned the nickname "Two Minute Tommy" for leading the Vikings to eight 4th quarter comeback wins in his brief NFL career.
The Vikings' opponent, the Cleveland Browns, also entered the game with a chance to clinch their division as they were 10-4 and were going for their first division title since 1971 and first playoff berth since 1972.
The Browns were led by head coach Sam Rutigilano and quarterback Brian Sipe, who helped lead the Browns to five 4th quarter comeback wins in 1979 and to eight wins by a touchdown or less in 1980, leading to Cleveland fans to nickname the team the "Kardiac Kids".
10 of the Browns' first 14 games were decided by a touchdown or less and it would be 11 after this game was done.
The Vikings got the first scoring chance of the game when they drove to the Cleveland 28-yard-line where the drive, forcing Minnesota to settle for a 45-yard field goal attempt by Rick Danmeier.
However, Danmeier missed the field goal, keeping the game 0-0 and setting an ominous tone for the kicking game on both teams.
The Browns took over at their 28-yard-line and put together a 10-play, 72-yard drive that culminated with a 18-yard touchdown pass from Sipe to Calvin Hill that put Cleveland ahead 7-0 with 4:43 left in the first quarter.
The score remained 7-0 in favor of Clevleand when Danmeier missed another field goal, this time from 41 yards out, to give the Browns the ball at their 23-yard-line with 2:47 left before halftime.
That is when Sipe went to work as he completed four straight passes after following a one-yard run as the eventual MVP would hit running back Mike Pruitt for 22 yards, then launched a 41-yard bomb that was caught by wide receiver Mike Logan at the Vikings' nine-yard-line.
Then after completing a seven-yard pass to Greg Pruitt, Sipe rolled to the right side and ran in for a two-yard touchdown run.
Even though Don Cockroft missed the extra point, the Browns went into the halftime break with a 13-0 lead.
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| Vikings quarterback Tommy Kramer threw for 456 yards and four touchdown passes on 38-of-49 passing. |
After forcing the Browns to punt on their opening possession of the second half, the Vikings took over at their two-yard-line when Kramer got hit and completed five of six passes for 92 yards on the eight-play which ended with a 31-yard touchdown pass from Kramer to Joe Senser to put the Vikings on the scoreboard.
However on the extra point, Danmeier's woes continued as his extra point kick banged off the left upright, keeping the score 13-6 in favor of the Browns with 8:56 to go in the third quarter.
The Browns responded to the touchdown by driving down to the Vikings' 22-yard-line where they had a 1st-and-10, following a 30-yard pass from Sipe to Ricky Feacher on 3rd-and-15.
That is when the Browns caught a break on 1st down when Sipe threw a pass to the end zone that was intercepted by Minnesota strong safety Tom Hannon, only to have the officials rule that Hannon did not get his feet inbounds, making the pass incomplete, even though replays showed that Hannon did get his feet inbounds.
With the referees unable to reverse the call on instant replay(that wasn't available to referees until 1986),Cleveland was able take advantage of the missed call by putting up three more points as Cockroft made a 32-yard field goal to increase the Browns' lead to 16-6 with 5:52 left in the third quarter.
The Vikings came back with by driving 62 yards in nine plays as Kramer completed five straight passes to set up a 2nd-and-goal at the Browns' six-yard-line when Kramer had a pass knocked down at the line of scrimmage, which was followed by a potential touchdown pass to Terry LeCount be taken away when Cleveland defensive back Oliver Davis knocked the ball away from LeCount to prevent the touchdown.
Grant decided to send in Danmeier to attempt the field goal even though he was 0-for-2 on field goals and 0-for-1 on extra points.
But Danmeier's 24-yard field goal sailed through the uprights and cut the Browns' lead to a touchdown at 16-9 with 10 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Browns would respond with a long drive that took nearly eight minutes off the clock as they traveled 83 yards in 16 plays with Cleo Miller capping off the drive with a one-yard touchdown run to give the Browns their largest lead of the game at 14 points, 23-9 with 7:16 left in regulation.
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| Browns quarterback and 1980 MVP Brian Sipe went 20-of-33 for 232 yards with a touchdown and an interception. |
With less than half the fourth quarter gone, the Vikings needed a touchdown quickly to have any chance of at least forcing overtime.
That is when Kramer went to work as he completed all five of his passes on the 72-yard drive which culiminated with a seven-yard touchdown pass to running back Ted Brown to make it 23-15 with the extra point pending.
However, disaster struck on the extra point as a high snap by batter Jim Langer led to Danmeier's extra point being blocked and keeping the score 23-15 with 5:01 left in regulation, meaning that the Vikings could not just get a touchdown and a extra point to force overtime as there was no two-point conversion in the NFL in 1980.
After the kickoff, the Browns were able to take three minutes off the clock and as they had a 2nd-and-9 at their 41-yard-line when the Vikings were forced to call their first timeout with 2:18 left in the game.
Following the timeout, the Browns decided to gamble and throw for the 1st down, but in sign of things to come, Sipe was intercepted by cornerback Bobby Bryant, giving the Vikings the ball at the Cleveland 47-yard-line with 2:12 to go and two timeouts for the Vikings.
It only took Kramer and the Vikings 37 seconds to go in the end zone as "Two Minute Tommy" would complete four of five passes for 47 yards on the drive, the last one being a 12-yard touchdown pass to Ahmad Rashad on a crossing pattern across the middle that with Danmeier's extra point cut the Minnesota deficit to just one point, 23-22 with 1:35 to go.
Every one knew what was coming up next: an onside kick by the Vikings in hopes of recovering it and have a chance to drive for the game-winning field goal.
But Danmeier's bad day got worse as his onside kick only traveled nine yards as it was recovered by Browns strong safety Clarence Scott, giving the ball to Cleveland at the Vikings' 44-yard-line with a chance to run out the clock.
Following a three-yard run by Miller on 1st down, the Vikings spent their second timeout before they faced a 2nd-and-7.
Things looked good for the Browns as Mike Pruitt picked up five yards to set up a 3rd-and-2, only to have an illegal motion penalty be called on right tackle Cody Risien which not only negated the Pruitt run and make it 2nd-and-12, but also stop the clock with 1:23 to go.
Pruitt got the ball the next two plays and gained ten yards to set up a 4th-and-2 at the Minnesota 36-yard-line with 23 seconds to go.
Rutigilano called on the punting unit to try and pin the Vikings back which punter Johnny Evans was unable to do as his punt went into the end zone for a touchback.
Still, things looked bleak for the Vikings as they had only 14 seconds and no timeouts to try and move into field goal range.
But with the day Danmeier was having, the best chance for Minnesota to win was to get a touchdown.
On the first play from scrimmage, Kramer found Senser at the Vikings' 30-yard-line, who made the catch, and then lateraled the ball back to Brown, who ran 24 yards before going out of bounds at the Browns 46-yard-line with five seconds left on the clock.
That is when Grant decided to call for "Squadron Right" where Lecount, Rashad, and Sammy White would line up on the right side of the field and ran as far as they could before Kramer would launch a pass toward the three receivers, hoping one of them would draw a pass interference penalty or one would tip the ball so another could make the catch.
Kramer took the snap, dropped back seven yards, and fired a pass that came down at around the five-yard-line where the ball was tipped by Browns free safety Thom Darden.
The deflection then landed in the left hand of Rashad, who made the catch at the one-yard-line with his back toward the end zone, then walked in to complete the shocking 46-yard touchdown to give the Vikings a 28-23 win and the NFC Central Division title(double-click to play).
The Browns would rebound from the loss the following week by defeating their intrastate rival, the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-24 as they rallied from a 10-0 halftime deficit to win the AFC Central and clinch a 1st round bye into the Divisional Playoffs.
However, the Browns would lose to the eventual Super Bowl champion Oakland Raiders 14-12 on the infamous "Red Right 88" where Sipe was picked off by Raiders cornerback Mike Davis in the end zone even though Clevleand was in range for a game-winning field goal.
Sipe and Rutigilano could not recapture the magic of the 1980 season as the Browns would only make the playoffs one more time under the Sipe-Rutigilano combination in the 1982 strike-shortened season as Sipe left the Browns following the 1983 season for the United States Football League, USFL, and Rutigilano would be fired halfway through the 1984 season.
As for the Vikings, they would be lose to the Philadelphia Eagles 31-16 in the NFC Divisional Playoffs and make only one more playoff appearance under Grant and Kramer, also in 1982, before Grant retired following the 1983 season, then came back for the 1985 season, before retiring for good, while Kramer remained with Minnesota through the 1989 season and then retired the following season after one year with the New Orleans Saints.
As for Rashad, he would retire following the 1982 season and entered into broadcasting where among his list of credits including being the host of NBA Inside Stuff for 16 years and being the sideline reporter for the NBA on NBC and often being granted exclusive interviews with Michael Jordan.
But while most sports fans known Ahmad for his broadcasting career, he is remembered in Minnesota for his part in "Miracle at the Met".
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