Quarterback Kenny Stabler and tight end Dave Casper had Hall of Fame careers with the Oakland Raiders, but in 1980 they were on the other side of the field with the Houston Oilers for an AFC wild-card game at the Oakland Coliseum.
Stabler had been traded to the Oilers for quarterback Dan Pastorini before the season, but Pastorini sustained a broken leg in the final week, and Jim Plunkett took over as the starters.
All he did was lead the Raiders to Super Bowl XV.
The Oilers took a 7-3 lead in the wild-card game, but Plunkett passed for two touchdowns and the Raiders shut down Stabler and running back Earl Campbell, scoring the last 17 points of the game for a 27-7 victory before 52,752 fans.
The Raiders sacked Stabler seven times for 65 yards in losses.
“The defense played tremendous and the offense came up with the big plays,” Raiders Coach Tom Flores told the media said after the game. “I don’t know that I've ever seen a better game by a Raider defense.
“We were in corner blitzes on four of the times we got to (Stabler),” said Flores, who was the Raiders’ first quarterback in 1960, their inaugural season. “We know they like play action on first down. We’ve been working on it all week.”
Added Houston Coach Bum Phillips of the Raiders: “That’s the best I’ve seen any team play in 10 or 11 years.”
Cornerback Lester Hayes was the defensive star for the Raiders with two interceptions that he returned for 26 yards, including one he took 20 yards for the final touchdown in the fourth quarter and added two sacks of Stabler on corner blitzes.
“We beat (Stabler) by blitzing him from the corners,” Hayes said.
Safety Mike Davis also had two sacks and recovered a fumble, while linebacker Ted Hendricks and cornerback Odis McKinney, who also had a fumble recovery on a punt, added to the sack total by the blitzing Raiders, who surprised Stabler and the Oilers.
“We were in corner blitzes on four of the times we got to (Stabler),” said Flores, who was the Raiders’ first quarterback in 1960, their inaugural season. “We know they like play action on first down. We’ve been working on it all week.”
“They didn’t do much of that when I was here. … ,” Stabler said. “They have a pressure-type defense. That's what got them here. We didn’t handle it too well.”
Stabler completed 15-of-27 passes for 247 yards without a touchdown and threw the two interceptions to go with the seven sacks, while the powerful Campbell had 91 yards on 27 carries and a one-yard touchdown run that gave Houston a 7-3 lead in the first quarter.
“They’re the only ones who still use a two-tight end offense,” Hayes noted. “It’s unique because it’s built for Earl Campbell.”
But it was all Raiders after that first TD, as they kept Campbell and Stabler in check.
Plunkett completed only 8-of-23 passes for 168 yards, but he threw touchdown passes of 44 yards to running back Arthur Whittington and two yards to tight end, Todd Christensen, a score that was set up on his 37-yard pass to running back Kenny King.
“We thought in (watching) the (Houston) films we could isolate Kenny with a linebacker,” Flores said of the Oakland coach said of that touchdown sequence that gave the Raiders the lead for good at 10-7. “We tried it several times in the first half and finally got it.
“ … And we could see the way they defensed three tight ends, that Christensen could run a corner (pattern) on their cornerback.”
King, who also had 55 yards rushing on 13 carries including a 27-yard burst, came to the Raiders in the Casper trade.
Casper was limited to three catches for 31 yards by his former teammates and it didn’t help the Oilers that Toni Fritsch missed a 45-yard field goal attempt and had a 37-yarder blocked by defensive end John Matuszak, both in the second quarter.
Stabler drove the Oilers to the one-yard line in the fourth quarter, but his pass intended for tight end Mike Barber fell incomplete in the end zone and the Raiders ran out the clock to end the game.
The Raiders were anything but finished as they beat the Cleveland Browns, 14-12, the following week on the famed “Mistake by the Lake” end-zone interception by Davis, and upset the San Diego Chargers, 34-27, in the AFC Championship Game.
Then Plunkett threw for 261 yards and three touchdowns, two to wide receiver Cliff Branch, as the Silver and Black downed the Philadelphia Eagles, 27-10, in Super Bowl XV at the Louisiana Super Dome in New Orleans.
That made the Raiders the first wild card team to win the Super Bowl.
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