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Today in Patriots History
October 27, 1974: Pats upset Vikings, go to 6-1
Bob Windsor scores winning touchdown as time expires
Drives into endzone despite torn ACL
October 27, 1974: Pats upset Vikings, go to 6-1
Bob Windsor scores winning touchdown as time expires
Drives into endzone despite torn ACL
Sunday October 27, 1974 at 2:00
Week 7, Game 7 at Metropolitan Stadium
New England Patriots 17, Minnesota Vikings 14
Head Coaches: Chuck Fairbanks, Bud Grant
QBs: Jim Plunkett, Fran Tarkenton
Odds: Minnesota favored by 6½
TV: NBC; Jim Simpson, John Brodie
Patriots improve to 6-1, Vikings drop to 5-2
Today is the 50th anniversary of one of the most iconic plays in the history of the New England Patriots,
That may sound like ridiculous exagerated hyperbole when one considers all the great plays of the super bowl era, but I would put this play somewhere near the top in any list of greatest plays in franchise history.
The Patriots led 10-0 at halftime on a 37-yard John Smith field goal, and a 21-yard pass from Jim Plunkett to undrafted backup WR Steve Schubert. In the third quarter the Patriot defense was stout. Minnesota's first possession of the second half ended with Jack Mildren intercepting a Fran Tarkenton pass on the four-yard line to prevent a score, and the Vikings went three-and-out on their next drive. Minnesota drove into the red zone again on their next drive, and again the Pats denied Tarkenton, with Ron Bolton picking off the future Hall of Famer at the one yard line - for his second interception of the game. However, John Tarver fumbled, and two plays later Chuck Foreman scored to make it a 10-7 game very early in the fourth quarter.
The slippery fingers continued for New England, as Mack Herron fumbled the ensuing kickoff away. The defense came to the rescue again, knocking a would-be touchdown pass out of the end zone. After a Patriot punt, the Vikings were forced to punt as well after a Steve King sack and good coverage by Bolton resulted in an incomplete pass. The Patriots were able to wind down the clock, grinding out a couple of first downs before having to punt.
Minnesota took over on their own 26 with 1:52 left to play. Tarkenton completed a 38-yard pass to John Gilliam, and a pass interference penalty on John Sanders gave the Vikings a first down at the three. Tarkenton ran it in on a bootleg to the left, and Minnesota had their first lead of the game with 1:26 to go. Tarkenton and Bolton got into it after the TD, with the quarterback whipping the ball at Bolton; both players were ejected.
Plunkett was only able to complete a couple of short passes and the clock was winding down. On third down Plunkett hit Randy Vataha on a desperation heave - for his only catch of the day - that went for 55 yards, giving the Pats the ball on the Minnesota ten yard line with nine seconds remaining. Tight end Bob Windsor caught a pass from Plunkett near the seam on the right side on the two-yard line; at the same time the catch was made, Hall of Fame safety Paul Krausse delivered a big hit to Windsor on his knee, tearing his ACL to shreds. Windsor somehow miraculously stayed on his feet, and dragged Krausse (and himself) to the goal line before falling into the end zone for the game winning score.
The play not only ended Windsor’s season but effectively ended his career. Although he did return the following season he was clearly not the same and finished with only six receptions, before retiring from pro football.
Although both the Patriots and Vikings came into the game with identical 5-1 records this was considered to be a huge upset. The Pats were coming off a 5-9 season and had not had a winning record in nine years. Meanwhile Minnesota had made it to the Super Bowl with an NFL-best 12-2 record the previous year, and were perennially one of the best teams in the NFL. Unfortunately the Patriots were snakebitten with injuries such as this one, and those losses finally took their toll: after a 6-1 start the Pats won only one more game the rest of the way and finished 7-7.
Patriot Sacrifices Knee in Triumph (Published 1974)
www.nytimes.com
Should the New England Patriots reach the Super Bowl in January, and they appear to have as good a chance as anyone right now they are sure to vote a full share of the spoils to Bob Windsor, their tight end who will not be with them that day. Windsor sacrificed one knee to the cause on Sunday in Bloomington, Minn., as the Patriots upset the Vikings 17?14, for what one Boston writer described as the greatest victory in the history of the franchise.
The clock was running at the end, nine?eight?seven?six seconds left to play as Windsor, the 32?year?old receiver, fought for the goal line. He had, caught an 8?yard pass from Jim Plunkett and needed 2 more yards for the score. One Viking after another hit him, but the 6?foot?4?inch, 225?pound athlete kept digging and driving. He made it. “Touchdown, touchdown,” yelled Reggie Rucker, his teammate.
Yesterday Windsor underwent surgery for torn ligaments of the right knee and will be out for the season. His replacement will be Bob Adams, who was last a regular with Pittsburgh in 1971.
“As soon as the first guy [Paul. Krause] hit me, my leg went,” said Windsor. “I could feel the pain. But I kept driving until I heard Reggie yelling.”
“I can't say enough about Windsor,” said Randy Vataha, the little wide receiver who caught a Plunkett desperation bomb over Jackie Wallace good for 55 yards on the previous play. “Bob was stopped at the one but wouldn't go down. He fought his way in.”
Ron Bolton, the Patriots' defensive back, and Fran Tarkenton, the Minnesota quarterback, fought themselves out of the game. With 89 seconds left, Tarkenton scored on a 3?yard run into the corner of the end zone and tripped and fell.
Then the son of a Methodist minister did something far out of his cool character. He took the football and threw it at short range at the helmeted head of Bolton, who retorted by throwing a right hook through the Tarkenton face mask. Both were evicted, the first such experience for Tarkenton, who has played in 191 pro games since 1961.
Tarkenton refused to talk about the incident later, possibly out of embarrassment. He apparently tripped over the yard marker chains but thought Bolton, who had intercepted two of his passes, had tripped him. Then Tarkenton exploded.
When the Patriots flew back to Boston there were 2,000 fans awaiting them at Logan Airport. “That's more than we used to get to see our games,” said Jon Morris, the seasoned center.
On This Day: Bob Windsor lays his career on the line for the game-winning score - Patriots.com
. . . an October game in Minnesota when tight end Bob Windsor made one of the greatest and gutsiest plays in New England sports history.
Prior to 1974, the Patriots were a franchise unaccustomed to winning, rattling off seven straight losing seasons from 1967-73.
Windsor, who was traded from San Francisco in 1972, recalled, "They were struggling; they weren't winning a whole lot of games when I arrived there."
Ron Hobson, Patriots beat reporter for The Patriot Ledger from 1960-2010, put it more bluntly.
"They were a bad team."
The tide slowly began to turn, however, in 1973, when the Patriots hired former Oklahoma head coach Chuck Fairbanks to right the ship. Wide receiver Randy Vataha, who was then in his third year with the club, acknowledged that Fairbanks brought a new energy and focus to the team.
"He added a very high level of professionalism to the organization, and he also brought with him top assistant coaches," Vataha said.
While the team still struggled in Fairbanks' first year, going 5-9, a new tone had been set heading into the 1974 season.
"Going into 1974, we really believed we had a chance to compete for the division," Vataha said.
"Fairbanks warned that the team still wasn't ready to compete against NFL elites, but people got excited," Hobson added. "They had a bad team for a long time, and they were finally showing some promise."
The biggest test for the Patriots came the following week, as they went on the road to face Fran Tarkenton's Minnesota Vikings, who were also 5-1 and coming off a Super Bowl appearance the previous season. The Vikings, heavy favorites despite their identical record, trailed 10-7 at the two-minute warning but Tarkenton led them on a quick 74-yard drive that he capped off with a 3-yard touchdown scamper.
New England still had hope, but they needed a big play fast. Vataha provided one, hauling in a 55-yard bomb from Plunkett at the Vikings' 10-yard line.
"I ran a little out-and-up, and Jackie Wallace, who was covering me, for whatever reason, bit on the out pattern," remembered Vataha.
"And the safety was rolling over to give him some help deep but was way late getting there. I don't think that he ever thought that Jackie would let me get behind him."
Following an incompletion to Vataha, the Patriots were left with eight seconds, no timeouts and one last chance to pull off the upset. With the Minnesota defense focused on Vataha, Windsor was called upon to make a play.
"Jim looked left to Randy, checked off him and hit me right up the middle [near the goal line]," Windsor recollected.
"[Vikings safety] Paul Krause came up from safety and hit me, and I knew immediately my right leg was done, so I kept it in the air, spun and pushed off with my left leg and used my last breath to throw myself into the end zone, hoping I could get there.
"As I lay there, I could hear the crowd yelling, and then Sam Cunningham and Tom Neville and everybody were jumping on me, telling me I got in. I said, 'Yeah, but stop jumping on me, my knee is killing me.'"
"Windsor was not only hit, but he was twisting and dragging the guy and fighting to get to the goal line," Hobson said.
"He gave it everything he had on that one play. You don't see that kind of play very often."
Some Vikings players were less than impressed by Windsor's heroics, but they couldn't take the win away from the Patriots.
"As they carried me off the field, a couple of the guys on the Vikings were spitting at me, yelling, 'You didn't get in,'" Windsor recalled.
"I just pointed to the scoreboard and said, 'That's all that counts.'"
The Minnesota victory gave the Patriots a level of credibility – internal and external – they had lacked to that point in their history.
"I think that win instilled in that core group of players the belief that we could beat anybody, any place, any time," Vataha said.
4:10 Highlight Video
1974 Patriots at Vikings week 7
Windsor's Special Team - Washington Post
Bob Windsor’s All-Pro Sports
It hasn’t been much to look at over the past 20 years or so, but in the early 1980s, this little store on the west corner of Laurel Plaza was something special. Bob Windsor’s All-Pro Sp…
lostlaurel.com
Reliving the fall of ’74 for Pats
The Patriots’ struggles with injuries this season proves that history repeats.
www.patriotledger.com
The Story Of The 1974 Minnesota Vikings
Read the game-by-game narrative of how the 1974 Minnesota Vikings won a second straight NFC title.
ouatsports.com
NFL Media Game Summary, with halftime/fullgame stats and full play-by-play
Box Score, Team and Individual Stats:
New England Patriots at Minnesota Vikings - October 27th, 1974 | Pro-Football-Reference.com
New England Patriots 17 at Minnesota Vikings 14 on October 27th, 1974 - Full team and player stats and box score
www.pro-football-reference.com
