Bills at Chargers 1980 a fun watch

[Chandler#81]

 

[Beast]

I was a kid, about 13 years old then. When the Bills fell behind in the 4th by a couple scores I met my buddies and had a pick up game of football in a backyard. I remember his mother opening the back door and yelling the Bills won. We were all pretty excited!

Edited July 8, 2022 by Beast

[LeGOATski]

I'll wait to watch the NFL Game Pass 30 min version. Glad football is finally back.

[Bermuda Triangle]

Cribbs was so underrated - he was a great receiver out of the backfield as well.

[Ned Flanders]

I remember this game well, with the Bills going 5-0 with the big win and Rod Kush having the game of his life, before he unfortunately got hurt, putting him out for the rest of the year. 

 

Disgusting that the Chargers are no longer in San Diego.  Spanos stinks.

[Charles Romes]

47 minutes ago, Bermuda Triangle said:

Cribbs was so underrated - he was a great receiver out of the backfield as well.

add his USFL years to his NFL years and he’s in the Hall

[Stranded in Boston]

Thanks Chan! I had to work that day for some reason — although we had the game going on the radio — so that’s the first time I watched it in 42 years! Great ending, but I also recall that game as the one that effectively ended Jeff Nixon’s promising career. What a ball-hawk: he had something like 5 ints in the first 5 games in ‘80, but he never really recovered from that knee injury. Rod Kush had a career game as his sub (what a hitter!), but was a liability in coverage, so Chuck brought in Bill Simpson. ... I was too young for the Bills AFL championship run in the ‘60s and suffered through the 70s, but man, 1980 sure seemed like the year we were going to win it all … 😕

Edited July 8, 2022 by Stranded in Boston

[Buftex]

This is one of the 1980 games that will forever be etched in my memory.  Love the Bills every year, but 1980 is still my favorite Bills season of all...my Bills memories only go back to 1972, but this was the first year that I remember thinking "holy *****, the Bills might actually be the best team in the NFL".  This was such a great game.  Rod Kush is a relatively obscure name in Bills history, but one I will never forget, because of this game.

 

1 hour ago, Bermuda Triangle said:

Cribbs was so underrated - he was a great receiver out of the backfield as well.

An all-time Bill, as far as I am concerned.  A unique talent at the time.  If Ralph hadn't played games, and kept that team together, I really think Cribbs would be remembered the way Roger Craig is remembered by most.

[Ned Flanders]

12 minutes ago, Buftex said:

An all-time Bill, as far as I am concerned.  A unique talent at the time.  If Ralph hadn't played games, and kept that team together, I really think Cribbs would be remembered the way Roger Craig is remembered by most.

Ralph is cheap.

[Buftex]

2 minutes ago, Ned Flanders said:

Ralph is cheap.

He was

[Rubes]

Great stuff. What an amazing game from Kush. Also find it so interesting that big plays back then were hardly celebrated. After the punt block recovered for a TD, the players were just walking back to the sidelines as if it was just another play. These days the whole team would be going completely bonkers.

 

[dwight in philly]

The  Jan  1981 playoff loss to them still hurts .. they win , they host Oakland in the AFC chanpionship game.. Hmmm.. 

Edited July 8, 2022 by dwight in philly

[Tisker A Tasker]

We asked my dad about it and he remembers it vividly, because he's also a Dodger fan:

 

"I remember it well. Watched it at home. I had the Bills game on the big TV and the Dodgers/Astros game on the small TV, in the great room. The LAD game had post season implications, as they needed to win to force a divisional play-off.

Believe it or not, Haslett’s INT occurred almost EXACTLY the same time as when Ron Cey hit a 2 run HR (Garvey on) in bottom 8 to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead, the final score."

[Augie]

One could easily argue the Bills and the Chargers have the two best uniforms of all time. The Raiders might round out the top three.

 

This game was during college for me. It was a bit of a down period trying to follow my Bills from out of town. The options today are incredible compared to not all that long ago. I mean, in the early 90’s I would go to Chili’s every Tuesday (I think it was) to have lunch and read the one or two sentences they had for every NFL team in the free USA Today at the bar. Now? I can watch the 1980 Bills/Chargers game on my iPad in my recliner!  Life is pretty good. 

 

 

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Edited July 8, 2022 by Augie

[Ethan in Cleveland]

9 hours ago, Bermuda Triangle said:

Cribbs was so underrated - he was a great receiver out of the backfield as well.

He is not underrated by those that saw him play.  He was a great RB.  He was a bit faster than Thurman and could run inside or outside.  No Bills RB had the power OJ did but Cribbs and Thurman were amazing in their own right. Thurman may have been a better pure RB as he read his blockers as well as any RB the league has ever seen and found creases for 5 yard gains when there should have been none.   

1 hour ago, Augie said:

One could easily argue the Bills and the Chargers have the two best uniforms of all time. The Raiders might round out the top three.

 

This game was during college for me. It was a bit of a down period trying to follow my Bills from out of town. The options today are incredible compared to not all that long ago. I mean, in the early 90’s I would go to Chili’s every Tuesday (I think it was) to have lunch and read the one or two sentences they had for every NFL team in the free USA Today at the bar. Now? I can watch the 1980 Bills/Chargers game on my iPad in my recliner!  Life is pretty good. 

 

 

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Agree especially when you look at both the current and the various throwback options.  

Would love to see the red helmet and dark navy that Kelly wore his first year come back for a game or two.  

 

[Augie]

4 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

He is not underrated by those that saw him play.  He was a great RB.  He was a bit faster than Thurman and could run inside or outside.  No Bills RB had the power OJ did but Cribbs and Thurman were amazing in their own right. Thurman may have been a better pure RB as he read his blockers as well as any RB the league has ever seen and found creases for 5 yard gains when there should have been none.   

 

Thurman also had the ability to pick up the blitz as well as any RB I can remember. 

[chongli]

This video brings back awesome memories!

 

This is the game where retired safety Bill Simpson, who was sitting in the stands that game as a fan, was convinced to come out of retirement and join the Bills, who had just lost both starting safeties to injury (Rod Kush and Jeff Nixon):

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/25/sports/simpson-of-bills-valuable-retread.html

 

"The Bills won the game but lost their starting safeties, Jeff Nixon and Rod Kush, because of knee injuries. Afterward Simpson dropped by the Buffalo locker room to say hello to the coaches - Chuck Knox, Tom Catlin and Jim Wagstaff - for whom he had played in Los Angeles.

 

Wagstaff, the defensive backfield coach, looked him over like a butcher at a cattle auction . ''You ready to come back?'' he said. Wagstaff had to be joking. Simpson had last played for the Rams 21 months before. After that had come the last knee operation and a failed physical examination in 1979 that led to an official retirement.

 

''Let's not even talk about it,'' he said. At midnight the telephone rang at his home in Garden Grove, Calif. It was Wagstaff in Buffalo. ''I need you, you know our system, how do feel physically?'' Wagstaff said in one breath.

 

[...]

 

Even though his knees felt fine after almost two years away from football, Simpson agonized. ''I was out of the game and happy in another profession,'' he said. ''I wasn't itching to get back, waiting for a phone call.''

 

But the job could be put on hold, and his wife and friends approved. So Simpson went to Buffalo, reporting Wednesday and starting Sunday, when he intercepted a Baltimore pass."

[chongli]

8 hours ago, dwight in philly said:

The  Jan  1981 playoff loss to them still hurts .. they win , they host Oakland in the AFC chanpionship game.. Hmmm.. 

 

Under today's rules, where there is no preventing two teams in the same division from playing in the divisionals, #3 Buffalo would have gone to #2 Cleveland instead of #1 San Diego. #1 San Diego would have hosted the Wild Card winner #4 Oakland. I think Buffalo would have had an easier time against Cleveland, and then would have hosted Oakland. (BTW, all three AFC division winners that year had identical 11-5 records, and Buffalo had beaten San Diego in the regular season as well. I'm still smarting they didn't get to host San Diego.)

 

Also, as I stated in another of Chandler#81's threads, I have the full videos of the Bills at Chargers in the playoffs that year, but YT won't let me upload them since the NFL completely bans them, even if directly viewed on their YT channel. I'm pretty annoyed by this because there are no videos online of that game.

Edited July 9, 2022 by chongli

[Buffalo716]

14 hours ago, Charles Romes said:

add his USFL years to his NFL years and he’s in the Hall

Adding his USFL years he still only has 7800 yards 

 

Nowhere near enough for a Hall of Fame running back… TD got in with 7800 yards because he All prod 3 times and ran for 2k 

 

cribbs didn’t do any of that 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Buffalo716

[Buffalo716]

13 hours ago, Buftex said:

He was

Ralph made OJ the highest paid player in the 70s …. Jim the highest paid QB in the 80s…. Bruce the highest paid defensive player in the league 

 

The 90s bills were nicknamed the millions dollar bills because how much he spent … in the 2000s he made Derrick Dockerey the highest paid guard in the NFL, and Mario Williams the highest paid defensive player in NFL history at the time 

 

There were times where he spent his money on the wrong people… But over 50 years he was always willing to spend