NFL Week 16: Lance Moore only needs eyeblack under one eye

For the record, I wrote a pretty good story toward the end of that part of my career about the explosion of offenses in the NFL and how many thought it was going to ruin the game. I got a one-on-one sit-down with a Hall of Fame coach (not Conlin Hall of Fame, the real thing) in one of the better interviews of my life, and he noted that while yes, offenses looked like they were taking over, defenses would find a way to turn it the other way. He made fun of me when he noted that the score of the Monday night game the night before was something like 10-7, but then he gave me everything I wanted for the story.

I had graphics to show the offenses leaving defenses behind, and quotes about how it was going to be like flag football. Everybody was up in arms.

The Hall of Fame coach was Don Shula, and the year was 1981.

 

I must apologize for an egregious error in my post quoted here. I looked up 400-yard games in the Record and Fact Book and the list did not include the 2010 season. That one I had for 2010 was in January 2010 and was part of the 2009 season. In fact, there were 11 400-yard passing games last season. That makes the tally for 2005-2010 39 compared to 36 for 1998-2003. Still hardly an overwhelming difference.