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Intro
Alex Smith: Playoff hero. Didn't see that one coming. Vernon Davis, winner? Turns out his old coach was wrong. Saturday's epic win by the 49ers had all kinds of twists and turns, some new roles for some veteran players, and best of all, one of the greatest 4th quarter drives in NFL playoff history.
Ok. You made it to the playoffs. You want a cookie? Don't be the player or team that's just happy to be there. The Vince Lombardi Trophy comes at a price. A lot of guts, a little glory, a hint of luck, and, on occasion, a dash of 4th quarter game winning drive. From Joe Cool to Captain Comeback to tucks, ghosts, and tip-toes, too, here are the 20 greatest 4th quarter drives in NFL history.
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Written by Richard Boadu for @6Magazine
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Sanchez's comeback over the Colts
20. Sanchise Player
Game: New York Jets @ Indianapolis Colts (AFC Wild Card)
Date: 1/8/2011
Score Before Drive: 16-14, Colts
Score After: 17-16, Jets
Because he plays in the largest media market, Mark Sanchez was given the nickname Sanchise before he earned it. That's not to say he hasn't had his moments. With 53 seconds left in a road playoff game in just his second season, Sanchez led the Jets down the field, completing three clutch passes to set up a game-winning field goal to knock Peyton Manning and Adam Vinatieri out of the playoffs. Next thing you know though, dude's rocking white jeans. SMH.
Favre to Sterling Sharpe
19. It's Pronounced "Fav-ruh?"
Game: Green Bay Packers @ Detroit Lions
Date: 1/8/1994
Score Before Drive: 24-21, Lions
Score After: 28-24, Packers
Rule No. 1 of playing quarterback: Don't throw the ball across your body. Rule No. 1 of coaching: Don't screw with out-of-this-world talent. Brett Favre never got the QB memo and no coach was stupid enough to correct him. Remember when the Detroit Lions were division (they called it the Central then) champs, and the Packers were lowly Wild Card entrants? Well, Favre had bombs and we're not talking Funk Flex. We're talking pigskin on a line for 51 yards to Sterling Sharpe with 55 seconds left for a touchdown to culminate Favre's first playoff game winning touchdown drive. Fast forward a few years and rule No. 47 about dong pics? Yeah, everyone needs to heed that.
Sea of Hands
18. Sea of Hands
Game: Miami Dolphins @ Oakland Raiders (AFC Divisional Round)
Date: 12/21/1974
Score Before Drive: 26-21, Dolphins
Score After: 28-21, Raiders
Not sure who the snake was in the Bible, but Kenny Stabler is a snake you can trust. The Raiders quarterback led the Silver and Black from their own 32 yard line with 2 minutes to play to set up an epic busted play. On 2nd and 4 from the Dolphins 8, Stabler was forced to scramble left and threw the ball as he was tripped from behind. The ball floated like a shotput and miraculously landed in Clarence Davis' hands with three Miami Dolphins players draped over him.
Ghost to the Post
17. Ghost to the Post
Game: Oakland Raiders @ Baltimore Colts (AFC Divisional Round)
Date: 12/24/1977
Score Before Drive: 31-28, Colts
Score After: 31-31
It was the fourth longest game in NFL history, John Madden was the Raiders head coach, and there was a snake and a ghost on the field. Your snake is Raiders quarterback Kenny Stabler, your ghost is Raiders tight end Dave Casper. The two hooked up for Ghost to the Post, the 42-yard pass play that helped send the game into overtime. In the second OT, the seemingly mythological but every bit Trill combo hooked up again for the winning touchdown.
Greatest show on Turf postponed
16. The Greatest Show on Turf Plays Small Ball
Game: Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ St. Louis Rams (NFC Championship Game)
Date: 1/23/2000
Score Before Drive: 6-5, Bucs
Score After: 11-6, Rams
The Greatest Show on Turf was postponed for much of this game because of the famed Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Tampa 2 defense. The Rays led the Cards 6-5 in the 9th the Bucs led the Rams 6-5 late in the 4th until Warner found Ricky Proehl in the the front corner of the end zone for the game's lone score. The Bucs and Shaun King (yes, that Shaun King) might've had their own 4th quarter comeback were it not for a Bert Emanuel catch being ruled incomplete. The league would later change the rule discounting catches where the ball touches the turf while in the receiver's possession.
Patriots over Panthers
15. Patriots over Panthers
Game: New England Patriots vs. Carolina Panthers (Super Bowl XXXVIII)
Date: 2/1/2004
Score Before Drive: 29-29
Score After: 32-29, Patriots
Repetition is the father of learning you say? Well, learning had twins named Tom Brady and Adam Vinatieri. These two know all about know all about game winning drives because they were behind the Tuck Rule game and Patriots first ever Super Bowl victory. So it's no surprise that Brady led the Pats down the field in the nick of time to get in Vinatieri's range for him to kick the game winning field goal for the Pats to win their second Super Bowl in three years.
Roger Staubach '72 Comeback
14. The Birth of Captain Comeback
Game: Dallas Cowboys @ San Francisco 49ers (NFC Divisional Round)
Date: 12/23/1972
Score Before Drive: 28-13, 49ers
Score After: 30-28, Cowboys
The Original Captain Comeback, Roger Staubach was riding the bench early in the 4th quarter down 15 points when Cowboys head coach Tom Landry called him into the game. To talk about one drive would be like picking which child you loved the most, but Staubach led the 'Boys to three scores, including two touchdowns in the game's final two minutes, and walked away with the victory that launched the legend of Captain Comeback.
T.O. Redemption Catch
13. The Catch T.O.
Game: Green Bay Packers @ San Francisco 49ers (NFC Wild Card Round)
Date: 1/3/1999
Score Before Drive: 27-23, Packers
Score After: 30-27, 49ers
As great a wide receiver Terrell Owens was, he dropped a lot of passes in his career. In this NFC Wild Card game, he dropped four. But Steve Young didn't care how many times he dropped the ball because he kept throwing it to him. After engineering a drive that started on his own 26, Young threw a skinny post to Owens with 8 seconds left that T.O. caught between two bone-crushing hits from Packers defenders. And then Owens started crying. #rememberwhenTOwaslikeable?
Alex Smith
12. Who You Calling the Worst?
Game: New Orleans Saints @ San Francisco 49ers
Date: 1/14/2012
Score Before Drive: 32-29, Saints
Score After: 36-32, 49ers
San Francisco history for 300 Alex. Who was the quarterback, considered an historic bust, who lead the 49ers down the field twice in the last five minutes of the 4th quarter to give the 49ers their first playoff win in nine seasons? You are correct!
Tuck Rule
11. The Tuck Rule
Game: Oakland Raiders @ New England Patriots (AFC Divisional Round)
Date: 1/19/2002
Score Before Drive: 13-10, Raiders
Score After: 13-13
University of Michigan alums Charles Woodson and Tom Brady will forever be linked because of this game. Woodson forced a fumble, er, incomplete pass by Brady with a 1:43 seconds left and the Raiders up 13-10. The Patriots kept marching and tied the game with an Adam Vinatieri field goal in regulation and won it with another Vinatieri field goal in overtime.
Immaculate Reception
10. The Immaculate Reception
Game: Oakland Raiders @ Pittsburgh Steelers (1972 AFC Divisional Round)
Date: 12/23/1972
Score Before Drive: 7-6, Raiders
Score After: 12-7, Steelers
Down 7-6 and staring 4th and 10 in the eye on your own 40 yard line with 22 seconds left is nothing nice. That's exactly what the Pittsburgh Steelers were facing when Terry Bradshaw threw a bullet of a prayer that was answered by Italian football Jesus. Bradshaw's pass ricocheted off either Oakland Raiders DB Jack Tatum or Steelers RB John Fuqua (or both, although Raiders fans would note that if it touched just Fuqua, the subsequent catch would be illegal) and ended up in Franco Harris' hands as he flew down the sideline for the score and Pittsburgh win.
The Catch
9. The Catch
Game: Dallas Cowboys @ San Francisco 49ers (1981 NFC Championship Game)
Date: 1/10/1982
Score Before Drive: 27-21, Cowboys
Score After: 28-27, 49ers
Joe Montana was born June 11, 1956 in New Eagle, Pennsylvania, but Joe Cool was born January 10, 1982 in San Francisco when he led the 49ers 89 yards down the field to defeat the Cowboys with one of the dopest drives and plays of all time.
Bart Starr sneak
8. The Block
Game: Dallas Cowboys @ Green Bay Packers (NFL Championship)
Date: 12/31/1967
Score Before Drive: 17-14, Cowboys
Score After: 21-14, Packers
The nickname of the defining play of the '67 Ice Bowl is "The Block," and it's fitting. Before the game winning play, the drive Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr put together showed he was cool in below freezing temperatures, driving the Pack 47 yards to the Dallas 1 yard line. On the final play, 3rd and goal, with the mercury reading -20, offensive linemen Jerry Kramer and Ken Bowman made the key blocks that allowed Starr to sneak into the end zone. The Packers went on to defeat the Oakland Raiders in an afterthought game called Super Bowl II.
Peyton Finally Defeats Brady
7. Manning Defeats Brady (Finally)
Game: New England Patriots @ Indianpolis Colts
Date: 1/21/2007
Score Before Drive: 34-31, Pats
Score After: 38-34, Colts
Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl but at least he got to play in one. For the first 8 years of Peyton Manning's career, he had never sniffed a Super Bowl because of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. With 2:17 left on the clock in the 4th quarter of the AFC Championship, Manning marched his team 80 yards down the field for the go ahead score to secure his trip to the Super Bowl.
First Hail Mary
6. The First Hail Mary
Game: Dallas Cowboys @ Minnesota Vikings (1975 NFC Divisional Round)
Date: 12/28/1975
Score Before Drive: 14-10, Vikings
Score After: 17-14, Cowboys
I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary, is what Roger Stabauch told reporters after he heaved a 50 yard pass to Drew Pearson as the Cowboys defeated the Minnesota Vikings 17-14 with 24 seconds left on the clock. And thus was coined the now ubiquitous term for a last minute long pass. Good thing he didn't go with, "I closed my eyes and said, 'Hail Satan'," huh?
Santonio Holmes tip toe
5. Holmes' Tip Toe
Game: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Arizona Cardinals (Super Bowl XLIII)
Date: 2/1/2009
Score Before Drive: 23-20, Cardinals
Score After: 27-23, Steelers
Santonio Holmes grew up in Muck City, Florida where they chase and catch rabbits! What, you thought he wasn't going to catch that bullet from Ben Roethlisberger traveling 60 mph for the game winning touchdown? FOH. Big time players step up in big games. Santonio Holmes caught 9 balls for 131 games and 1 touchdown — 4 balls, 73 yards and the touchdown came on the game-winning drive.
Joe Montana to John Taylor
4. Montana to Taylor
Game: San Francisco 49ers vs. Cincinnati Bengals (Super Bowl XXIII)
Date: 1/22/1989
Score Before Drive: 16-13, Bengals
Score After: 20-16, 49ers
John Taylor was Jerry Rice's Scottie Pippen and Joe Montana did what he did best which was kick Bengal ass in a Super Bowl. Backed up on their 8 yard line with 3:10 left go, Montana led the 49ers all the way down field for the go ahead score 10 yards out to John Taylor for the 16-13 49er victory.
The Helmet Catch
3. The Helmet Catch
Game: New York Giants vs. New England Patriots (Super Bowl XLII)
Date: 2/3/2008
Score Before Drive: 14-10, Pats
Score After: 17-14, Giants
David Tyree's helmet is the reason we have to suffer through Rodney Harrison on Sunday Night Football. Had it not been for Tyree's helmet, Harrison would have gone down in history as the man who saved the Patriots undefeated season. Harrison would be on the retired NFL players autograph circuit. But thanks to Tyree's helmet and Plaxico's double move on the flag route for the winning touchdown, the Giants have one of the greatest drives in NFL playoff history and Sunday Night Football has Rodney Harrison.
Don't listen to John Madden
2. Don't Listen to John Madden
Game: St. Louis Rams vs. New England Patriots (Super Bowl XXXVI)
Date: 2/3/2002
Score Before Drive: 17-17
Score After: 20-17, Pats
Who listens to John Madden? Bill Belichick doesn't. Backed up inside his own 20 yard line with 1:30 left in the Super Bowl with a tie game, a second year quarterback, and no timeouts, Belichick rolled the dice, contrary to the advice of Madden, who said the Pats should play for overtime. (Of course there's no way Belichick could know that's what Madden was saying. Wait, could he?) His quarterback, Tom Brady, was on the money as he led the Pats down the field and Adam Vinatieri hit the Super Bowl XXXVI jackpot as the Patriots won their first ever Super Bowl.
The Drive
1. The Drive
Game: Denver Broncos @ Cleveland Browns (1986 AFC Championship)
Date: 1/11/1987
Score Before Drive: 20-13, Browns
Score After: 20-20
98 yards. 98 yards and five minutes and five excruciating seconds were all it took for John Elway to become a sports pariah in Cleveland. Elway was poetry in chain moving motion as he lead the Broncos 98 yards to the first of two Denver-Cleveland cataclysms in two seasons. Want to make a Clevelander mad? Say "LeBron James." Want to make a Clevelander fight? Say "John Elway."