Fouts would have benefited from today’s NFL rules
Dan Fouts would’ve enjoyed better Super Bowl odds if the NFL had protected both him and his pass catchers to the rigorous extent the league today shields its quarterbacks and their targets. Despite the efforts of Chargers pass blockers, Fouts and his receivers took ferocious beatings, in no small part because the league’s rules allowed more brutality.
Hits to the head and neck went unflagged. Late hits drew fewer whistles. Spearing with the helmet was OK.
Subjecting Fouts to rougher outcomes, he couldn’t outrun anyone and held the ball to the last moment when necessary. His grit made him a Hall of Famer. Few receivers, if any, were tougher than Fouts’ teammate Charlie Joiner, another Bolts Hall of Famer.
John Jefferson, Wes Chandler and Kellen Winslow? Brave dudes, too, during an era in which the NFL didn’t care if a receiver was defenseless.
The hits took a toll. And logically, the costs mounted deep into seasons. For a pass-happy offense whose QB’s toughness was a badge of honor, today’s NFL bubble wrap would’ve come in extra handy.
I rewatched a few of the “Air Coryell” playoff games and dug into statistics, and it was obvious that in many instances, the offense wasn’t clicking as it wanted. A season’s worth of film on the Chargers’ sophisticated designs may have been a factor, speeding up opposing defenses. But it was for sound financial reasons that, many years later, the NFL began to legislate more protection for the players who throw and catch the passes that fans enjoy watching. Pain and the threat of more of it erodes an offense’s precision.
Fouts contemporary Terry Bradshaw, the large, mobile Steelers Hall of Fame QB, seemed built to both weather and avoid physical abuse with an assist from efficient ground games. Bradshaw put up better statistics in the postseason than he did in the regular season. The inverse held for Fouts and Dolphins Hall of Famer Dan Marino, two brilliant passers confined to the pocket.
Not only were Joe Montana’s agility and Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh’s designs favorable to rollouts, putting Montana on the move spared the 49ers Hall of Famer many hits.
I’d argue the reduced trauma benefited Montana and his targets not only later in their careers but deep into many seasons that culminated in Super Bowl victories.
The entertaining show from
Fouts, Winslow and friends in the 1981 team’s epic playoff victory at Miami — where Fouts threw for 433 yards and three TDs — may have had a few more postseason cousins in the Coryell Era if the NFL had flagged more of the brutality.
QB-protection dividend
As the NFL’s competition committee wanted, the recent AFC and NFC playoffs showcased most of the league’s better quarterbacks.
Most of them still appeared frisky. With Lamar Jackson and Matthew Stafford among the few exceptions, several stars reached the postseason. When the NFL sold another piece of its soul by lengthening the season to 17 games, it also expanded the playoff field. All the more reason to protect the QBs and pass catchers.
Patrick Mahomes put on a show in Sunday’s AFC title game, despite the high ankle sprain he sustained eight days earlier.
Joe Burrow weathered four sacks in the game’s first half. Behind a Bengals line recently deprived of three starters, Burrow still gave his team a fair chance to reach a second Super Bowl in a row. He was playing in his 40th game in 17 months.
The Eagles’ Jaylen Hurts rewarded viewers of the NFC championship game with a winning performance. Hurts, in his second year of starting, survived a rugged season in which he rushed the ball at a high rate.
In the earlier rounds, we saw younger QBs Josh Allen, Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence, plus elder statesman Tom Brady.
The NFL’s still-escalating war on pass rushers lends only so much protection. Philadelphia’s explosive, league-best rush took out rookie Brock Purdy (elbow ligament) on his offense’s sixth snap and Josh Johnson (concussion) in the third quarter.
Five things
• 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan did Johnson (University of San Diego) a disservice by finding him only 22 mop-up snaps during the regular season before having to call upon him Sunday to replace Purdy. A noisy crowd in Philadelphia prevented Johnson from hearing play calls in a timely fashion. Unrelated, Johnson muffed a perfect shotgun snap, leading to an Eagles TD.
• San Diegans cannot relate to Chiefs fans being able to attend the past five AFC championship games at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chargers played just one AFC title match in Mission Valley, losing to the Raiders as a four-point favorite in the 1980 season’s championship. The Raiders picked off two errant Fouts passes into the red zone en route to a 28-7 lead. A lucky carom off a Jim Plunkett pass produced the game’s first TD. Oakland went on to win the Super Bowl, 27-10. The team it beat? The Eagles.
• Memo to Padres owner Peter Seidler: If your team qualifies for the World Series, muzzle your friends at City Hall. Mahomes said he and mates were riled up by the “Mayor of Cincinnati coming after me” last week. Soaring past Les Nessman on the dork scale, Cincy Mayor Aftab Pureval called upon Burrow to take a DNA test to establish whether he is Mahomes’ father, a reference to Burrow’s 3-0 record opposite the Chiefs star.
• Not only are the Eagles 16-3 and favored by 2 points in the Super Bowl, but they also own the No. 10 pick of this year’s draft, courtesy of a complicated trade with the New Orleans Saints. Clever Eagles GM Howie Roseman also holds his original first-round pick.
• Longtime Raiders QB Derek Carr and new Panthers coach Frank Reich would appear to have a lot in common. Why that may matter: Carr is looking to find a new team and the Panthers soon may add a new QB. Both Carr and Reich are devout Christians. Carr has preached at several churches and has spoken of becoming a pastor when he’s done playing. Reich is a former pastor, in addition to being a former NFL quarterback and coordinator.