Monday’s epic game brought back fond memories for Flores
Like millions of other football fans on Monday night, Tom Flores watched in amazement as the Rams beat the Chiefs in one of the highest-scoring games in NFL. Unlike the rest of us, Flores knows what it feels like to play in a game just like that.
But he was too caught up in the moment to do much reminiscing.
“Well, I thought about it after, but I was just enjoying the game and all
the big plays,” said the 81-year-old Flores, who was the Raiders’ quarterback when they made similar history in 1963. “It was one play after another and you’re saying, ‘My God, this is not possible, it can’t be possible.’ ”
It’s been 55 years since Flores and the Raiders beat George Blanda and the Houston Oilers in a record-setting 52-49 victory at tiny Frank Youell Field on Dec. 22, 1963. In fact, a couple of those records lasting more than five decades were surpassed Monday in the Rams’ wild, 54-51 win over the Chiefs.
Not that Flores minded one bit. He was too mesmerized by the Jared Goff-Patrick Mahomes show and all the plays the Rams and Chiefs were making.
“I said, ‘God almighty, it’s not that your defense is that bad, it’s that everything’s clicking,’” said Flores in
a phone interview Tuesday. “I mean it was amazing what they were doing.
“It was like whoever had the ball last was going to win, and that’s the way it was in 1963 when we played Houston.”
Flores recalled walking to the locker room at halftime that day in ’63 with the score tied at 3535. Just like at the Coliseum, the teams had to squeeze through the same walkway to and from their locker rooms at Youell Field.
“I’m walking next to George Blanda and he’s bitching and moaning, ‘Thirty-five points and we’re tied!’”
Asked what he remembers most about that wild game, Flores didn’t hesitate.
“It was fun!” he said, noting it was then-new coach Al Davis who made all the difference that season as Oakland went from one win in 1962 to 10 wins in 1963. “It was Al’s first season and he changed the philosophy on offense. He put in a lot of innovative motion, the slot formation. Being a quarterback, this was a great offense because it was built on looking for the big play.
“The best change was that (under Al), we were winning,” added Flores, best known as a twotime
Super Bowl-winning Raiders coach.
The combined 105 points the Rams and Chiefs scored Monday is now the third-most scored in NFL history, surpassing the 101 points the Raiders and Oilers scored in their epic AFL contest. (AFL records were recognized by the NFL after the leagues merged.)
All you need to do to recognize how incredible the Raiders’ 1963 victory over the Oilers was is to check out the records set that day before 17,401 fans at the current site of Laney College’s football field.
• The Raiders-Oilers game was the first in professional football history to produce more than 100 points.
• It had the most combined passing yards in AFL history (749), as well as the most combined touchdown passes (11), total yards (1,063) and combined touchdowns (14).
• The Oilers’ 49 points was the most a losing team had ever scored. It was matched by the Giants in their 52-49 loss to the Saints in 2015, before both teams were wiped off the top by the Chiefs’ 51 points Monday in a losing effort.
• Flores threw six TD passes for a record 11 TD throws in consecutive games, a mark that was tied 44 years later by Tom Brady, before finally being broken by
Ben Roethlisberger’s 12 in 2014.
• Raiders receiver Art Powell had a team-record 10 catches for 247 yards and four TDs. The 247 yards receiving remains a Raiders single-game record.
• The victory to close the regular season was the Raiders’ eighth straight, also setting a team record.
The Raiders’ 540 yards set a team record. Incredibly, Oakland’s first first down didn’t come until the second quarter.
“We just scored touchdowns,” Flores said with a laugh.
While it was Oakland’s Mike Mercer who provided the gamewinning points on a field goal to break the 49-49 tie, it was Flores and the Raiders’ passing attack that did the heavy lifting. Flores only completed 12 of his 22 passes, but they went for a whopping 407 yards and six touchdowns. He did all that while trying to evade a ferocious Oilers pass rush that sacked him seven times.
Blanda, who would later work miracles for the Raiders in the ’70’s, was magnificent that day for the Oilers, throwing for 342 yards and five touchdowns. But it was not good enough against those Raiders.
“We did it all kinds of ways. It was a fun game,” Flores said. “Plus, we were finishing up a great season after winning one game the year before.”