Brian wolf wrote:A game I want to collect but cant find, is the matchup between the Niners and Eagles to start the 1983 season. A rare saturday game, due to a scheduling conflict with the pennant winning Phillies, this was a good defensive game at the Stick, with the Eagles shutting down Montana and the offense, with Roger Craig making his debut and Wendall Tyler joining the team(A stupid trade from the RAMS)
Joe Pisarcik led the Birds to victory after relieving Jaworski and a strong game from Mike Quick, who will have a monster season. Had Quick not succumbed to injuries starting in 1988 and stayed healthy his entire career, he and Randall Cunningham might have made the HOF ...
Of course the '83 opener! Swamp Fox's HC-debut with the Eagles. I've mentioned this one a few times here. The first two NFC champs of the '80s who each went 3-6 in the strike-shortened campaign; and get pitted against each other in this opener. Montana also didn't play the whole game, enter Guy Benjamin. Wendell made a late, costly fumble only for the Birds to give it right back! But a miracle Benjamin-to-Clark TD was all for naught due to a holding call. Eagles win and go off to a 4-2 start in which all four wins were on the road. Real playoff-looking but all for naught as well as they would win
just one more game the rest of '83!
In each of Marion Campbell's two other years with Philly as their HC, the Eagles also played San Fran. Not as good a game as they gave the other SB-participant-to-be, Miami, but Eagles didn't do too shabby vs SF either in '84 at the Vet. The score was just 14-9 at the end of three quarters in an eventual 21-9 defeat. The following year they met at the Stick in a battle of 4-4s and Birds didn't give playoff-bound them a bad game either (24-13 at end of three, and the score stayed that way). Both wouldn't meet again until that '89 affair, hence we also never saw a Buddy-vs-Walsh pairing. Remember, their scheduled Week #3 meeting at the Stick in '87 ended up being cancelled.
Back to that '83 opener - if I ever did know that it was a Saturday game, I have since forgot until now. But I never at all knew there was a Phillies scheduling conflict involved. Yes, that pennant run...'83 WS was just like the '01 NBA Finals - Philly takes 'Game 1' on the road then that'd be
it!Yes, Mike Quick...not as strong a case as Sterling Sharpe, but still a case of injuries shortening his career from Canton (as well as, yes, helping to add to Cunningham's HOVG or HOF case).