82 Skins-NO & Guido Merkens

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Bryan
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Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2014 8:37 am

82 Skins-NO & Guido Merkens

Post by Bryan »

Watching the only QB start of Guido Merkens' career...things of note:

*The projected starter at QB for NO was Dave Wilson, who got injured in preseason. Bum Phillips traded away Archie Manning at the start of the regular season and brought in Ken Stabler. Toward the end of the regular season Stabler got injured, so Guido Merkens ended up starting against Washington. It was said that Bobby Scott came out of retirement to be the Saints backup QB, but Scott never saw action so I don't know how the NFL handles that in terms of service time.

*So, the Redskins had the best record in the NFL of 6-1, had won like 14 of their last 18 games, yet were only 3 point favorites against a team with Guido Merkens at QB.

*Merkens' statline wasn't good (9-24-104 1 INT) but things were really against him. The Redskin pass rush was on him every play (especially Dexter Manley). There was one 3-play sequence where NO was backed up on its own goalline, and Merkens had to dive out of the end zone every play just to avoid a safety. The Saints pass targets were the slowest in the NFL (Groth, Lindsay Scott & Hoby Brenner at TE) and there were numerous drops of easy passes.

*Saints offense spent most of the 1st half in a power-I formation, which was fairly ineffective yet kept being used. The whole game saw the Saints in 2 and 10 or 2 and 9 situations. It was mentioned the Saints had success with the Power I the previous week against Dallas, but against Dallas they had George Rogers (he sat out the Redskins game).

*Joe Theismann made a few good throws and a few dumb plays. He turned the ball over twice inside the 10, once on a fumble at the 2 when he was barely touched. This kept NO in the game. A weird play occurred when Charlie Brown was out of bounds, the ball hit off of Johnnie Poe near the sidelines, and Brown came back inbounds to catch the ball and run for a TD. The announcers still didn't understand the rule even after the ref explained it to the crowd. Although, admittedly, I don't think I've ever seen that sequence of events happen before.

*Despite the score (27-10), the Saints defense looked pretty tough. Rickey Jackson and Bruce Clark stood out. Joe Washington was the feature RB this game, and aside from a brilliant 40-yard run late in the game, he was smashed on every play. Gibbs' pass offense was impressive; there were open receivers on every play.

*Ending with Merkens, he took a beating, had some good scrambles, and never left the game. He was on Bum Phillips' Oilers teams, got cut, and Phillips acquired him for NO. I read somewhere that Phillips initially signed Merkens with the Oilers after seeing Merkens dominate in a recreational softball game. Not sure if that is true. Over his career, Merkens compiled stats in almost every category. After retiring, he came back as a replacement player in 1987 to be a QB with the Eagles. The one game he saw action was against the Bears...he went 7 of 14 for 70 yards and was sacked an incredible 10 times for 62 yards in losses. Merkens had 3 rush attempts for -8 yards. So, 24 dropbacks and 3 rushes for exactly 0 total net yards.
Gary Najman
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Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:24 pm
Location: Mexico City, Mexico

Re: 82 Skins-NO & Guido Merkens

Post by Gary Najman »

Merkens was one of my favorite players of the late 70s-early 80s. i remember him catching a TD pass (the only Oilers TD that day) in a 1979 blowout at Pittsburgh, and he played a lot in special teams (he also changed his number from 29 to 12). With the Saints he became a starting WR in 1981 and also there his first NFL pass and (as you said) started at QB the following season. In 1983 he also filled as the punter in the crucial game against the Rams in the last week of the season for a chance to the wildcard spot.
BD Sullivan
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Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2014 1:30 pm

Re: 82 Skins-NO & Guido Merkens

Post by BD Sullivan »

Available on YT
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