Mr. Mediocre, Trent Dilfer, Had a Shining Moment in 2000
Each week I pick one game on the NFL schedule and take you back in time to a memorable prior matchup between the teams. Today it’s Tennessee-Baltimore and we rewind back to 2000 when the Ravens rallied in the final seconds to win, and that was really the start of their push to the Super Bowl.
The whole of Trent Dilfer’s NFL career is the very definition of mediocre, and more than anything, what he’s remembered for most is how he boarded the runaway freight train that was the Baltimore Ravens 2000 defense and rode it all the way to a Super Bowl 35 victory over the New York Giants.
That team, led by Ray Lewis, gave the 1985 Chicago Bears a run for greatest defense in the history of the NFL as it allowed just 188 points in 20 games counting the playoffs. All Dilfer had to do as the quarterback was to not screw things up, and he succeeded.
He took over as the starter for benched Tony Banks in Week 9 and lost 9-6 to the Steelers, then never lost again as the Ravens closed the regular season with seven straight victories before sweeping through four playoff games including a 34-7 romp over the Giants in Tampa Stadium, the place where Dilfer had spent the first six seasons of his career.
His first victory was a ho-hum rout of the hapless Bengals, but in his second start he was confronted with the defending AFC champion Tennessee Titans who had already beaten Baltimore a few weeks earlier at a time when they were both members of the AFC Central before the NFL realignment in 2002.
Although Tennessee would lose only three regular-season games in 2000 and finished a game ahead of 12-4 Baltimore in the division, the balance of power seemed to shift on the afternoon of Nov. 12 when the Ravens pulled out a dramatic 24-23 victory at shiny new Adelphia Coliseum where the Titans had won the first 13 games they’d played since the stadium opened the previous year.
After Baltimore blew an early 14-0 lead, the game was tied 17-17 and the Ravens were driving for the winning score late in the fourth quarter. And that’s when Dilfer did the exact thing he was tasked not to do: Screw things up.
On a second-and-9 from the 21, Dilfer tried to hit Patrick Johnson on a slant from the left, only to see Titans safety Perry Phenix pick it off and return it 87 yards the other way for a touchdown with 2:30 left to play.
“He is always saying the play is over, get the next one, get the next one, or you owe me one,” Johnson said. “He is so optimistic, maybe because he has been through so much. He won’t ever quit.”
Said Dilfer, “I’ve been a sucker on that play a couple of times in my career. You do stupid things every once in a while, but it’s not about mistakes. It’s about overcoming them.”
To his credit, he did. Al Del Greco had missed the extra point so Tennessee’s lead was 23-17. Starting from his own 30, Dilfer quickly found himself in second-and-19 after a couple Baltimore penalties, but he hit Priest Holmes for 14 yards and then lofted a touch pass to Shannon Sharpe who hauled it 36 yards to the Titans 29.
The Ravens caught a break when Qadry Ismail drew a 19-yard pass interference penalty on fourth-and-2 which put the ball on the 2 with 49 seconds to go, and three plays later, Dilfer found Johnson in the front right corner of the end zone to tie game with 25 seconds left, and Matt Stover’s extra point won it.
“What I’ve learned from playing this game is that you never let circumstances around you affect what you do,” Dilfer said. “You have to keep fighting. I’m from the old school. You play as hard as you can until you die out there. You leave everything on the field. I can’t believe something this good happened to me. It’s been such a long time.”
Dilfer, the No. 6 overall pick of the 1994 draft by the Buccaneers, never really lived up to that status during his time in Tampa Bay. He got them to the playoffs with a 10-6 record in 1997, but his overall record as a starter there was 38-38.
He signed as a free agent with the Ravens before 2000, and then was gone shortly after the Super Bowl victory, signing with Seattle where he was mainly a backup for four years before finishing his days in Cleveland and San Francisco. He was 58-55 as a starter with a 55.5 completion percentage with 113 TDs and 129 interceptions.
Again, he was the shining example of mediocre, and 2000 was the perfect microcosm of his career. He finished that regular season with a 59.3 completion percentage, 12 TDs and 11 picks, then completed 47.9 percent with 3 TDs and 1 pick in the four playoff games.
Alas, he didn’t screw it up, and no one can ever take away that Super Bowl ring.
Here are some of the things that I found interesting this morning.
Here’s what the tools over at ESPN had to say about which AFC team currently in the top seven will fall out and miss the playoffs.
From Bills.com, Oishei Children's Hospital made the following announcement on Saturday morning. Following the recent outpouring of support to John R. Oishei Children's Hospital from Buffalo Bills fans across the globe, the hospital has announced plans to launch a new fund to honor quarterback Josh Allen's grandmother. The 'Patricia Allen Fund' will provide ongoing support for hospital patients.
Texans executive Jack Easterby has never expressed an interest or desire to retain the team's general manager position, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, contrary to a report, and has never been in consideration for the job. Furthermore, interim head coach Romeo Crennel is not considered a candidate to remain in that position, with sweeping changes coming to that organization in early 2021.
New Orleans coach Sean Payton struggled with choosing the Saints' starting quarterback for Sunday's game before ultimately deciding to go with Taysom Hill, but multiple players and people within the organization thought Jameis Winston should have been the starter against the Atlanta Falcons, sources told ESPN.
Gino Cappelletti Was a Man of Substance, and Style
Not only was Gino Cappelletti the highest-scoring player in the 10-year history of the AFL, there are some who say he was also the best-dressed.
Cappelletti won five AFL scoring titles between 1961-66, doubling as a receiver and placekicker. He scored 42 touchdowns, kicked 338 extra points and made 170 field goals for an even 1,100 points, 164 more than runner-up George Blanda scored for Houston and Oakland.
And once Cappelletti was through scoring, he would don the league’s best-looking duds, “The most beautiful wardrobe in sports,” Patriots coach Mike Holovak used to say.
One night in 1961, Cappelletti hosted a post-game party after the Patriots game against San Diego. Chargers running back Keith Lincoln showed up, and at the end of the night, he walked out with the nicest pair of shoes in Cappelletti’s jam-packed closet.
Cappelletti got wind of the theft, and as soon as the Patriots arrived in San Diego for the season-ending game that season, he phoned Lincoln in reference to the shoes. Lincoln did not deny the incident and without skipping a beat said, “I’ll buy you a new pair, Duke, I’ve worn these out.”
Cappelletti was one of the AFL’s great success stories. He had been a blocking back at the University of Minnesota, and upon graduation, he spent five unsuccessful years trying to break into the NFL.
In 1959, he was earning $80 a week as a bartender in his brother’s Minneapolis club and playing in a city touch football league when he heard that the AFL was starting operations.
“I had just about given up my hopes,” Cappelletti said. “The AFL gave me my final chance to make it.”
And he made it. Cappelletti became one of only three players – Blanda and Jim Otto were the others – to play every week of the AFL’s existence, a total of 140 games in 10 years. In fact, on Sept. 9, 1960 when Boston and Denver met in the first AFL game, Cappelletti’s 35-yard field goal in the second quarter was the first score in the league’s history.
“At the time I didn’t have the luxury of thinking I had made history by scoring the first AFL points ever,” said Cappelletti. “We didn’t have much time for history. We were concerned about surviving. I knew that if I messed up that first kick, I might not get a chance to try another.”
Cappelletti began his Boston career as a defensive back, but he was too slow-footed to cover the league’s slick receivers, so coach Lou Saban switched him to wide receiver because he had good hands.
Cappelletti wasn’t a deep threat, but he ran precise routes, caught the ball when it came his way, and he was not averse to blocking downfield for Boston running backs such as Larry Garron and Jim Nance.
His primary asset, though, was his right foot.
Among his scoring titles, he set the league record for points in 1964 with 155 including one game against Denver when he six field goals.
In 1965, the scoring crown came down to the final game of the season, and Cappelletti – despite being dogged by the flu – trailed Buffalo’s soccer-style kicker Pete Gogolak by 11 points. The day before, Gogolak had been blanked, so the door was open for Cappelletti and with the help of his teammates, he produced a remarkable 28-point effort during a 42-14 victory over Houston.
‘‘In the huddle in the first quarter he leaned over and told me, ‘Babe, don’t be looking for me, these guys are playing me tight, throw to someone else,’’’ recalled Patriots quarterback Babe Parilli.
Cappelletti, always the team player, said at the time: ‘‘I knew the guys were conscious of the points situation. But I just wanted Babe to call his normal game and not give any special attention to me.”
Parilli chose not to listen to the advice, throwing scoring passes of 26 and 57 yards to Cappelletti, and Cappelletti also kicked four field goals and four extra points.
That 28-point day still stands as the Patriots’ single-game scoring record, and his 42 career touchdowns are still tied for eighth-best in team history.
Cappelletti, who was the color analyst on Patriots’ radio broadcasts from 1980 to 2012, was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1992, and he is also a member of the AFL’s all-time team.