1980 Steelers 38 vs Bears 3

[mcmillenandwife]

1980 Steelers 38 vs Bears 3

Roger Staubach provides the color commentary for this game and it's easy to understand why this career move didn't last long. "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?" LOL. This matchup features a fantastic 4-TD performance by Terry Bradshaw (12 of 19 for 217 yds, 4 TD, 1 Int while nursing sore ribs and leaving the game midway through the 3rd period) plus hat tricks by Jim Smith (3 TD on 6 rec. for 131 yds) and Mike Wagner (3 Int). This is a pretty brutal butt-kicking, folks. Aside from their opening drive, Chicago never really threatens to score again and the Steelers (who are already injury-plagued this early in the season) just pour it on. Even Cliff Stoudt, who sees his first regular season action in this game, throws a TD pass. The great Walter Payton gets off to a fairly strong start (32 yards on his first 4 carries) but also coughs the ball up twice and is soon facing a 24-0 deficit and never gets a real chance to showcase his talent. Meanwhile, Mike Phipps shows why he washed out in Cleveland before being knocked out and replaced by Vince Evans, who throws 3 interceptions in just 7 attempts for a whopping 1.8 QB rating. Features postgame comments from Roger Staubach and Frank Glieber and scoring updates from around the league.

[Guest]

These Bears were a classic example of a team that couldn't sustain success.

A surprise postseason team in 1979, expectations were high.

But they never really recovered from their opening day loss when Chester Marcol scored a wacky TD on a blocked field goal.

Yes, they swept a decent Detroit team and lost some close games, but you felt they were basically trying to jog uphill.

The way Pittsburgh blasted them on defense was an example of how Chicago couldn't sustain success from the prior year.

[Garrett Garlits]

Don't be too hard on Staubach. I don't think he was fully over the concussion he got from L.C. Greenwood that had ended his career just the year before. Not that he'd have been any great shakes in the booth regardless, but there was more going on than just incompetence. That's why he was paired with a veteran like Frank Glieber, who was the preseason voice of the Steelers on TV for at least one year in the seventies (I wish I knew which one for sure).

[danderson400]

Don't be too hard on Staubach. I don't think he was fully over the concussion he got from L.C. Greenwood that had ended his career just the year before. Not that he'd have been any great shakes in the booth regardless, but there was more going on than just incompetence. That's why he was paired with a veteran like Frank Glieber, who was the preseason voice of the Steelers on TV for at least one year in the seventies (I wish I knew which one for sure).

Frank Glieber seemed to do a lot of Cowboys games back in the day for CBS, Garrett?

[Vaughn_Doofus]

That was a very good game. This is the first time I have seen the end of this game. The network switched to some other game in my area after the score got out of hand.

[mcmillenandwife]

That was a very good game. This is the first time I have seen the end of this game. The network switched to some other game in my area after the score got out of hand.

Frank Glieber at one point says that former Viking Alan Page (who is playing for the Bears in this game) has "7 QB traps." WTF is an QB trap??? 

Also of note, this was the most productive game of major draft disappointment Greg Hawthorne's career. Hawthorne, Pittsburgh's #1 pick in 1979, coughs up the ball early but finishes with 39 yds rushing and 54 yds receiving (94 total yds). Hawthorne, while talented athletically, was a weird pick for the Steelers to begin with, and they never seemed quite sure what to do with him. After he failed to materialize as an NFL RB, he was moved to WR for a while, and New England even moved him to TE for a season. One of the bigger draft busts in Steeler history.

[Garrett Garlits]

Trap was an old-fashioned term for sack, most likely. Glieber had been doing games since before the term "sack" was widely used; remember, the sack wasn't an official stat until 1982.

To answer a question from earlier in the thread, Glieber was the radio voice of the Cowboys off and on throughout the sixties and seventies. I think he even bounced back and forth between CBS and the Cowboys during the season a one point, doing Cowboys radio when CBS didn't have a game for him. He was full-time at CBS by 1980, and was used by the network to break in all of the supposed hot new analysts they signed. Staubach was one of his failures, but John Madden also started out with him, as did Dick Vermeil, who was Frank's last NFL partner before he died of a heart attack in 1985.