Longest Down and Distance

Do you like the rare and hard to find gridiron records? How about some odd football fun facts on the perhaps the longest down and distance situations in football? In this edition we cover some of the longest in history.

There have indeed been some teams that have really placed themselves in some truly impossible situations on offense. Here are a few of the longest down and distances ever recorded in NFL history.

Ray Rice Converts 4th and 29  against the Chargers 11/25/2012

The Baltimore Ravens were in a tough spot in 2012. With just 1:59 to go in the fourth quarter Baltimore trailed by three points on their own 37-yard line, and held the ball in a 4th and 29 yards to go situation. Punting wasn’t an option, they needed to score. You would think that the Ravens offense would draw up something clever to get a wideout open downfield. That wasn't what they did. QB Joe Flacco went through his reads and then dumped a short pass to runningback Ray Rice who defied gravity and San Diego defenders on his way to reaching the line to gain and kept the Ravens drive alive. Baltimore ended up kicking the tying FG and won it in OT.

Oakland Raiders: 3rd and 48 against the Kansas City Chiefs 10/13/2013

Everytime the Chiefs and Raiders play each other, football fans know that there is going to be some excitement. When the 6-0 Kansas City hosted the visiting 2-4 Raiders in the midst of the 2013 season things got a little weird. How did they get to that point? Here is the way that USA.com article that day described the sequence.

"A holding call on first down nullified the play and set up the Raiders with a 1st and 20. On the next play, Terrelle Pryor was sacked for a 12-yard loss. A delay of game on second down pushed the Raiders back to 2nd and 37. Pryor was then sacked again, leading to the 3rd and 48."

Yeah the Raiders had the ball on their own 12 yard line after starting near mid field. KC won the contest 24-7.

New England Patriots: 4th and 63 against the Dallas Cowboys 10/24/1971

Fourth down and 63 yards to go? Are you kidding me. Now that is truly a bad situation for a team to be in. Okay here is how it happened. Yahoo.com posted a story a few years back explaining the sequence of plays that led to this Patriots misfortune when visiting Rexas Stadium.

"Down 27-7 late in the second quarter, Patriots rookie quarterback Jim Plunkett, the No. 1 pick in the draft that spring, got the team going with a 23-yard pass to Randy Vataha to the Dallas 38-yard line. But the momentum quickly was stunted. Historically stunted, in fact. Plunkett was sacked on the next three plays — for losses of 8, 11 and 12 yards."

The worst part is that the Patriots punt traveled only about 39 yards, and the Cowboys scored just two plays later on the short field. Final score Dallas 44, New England 21.

Many claim this the worst situation, but we may have found one just a tad bit worse, in fact mind-numbingly worse.

Pittsburgh Steelers 4th and 74 at Oakland 10/25/1970

The Pittsburgh Steelers in 1970 had a rookie QB named Terry Bradshaw under center when the visited the Raiders for a game on October 25, 1970. Down late, Bradshaw started to lead the Steelers on a great drive. At least it started off great. The Blonde Bomber connected on passes to give Pittsburgh three quick badley needed first downs. Then the wheels fell off for the Rookie.

With first and goal from the Raiders 34, Bradshaw took a 13 yard loss on a sack from Cline and Keating of the Black and Silver. On second down, Pittsburgh's Preston Pearson took a short pass for a 12 yard gain but a Pittsburgh player was caught clipping and the play came back with yardage walked off. An incomplete pas changed the down with no gain. Bradshaw then seemingly overcame the advsersity and threw a TD pass that was soon called back for offensive holding it was now. The next play an intentional grounding call went against TB 12 and the ball was suddenly at the Pittsburgh 9! Punter Bobby Walden boomed punt large of 55 yards but it was still almost 20 yards of the sticks!

26 Oct 1970, Mon Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com 

Do you have a long down and distance situation that we didn't share that has a good story to it? Share it with us via email PigskinDispatch@gmail.com and you may see it or hear it on a future episode.