Sept. 13, 1964 - The Vikings struck the startled Baltimore Colts with a cavalry charge that shook the club’s record books today and produced a 34-24 victory in their NFL opener at sun-smitten Metropolitan Stadium in Minnesota.
The score did not suggest that it was a physical rout, but it was, by any measurement.
Unfolding an offense that for diversity and pure muscle was unmatched in the club’s four-year history, the Vikings stampeded the Colts on the ground from start to finish and, when necessary, slickered them through the air.
And while this was transpiring, the Vikings’ defense snagged Johnny Unitas’ passing carnival on all but a handful of plays, smothered the Colt ground game, and penned Unitas (pictured with Minnesota’s Rip Hawkins) inside the Baltimore 30 most of the game.
It was a victory unexpected in its thoroughness, despite the Vikings’ five-game exhibition sweep, and it enchanted a record Met Stadium opening-day crowd of 35,563.
This was advertised as a match between Fran Tarkenton and Unitas, and the plumes went uncontestably to Tarkenton.
The 25-year-old Georgian butchered the shifting Colt defense with his split-second play changes at the line of scrimmage, flung touchdown passes of 48 yards to Bill Brown and six yards to Paul Flatley, and generally conducted the game in a style that fulfilled the judgment of his old-pro coach, Norm Van Brocklin, that “Tarkenton truly is becoming one of the great quarterbacks.”
In pro football’s era of glamorous passing games, Met Stadium has never seen such consummate mastery of the art of moving a football on the ground.
From the moment Tommy Mason stepped inside the blitzing Colt linebackers to streak 51 yards to score, the Vikings gouged and hammered the Colts, accumulated 313 yards on land, and eventually piled up 463 yards in total offense, both Viking records.
“You have to establish a running game if you want your passing game to work,” Tarkenton explained afterward. “With a running game, our line is beating them up all the time and wearing them down. Sooner or later, this gives us an advantage with our pass blocking.
“But don’t let anybody kid you — [Gino] Marchetti and [Ordell] Braase are as great as ever with their blitzing,” added Tarkenton, who was caught only twice in the backfield by the onrushing Colt ends.
“We didn’t run, and we messed up on crucial plays, and our defense just couldn’t stop them,” lamented Colt coach Don Shula in the quiet Baltimore dressing room. “What a position to be in. Here we are just starting, and we are in a hole. They’re a good club. You can’t take that from them, but — oh, what’s the use? We just didn’t play a good game.”
Shula lauded Tarkenton, stating: “He did a fine job. He is quick and hard to hold in the pocket.”
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