Nov. 8, 1964 - The Vikings romped to a 24-0 halftime lead then contented themselves to smother the 49ers’ sluggish offensive efforts until the closing minutes in claiming a 24-7 victory today before a crowd of 40,408 at Metropolitan Stadium. (Pictured below, Minnesota defensive end Jim Marshall tackles halfback Billy Kilmer.)
The Vikings have won football games by beefier margins but never more quickly and never with less suspense. By the time it was a minute old, they led 7-0 and 2½ minutes later, 14-0.
Fran Tarkenton drilled 17 complete passes in 25 attempts for 234 yards, and the Viking defense deflated the 49er passing game and — while the game still meant something — stopped the 49er run game with eight yards in the first half.
For the Vikings, it was a milepost on two counts. The victory was their fifth of the season — matching their total production of 1963 with five games remaining — and the unexpectedly heavy attendance thrust their Met Stadium gate for the season to 242,349, surpassing the previous record by more than 200 with one game still remaining — against the Rams Nov. 29.
Afterward, Tarkenton was asked if there had been any team resolve among the Vikings to redeem last week’s 42-13 rout by Green Bay.
“Individually, I think each of us told himself something about the rest of the season,” Fran replied. “We know we have things to play for this year. We have five wins now; we have five games left. We played with a purpose today — nothing dramatic. We just promised a few things to ourselves.”
In the other locker room, John Brodie, San Francisco’s starting quarterback, was blunt. The former Stanford star threw only eight completions in 26 attempts — one of his bleaker days in the NFL. “When you get kicked around like we did today,” he said, “you can’t be very happy about anything. Our offense isn’t worth a damn, and our defense isn’t much better.”
To compound Brodie’s misfortunes, his competition at quarterback, George Mira, came in during the fourth period and fired a 79-yard scoring pass to Dave Parks.
Asked his opinion of sharing the job with the Miami rookie, Brodie restrained himself and replied: “You’re not going to get me involved in any controversy like that. I was awful today, and I’ll just let it go at that.”
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