Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 43

rm DETROIT FREE PRESS Monday, Oct. 21, '74 I-D orm jLiirng 0 0 0 TIT inally Beat ions' WW WAY I rr" Tl 1 1 If' 'v I aX Vik 2046 (toe 1Mb Lions: Just Like Winning Super Bowl AP Phot Jubilant Rick Forzano savors 20-16 victory as 'his Lions carry him off the field BY JACK SAYLOR Fret Sport Writer BLOOMINGTON, Minn. They said it couldn't be done. But then, they said the Wright Brothers, Lindberg and John Glenn wouldn't make it either, but the Lions flew right by the Minnesota Vikings Sunday. They came from behind with a fourth-quarter touchdown drive, staved off frantic Fran Tarkenton at the finish and romped off with a 20-16 victory before 47,807 fans, so disappointed they turned Metropolitan Stadium into (Bud) Grant's tomb.

Two Altie Taylor TD's, two Errol Mann field goals, 10 Ron Jessie catches, a plethora of Bill Munson passes, some, hard-nosed defense and ultimately a Lem Barney interception. THATS WHAT finally ended the Lions' 13-game losing streak to Minnesota just when it appeared the Vikings had repealed the law of averages. How long has it been since the Lions beat the Vikes? Not since December 17, 1967 which was merely three presidents ago. "Valley of the Dolls" was big at the flicks. "Peyton Place" was big on TV.

Scurvy Miller was on stage at the National, for heaven's sake. "Camelot" was first run, too, but the Lions found theirs in Metropolitan Stadium Sunday. Pandemonium broke loose in the Detroit dressing room just moments after Barney's interception in the end zone had stopped Minnesota's last-gasp effort to pull out the game. "This is the biggest victory I've ever had in my life," exclaimed coach Rick Forzano, shedding water from being thrown in the shower by his team. "I'M SO HAPPY I don't know whether to laugh or cry," said Mann, who had so often in previous Viking games been saddled with goats horns.

"Seven years WOO!" screeched Charlie Sanders, who has borne the brunt of bad jokes from his old University of Minnesota friends here. "I'm really happy for the guys that have been here since 1967," bubbled Paul Naumoff. "This was a long time coming." Only seven Lions Naumoff, Barney, Chuck Walton, Bob Kowalkowski, Larry Hand, Ed Flanagan and the injured Mike Weaver ever knew the sweet smell of victory against the Vikes before. But now, the Vikings have had their five-game winning streak snapped, the Lions have improved to 2-4 and, suddenly, there's a Central Division race again. BLOOMINGTON, Minn.

Is it possible for a team with a 2-4 record to go to the Super Bowl? Yep. If you want to argue with these big brutes on the Lions, be my guest. You go fell Chuck Walton it can't be done. Go tell Jim Yarbrough, Herb'Orvis, Charlie Sanders, Ken Sanders, Charhe Weaver, Ernie Pjfice, Jim Laslavic and all the rest of them. Tell them tbat their 20-16 victory over the Minnesota Vikings Sunday was just one more game in a long season the percentages, if nothing else, finally evening up.

Tell them that but be sure to get yourself a 300-yard start before you They think they can do anything now. New Orleans? Hell, they feel like they can go to the moon and they don't need a spaceship. Just line 'em up now the Packers, Saints, Raiders, Giants line 'em up and they'll knock them over just like the did the Vikings on this startling day in the north country. Watching them carry on in their dressing room, you'd have thought they'd already won it all the division, the playoffs, and the Super Bowl. They had fire in their eyes and vengeance in their voices.

They had to swallow an awful lot, for a long time, against this team, and now this was their moment and they were letting the world know about it. They had waited many years, and now they let their emotions pour out of them as only men who deal in such violence can do. IT DIDN'T LOOK it when Jim Hooks fumbled away the ball at the Viking two-yard line in the first period, voiding the Lions' chance to score first. Munson and Larry Walton had hooked up on a 48-yard pass, then Hooks fumbled and Carl Eller recovered. It looked like the ol' Minnesota jinx-eroo was striking again.

"I fumbled it on the way to the ground, but I really thought the play was stopped," Hooks explained. "But I had no business losing the ball." Instead, the Vikings scored first on Fred Cox's 23-yard field goal at the start of the second period. But this was to be the Lions' day a Bill Munson-to-Ron Jessie Day, if you will. "Our game plan was to test Jackie Wallace (the Vikings' cornerback) and their rookie linebacker (Amos Martin)," Jessie explained. Wallace is a replacement for the injured Bobby Bryant and Martin subbed for Wally Hilgenberg, who has an ankle sprain.

"AFTER THE WAY we tried to nudge it the first time against them, I decided if I was going to the bench, I was going throwing," Munson declared. He looked like John Unitas or Bart Starr even Sid Luckman, at his best. Munson completed 22 of 32 passes for 276 yards and wasn't sacked or intercepted: Jessie caught 10 of those throws for 116 yards and what he termed "my biggest day ever." An 18-yard' completion to Jessie started the Lions on their way to tying the score, which they did on Mann's 36-yard field goal. Alan Page blocked a 48-yard attempt late in the second period, but then strange things started happening things that used to happen to the Lions against the Vikes. Tarkenton, who had an outstanding day himself, took Minnesota to the Lion 32.

Jim Mitchell barreled into him, inducing a fumble and Ernie Price recovered for Detroit at the Viking 45, with just one and a half minutes left. A Munson-to-Taylor screen pass covered 30 yards and with 43 seconds remaining Mann hit a 27-yard field goal for i a 6-3 halftime lead. The Vikes regained the lead at the outset of the third period when Tarkenton, in a third-and-18 situation, found Jim Lash down the sidelines for a 42-yard gainer, setting up Please turn to Page 8D, Column 4 They Came Out Throwing the Ball MUNSON PROVES OTHERWISE They were screaming like a lynch mob, ready to string up the nearest doubter. But as frighting as the scene was it made you understand how they were finally able to turn on their tormentors. They- beat them with precision, certainly; it was a good game plan.

They came out throwing this time and kept on throwing, confusing the Minnesota defenders as they seldom have been confused. They put in some new formations and they had all of their receivers back, especially Ron who did not play in the first-. Minnesota game in Detroit, and they took advantage of the absence" of Wally Hilgenberg, the veteran right linebacker of the Vikings. But more than that, they played with a violence that is usually associated with the Vikings. They matched them thump for thump and kept out-muscling them, making the plays when they had to.

They carried it straight to the most physical team You Can 't Pass on Vikes? Hah! BY JACK SAYLOR Fre Prtsi Sporti Writer BLOOMINGTON, Minn. His blond hair wildly disarray, his body barren of most if his uniform, jut-jawed Bill Munson stood in the Lion lockeroom and savored a moment of glory. Booed by Lion fans like no Detroit quarterback since Milt Plum, often downgraded in the prints, Munson stoicly and patiently told the story of how the Lions dismantled their 13-game losing streak to the Vikings. FALL FASHION SALE felt like it. "if we ek." He didn't gloat and Lord knows he must He even conceded their was some pressure invr "Sure, I think there was pressure on mr lost here we'd be 1-5 and I might not be playi the top items you'll want this fall, at important price reductions THEN THE Lion quarterback, who threw Js in the team's 20-16 victory, related he didn't even feel gud warming up.

"I just didn't know what I'd do today," he continued. "Before the San Francisco game I felt great. I was so pumped up I was even throwing too hard and had to let up. "But in pre-game warmup today, I didn't feel good mentally. I was all tight we wanted to win so bad." A FANTASTIC SALE OF LEATHER COATS FOR JUST 90 in the league and beat them at their own game.

It was a clean victory, no flukes involved, and in the middle of the mad dressing room scene stood the man who was responsible for this whole thing. That was Rick Forzano, who somehow managed to hold this team together all through the uncertain pre-season period (the death of Don McCafferty, the strike, then the rookies playing in exhibition games) and through those first four defeats. They were just awful in the opener against the Bears but Forzano stood there foolhardy perhaps and promised that his team would be heard from before the year was over. He talked about dedication and character and, in a while, that became hard to choke down as their record went from 0-1 to 0-2, 0-3 and 0-4. Forzano Heaps' On the Praise But Forzano kept insisting that this was a special group of players with a special dedication.

Frankly, he sounded as if he was still coaching at the University of Connecticut instead of in the National Football League. Somebody must have believed him because in spite of their terrible start, the Lions kept holding together instead of falling apart as so many teams do when they start off poorly. After losing eight points to the Bears, they lost by one to the Vikings, two to the Packers and three to the Rams. That could have ben enough to break them right there. But when you think back to that fourth loss, to thp Rams on the coast, you remember how they kept executing how they did not become disorganized and it made you think that maybe Forzano wasn't trying to kid anyone, especially himself.

faith was finally rewarded with this powerful performance against the Vikings, a victory richly deserved. "The big thing is that these guys aren't quitters," Forzano said. "I have never seen a group of athletes quite like these. They really believe in each other." Forzano was holding the game ball and squeezing it tighter and tighter as he spoke. "Do you know, what happened after we fumbled on the one-yard line early in the game?" Forzano asked.

The reporters looked at him with blank stares. "Well, I'll tell you the offense came off madder than hell. Nobody was ready to give in and nobody was ready to collapse. They were just fuming at themselves." Now a smile danced on the face of the Lion coach "and guess what the offense was doing near the end when Minnesota was trying to Forzano asked again. Again -he got blfank stares.

"They were standing there on the sidelines yelling, 'Defense! Defense! just like the fans do in the stands. I'll tell you, they are really something else." Forzano said the Lions up here with no thought of jinxes or hexes only playing the kind of ball they believed they could play. "We decided nothing was going to bother us not our hotel accommadations, the food, the plane ride, the long losing streak against them. We were going to go out there and just beat them." The players all came by and shook their coach's hand as he was speaking to the reporters, Forzano's smile broadened. "Now I have to let them have their mustaches and white shoes," he said.

The players had asked Forzano if they could keep their mustaches and wear white shoes but their coach, an old-time disciplinarian, told them only if they could win their opening game. Nobody mentioned it again for a whole month, but late Sunday afternoon the players were all talking about the new look they would soon have. They might even look a little like the Oakland A's, if you can imagine that. Luxurious, supple, beautifully grained leather coats at way less than the market value. Two styles: a double-breasted car coat with wide lapels, western yoke on the front and back, epaulettes, sleeve straps and full belt; and a double-breasted Munson, who has been the regular quarterback, since Greg Landry was injured in the exhibition season, credited (a) his offensive line; (b) team confidence for the Lions' spectacular passing show against the Vikes.

The book says "Thou shalt not pass" against the Viking zone. Hummmmph. Munson compeleted 22 of 32 and only seven were to his running backs. "They were mostly inside routes," explained wide-receiver Ron Jessie, who caught 10 of Munson's passes. "They were backing off and playing to the outside." Then, Jessie, who has signed for next season with the WFL's Birmingham franchise, laughed, "hey, man, I may have to renegotiate with somebody." "Our team is getting great confidence in our passing game," Munson continued.

"It started with the Green Bay game. The offensive line is responsible. If you don't have time, you can't do it." MUNSON DIDN'T get dumped all day and there was no letdown when tackle Rocky Freitas had his bell rung and left for the day early in the second quarter. Gordon Jolley replaced him and Munson even sent Altie Taylor thrusting through his position for the game-winning TD. "We were running off the field after that and he (Jolley) said to me, 'Thanks for having confidence in Munson related.

"Our receivers are good, too. They were in a rut and there was a lotta stuff about them not being able to catch Please turn to Page 8D Col. 1 fingertip length coat with slash pockets, panelled back, sleeve straps and fuM belt. Both in assorted shades, mostly dark; in sizes 36 to 46. A knockout of a buy at just 99.90! BILL MUNSON: 7 was all tight wc wanted to win so 'Lions Played Better'-Bud BLOOMINGTON, Minn.

(AP) Minnesota coach Bud Grant and quarterback Fran Tarkenton agreed Sunday that Detroit earned its 20-16 victory over the Vikings. "Detroit executed very well," said Tarkenton. "They deserved to "Theory is one thing and ex-, ecution another," said Grant. "They played better than we did." Lions 23 29 82 276 3 22-32-0 2-35 3-1 4-45 Vikinqs 25 31-161 210 0 H-30-1 2-311 1-1 2-15 First downs Rushes-vard Passing yards Return yards Passes Punts Fumbles-lost Penalties-yardt DETROIT Minnesota 6 7 3 13 HUGHES HEATC3HEEH Minn FG Cox 23 Det GMann 36 Del FG Mann 27 Minn Foreman 1 run (Cox kick) Det Taylor 1 run (Mann kick) Minn Foreman 9 pass from Tarkenton (kick failed) Det-Taylor I rm Utem kick) STORES OPEN MONDAY EVENINGS (EXCEPT BIRMINGHAM 'Til 5:30).