But on third down, the Giants ran a running play. The Eagles had no timeouts, and the Giants could have run out the clock by taking a knee on every play. The Giants took possession of the ball with 1:23 on the clock and a 17–12 lead. Younger generations know Herman Edwards as the former New York Jets coach who once said emphatically and repeatedly during a postgame press conference, 'You play to win the game!' But older football fans know Edwards as the Philadelphia Eagles cornerback whose heroics gave the 1978 Eagles a late-season win over the rival New York Giants. But receiver Dwight Clark was there and made a leaping catch, securing the ball above his head with the tips of his fingers to score the winning touchdown. Under pressure with Cowboys defenders bearing down on him, Montana threw a high pass off of his back foot into the back of the end zone, almost as if he were throwing the ball away to avoid a sack. Montana scrambled, looking for a way out. But the Cowboys were ready for it, and Solomon couldn't get open. Trailing 27–21 in the game's final minute, San Francisco faced third down on the Dallas 6-yard line.Ĥ9ers quarterback Joe Montana called a play for wide receiver Freddie Solomon, a play that the team had run successfully in the first quarter. The NFC Championship Game following the 1981 season pit the Dallas Cowboys, the team that had dominated the NFC in the 1970s, against the San Francisco 49ers, the team that would dominate the conference in the 1980s. San Francisco 49ers, NFC Championship Game, January 10, 1982 He lives outside Nashville with his wife and three children.

Josh Tinley is the author of ' Kneeling in the End Zone: Spiritual Lessons From the World of Sports' and a curriculum editor for Abingdon Press. But like the transcendent moments we read about in our sacred texts, these incredible moments on the gridiron have given people hope and have shown that 'improbable' is not synonymous with 'impossible.' Such miracles remind fans that no lead is too big to overcome, that one play is all it takes to score a touchdown, and that no game is truly over until the clock reads 00:00. Unlike the miracles chronicled in the Tanakh, the New Testament, and the Quran, the following 15 football miracles did not defy the laws of nature (even if some of them appeared to) and were not (as far as we know) the product of divine intervention. Using the word 'miracle' to describe athletes throwing, catching, and running with a ball may seem trite.

Football writers and broadcasters don't shy away from using religious language to describe the game's most memorable moments.

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