The 1940 National Football League Championship Game: Biggest defeat in NFL history – Part 2
This is the second part of a series of articles discussing the 1940 National Football League Championship Game between the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins, which is widely considered the biggest defeat in NFL history.
At this point, the officials present at the game asked Halas to run or pass for the point-after-touchdown because, frankly, too many balls were being kicked into the stands on field goal attempts.
And great news for the Bears was that there actually were more touchdowns after being ahead 60 points. Gary Famiglietti made the score 67-0 after running two yards for a touchdown. Clarke then came through again with a 1 yard run to make the score 73-0.
So now it is time to take a look at the statistics of the game. The Bears had 17 first downs, 13 of which were rushing and three were passing. They also had one first down from penalties and had a total yardage of an astounding 501 yards. The Bears relied
mostly on their rushing game, attempting only 10 passes, seven of which were completed. Those seven passes yielded 119 yards, making an average of 11.9 yards per attempt and an average of 17 yards per completion. Amazingly, the Bears did just as good with
interceptions, as they had eight pick offs of the Redskins, racking up 117 yards in interceptions alone.
The Bears rushing game was even more incredible. These days, an incredible quarter-back makes about 300 yards or more passing. The Bears rushed for 382 yards, as they attempted 57 rushes, giving an average of 6.7 yards per carry. They also had three penalties
for 25 yards. It’s not to say that the Bears were perfect, as they actually did make a few mistakes. The quarter-backs fumbled twice and lost one of them and they also punted only twice in the entire game for an average of 46 yards per punt.
Not let us take a look at the Redskins stats. The Redskins also had 17 first downs, as four of them were from rushes, 10 were from passes and three from penalties. They had less than half the number of total yards that the Bears did with 245, as most of
their yards were from passing though. The Redskins had almost twice as many passing yards as the Bears with 223.
However, they attempted five times as many passes and completed only 20 of them, giving them a completion percentage of only 31 whereas the Bears completed 70 per cent of their passes. The Redskins had an average of only 4.4 yards per attempt and 11.15 yards
per completion.
The Redskins did not do so well defensively, seeing as they had no interceptions, but they also had only 22 rushing yards out of 14 rushing attempts, an average of 1.6 yards per carry.
The Redskins did, however, rack up penalties quite well, as they had eight penalties for 70 yards and were able to hold onto three of the four fumbles that they made, losing only one. The Redskins also punted three times for an average of 41.3 yards per
punt.
The Bears’ passing leader was Luckman, who completed three passes out of four attempts for 88 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions. That gives him an average of 29.3 yards per completion and 22 yards per attempt. Their backup quarter-back, known
as “Snyder,” completed three out of three passing attempts for 31 yards, making an average of 10.3 yards per attempt. He had no touchdowns.
The remaining article will be discussed in the next parts. Take a look!
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: