"Sea of Hands" — 50 years later
A golden anniversary for the Silver and Black and the NFL
Nineteen seventy-four is a year remembered for a number of cultural touchstones. A U.S. president, Richard Nixon, resigned after the Watergate scandal. Patricia Hearst, heiress to the Bay Area newspaper empire, was kidnapped. A French acrobat tightroped across the expanse separating the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
And one of the NFL’s iconic moments unfolded as that year’s calendar hit its last page: The “Sea of Hands” game between the Miami Dolphins and the Oakland Raiders.
December 21, marks the 50th anniversary of that event — which also fell on a Saturday — cited by some as the greatest ever played, won by Oakland, 28-26, and punctuated by a play more memorable from that period than any this side of the Immaculate Reception.
Oakland entered the 1974 playoffs with a 12-2 record and were seen as the favorites to dethrone Miami as NFL champs. The teams squared off in the first round of that postseason.
The two-time defending Super Bowl-winning Dolphins stunned the Raiders out of the gate, when rookie Miami receiver Nat Moore returned the opening kickoff 89 yards for a TD.
Oakland eventually recovered, and in the second half, went ahead when Hall of Fame wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff made a juggling, one-handed catch with Miami corner Tim Foley draped all over him — “I played 15 years, it’s the best catch I’ve ever seen,” said the man who threw him the ball, Oakland quarterback, and fellow NFL Hall of Famer, Ken Stabler.
In the fourth quarter, the two teams traded leads in a manner that kept with their teams’ offensive philosophies. Down 19-14, Stabler went deep to receiver Cliff Branch, who adjusted to the underthrown pass to make a diving catch inside the Miami 30-yard line. Quickly realizing that no Dolphins defender had touched him, Branch got to his feet and sped the rest of the way for a 74-yard touchdown.
The Dolphins responded with a run-heavy drive, culminating with a 23-yard burst around the right end by running back Benny Malone, who shed Raider tacklers along the sideline for the go-ahead score.
The problem for Miami? Malone scored with 2:04 left on the clock. Several Dolphins feared they scored too soon. “When I saw Benny go around the end, I said ’No, Benny, no!,’” Miami QB Bob Griese recalled, only half kidding, “‘Come back! We’ve got to take some more time off the clock.’”
Griese’s instincts proved prescient. Stabler was that era’s master of the two-minute drill. One of the great clutch performers in league history. And what transpired on the final Oakland possession would cement that reputation.
Stabler marched the Raiders downfield against Miami’s “No Name Defense,” perhaps that era’s most disciplined and cohesive unit. Key completions to Biletnikoff brought the Raiders into Dolphins territory. Oakland worked its way to the Miami 8-yard line, where, on 1st-and-goal, with 40 seconds left, a scrambling, sprawling Stabler, with a pursuing Vern Den Herder wrapped about his ankles, floated a prayer towards the end zone. The ball somehow found the hands of Raiders running back Clarence Davis, who fought through three Miami defenders for an indelible moment in NFL history.
The Dolphins got the ball back with little time remaining, but the Raiders’ Phil Villapiano intercepted a Griese pass to seal the victory and end Miami’s NFL dominance.
But the Raiders did not succeed the Dolphins as an NFL standard bearer. One week after the Sea of Hands, the tide went out on the Raiders’ postseason. Oakland lost in the AFC title game to the Steelers, who went on to win the first of four Super Bowls in six years.