Super Bowl XVIII - Washington Redskins vs Los Angeles Raiders January 22nd 1984 Highlights

MVP RB Marcus Allen

[@jjb1908]

People talk about the Marcus Allen run in this, but how about the fact that this Washington team was the highest scoring offense in the league and the Raiders defense held them to only 9 points. That famous Marcus Allen play happened in garbage time

[@JayDogTitan-he6wo]

As a Raider fan I did pick the Raiders to win SB XVIII but I didn't think they would dominate the Redskins like this, These were two of the best teams in SB history.

[@jjb1908]

I must say. Your defense was impressive in this. This Washington offense was the highest scoring in the league and your defense held them to only 9 points. They deserve way more credit for this game

[@greganderson1445]

I was in the 7th grade during this SB. These were the down years for my cowboys. We are in another drought😢. But I was going for the Raiders.

[@ericmccaulley5008]

"They handed our asses on a silver tray, and the tray was bent." -Joe Theisman

[@jayNicks10]

John Madden is still the winningest coach in Raiders history, but Tom Flores won them 2 Super Bowls in 4 years.

[@glenmcclure9883]

As a Redskins fan and Washington native, this is the most devastating sports loss EVER! 😕

[@ckendall67]

Washington was vying for a 2nd straight Super Bowl win but the Raiders more than denied them that & then some.

[@aledaandytaylor2613]

I’m a Washington redskins fan, and this loss to the raiders pretty much sums the last 30 years of terrible redskins football 🏈

[@thomascatification]

Marcus Allen was like a cat down near the goal line -- he could wiggle his way through the smallest of holes.

[@jonathanaceves1032]

Raaaaaiderssss

[@ThatBrothaBill]

8:06 Redskins FINALLY tackle M Allen...and tackle themselves dolp! Yeah it was that kind of day as The Raiders D was on a whole 'nother level. One had to figure that this might happen seeing the skins beat LA rams 51-7 or something like that and The Raiders said oh no you don't! Boy, talk about coming down off a high jeez.

[@timlevis3630]

Do you remember the NFC Championship when the 49ers put up 21 points on the skins in the 4th quarter? Give all the credit to the Raiders but the cracks were starting to show.

[@cjs83172]

@@timlevis3630 And there were cracks in that defense all season long, but the offense was so dominant that it usually didn't matter. In their two regular season losses, both of which were Monday night games, they blew a 23-0 lead to the Cowboys in one of them and somehow lost a game in which they scored 47 points in the other one. They had also allowed 35 points to the Raiders in their regular season match-up, 28 of which were on the defense, including a 99-yard Plunkett-to-Branch TD pass. They even had trouble beating a Fouts-less Chargers team on a Monday night. The surprise wasn't that they gave up 38 points to the Raiders (who were without Marcus Allen in the regular season match-up), but rather that they couldn't do anything on offense themselves. I believe a major factor in that was the fact that, not only had the Raiders acquired Mike Haynes in the middle of the season, but they had also blown out the Air Coryell Chargers twice by the combined score of 72-24. Playing the Chargers twice in the season's final three games had to have gotten them prepared for the Redskins in SB XVIII, since the Redskins used much of what Don Coryell used on offense (Joe Gibbs had been Don Coryell's offensive coordinator prior to joining the Redskins in 1981).

[@kel9855]

@@cjs83172 The Redskins passing defense was last in yardage allowed, 4th last in TD allowed. That's why it's called the Pearl Harbor Crew. Of course, after letting Montana come back from 21-0 down to tie the game, the weakness of the secondary was fully exposed. One thing I didn't understand then, yet still don't understand to this day. Why didn't the Redskins run the counter-gap more? It's their bread-and-butter running play. Yet I kept seeing Riggins running up the middle, to be stopped by Reggie Kinlaw and the linebackers.

[@cjs83172]

@@kel9855 Because the Raiders had that covered, too. On the play directly preceding Marcus Allen's 74-YD TD run, Riggins was stuffed on a 4th-and-inches by LB Rod Martin. Because their cornerbacks could cover the Redskins' WRs one-on-one, they could put a safety up on the line of scrimmage (often Mike Davis), so the Redskins would have had to deal with 8 on running plays, not 7. The Redskins' offensive line was simply outmanned because the Raiders could bring up that eighth defender to stop the run, knowing Lester Hayes and Mike Haynes had the WRs covered. That's one reason I believe playing and easily defeating the Chargers twice in the final three games of the regular season (42-10 in San Diego and 30-14 in Los Angeles) played such a role in what happened in Super Bowl XVIII, because as potent as they were, not even the Redskins' WRs could match the explosiveness of Joiner, Chandler, and Winslow at the TE spot. The Raiders were essentially playing against the same offensive scheme they had seen and easily defeated twice at the end of the season, but without the TE threat the Chargers possessed. When the two teams played during the regular season, Mike Haynes was not on the Raiders' roster, so the Redskins had a place to go with their passing game on the opposite side of where Lester Hayes was, and the Raiders couldn't put that eighth defender near the line of scrimmage on running plays to stop Riggins.

[@russbeard3665]

Loved this beat down!!!!