TOP 10 PERFORMANCES
1) Joe Montana, 49er quarterback, Week 3. Playing its third straight game in the eastern time zone, San Francisco trailed Philadelphia 21-10 with 13:40 to play. Montana had been sacked seven times, he had bruised ribs, and he stood 70 yards from the end zone. In the next 12 minutes, he threw scoring passes of 70, eight, 24 and 33 yards to four different receivers. The Niners won by 10.
2) Flipper Anderson, Ram wide receiver, Week 12. As a rookie in 1988, Anderson caught 11 passes. On this Sunday night in New Orleans, he hauled in 15 for a record 336 yards in a 20-17 overtime win. Nine of the catches, for 195 yards, came after the start of the fourth quarter.
3a) Randall Cunningham, Eagle quarterback, Week 2. Hours after signing the richest contract in NFL history, Cunningham threw for five touchdowns and 447 yards in Washington to lead Philly to a 42-37 victory.
3b) Randall Cunningham, Eagle punter, Week 13. With his team pinned on its own two-yard line and the score tied in a crucial game against the Giants, Cunningham waved punter Max Runager off the field, took the snap near the back of the end zone and put up a 91-yard punt—third-longest in NFL history—to bury New York.
4) Keith Millard, Viking defensive tackle, Weeks 5 and 6. A week after a three-sack, one-interception performance against the Lions, Millard had four sacks against Green Bay. Eight days, seven sacks.
5) John Taylor, 49er wide receiver, Week 14. Never before in 70 years of NFL play had any team scored two touchdowns of 90 yards or more in a game. The Niners did it against the Rams, and Taylor scored both of them, on short slant-in routes that he turned into personal 92- and 95-yard track meets.
6) Jim Lachey, Redskin offensive tackle, Week 12. In '88 Lachey was manhandled by Bears defensive end Richard Dent, who had two sacks and put constant pressure on Washington quarterback Mark Rypien in a 34-14 Chicago victory. A year later Lachey shut out Dent—zero sacks, zero tackles—and Rypien passed for 401 yards in a 38-14 Redskin win.
7) Dave Brown, Packer cornerback, Weeks 12 and 13. Just two months shy of turning 37, Brown had back-to-back two-interception games, against Minnesota and Tampa Bay.
8) Herschel Walker, Viking running back, Week 6. Seventy-five hours after being traded from Dallas to Minnesota, Walker, who had learned 12 Viking plays, saw action on 33 of 68 offensive downs against Green Bay. His day: 18 carries, 148 yards.
9) Mike Merriweather, Viking linebacker, Week 7. At Detroit, Merriweather may have had the best individual game of any defensive player this season: six tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles, one interception, one fumble recovery.
10) Paul McFadden, Falcon kicker, Week 9. Fourteen kickers in NFL history have made two field goals of 50 yards or more in one game. Against Buffalo, McFadden became only the third player to accomplish it twice in a career, booting 54- and 50-yarders in a 30-28 Atlanta win.
PHOTO
JOHN IACONO
Taylor (82) performed superbly in Philly, but his best was yet to come, against the Rams.