The Raiders Sneak in and Surprise Philly in the Dome

The Philadelphia Eagles were the team of 1980. Quarterback Ron Jaworski led his team to a 12-4 record and received many awards as the best player that year. He often went to tall receiver Harold Carmichael and Wilbert Montgomery was the running force behind this machine that annihilated Minnesota in the playoffs and Dallas in the NFC Championship.

Over in the conference originally known as the AFL league built largely by Raiders owner Al Davis, there was a growing slogan that would become Raiders lore … it was “just win.” Just win is what the Raiders did in 1980. They were not always impressive and they even lost 5 games that year, but they entered the playoffs as a wild card team and became the first non-division champion to win a conference title. Defense helped them stun Houston in the playoff game. The famous end zone interception by safety Mike Davis saved the day in the divisional playoff game when Browns quarterback Brian Sipe almost became famous. In the AFC Championship game, the legend of “just win” grew even stronger when aging quarterback Jim Plunkett three touchdowns.

So here I sat watching pre-game Super Bowl hype one day in my fraternity house as a sophomore at Loyola University when somebody walked up to me and asked, would you like two tickets to today’s Super Bowl? After slapping myself to make sure I was awake, I jumped out of my chair, gave him $50 for the two tickets, drove to the Superdome two hours before the game with no traffic, parked in the Superdome garage parking, and enjoyed 50-yard-line seats? Some football God was looking out for me that day, and probably wanted me to develop an MPI some day. This is still to this day the only Super Bowl I ever watched in person and the seats are still the best I have ever had in almost 40 years of attending games.

Almost as interesting as attending the game was the pre-game practice held by the Eagles at our indoor Loyola University field house. I could not believe my eyes when I went in to play a basketball game and saw Ran Jaworski tossing passes to Harold Carmichael three feet from my nose. Coach Dick Vermiel walked up to me and said enthusiastically, “how are you doing son?” What a week it was!

The Eagles entered the game as a three point favorite during a time when Philadelphia sports dominated in baseball, hockey, basketball and football. How they wish those days would return today! Oakland’s Jim Punkett was dangerous, but still a minority thought he could win the big one. I always thought it was amazing how Plunkett finally made it happen so late in his career after so many futile years with the Patriots.

On the official scoreboard this game was not close. Oakland scored on their first drive when Plunkett found Cliff Branch on a two yard throw. He later found Kenny King on an 80 yard touchdown pass and the raiders led early 14-0. The dagger to the Philly heart came in the third quarter when a Plunkett passing drive set up a 29 yard touchdown pass again to Branch. These were the key scores and Oakland won easily 27-10.

The MPI analysis shows that this game was actually a little close in terms of actual performance than the scoreboard might indicate. Still, the Raiders outperformed the Eagles on the total MPI score (.523 to .471) and won as well in 5/7 MPI categories. Most impressive was the way the Plunkett led Oakland offense totally exploited the Eagles defense (.570 to .434) while the Oakland defense also prevailed but just barely (.496 to .485). The Eagles were actually better in this game in two categories of performance: pressure defense (.542 to .500) and special teams (.529 to .486). The Raiders held on in total pressure (.517 to .467) and pressure offense.

Take together it is not surprising that Jim Plunkett received the MVP award. He was just awesome with his control of the team, carefully executed plays and precision. Running back Mark Van Eeghen was impressive too with 75 yards. This game will always be remembered as the first time a wild card team won the Super Bowl, that “just win” philosophy, and Jim Plunkett’s “better late than never” performance after finally sealing the deal after so many years of nothingness. 

Congrats Raiders and See Jim Plunkett Video


The MPI or Mental Performance Index is the first system of scoring  developed in sports which includes in the scoring key mental factors such as pressure management, reduction of mental errors and focused execution. It was developed by licensed clinical and sport performance psychologist Dr. John F. Murray in 2002 to show the extreme importance of mental factors in sports. It is much more accurate than the final score and other statistics in showing how one team performed relative to another team. It has almost perfectly estimated the relative performance of the teams before each of the past 5 Super Bowls. Dr. Murray's MPI forecast has also beaten the official Super Bowl spread 4 out of 5 times now. He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, and the forecast has also appeared in hundreds of articles. Why all the focus, energy and interest in this topic? Because it so clearly demonstrates the importance of mental factors in sports. For more information about the MPI or Dr. Murray's services, please call 561-59-9898 or send an email to: johnfmurray@mindspring.com