(12-27-2019, 04:07 PM)The Real Marty Wrote: Here's a candidate for biggest defensive play in team history.   In 1996, we were 8-7, and only needed to beat the 3-12 Falcons to go to the playoffs for the first time.  We led comfortably at the half, but in the second half the Falcons chipped away until we were hanging on 19-17 late in the game.  They had the ball, and they had been throwing a wide receiver screen all the second half and it had been giving us fits.  Time was running out.  They started driving down the field.  We couldn't stop them.  Then from about our 48 yard line, they threw that same WR screen and the WR broke out and was going for the winning TD to knock us out of the playoffs, but somehow, star DE Tony Brackens, in one of the all out hustle plays in team history, ran the guy down and tackled him at about the 26 yard line.  Of course, then Morton Andersen missed that FG and we went to the playoffs.

But without Tony Brackens running all the way downfield and catching that WR from behind, the Falcons would have scored a TD and we would not have gone to the playoffs.  

That is one of the most important, most forgotten defensive plays in team history.   Probably the most important defensive play in team history.

Go to the 1:54:19 mark in the video and you can see it.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0poDsr4R6OA

Go to the end of the game was hear that stadium explode.  Unbelievable.  What a great memory.  I was there.

But, again, the play I am pointing to is where Tony Brackens caught the Falcons' WR from behind and prevented a game-winning TD.