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:starspin Sackmaster Bubba Baker's amazing rookie season By Tom Danyluk
Sept. 5, 2005
In 1982, the NFL finally cried uncle and recognized the quarterback sack as an individual statistic. Team totals and records had been on the books since 1963 — "Yards Lost Tackled Attempting to Pass" was its clunky original name — but credit had never been assigned to specific players in the official tallies.
"The sack was never meant to be an individual record," says Seymour Siwoff of the Elias Sports Bureau, the league’s statistical arm. "It’s the result of a whole defensive unit working together to get the quarterback. We never felt one player should be given all the credit."
That all changed as the league’s coffers began to swell and players demanded a bigger piece of the money pie. Individual statistics were increasingly being wrapped into player payout. Agents were becoming more creative in their contract demands. Clauses … incentives … bonuses … It was the onset of the "Me" generation.
"I’ll never forget this," says Siwoff. "One time I ran into [former Raiders executive] Al LoCasale, back around 1981. I said, ‘Al, I don’t get it. I’m getting all these phone calls about statistics, guys calling me up griping about one yard on special-teams play, things like that. Why are they doing this?’ "
"Bonuses," he said. "More and more contracts have performance clauses tied into them. And it’s not going away."
And so, suddenly, the individual sack category was created.
Here’s a sample of what you’ll see if you inspect the league’s official sack records today:
Most Sacks, Game — 7.0 (Derrick Thomas, Kansas City vs. Seattle, 1990)
Most Consecutive Games, Sack — 10 (Simon Fletcher, Denver, 11/15/92 – 9/20/93)
Most Sacks, Season — 22.5 (Michael Strahan, NY Giants, 2001)
Most Sacks, Rookie, Season — 14.5 (Jevon Kearse, Tennessee, 1999)
(Footnote: Sacks have been compiled since 1982)
And up in the stone tower, locked away like the Man in the Iron Mask, are the old time warriors, legendary sackers like Deacon Jones and Jack Youngblood and Alan Page. "Impostors!" they cry. All day they pace, back and forth, wearing a path in the granite as their pleas for justice go unheard. It’s the footnote that makes them crazy.
"Since when does the ‘all-time’clock start ticking in 1982?" bellows The Deacon.
Historians have credited Jones with a whopping 173½ career quarterback sacks; the NFL officially recognizes none of them. Youngblood’s 151½ are nowhere to be found. Same with Page’s 148½, most ever for a defensive tackle. Allegedly.
"I don’t know why the league is so averse to expanding the time frame for its sack data," says John Turney, a researcher who’s leading the efforts to complete the record books. "All the information is there. The NFL’s play-by-play sheets are available as far back as 1960."
"But understand that 1982 wasn’t some arbitrary line in the sand," says Siwoff. "There is no conspiracy against the great players of the past. We created the individual sack statistic only because so many contracts were being tied into it. We had no choice. ’82 was the year the league finally forced our hand."
Another mega-sacker who’s been frozen out of the record books is Al "Bubba" Baker, the former Detroit Lions/St. Louis Cardinals defensive end who, as a rookie in 1978, terrorized pass pockets with his explosive burst and devastating rip move. His sacks came in swarms that year, as many as five a game, and by season’s end, Baker had a stack of 23, an effort that surpasses both the recognized Kearse and Strahan totals listed above.
"Baker was smart, a pass rusher with a plan," says Turney. "He took great pride in studying his opponents. He understood their weaknesses."
A former basketball player at Colorado State, the 6-foot-6 Baker was the Lions’ No. 2 draft pick in ’78 and became the special project of legendary defensive line coach, Floyd Peters. The Detroit pass rush — Baker, along with Doug English, John Woodcock and Ken Sanders (later Dave Pureifory) — erupted for 55 sacks that year and became a surprising force in the trenches of the NFC.
So as a preseason salute to those great sackers of the past, those who missed the 1982 cut-off date, I’ve put together a game-by-game recap of Baker’s colossal rookie campaign.
"But before you write anything," Baker says, "make it known that none of this would’ve happened if it weren’t for Floyd Peters. Floyd made me. He pushed me farther than I ever thought I could go. He taught me the art of pass rushing. No Floyd Peters, no Bubba Baker.
"I was not a fast player. The fastest I ever ran the 40 was 5.01 seconds. But I was quick, and Floyd helped me take advantage of that. His mantra was always, ‘Get off the ball,’ meaning get off on the snap. In practice he’d paint the ball green so it would blend in with the turf. That made us concentrate even harder on the snap. Then on game day the damn ball would look like a balloon."
So with a well-deserved nod to Peters in mind, let’s go back to 1978 and take a look at one of the greatest single-season rampages in the history of defensive football.
Game 1, vs. Green Bay — The only sacks on this day belonged to the Packers, eight of them. A price had been put on Lions QB Gary Danielson’s head — 10 bucks a man, most sacks wins — so the Packer rush went crazy and nearly put him in the hospital. DE Ezra Johnson took the bounty with five.
New head coach Monte Clark had been hired to put some mettle into Detroit’s offensive line, but things were off to a bad start. "All I could think about was my first season as offensive line coach in Miami," he said afterward. "In our first game against New England, we thought we’d made some progress. Then they got eight sacks on our offensive line. I had to go to the hospital."
Meanwhile, Detroit’s pass rush was never able to get on track; Green Bay QB David Whitehurst flipped only nine passes all day, six coming on play-action. Baker’s total: 0 sacks
Game 2, at Tampa Bay — Nearly a third of Baker’s sacks in ’78 would come against the rickety, talent-starved Buccaneers. The Tampa quarterbacks this day were Mike Boryla and Gary Huff, and they got murdered — six completions and seven sacks between them.
"Their left tackle was Dave Reavis, a former Steeler," says Baker, "He was a great drive blocker, strong, but somewhat top-heavy. The key was getting a long first step on him, then getting upfield. I could do that because sometimes Reavis was just a hair late coming off the snap count."
After the game, a 15-7 Lions victory, Clark came up with a nickname for his emerging defensive line. "It’s the Silver Rush," he said. It was a knockoff on the old 49ers "Gold Rush" moniker, but the fans in Detroit loved it anyway. "You’d see it all over the place," says Baker. "On T-shirts, bumper stickers …" Baker’s total: 3 sacks
Game 3, vs. Chicago — "The Bears were not a passing team in those days," remembers Baker. "Second-and-7 was a running down to them. It was all Walter Payton and a bunch of short screens or dumps or draw plays. You never had a chance to get to their quarterback unless you had a big lead and it was mop-up time." Chicago in a snoozer, 19-zip. Baker’s total: 1 sack
Game 4, at Seattle — You’ve seen those nature shows, where the killer whale comes ashore to hunt seals then finds a nice plump one he likes. But before eating the animal he whacks it around and flips it in the air and treats it like a furry beach ball.
That was the Detroit pass rush against Jim Zorn, the Seahawks’ diminutive quarterback. For three quarters the big whale pounded him. It hunted him down and hurried his throws and sacked him five times. Dinner was almost ready.
But then they let him get away. The Lions’ pass rush faded, and Zorn killed them with three late touchdown throws to put things away, 28-16.
The Detroit press wasn’t kind to Seattle after the game. They wrote about the city’s lousy weather and high suicide rate. One writer called the Kingdome a big toadstool. The Lions were now 1-3, and everybody from the visitors’ side just wanted to get out of there. Baker’s total: 2 sacks
Game 5, at Green Bay — One way to neutralize a young hotshot pass rusher is to run right at him, take advantage of his aggressiveness. Let him line up wide, snorting and all itchy to burn around that tackle, then shoot a couple of sprint draws his way ... then some play-action passes … a trap or a sweep, here and there. Pretty soon his head is spinning, and the mind games have begun.
That was the Packers’ plan in this rematch — 221 yards of Green Bay rushing, with Terdell Middleton tearing off 148 of them, and an efficient day from Whitehurst. It was never a contest. 35-14, Pack. Baker’s total: 0 sacks
Game 6, vs. Washington — Baker says this particular contest changed his opinion of quarterbacks forever.
"I developed a disdain for them that lasted for 13 years, and that’s because of Joe Theismann. God, he was a genius at play-calling, the quintessential quarterback. But he was also a guy I wanted to hit, starting in the pregame warm-ups.
"Two reasons: First, he was always performing during the game, running his mouth, carrying on a conversation. Second, that damn head bob of his.
"He’d come up to the line … ‘We’ve really got ourselves a game today, don’t we gentlemen? Set … hut one … hut two …’
"Then the head bob — BOOM! I’d fall for it all the time. He’d just look over at me and wink.
" ‘Gotcha, Bake.’ " Baker’s total: 1 sack
Game 7, at Atlanta — "Mike Kenn was their rookie left tackle, one of the first 6-foot-5, 285-pound types who would use basketball moves against a rush. My goal was to make their feet move, to make them prove they were agile, so I’d line up extra wide, and they’d use that long slide step to beat me outside. Then I’d charge right at ’em with the arm-under rip and those long legs would get all tangled up.
"But that was the only big game I really had against Mike Kenn. He became the best tackle I ever faced, technically perfect. Kenn was No. 1, Anthony Munoz second, Jim Lachey third." Baker’s total: 2½ sacks
Game 8, vs. San Diego — "Sometimes my sacks would come in bunches — one, two, even three in a short period of time. You’re working on that tackle play after play, and he’s getting tired. You’re wearing him down; then he finally breaks.
"That would probably never happen if I was playing today. Wanna know why? One reason — TV timeouts. They’re getting too many breaks out there now. There’s too much time for your guy to recover." Baker’s total: 3 sacks
Game 9, at Chicago — "[Bears OT] Ted Albrecht was my nemesis, one of those strong, compact types like the Steelers used to have. I’d come at Albrecht with the rip move and POW! He’d fire out with both hands, the punch, and just knock me back. Man, did that hurt. He’s the reason I started wearing that neck brace for all those years.
"By the way, the best punch in the business belonged to the Steelers’ Jon Kolb. He’d hit you with those hands, and you’d just feel it for days. You’d lie in bed at night and your legs would start shaking and quivering." Baker’s total: 0 sacks
Game 10, at Minnesota — "I really only have one regret as a player," Baker admits, "and that is, in my prime, never having an offense that could get us the lead, that could get some early points on the board, then let our defense go to work."
The Lions ran only 50 plays; the Vikings ran 80. Pureifory caught QB Fran Tarkenton with a helmet to the mouth and blew out three of his caps, But by the fourth quarter it was Tark’s offense that would sit back and watch the defense go to work. 17-7, Minnesota. Baker’s total: 2 sacks
Game 11, vs. Tampa Bay — The keynote game of Baker’s season-long frenzy. "I’ll tell you another little secret about Dave Reavis," he says. "He had an obvious weakness. You’d watch his hand, where he positioned it on the ground. Arm fully extended — it’s a driving run block; hand just a bit farther behind the line, he’s coming up to pass-protect.
"It’s funny. I was watching a tape of that game the other day, and the announcers kept talking about how fast I was, and I just laughed. It was all smoke and mirrors. Nothing more than me getting off the ball quicker than Reavis. And the Tampa coaches never did bring anybody over to help him out." Baker’s total: 5 sacks
Game 12, at Oakland — "I was absolutely petrified going into that one," says Baker. The Raiders would throw a trio of Hall of Famers at the rookie, starting with monster OLT Art Shell. The left guard was Gene Upshaw. Then they’d occasionally swing over TE Dave Casper, a fine blocker, for an extra hammer. Call it "The Canton Package."
"I had some success getting upfield on Shell a few times early in the game," says Baker. "Then he must have went back to the huddle and told them, ‘He’s ready.’
"I came out firing on the next play, and Shell just stepped aside. BOOM! Upshaw was right there waiting to blast me." Baker’s total: 1 sack
Game 13, vs. Denver — Former 49ers coach Bill Walsh once said that a pass rush, late in the game, is the key to NFL football.
"And we were conditioned for that," says Baker. "We always ran simulated two-minute drills in practice, rushing against a hurry-up offense so, when it occurred during a game, we were already used to it. Floyd had us prepared for those kind of situations, both physically and mentally."
In a Thanksgiving battle against the defending AFC champion Broncos, Detroit needed every bit of that rush. Six sacks rattled QB Craig Morton, and a final Denver scoring drive was thrown back, preserving a 17-14 upset for the Lions. Baker’s total: ½ sack
Game 14, at St. Louis — Here’s another interesting quote, this one from Cedric Hardman, the old 49ers defensive end, on rookie pass-rushing sensations:
"Your first year in the league? Sure, you can catch ’em by surprise. But if you establish the fact that you’re going to get to the quarterback, they begin to stop you. Different things begin to happen to you, and you begin to find out just how good you really are. It’s the beginning of double-teaming.
"Then they start doing other interesting things to you, like putting the tight end on your side, just to break your concentration. Or they’ll pull the center out of the line and hit you from that angle. Now, can you still get the quarterback after being double-teamed, triple-teamed and sometimes quadruple-teamed?"
The Cardinals’ line was full of cagey old pros, some of the best in the business. The Lions’ rookie sack artist spent the day in school. Baker’s total: 0 sacks
Game 15, vs. Minnesota — This was the kind of runaway affair Baker said he wished he had been a part of more often. Danielson and the offense caught fire early, and by halftime Detroit had control of things, 28-7. Then the defense flipped the switch marked "heavy pressure," and the Silver Rush came in waves and made Tarkenton play catch-up. One of his late throws was returned for a touchdown.
"To have a big lead, says Baker, "when you know they’re throwing on every down, man, we were like sharks in the water." 45-14, Lions. Baker’s total: 1 sack
Game 16, vs. San Francisco — We’re getting near the end, and that’s a good thing ’cause I’m really running out of ’78 Lions vignettes. They put the knockout crunch on QBs Steve DeBerg and backup Scott Bull, then spent the rest of the afternoon chasing around a water bug named Freddie Solomon — a wide receiver — who the Niners slipped in as their third-stringer.
Detroit routed San Francisco to end a ho-hum 7-9 season, but their flashy, new rookie had caused quite a stir. Baker was named the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year and received All-Pro honors across the board. He and Earl Campbell were the only rookies in Pro Bowl uniforms that year. A great story wrapped inside a season long forgotten.
Since they drew that line in the sand back in 1982, there are still a lot of those stories left to be told. Baker’s total: 0 sacks
Sept. 5, 2005
"The sack was never meant to be an individual record," says Seymour Siwoff of the Elias Sports Bureau, the league’s statistical arm. "It’s the result of a whole defensive unit working together to get the quarterback. We never felt one player should be given all the credit."
That all changed as the league’s coffers began to swell and players demanded a bigger piece of the money pie. Individual statistics were increasingly being wrapped into player payout. Agents were becoming more creative in their contract demands. Clauses … incentives … bonuses … It was the onset of the "Me" generation.
"I’ll never forget this," says Siwoff. "One time I ran into [former Raiders executive] Al LoCasale, back around 1981. I said, ‘Al, I don’t get it. I’m getting all these phone calls about statistics, guys calling me up griping about one yard on special-teams play, things like that. Why are they doing this?’ "
"Bonuses," he said. "More and more contracts have performance clauses tied into them. And it’s not going away."
And so, suddenly, the individual sack category was created.
Here’s a sample of what you’ll see if you inspect the league’s official sack records today:
Most Sacks, Game — 7.0 (Derrick Thomas, Kansas City vs. Seattle, 1990)
Most Consecutive Games, Sack — 10 (Simon Fletcher, Denver, 11/15/92 – 9/20/93)
Most Sacks, Season — 22.5 (Michael Strahan, NY Giants, 2001)
Most Sacks, Rookie, Season — 14.5 (Jevon Kearse, Tennessee, 1999)
(Footnote: Sacks have been compiled since 1982)
And up in the stone tower, locked away like the Man in the Iron Mask, are the old time warriors, legendary sackers like Deacon Jones and Jack Youngblood and Alan Page. "Impostors!" they cry. All day they pace, back and forth, wearing a path in the granite as their pleas for justice go unheard. It’s the footnote that makes them crazy.
"Since when does the ‘all-time’clock start ticking in 1982?" bellows The Deacon.
Historians have credited Jones with a whopping 173½ career quarterback sacks; the NFL officially recognizes none of them. Youngblood’s 151½ are nowhere to be found. Same with Page’s 148½, most ever for a defensive tackle. Allegedly.
"I don’t know why the league is so averse to expanding the time frame for its sack data," says John Turney, a researcher who’s leading the efforts to complete the record books. "All the information is there. The NFL’s play-by-play sheets are available as far back as 1960."
"But understand that 1982 wasn’t some arbitrary line in the sand," says Siwoff. "There is no conspiracy against the great players of the past. We created the individual sack statistic only because so many contracts were being tied into it. We had no choice. ’82 was the year the league finally forced our hand."
Another mega-sacker who’s been frozen out of the record books is Al "Bubba" Baker, the former Detroit Lions/St. Louis Cardinals defensive end who, as a rookie in 1978, terrorized pass pockets with his explosive burst and devastating rip move. His sacks came in swarms that year, as many as five a game, and by season’s end, Baker had a stack of 23, an effort that surpasses both the recognized Kearse and Strahan totals listed above.
"Baker was smart, a pass rusher with a plan," says Turney. "He took great pride in studying his opponents. He understood their weaknesses."
A former basketball player at Colorado State, the 6-foot-6 Baker was the Lions’ No. 2 draft pick in ’78 and became the special project of legendary defensive line coach, Floyd Peters. The Detroit pass rush — Baker, along with Doug English, John Woodcock and Ken Sanders (later Dave Pureifory) — erupted for 55 sacks that year and became a surprising force in the trenches of the NFC.
So as a preseason salute to those great sackers of the past, those who missed the 1982 cut-off date, I’ve put together a game-by-game recap of Baker’s colossal rookie campaign.
"But before you write anything," Baker says, "make it known that none of this would’ve happened if it weren’t for Floyd Peters. Floyd made me. He pushed me farther than I ever thought I could go. He taught me the art of pass rushing. No Floyd Peters, no Bubba Baker.
"I was not a fast player. The fastest I ever ran the 40 was 5.01 seconds. But I was quick, and Floyd helped me take advantage of that. His mantra was always, ‘Get off the ball,’ meaning get off on the snap. In practice he’d paint the ball green so it would blend in with the turf. That made us concentrate even harder on the snap. Then on game day the damn ball would look like a balloon."
So with a well-deserved nod to Peters in mind, let’s go back to 1978 and take a look at one of the greatest single-season rampages in the history of defensive football.
Game 1, vs. Green Bay — The only sacks on this day belonged to the Packers, eight of them. A price had been put on Lions QB Gary Danielson’s head — 10 bucks a man, most sacks wins — so the Packer rush went crazy and nearly put him in the hospital. DE Ezra Johnson took the bounty with five.
New head coach Monte Clark had been hired to put some mettle into Detroit’s offensive line, but things were off to a bad start. "All I could think about was my first season as offensive line coach in Miami," he said afterward. "In our first game against New England, we thought we’d made some progress. Then they got eight sacks on our offensive line. I had to go to the hospital."
Meanwhile, Detroit’s pass rush was never able to get on track; Green Bay QB David Whitehurst flipped only nine passes all day, six coming on play-action. Baker’s total: 0 sacks
Game 2, at Tampa Bay — Nearly a third of Baker’s sacks in ’78 would come against the rickety, talent-starved Buccaneers. The Tampa quarterbacks this day were Mike Boryla and Gary Huff, and they got murdered — six completions and seven sacks between them.
"Their left tackle was Dave Reavis, a former Steeler," says Baker, "He was a great drive blocker, strong, but somewhat top-heavy. The key was getting a long first step on him, then getting upfield. I could do that because sometimes Reavis was just a hair late coming off the snap count."
After the game, a 15-7 Lions victory, Clark came up with a nickname for his emerging defensive line. "It’s the Silver Rush," he said. It was a knockoff on the old 49ers "Gold Rush" moniker, but the fans in Detroit loved it anyway. "You’d see it all over the place," says Baker. "On T-shirts, bumper stickers …" Baker’s total: 3 sacks
Game 3, vs. Chicago — "The Bears were not a passing team in those days," remembers Baker. "Second-and-7 was a running down to them. It was all Walter Payton and a bunch of short screens or dumps or draw plays. You never had a chance to get to their quarterback unless you had a big lead and it was mop-up time." Chicago in a snoozer, 19-zip. Baker’s total: 1 sack
Game 4, at Seattle — You’ve seen those nature shows, where the killer whale comes ashore to hunt seals then finds a nice plump one he likes. But before eating the animal he whacks it around and flips it in the air and treats it like a furry beach ball.
That was the Detroit pass rush against Jim Zorn, the Seahawks’ diminutive quarterback. For three quarters the big whale pounded him. It hunted him down and hurried his throws and sacked him five times. Dinner was almost ready.
But then they let him get away. The Lions’ pass rush faded, and Zorn killed them with three late touchdown throws to put things away, 28-16.
The Detroit press wasn’t kind to Seattle after the game. They wrote about the city’s lousy weather and high suicide rate. One writer called the Kingdome a big toadstool. The Lions were now 1-3, and everybody from the visitors’ side just wanted to get out of there. Baker’s total: 2 sacks
Game 5, at Green Bay — One way to neutralize a young hotshot pass rusher is to run right at him, take advantage of his aggressiveness. Let him line up wide, snorting and all itchy to burn around that tackle, then shoot a couple of sprint draws his way ... then some play-action passes … a trap or a sweep, here and there. Pretty soon his head is spinning, and the mind games have begun.
That was the Packers’ plan in this rematch — 221 yards of Green Bay rushing, with Terdell Middleton tearing off 148 of them, and an efficient day from Whitehurst. It was never a contest. 35-14, Pack. Baker’s total: 0 sacks
Game 6, vs. Washington — Baker says this particular contest changed his opinion of quarterbacks forever.
"I developed a disdain for them that lasted for 13 years, and that’s because of Joe Theismann. God, he was a genius at play-calling, the quintessential quarterback. But he was also a guy I wanted to hit, starting in the pregame warm-ups.
"Two reasons: First, he was always performing during the game, running his mouth, carrying on a conversation. Second, that damn head bob of his.
"He’d come up to the line … ‘We’ve really got ourselves a game today, don’t we gentlemen? Set … hut one … hut two …’
"Then the head bob — BOOM! I’d fall for it all the time. He’d just look over at me and wink.
" ‘Gotcha, Bake.’ " Baker’s total: 1 sack
Game 7, at Atlanta — "Mike Kenn was their rookie left tackle, one of the first 6-foot-5, 285-pound types who would use basketball moves against a rush. My goal was to make their feet move, to make them prove they were agile, so I’d line up extra wide, and they’d use that long slide step to beat me outside. Then I’d charge right at ’em with the arm-under rip and those long legs would get all tangled up.
"But that was the only big game I really had against Mike Kenn. He became the best tackle I ever faced, technically perfect. Kenn was No. 1, Anthony Munoz second, Jim Lachey third." Baker’s total: 2½ sacks
Game 8, vs. San Diego — "Sometimes my sacks would come in bunches — one, two, even three in a short period of time. You’re working on that tackle play after play, and he’s getting tired. You’re wearing him down; then he finally breaks.
"That would probably never happen if I was playing today. Wanna know why? One reason — TV timeouts. They’re getting too many breaks out there now. There’s too much time for your guy to recover." Baker’s total: 3 sacks
Game 9, at Chicago — "[Bears OT] Ted Albrecht was my nemesis, one of those strong, compact types like the Steelers used to have. I’d come at Albrecht with the rip move and POW! He’d fire out with both hands, the punch, and just knock me back. Man, did that hurt. He’s the reason I started wearing that neck brace for all those years.
"By the way, the best punch in the business belonged to the Steelers’ Jon Kolb. He’d hit you with those hands, and you’d just feel it for days. You’d lie in bed at night and your legs would start shaking and quivering." Baker’s total: 0 sacks
Game 10, at Minnesota — "I really only have one regret as a player," Baker admits, "and that is, in my prime, never having an offense that could get us the lead, that could get some early points on the board, then let our defense go to work."
The Lions ran only 50 plays; the Vikings ran 80. Pureifory caught QB Fran Tarkenton with a helmet to the mouth and blew out three of his caps, But by the fourth quarter it was Tark’s offense that would sit back and watch the defense go to work. 17-7, Minnesota. Baker’s total: 2 sacks
Game 11, vs. Tampa Bay — The keynote game of Baker’s season-long frenzy. "I’ll tell you another little secret about Dave Reavis," he says. "He had an obvious weakness. You’d watch his hand, where he positioned it on the ground. Arm fully extended — it’s a driving run block; hand just a bit farther behind the line, he’s coming up to pass-protect.
"It’s funny. I was watching a tape of that game the other day, and the announcers kept talking about how fast I was, and I just laughed. It was all smoke and mirrors. Nothing more than me getting off the ball quicker than Reavis. And the Tampa coaches never did bring anybody over to help him out." Baker’s total: 5 sacks
Game 12, at Oakland — "I was absolutely petrified going into that one," says Baker. The Raiders would throw a trio of Hall of Famers at the rookie, starting with monster OLT Art Shell. The left guard was Gene Upshaw. Then they’d occasionally swing over TE Dave Casper, a fine blocker, for an extra hammer. Call it "The Canton Package."
"I had some success getting upfield on Shell a few times early in the game," says Baker. "Then he must have went back to the huddle and told them, ‘He’s ready.’
"I came out firing on the next play, and Shell just stepped aside. BOOM! Upshaw was right there waiting to blast me." Baker’s total: 1 sack
Game 13, vs. Denver — Former 49ers coach Bill Walsh once said that a pass rush, late in the game, is the key to NFL football.
"And we were conditioned for that," says Baker. "We always ran simulated two-minute drills in practice, rushing against a hurry-up offense so, when it occurred during a game, we were already used to it. Floyd had us prepared for those kind of situations, both physically and mentally."
In a Thanksgiving battle against the defending AFC champion Broncos, Detroit needed every bit of that rush. Six sacks rattled QB Craig Morton, and a final Denver scoring drive was thrown back, preserving a 17-14 upset for the Lions. Baker’s total: ½ sack
Game 14, at St. Louis — Here’s another interesting quote, this one from Cedric Hardman, the old 49ers defensive end, on rookie pass-rushing sensations:
"Your first year in the league? Sure, you can catch ’em by surprise. But if you establish the fact that you’re going to get to the quarterback, they begin to stop you. Different things begin to happen to you, and you begin to find out just how good you really are. It’s the beginning of double-teaming.
"Then they start doing other interesting things to you, like putting the tight end on your side, just to break your concentration. Or they’ll pull the center out of the line and hit you from that angle. Now, can you still get the quarterback after being double-teamed, triple-teamed and sometimes quadruple-teamed?"
The Cardinals’ line was full of cagey old pros, some of the best in the business. The Lions’ rookie sack artist spent the day in school. Baker’s total: 0 sacks
Game 15, vs. Minnesota — This was the kind of runaway affair Baker said he wished he had been a part of more often. Danielson and the offense caught fire early, and by halftime Detroit had control of things, 28-7. Then the defense flipped the switch marked "heavy pressure," and the Silver Rush came in waves and made Tarkenton play catch-up. One of his late throws was returned for a touchdown.
"To have a big lead, says Baker, "when you know they’re throwing on every down, man, we were like sharks in the water." 45-14, Lions. Baker’s total: 1 sack
Game 16, vs. San Francisco — We’re getting near the end, and that’s a good thing ’cause I’m really running out of ’78 Lions vignettes. They put the knockout crunch on QBs Steve DeBerg and backup Scott Bull, then spent the rest of the afternoon chasing around a water bug named Freddie Solomon — a wide receiver — who the Niners slipped in as their third-stringer.
Detroit routed San Francisco to end a ho-hum 7-9 season, but their flashy, new rookie had caused quite a stir. Baker was named the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year and received All-Pro honors across the board. He and Earl Campbell were the only rookies in Pro Bowl uniforms that year. A great story wrapped inside a season long forgotten.
Since they drew that line in the sand back in 1982, there are still a lot of those stories left to be told. Baker’s total: 0 sacks
