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San Antonio 26 at Houston 29
1984 Week 17 - Monday, June 18, 1984
San Antonio Gunslingers(6-10) at Houston Gamblers(11-5)(-16.5)
Attendance: 30,184, TV: ESPN
HOUSTON (AP) - Former world heavyweight champion George Foreman, now a minister prayed before the game and Houston Gamblers quarterback Jim Kelly prayed in the fourth quarter in the Astrodome Monday.
Foreman, a former fighter turned minister, performed a wedding at halftime on the 50-yard line, and Kelly rallied the Gamblers with a pair of spectacular second-half comebacks for a 29-26 United States Football victory over the San Antonio Gunslingers.
"I was just praying our defense would give me a chance (to help Gamblers win)," said Kelly, who threw four interceptions and was sacked three times. "I guess this will give us a little more confidence going into the playoffs."
The Gamblers, already assured of a playoff berth as the Central Division champions, nonetheless had to rally twice in the fourth quarter to defeat their intrastate rival.
San Antonio quarterback Rick Neuheisel paced the Gunslingers to a 20-7 halftime lead with a 17-point first quarter that included a 15-yard pass to Don Roberts, Mike Hagen's two-yard run and the first of four field goals by Nick Mike-Mayer.
Houston's only first-half scoring came on Kellyls 44-yard touchdown pass to Richard Johnson, who set a USFL season receiving total of 1,322 yards.
Houston took a 21-20 third quarter lead on Kelly's 26-yard touchdown pass to Scott McGhee and Todd Fowler's one-yard dive.
But Mike-Mayer's 40 and 49 yard field goals gave San Antonio the lead until Kelly took the Gamblers 79-yards in two plays, capped by Ricky Sanders' 30-yard touchdown catch with 1:15 left in the game for the win.
"I don't think people were concentrating as much as they should have been," Kelly said of Houston's late victory. "We knew we could come back. It was just a matter of time."
Houston Coach Jack Pardee was pleased with his team's resiliancy. "We showed we can come from behind late in the game. We had been getting ahead early in most of our other games. This certainly wasn't one of our better games.We had enough mistakes to last a season."
1 2 3 4 F
SA 17 3 0 6 - 26
HOU 7 0 14 8 - 29
Scoring
SA: Hagen 2 yd run (Mike-Mayer kick) - SA 7, HOU 0
SA: Roberts 15 yd pass from Neuheisel (Mike-Mayer kick) - SA 14, HOU 0
HOU:Johnson 44 yd pass from Kelly (Fritsch kick) - SA 14, HOU 7
SA: Mike-Mayer 18 yd field goal - SA 17, HOU 7
SA: Mike-Mayer 26 yd field goal - SA 20, HOU 7
HOU:McGhee 26 yd pass from Kelly (Fritsch kick) - SA 20, HOU 14
HOU:Fowler 1 yd run (Fritsch kick) - HOU 21, SA 20
SA: Mike-Mayer 40 yd field goal - SA 23, HOU 21
SA: Mike-Mayer 49 yd field goal - SA 26, HOU 21
HOU:Sanders 30 yd pass from Kelly (Kelly run) - HOU 29, SA 26
Box Score
SA HOU
First Downs 21 18
Rushes-Yards 48-239 19-95
Passing (A-C-Y-I) 31-13-128-1 37-20-283-4
Sacked-Yards Lost 2-8 3-19
Total Plays-Yards 81-359 59-359
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1
Penalties-Yards 9-94 9-75
Turnovers 1 5
Time of Possession 38:03 21:57
Attendance = 30,164
SAN ANTONIO HOUSTON
Passing Att Cmp Yds In Td Rate Passing Att Cmp Yds In Td Rate
Neuheisel 30 13 128 1 1 53.2 Kelly 36 20 283 4 3 69.3
Bonner 1 0 0 0 0 39.6 Walters 1 0 0 0 0 39.6
Rushing Att Yds Ave TD Rushing Att Yds Ave TD
Works 11 78 7.1 0 Kelly 9 65 7.2 0
Hagen 13 59 4.5 1 Fowler 10 30 3.0 1
Bonner 14 55 3.9 0
Neuheisel 5 27 5.4 0
Roberts 2 17 8.5 0
Rush 3 3 1.0 0
Receiving Rec Yds Ave TD Receiving Rec Yds Ave TD
Roberts 5 57 11.4 1 Johnson 9 116 12.9 1
Hackett 2 26 13.0 0 Sanders 8 74 9.3 1
Starks 2 16 8.0 0 McNeil 1 49 49.0 0
Buggs 1 10 10.0 0 McGhee 1 26 26.0 1
Gordon 1 9 9.0 0 Fowler 1 18 18.0 0
Bonner 1 8 8.0 0
Hagen 1 2 2.0 0
Kick Returns No Yds Ave TD Kick Returns No Yds Ave TD
Bonner 3 50 16.7 0 Courville 4 57 14.3 0
Ulmer 2 40 20.0 0 Eason 2 42 21.0 0
Verdin 1 30 30.0 0
Punt Returns No Yds Ave TD Punt Returns No Yds Ave TD
None McNeil 2 34 17.0 0
Lewis 1 0 0.0 0
Kicking Fg Lg Xp Pts Kicking Fg Lg Xp Pts
Mike-Mayer 4-4 49 2-2 14 Fritsch 0-1 -- 3-3 3
miss: -- miss: 46
Punting No Yds Ave Punting No Yds Ave
Hartley 5 154 30.8 Walters 2 98 49.0
Sacks Sk Yds Sacks Sk Yds
Monroe 1 8 Catan 1 6
Morris 1 7 Fitzpatrick 1 2
Case 1 4
Interceptions No Yds Ave TD Interceptions No Yds Ave TD
Richmond 2 28 14.0 0 Myers 1 9 9.0 0
Tyler 1 19 19.0 0
Ulmer 1 0 0.0 0
Archived news report
Supplemental information courtesy of Chris Blackburn
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