The Seahawks host the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football this week, so we thought we'd take a look at Seattle's Monday Night debut.
It was October 29, 1979 against the Atlanta Falcons. The late Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford were calling the game back when ABC was really the first to turn regular season NFL football into a must-watch event.
The Falcons, at home, rolled out to a 14-0 lead before Seattle got it together.
Jim Zorn threw one touchdown and ran 34 yards for another. Dan Doornink ran for 122 yards and two touchdowns in what may have been the best game of his NFL career.
The game featured some gutsy fourth down calls by head coach Jack Patera including a fake field goal that resulted in a 20-yard pass from Zorn to kicker Efren Herrera. Herrera -- 5 feet, 9 inches tall -- sneaked right through the defense.
"I just kinda got lost in the middle that whole bunch of big guys and the next thing I knew I was wide open. I was a little surprised that nobody came close to covering me," said Herrera.
That drive ended with a Seattle touchdown, giving the Seahawks a 21-14 halftime lead.
But the game was in doubt until the very end. With Seattle leading by three, the Falcons recovered their own onside kick with 50 seconds left and two timeouts.
Steve Bartkowski hit Wallace Francis with a 42-yard bomb down to the Seahawks' 13-yard-line. But on the next play, the great Dave Brown picked off Bartkowski for the second time in the game to seal it, 31-28.
An instant classic even by today's standards.
Thanks to that and many other wins, the Seahawks have the best winning percentage on Monday Night Football at .724 (21-8). They are riding a nine-game Monday Night winning streak heading into the game against the Lions.
If you want to watch the game again (and you really should), it's been posted on YouTube: First Half | Second Half
