The Dolphins' then annual quest for the league championship wended its way through the muggy Orange Bowl.  The teams were storied, the coaches legendary, and the contrast couldn't have been sharper between the conservative Miami Dolphins and the explosive San Diego Chargers.

     Miami coach Don Shula, one of the sharpest ever to play the game, used a QB tandem known as "Woodstrock" - young David Woodley and veteran Don Strock.  They won games with a power running game and a strong defense - they had allowed just 27 total points in their previous 3 games.

     The Chargers possessed one of the most powerful offenses of all time, led by stalwart QB Dan Fouts, for whom there was no replacement, and All-World TE Kellen Winslow, who caught an NFL-leading 80 passes.  But their defense was one of the league;s worst, often crippled by the fact that the offense scored so quickly that they didn't get enough rest between series.  San Diego coach Don "Air" Corriel was the legendary architect of the pass-happy offense.

     This one looked like it might be over by the end of the first quarter - the San Diego Chargers had stormed to a 24-0 lead, and looked unstoppable behind the quarterbacking of one of the game's greatest QBs ever, Dan Fouts. Some fans may even have headed for the exits at this point; if they had, they probably would have committed the suicide the following day, and I would be happy to provide the arsenic.

      stemmed the flood with a personnel move: he benched 23-year-old David Woodley (at the time the youngest quarterback ever to start an NFL playoff game) in favor of Don Strock, an eight-year veteran and career backup. Strock turned in the best game of his life, completing 29 of 43 passes for 403 yards and four touchdowns.

     By halftime, the Dolphins had rallied to within 24-17, and they left on an emotional high: on the final play of the second quarter, Shula called for a "hook-and-lateral," a gimmicky play that usually stops working around the level of high-school football. Strock fired a pass to Duriel Harris, who ran a short button-hook pattern and held up well short of the goal line. With the defense playing soft, Harris flipped a lateral to Tony Nathan just before he got creamed, and Nathan dashed 25 yards for the score.

   The Dolphins swaggered into the second half, quickly erased the 24-17 halftime deficit and then took a 38-31 lead on the first play of the fourth quarter. The Chargers, who recently had acquired a reputation for folding in tight games, looked like they were letting another one slip away.

     Again, some fans probably began heading towards the exits. And again, they would have been premature - now the Chargers engineered a shift in the game's momentum. With the exhausted Dolphins just trying to run out the clock, the Chargers recovered a fumble on their own 18. Dan Fouts led them on a hurried, magnificent drive down the field, capping it with a beautiful, mad, scrambling-right, blind 8-yard touchdown pass to James Brooks with 58 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

     Fouts' pass was actually intended for tight end Kellen Winslow, who had been having a monster game, but the ball sailed over his head; Brooks was running the baseline at the back of the end zone, and the ball simply landed in his hands as if placed there by a higher power. The Chargers had run the play a thousand times in practice, and not once had Brooks' number caught the ball.

     Not to be outdone in drama, the Dolphins came roaring right back and drove inside the Charger 30. The Chargers actually intercepted an errant Strock pass on the first play of the drive at midfield, but couldn't hang on to the football; the Dolphins recovered, and two plays later 'Phins kicker Uwe von Schamann was looking at an easy 43-yard field goal to win the game. But somehow, Kellen Winslow saved the day blocking the field-goal attempt with four seconds remaining.

   Early in the extra period, San Diego kicker Rolf Benirschke missed a 27-yard field-goal try; then about 10 minutes later, von Schamann had a 35-yard field goal attempt blocked. With both teams disbelieving and dragging, Benirschke got a second chance and nailed a 29-yarder to give the Chargers a 41-38 victory.

   Winslow caught a playoff record 13 passes (for 166 yards and one touchdown). The weary tight end had to be helped off the Orange Bowl field when the game ended. This is the first game in NFL history to have two quarterbacks - Fouts and Strock - pass for more than 400 yards. The game broke playoff records for points scored and total yards (1036).