Remembering When Dan Fouts Broke Joe Namath’s NFL Single-Season Passing Record in 1979
Playing more games means more chances to break NFL records. That’s what happened when the league extended its season from 14 to 16 games in 1978. The effect wasn’t immediate, but there was a new single-season passing yardage leader a year later.
His name was Dan Fouts, golden-armed field general for the San Diego ‘Super’ Chargers, who would eventually become knows as ‘Air Coryell.’ Head coach Don Coryell’s innovative aerial schemes combined with some extraordinary personnel to help Fouts shatter the mark Joe Namath had set in 1967.
‘Broadway Joe’ threw for 4,007 yards, no mean feat in a New York Jets’ offense featuring talented running backs Emerson Boozer and Matt Snell. The Jets could win on the ground or through the air, but Coryell’s Chargers were all about painting the skies with footballs.
Coryell developed his offense at the collegiate level with San Diego State. Working with a smaller talent pool encouraged a natural innovator to ditch the power-I, run-heavy schemes he’d been fond of for something more air-based.
The Coryell passing game was easy to grasp because of his numbering system. Outside receivers (X and Z) ran routes numbered one through 9. The former was a simple out pattern, the latter a go route (deep). Routes for Coryell’s inside receiver (Y) were numbered in multiples of 10 ascending from that figure to 90. A common route from this list was the 20, or shallow crosser.
Using the Coryell chart made plays easy to decipher for the quarterback and his receivers. A signature call from the playbook would be something like “525.” Reading from one side of the formation to the other, the X ran a 5 pattern (comeback route), the Y ran a 20, while the Z ran another 5.
The responsibilities for running backs (H and F) added the only lettering and wordage to the play calls. So a 525 F cross would require the running back to run a crossing pattern underneath. Simples.
Like any sporting innovation, greatness was only achieved when simplicity in the playbook was brought to life on the field by superior athletes. The Chargers had been stockpiling the latter even before Coryell replaced Tommy Prothro after four games of the 1978 season.
Fouts was already on the roster, along with wideout Charlie Joiner. Fouts, and later move tight end Kellen Winslow Sr., would become the poster boys for ‘Air Coryell,’ but the scheme wouldn’t have worked without Joiner. He ran pass patterns with the elegance and sense for composition of a true artist.
The Chargers traded for Joiner in 1976, striking a deal with the Cincinnati Bengals. His time in The Queen City was significant, because Joiner got a brief glimpse of more innovation, thanks to Bill Walsh and his short-range passing game that would become known as the ‘West Coast Offense.’
Walsh’s system relied on precision timing from the quarterback and intricate breaks from his receivers, but that was where the similarities with the Coryell blueprint ended.
Walsh used quick, short throws to replace the run and create yards after the catch. Coryell’s mantra was to gobble up long gains in one go. Every concept in his playbook had a vertical element, and the quarterback was required to read deep to short, rather than the more cautious reverse.
Joiner, who couldn’t outrun my Father but knew how to get open, was ideal for the timing and spacing nuances of ‘Air Coryell.’ Fouts explained in Tim Layden’s Blood, Sweat And Chalk — The Ultimate Football Playbook: How The Great Coaches Built Today’s Game how easily the two formed a rapport:
Charlie wasn’t very fast, and neither was I. But my drop-back and his routes seemed to just time out perfectly. There were times with Charlie, because I played with him for so long, that if you measured his heartbeat and my heartbeat, I’ll bet you’d find they were just about the same.
The distinction of being the offense’s field-stretcher belonged to John Jefferson. San Diego used the 14th-overall pick in the ’78 draft to take the receiver from Arizona State. It was a perfect match of player and coach, as Coryell had Jefferson run a multitude of 9 routes allowing the burner to take the top off of defenses at will.
Rarely has a coach arrived in a situation more suited to his philosophical preferences, but Coryell stayed generally cautious (at least by his standards) during his first season in San Diego. A 7–1 finish helped the Chargers return to winning ways at 9–7.
Fouts threw 24 touchdowns but finished a yard short of 3,000. Jefferson was more productive, grabbing 56 passes for 1,001 yards and 13 scores.
The hints of a record-breaking attack were obvious, especially when more talent arrived in the 1979 draft. Winslow came off the board with the 13th pick. He would revolutionise the tight end position by being sent on the move by Coryell and assistants Ernie Zampese and Joe Gibbs.
Putting Winslow in the slot, splitting him out wide, and sending him in motion isolated a 6'5″, 250-pounder against defenders not quick enough nor strong enough to stay with him in space. Winslow would become the go-to target for Fouts from 1980 onwards, but his journey to greatness began slowly as a rookie.
Ron Jaworski, Greg Cosell, and David Plaut explained why in The Games That Changed The Game — The Evolution of the NFL in Seven Sundays:
During his rookie year in ’79, the Chargers used tight ends primarily to shuttle in plays. Their duties were traditional to the position: run blocking and short-to-intermediate routes originating next to either offensive tackle. Winslow caught only twenty-five passes before a leg injury prematurely ended his season.
Fortunately for Fouts, he didn’t need Winslow to be great in 1979. Not with Joiner and Jefferson forming the ultimate complementary double act at wide receiver.
Things started slowly for Fouts, despite the Chargers jumping out to a 4–1 record. He didn’t top 300 yards until Week 6, throwing for 305 during a 7–0 shutout loss on the road against AFC West foe the Denver Broncos. Denver’s ‘Orange Crush’ defense intercepted three of Fouts’ passes, a reminder of the risks of airing it out so often.
Neither Coryell nor his quarterback were ever likely to be deterred though, and Fouts continued taking to the skies. He passed for 326 yards and a pair of touchdowns to key a 40–16 win over eventual NFC Champion the Los Angeles Rams in Week 8. Jefferson was on the end of one of those scoring passes, racing 65 yards to find pay dirt at L.A.’s Memorial Coliseum.
Fouts next broke the 300-yard barrier five weeks later at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chargers improved to 10–3 after Fouts gunned three touchdown passes as part of a 350-yard performance. Joiner caught nine of those passes for 123 yards, including a touchdown from 29. Jefferson again stretched the field by reeling in a 42-yard score.
Yards continued to be piled up in bunches, although Fouts lost a shootout to Steve Bartkowski and the Atlanta Falcons a week later. Bartkowski threw three touchdowns, while Fouts was limited to one, despite putting up 338 yards.
The Chargers won out to finish 12–4, with Fouts surpassing Namath’s ’67 tally by 75 yards. Coryell’s signal-caller completed 62.6 percent of his passes and again threw for 24 touchdowns. Jefferson (10) and Joiner (4) accounted for 14 of those scores and both topped 1,000 yards.
Joiner led the team with 72 catches, but Jefferson out-gained him by 82 yards to finish with 1,090, at an average of 17.9 per reception. Jefferson posted six 100-yard games compared to Joiner’s four.
Neither receiver hit that mark when the Chargers lost first time out in the playoffs, slipping to a 17–14 defeat at home to the Houston Oilers. Vernon Perry snagged four of Houston’s five interceptions, while a banged-up offense missing injured bruiser Earl Campbell still amassed 148 yards on the ground.
It’s one of the great upsets in postseason history and a timely reminder of the dangers of a pass-crazed offense. No matter how entertaining it is, throwing the ball all over the lot is still only the garnish to dominating the sticks and controlling the clock with the run, along with playing strong defense. Those things butter the bread when the games matter most.
The formula for winning football hasn’t changed, but interestingly, great entertainers like Fouts and the Chargers outlive titles in the broader sporting consciousness. ‘Air Coryell’s’ legacy has spawned legions of admirers and hordes of imitators, but it started in earnest in 1979.
Fouts made the most of the talent around him and the innovations communicated from the sideline. His record was also borne from changes to the rules. Specifically, from an amendment that would come to be commonly known as the ‘Mel Blount Rule.’
Blount played cornerback for the great Pittsburgh Steelers defenses during the decade. His style was ultra-physical, taking full advantage of being able to bump receivers all the way through their patterns. The NFL, worried by a chronic points shortage, intervened in 1977 and deemed it illegal to make contact with a receiver after five yards.
This change left covering players at the mercy of ‘Air Coryell,’ which required passes and breaks to be executed at maximum speed. NFL Research scribe Dante Koplowitz-Fleming detailed how quickly the new rule boosted production among the game’s best pass-catchers:
In 1977, the receiving yards leader was Cowboys wideout Drew Pearson, who paced the NFL with 870 receiving yards. In 1978, eight players passed that mark, including four who went over 1,000 yards receiving.
More passing meant records came and went quicker than they had before. It took 12 years for Fouts to shatter Namath’s mark, but the new record was obliterated as soon as the 1980 season. Fittingly, Fouts obliged with 4,715 yards. It helped Winslow was healthy enough to catch 89 passes for 1,290 yards.
Fouts wasn’t the only 4,000-yard passer in 1980. Brian Sipe threw for 4,132 yards to take the Cleveland Browns and the ‘Cardiac Kids’ to the postseason.
Sipe and the Browns lost to the Oakland Raiders thanks to the Red Right 88 fiasco, and the Silver and Black went on to beat Fouts and the Chargers, 34–27, in the AFC Championship Game. More disappointment followed at the same stage the next season against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Playoff failures were a common theme for the Chargers of the ‘Air Coryell’ era, but they were far from the defining feature. Instead, Fouts, Joiner, Jefferson, and Winslow pushed the boundaries of what was possible with the forward pass, even if they couldn’t always avoid its dangerous limitations.
Originally published at http://playactionpast.wordpress.com on April 1, 2021.
