Super Bowl III — 1968 Season

Result

Super Bowl MVP

Joe Namath, QB, New York Jets

Starting lineups

Starting offense

Starting defense

Note: Baltimore's starting quarterback was Earl Morrall, who had led the team all season after Johnny Unitas's elbow injury; Unitas entered in relief in the second half and out-passed Morrall statistically (11/24, 110 yards per the box score, not included above, which reports only the starter's line) - Morrall is correctly credited as the starter.

Box score

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

Game context

Super Bowl III stands among the most consequential upsets in American sports history: the AFL champion New York Jets, an 18-point underdog, defeated the powerhouse NFL champion Baltimore Colts 16-7, permanently altering perceptions of the young league and paving the way for the full AFL-NFL merger the following season. Baltimore had gone 13-1 in the regular season and was widely considered one of the greatest teams ever assembled, making the Jets' win, according to most historians, the signature moment that legitimized the AFL as a genuine equal to the NFL. The game is inseparable from quarterback Joe Namath's brash pre-game guarantee. Three days before kickoff, needled by a heckling Colts fan at the Miami Touchdown Club, Namath declared, "We're gonna win the game. I guarantee it." Baltimore's players largely dismissed the remark -- linebacker Mike Curtis recalled the team "sort of laughed" it off -- but Namath backed it up on the field, completing 17 of 28 passes for 206 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions, becoming the first Super Bowl MVP to win the award without throwing (or scoring) a touchdown. New York's defense was equally decisive: cornerback Randy Beverly intercepted two passes, the first player to do so twice in a Super Bowl, while Baltimore starter Earl Morrall completed just 6 of 17 passes for 71 yards with three interceptions, a 9.3 passer rating still among the worst in Super Bowl history. The game's signature defensive moment came just before halftime, when Baltimore ran a flea-flicker with receiver Jimmy Orr wide open in the end zone; Morrall never saw him and instead threw an interception, a mistake that deflated Baltimore's momentum. New York took control on the ground behind fullback Matt Snell, who rushed 30 times for 121 yards and the game's only touchdown, and controlled the third quarter so thoroughly that Baltimore ran only seven offensive plays for 11 total yards in the period. Jim Turner added three field goals to build a 16-0 lead before Baltimore, with an ailing Johnny Unitas subbed in late, scored a garbage-time touchdown that made the final 16-7. Jets head coach Weeb Ewbank, ironically a former Colts coach, had identified soft spots in Baltimore's zone defense through extensive film study, instructing his receivers to "find the dead spots... and Joe will hit you," a plan George Sauer Jr. executed for 8 catches and 133 yards. Several Jets, including Don Maynard and Johnny Sample, had been previously cut by the Colts or Giants and played with a personal edge. The defeat haunted Baltimore for years -- defensive back Bobby Boyd said he had "nightmares" about it -- while for the AFL, the win was validation the league had sought since its 1960 founding, setting up the full 1970 merger of the two leagues into a single NFL.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Super Bowl III
• Pro-Football-Reference: Super Bowl Game Summaries