Chicago Fire’s Virgil Carter gets pass away before being brought down by Ed Mooney of the Houston Texans. Carter passed for two touchdowns to lead the Fire to a 17-0 victory.

Game 1: Houston Texans (W 17-0) – July 10, 1974 at Chicago Stadium.

Former Chicago Bear Quarterback, Virgil Carter, utilizing short passes and timely scrambles led the Chicago Fire to a 17-0 victory over the Houston Texans in last night’s WFL opener in front of 42,000 cheering fans.

In a controlled and efficient performance, Carter simply took whatever the Houston Texan defense gave him distributing passes to seven different Fire receivers completing 21 of 34 passes for 184 yards and two touchdowns.

Most of his passes were quick hitches, square outs and swing passes to the flat. Key target James Scott led the team with 10 grabs. Jack Dolbin added 6 receptions from the other receiver slot.

“They gave us the little stuff and never took it away,” Carter noted. “So we stayed with it.”

It was a calculated decision to minimize the effect of the no-bump and run rules according to Texan head coach Jim Garrett who decided early on to take away Carter’s deep throws.

WFL rules prevent hitting or impeding the receiver at the line of scrimmage. So, Texan defenders played 5-10 yards off of the receivers in attempt to keep Chicago’s speedy wide-outs in front of them. “All of football has seen what happens when you eliminate the bump and run.” Garrett noted. “ It was just pitch and catch out there tonight.”

“They weren’t going to let us have the bomb,” said Chicago coach Jim Spavital after the game. “Houston figured we had to complete seven or eight of those short passes to get downfield and before that we’d make a mistake.”

In some sense the strategy worked. Despite Carter’s masterful control of the Fire offense, several drives ended in turnovers. And the Fire were held to just 17 points. On the night, Carter threw three interceptions and rookie full back Mark Kellar fumbled once to stall Fire drives.

“We meant to go with those short passes to Scott and Dolbin until Houston stopped them, and they never really did.” Carter noted, “Sometimes, though, I felt I got a little over-anxious. I was trying to complete every one. There were some I shouldn’t have thrown.”

Unfortunately for Houston, the Texan offense was never able to take advantage of the change in possession or mount much of a threat against Chicago’s stout defense. A missed 47-yard field goal by Texan kicker, Charles Durkee, was as close as the Texans came to scoring.

Texan Quarterback, Mike Taliaferro, left the game in the second quarter with a hamstring injury scrambling after tailback Paul Gipson’s fumble and was replaced by former Houston Oiler quarterback Don Trull, who struggled the rest of the night to move the Houston offense.

“Mike’s injury hurt a great deal,” said Garrett. “And Don Trull just wasn’t ready to assume that heavy a burden since he’s only been camp with us a couple of weeks.”

The Fire defensive line anchored by nose guard Chuck Bailey also played a role. Whenever Trull dropped back to pass, Fire defenders were all over him sacking him three times and forcing two fumbles.

“They ran a few stunts at us that gave our younger guys up front some problems,” Trull explained after the game. “They learned and they’ll be able to handle it next time.”

When the Texans went to the ground game – they hit a wall. Thirty-eight times Texan runners attempted to break through but found little running room amassing 116 yards, a mere 3 yards a carry. Led by co-captains Ron Porter (12 tackles) and Rudy Kuechenberg (5 tackles) the Fire-men doused every spark the Texans could muster and forced the Texans to punt six times. Rookie Ron Kogut, who replaced injured starter Keith Best (concussion), added 9 tackles and a sack.

But, the key to the victory was the play of Carter. “Virgil played a real fine football game” Spavital stated afterwards, “a great game.”

Going into the game he stressed that the focus of the game plan was the Fire passing attack.

“I anticipated the running game would not be up to our passing,” he admitted. “With what little time we had to prepare for our opener, we concentrated on what we figured would be our strongest point – passing, with Virgil and our two fast receivers.”

The Fire wasted no time putting points on the board with its high flying aerial attack. Moving 60 yards in 12 plays on its first possession, Carter completed five of eight short passes culminating in a swing pass to Cyril Pinder who scored from five yards out. After a Carter quarterback sneak was stuffed on the Action Point, the Fire had a 7-0 lead they would never relinquish.

The rest of the half Chicago would move the ball but fail to put up any points.

Chicago’s anemic rushing attack was a key culprit. The veteran Texan defensive line was stifling. Cyril Pinder mustered a mere 3 yards on his three attempts prior to being ejected in the second quarter for fighting and was stuffed at the goal-line early in the first quarter. Chicago’s other backs fared no better. Fullback Mark Kellar added 24 yards and an ill-timed fumble. Reserve Clayton Heath was equally disappointing with 24 yards from scrimmage. Quarterback Carter ended up leading all rushers with 30 yards on three well timed scrambles.

Pinder’s absence put a lot of pressure on Carter. “You can see the difference when he’s not in,” Spavital noted. “We can’t afford having him watching from the bench.”

In the second half, the Fire would again score on its initial opportunity and then slip into torpor.

Using the same script that worked so well on their first drive, Carter moved the Fire down the field 55 yards in 13 plays. Carter completed passes of 14 and 13 yards to James Scott, and added an 8 yard scramble of his own before finding Scott in the end-zone for a 5 yard touchdown. The try for the action point again failed when Carter’s pass attempt was incomplete.

Early in the fourth quarter, Chuck Ramsey added 30-yard field goal to complete the scoring, after the Fire recovered Texan punter Chuck Latourette’s fumbled snap deep in Texan territory at the 18 yard line.

It was that type of night for the Texans. “Losing Taliaferro hurt our offense,” said Houston Texan coach Jim Garrett. “I was not surprised by the Fire, but they got some terrific breaks including that fumbled punt.”

After the game, quarterback Virgil Carter assured fans that the Fire offense would open up the playbook going forward.

“You have to play in the league a little while before you can go into the grab bag,” Carter explained. “We had a lot more plays we didn’t use purposely. This is a 20-game season remember.”

“We were lucky in some respects,” veteran Fire offensive lineman Steve Wright noted. “We could have just as easily lost. It’s going to take time. These are a lot of young guys who haven’t played together very long.”

The Fire next host the Jacksonville Sharks on July 17.

Game Notes/Injuries: Former Chicago Bears Virgil Carter and Rudy Kuechenberg were named the Most Outstanding Offensive and Defensive Players. Both received cheers throughout the game from the Chicago faithful. “It’s great to be back,” Kuechenberg said. The Fire offensive line is pretty thin right now. Starting guard Dave Bradley twisted an ankle and may miss the Jacksonville game. Taxi Squad guard Dave Malheiro, who made the final cut and was being counted on as a key reserve was just scheduled for knee surgery. Starting linebacker Keith Best left the game with a concussion and was replaced by Chuck Kogut, who will most likely start the game against Jacksonville, if Best can’t go.