1954 AFL Championship Game

A mild winter evening in Chicago brought out both the best and the worst of Hogs fans, who were as rabid as ever to reach their 4th championship game in 5 years. With one of the most entertaining teams in recent years, Hogs fans have great hope for the future to potentially win even more. Standing in their way are the upstart Cleveland Crows, whose rise mirrored that of the Washington Federals last year. While the team is more offensive focused, their defense will have to step up if the Crows want to match the Hogs blow for blow in what could be an offensive shootout. 

Q1

The Hogs would defer possession to the second half, and the Crows would have a chance to start their offensive machine. Cleveland returner Greg Dixon would stun the home crowd, weaving his way through the oncoming Hogs on his way to a 92-yard kick return touchdown, getting his second return touchdown in two weeks. After silencing Union Stadium, Hogs fans got right back to making noise when golden boy Billy Gould started to carve his way through the Cleveland defense. He would get some meager gains on a couple of plays, but on 2nd down and 7, Gould would sprint up the middle and past all Cleveland defenders on his way to a 47 yard touchdown to get the Chicago faithful rowdy once again. The Crows offense would finally come onto the field with the potential to take back the lead, but after two first downs they were forced to punt the ball back to the Hogs. Chicago would slowly gain yardage, with the Crows front 7 finding ways to shut down the young Gould from breaking out once again. Switching to the passing game, QB Alfred Walton traded passes between WR Ciarán Murphy and TE Glenn Chambers to continue their drive. That plan didn’t last for long, as the Hogs offense could not get past the Crows’ 31 yard line and K Freddie Donnelly came out to put the Hogs ahead by 3 on the successful attempt. The Crows had the ball back with a few minutes remaining in the quarter, and QB Denzel Collingsworth was beginning to make connections with his back to make progress down field as the quarter ended.

CLE 7, CHI 10

Q2

The Crows entered a stalemate after gaining some progress, as RB Max Panders nearly gave the ball away on a botched snap that resulted in a crucial third down to get into scoring range. Collingsworth stepped up on this 3rd and 13, finding WR Joey Staniskovksi open on the sideline, who would get pushed out of bounds right near the 23 yard line. They could have made it further, but the Hogs front stuffed Panders on two straight plays and forced an incompletion out of Collingsworth. Cleveland would tie the game on a kick by K Daniel Simon. Chicago got off on the wrong foot on their ensuing drive, as QB Alfred Walton missed a pass over the middle to RB Billy Gould on first down and then his offensive line allowed DL Fergus Prendergast to steamroll his way to Walton for a 6 yard loss. The Hogs recovered from a 3rd and 16, as Walton would hit WR Donnie Stout over the middle for a 20 yard gain to keep them moving. Gould would then bully the Crows’ defense for the rest of the drive, gaining 42 total yards to put the Hogs right on the 1 yard line. Gould would then take the handoff to the outside one play later to score to retake the lead for the Hogs. CLE QB Denzel Collingsworth would work his magic, getting downfield a 20 yard and a 23 yard pass to WR’s Joseph Atkins and Joey Staniskovski, respectively. The Hogs secondary clamped down after those gains, forcing 3 straight incompletions outside the 20 yard line. Cleveland made another field goal, still down by at least a touchdown. After two quick possessions by both Chicago and Cleveland, the Hogs had the ball back in good position partially because of a good punt return by Billy Gould putting them on the Crows’ 42 yard line. After WR Donnie Stout went 14 yards for a first down, QB Alfred Walton would get himself on the board, finding WR Ciarán Murphy in single coverage in the middle of the field. Murphy would break off of DB Nicholas Lamb by tripping him up on a fake route, and would strut 28 yards untouched to extend the Hogs’ lead to 11. The Crows attempted to get into field goal range with what little time they had left in the half, but QB Denzel Collingsworth threw an interception to S Jeffery Irwin to end an eventful first half.

CLE 13, CHI 24

Q3

After scoring off of an interception at the end of the first half, Chicago kept rolling on offense. Billy Gould continued to tear up the Crows' defense, but Cleveland started to put up a better fight. QB Alfred Walton had to pass more, and RB Jeffery Spears came in to relieve Gould for a change of pace. On a third and 8 on their own 37, Gould broke through the front line, skirted around the linebackers, and almost got into the end zone before being pushed out by S Steven Norris. The winded Gould sat out for a play after his 60 yard rush, but came back in after an incomplete pass by Walton and plunged his way up the middle for his third score of the day, which would surely be the dagger for Chicago. Cleveland QB Denzel Collingsworth took his time passing to his receivers to try to get a drive going. A 20-yard pass from Collingsworth to WR Joseph Atkins set the Crows up with a chance to score and get back in the game. After a 7-yard run by RB Max Panders, Collingsworth found Atkins in the middle of the end zone for a touchdown to keep the game close. The offensive shootout that defined the first half and most of the third quarter came to a screeching halt after Cleveland's drive, as both defenses locked down and forced punts on successive possessions to end the third quarter with a dud.
CLE 20, CHI 31

Q4

After a back-and-forth series of punts that took up a third of the quarter, Chicago wound up punting the ball back to Cleveland. The Hogs defense locked them up again, and QB Denzel Collingsworth would have to make a crucial 3rd down conversion to even keep their championship hopes alive. Collingsworth threw a ball up the middle intended for RB Max Panders, but LB Jerry Flowers came from behind and intercepted the ball away, weaving his way through the Cleveland offense on his way to a 42 yard return for a touchdown. Chicago would only go up by 17 though, as the snap for K Freddie Donnelly was botched and holder Marion Rosen was tackled before he could do anything with the ball. Cleveland would have one last real chance to make up for their three possession deficit, and Collingsworth proved he was capable of moving the ball downfield even when the outcome of the game was effectively decided. Collingsworth was able to quickly move downfield with quick passes to his pair of receivers, and made it within scoring range on a 20 yard pass to TE Gerald MacDonald to put them on the 15 yard line. The Crows would attempt to use RB Max Panders to get within striking distance on the ground, but could only manage half that distance on his own on two plays. Collingsworth one play later would dump it off to Panders to get into the endzone to only be down by 10 with just under 3 minutes left to play. The onside kick attempt would fail, and the Chicago Hogs would run out just enough clock to end any chance of Cleveland coming back. Punting with just seconds left, the Hogs kicked a ball deep within the Crows’ own territory. Collingsworth and the Crows made just one play before the time ran out and the Chicago Hogs were champions once again.

CLE 27, CHI 37

 

 

In the post-game ceremonies, the game’s MVP would unsurprisingly go to second-year RB Billy Gould, who ran for 188 yards and rushed for 3 TD’s, while also receiving for an additional 22 yards. Gould, who received the championship trophy first, immediately handed the trophy to QB Alfred Walton, as he would win his final championship in the final game of his career. “I’ve only known [Walton] for two years.” Gould said in an interview for the Chicago Sun-Times “But I do know that he has been instrumental to how this team has been. It’s a shame he won’t be back for next year to do this whole thing all over again.”