Ricky Proehl Discusses His Famous Catch in the 99 NFC Championship Game

[RamBill]

Rams Super Bowl Champ Ricky Proehl discusses that famous catch in the 99 NFC Champ game on The Fast Lane, plus much more.

Listen to Proehl Talk 1999

 

[RamBill]

Fifteen years ago Friday, the Buccaneers gave the Rams the ultimate scare
Posted by Mike Wilkening on January 23, 2015, 7:07 PM EST

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...-buccaneers-gave-the-rams-the-ultimate-scare/

Fifteen years ago Friday, one of the biggest upsets in postseason history came oh-so-close to being sprung.

The Buccaneers, 14.5-point underdogs, gave the Rams all they could handle in the 1999 NFC Championship, but they fell just short in an 11-6 loss in St. Louis.

The Buccaneers picked off Rams quarterback Kurt Warner three times. They shut down the St. Louis running game, limiting Marshall Faulk to just 44 yards on 17 carries. But St. Louis managed the game’s only touchdown — a Warner-to-Ricky Proehl 30-yard strike with 4:44 left — and that was the decisive blow. The Bucs put together one final promising drive that reached the St. Louis 22, but the Rams pushed them back, got a favorable call on a potential Bert Emanuel catch and held on for the win.

There was an upset in the other conference-title game, too, though it might not have seemed like it. For the third time in the ’99 season, the Titans knocked off the Jaguars, pulling away to a 33-14 victory in Jacksonville to capture the AFC crown.

A seven-point underdog, Tennessee seized control with 16 points in a 4:28 span in the third quarter. Then, the Titans put the game away in the fourth quarter, with Steve McNair’s 51-yard run setting up the quarterback’s one-yard score one play later.

Ultimately, Tennessee was the only club to defeat Jacksonville all season, with the Jaguars going 15-0 against all other competition.

The Titans and Rams would meet a week later in Super Bowl XXXIV, and it was a classic, with St. Louis stopping Tennessee in the shadow of the endzone as time expired in a 23-16 Rams win.

 

[Boffo97]

The Bucs put together one final promising drive that reached the St. Louis 22, but the Rams pushed them back, got a favorable call on a potential Bert Emanuel catch and held on for the win.

Argh. This wasn't Dyson 1 yard away from the goal line. Had the play NOT been called according to the rules of the time, and been ruled a reception, the Bucs still would have faced 3rd and 10 instead of 3rd and 26, and it's extremely likely they would have still just had two more incomplete passes and the game would have finished the same way.

 

[LetsGoRams]

I was at that game. Was the most tense game I've ever been at. My nerves were shot and I had a headache and ears were ringing for 2 days.

 

[thirteen28]

I was at that game. Was the most tense game I've ever been at. My nerves were shot and I had a headache and ears were ringing for 2 days.

To this day, I can only watch two plays from that game - Proehl's TD, and the very last incompletion by the Bucs. One of the most agonizing wins ever.

 

[Robocop]

Proehl, Curtis and Amendola were the Rams scrappy white guys that were always clutch.

 

[Mojo Ram]

IIRC Warner's first pass was an INT. I knew then that it was going to be a battle. It was a Helluva game and a clash of offensive juggernaut vs defensive juggernaut.

Shaun King? That's all they could come up with? Almost worked[wipes brow]. Thank the football Gods the Good guys won that day. Truly amazing and Uber clutch throw and catch by Warner and Proehl.