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Ghost to the Post is a significant play in NFL history. It refers specifically to a 42-yard pass from Ken Stabler to Dave Casper, nicknamed "The Ghost" after Casper the Friendly Ghost, that set up a game-tying field goal in the final seconds of a double-overtime playoff game played between Casper's Oakland Raiders and the then-Baltimore Colts on December 24, 1977. Casper also caught the last pass of the game, a 10-yard touchdown pass.〔(Dave Casper Bio ) www.profootballhof.com. Retrieved November 24, 2006.〕 The game is currently the fifth-longest in NFL history, and has become synonymous with the play that made it famous.〔(The NFL's Longest Game ) profootballhof.com. Retrieved November 23, 2006〕 ==Game synopsis== The first half was mostly a defensive struggle. Oakland scored first on a 30-yard run by Clarence Davis. Baltimore returned with two second quarter scores, a 62-yard Bruce Laird interception return for a touchdown and a 36-yard field goal by Toni Linhart. The halftime score was 10-7 in favor of Baltimore. The second half began with a scoring flurry. Dave Casper scored on an 8-yard touchdown reception on Oakland's first drive of the half. Marshall Johnson of the Colts then returned the ensuing kickoff 87 yards for a matching touchdown. Ted Hendricks blocked a third-quarter Baltimore punt, setting up a 10-yard Stabler-to-Casper touchdown pass, which made the score 21-17 in favor of the Raiders. The fourth quarter saw impressive comebacks by both teams. Ron Lee scored on a 1-yard fourth down plunge for Baltimore, making the score 24-21 in favor of Baltimore. Oakland returned with a long drive culminating in a 1-yard Pete Banaszak run for a touchdown, making the score 28-24 in favor of Oakland. Baltimore returned with a 13-yard Lee run that left them with a 31-28 lead with just under 8 minutes to go, setting up the memorable play for Casper. On third and long, with less than one minute on the clock, Raider head coach John Madden called for a time out. As Madden excitedly went over the next play on the sidelines with his quarterback, Stabler calmly looked at the frenzied Baltimore crowd and remarked "the fans are sure getting their money's worth today."〔John Madden and Dave Anderson, Hey Wait a Minute (I Wrote a Book), 1984 Retrieved August 11, 2011.〕 Offensive coordinator Tom Flores called for a pass designed to go to one of the two wide receivers running "in" patterns, but told Stabler to "take a peek at the Ghost to the post", referring to a deep pattern by Casper down the field and then angling to the goal post. On NFL's Greatest Games, Madden explained Casper's job on the play was normally to draw away the opposing team's safeties so the receivers could make a catch, but Flores had noticed the safeties had been playing closer to the line of scrimmage than usual, which is what prompted Flores to tell Stabler to look for Casper downfield. Casper himself claimed that although it was one of the team's most effective plays, he didn't recall ever catching a pass on it all season. In what football fans now refer to as "The Ghost to the Post", Casper ran a deep post pattern, and Stabler threw a high, arching pass that looked well over thrown and behind Casper. It was Casper's memorable change of direction, chase, and athletic over-the-head catch that became the signature moment for the game. Casper went down at the 14-yard line, setting up an Errol Mann field goal that tied the game and sent the game to overtime. Just 43 seconds into the second overtime, Stabler hit Casper on another 10-yard touchdown pass that ended what was then the third-longest game in NFL history 37-31. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ghost to the Post」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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