Actual:  On the West Coast, Oakland beat Boston 30-21. Dick Wood threw two touchdown passes to Art Powel and Mike Mercer added three field goals as Oakland whipped Boston.  The Raiders iced the game when Gus Otto intercepted a Babe Parilli pass and carried it 34 yards for a touchdown in the final minute of play. Mercer’s trio of field goals gave the Raiders a 9-0 lead before Wood hit Powell for a six-pointer with 4:25 left in the third quarter. Boston first scored when Parilli connected with Gino Cappelletti from 21 yards out. Parilli hit Ron Burton on a 15-yarder in the fourth quarter and Burton bulled over from two yards away for the last Boston touchdown that cut the score to 23-21 before Otto’s interception.

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Actual:  Roberson, recently traded from Oakland, caught three passes for 35 yards in his debut for the Bills, who rode Jack Kemp’s aerials to a 31-13 victory over Denver that boosted their Eastern Division-leading record to 6-1. Kemp completed 14 of 22 passes for 280 yards and two touchdowns, a 72-yarder to Billy Joe and an eight-yarder to Charley Ferguson, while the Broncos double teamed Roberson. Wray Carlton scored twice for Buffalo on one-yard plunges after pass interference calls. Cookie Gilchrist gained 87 yards on the ground for Denver, now 3-4.

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Actual:  Western Division-leading San Diego, the league’s only unbeaten team, brought its record to 5-0-2 by walloping the New York Jets 34-9 Saturday night behind the running of Paul Lowe and the passing of John Hadl. Lowe gained 110 yards in 16 carries and scored on 8 and 59 yard runs while Hadl completed 16 of 28 passes for 182 yards and one touchdown in the Charger’s victory over the Jets.

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Actual: Defensive back John Griffin scored a pair of second-half touchdowns that helped the Denver Broncos to a 28-17 triumph over the Houston Oilers.  Houston took an early 14-0 lead on short runs by Jack Spikes and Bob Jackson. Denver’s only first-half score came on a 90-yard TD pass from John McCormick to Bob Scarpitto. Griffin picked up the ball after Max Leetzow blocked a Houston punt on the Oiler 10 and ran it across to five the Broncos a 21-17 lead at Denver, Colorado. In the fourth period, Griffin swiped a George Blanda pass and returned it 44 yards for the final TD. 

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Actual: Gino Cappelletti kicked a pair of second-half field goals Sunday to lift the winless Boston Patriots to a 13-13 tie with the unbeaten San Diego Chargers. Cappelletti, the defending American Football League scoring champion, had still another second-half attempt blocked as the Chargers fumbled the ball three times to set up Boston scoring attempts. A crowd of 20,924 at Boston saw the Chargers build a 13-7 first-half lead after trailing briefly on a 73-yard scoring pass from Boston quarterback Babe Parilli to halfback Ron Burton. The Chargers, who now have won four and tied two, struck back with an even longer scoring play, an 80-yard pass play from John Hadl to Lance Alworth. Boston launched its comeback early in the third period when Patriot defender Whit Graves recovered a Leslie Duncan fumble on an attempted punt at the Charger 18. Cappelletti booted a 21-yard field goal four plays later when Boston was unable to break through the stubborn San Diego defense. The Chargers found themselves in another hole in the fourth quarter when a short punt came down on their own 42. A 28-yard Parilli-to-Jim Colclough pass play and a defensive holding penalty set Boston up with a first down on the Charger 9. San Diego’s defense once again forced the Patiots out and Cappelletti kicked his tying field goal from the 22-yard stripe with just more than 10 minutes remaining.

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Actual: Buffalo exploded for 20 points in the fourth quarter, aided by a number of Kansas City mistakes, to score a come-from-behind 23-7 victory at Kansas City. The Bills turned three Chief fumbles and an interception into two touchdowns and a pair of field goals for their fifth win in six games. Willie Mitchell’s fumble of a punt at the Chief 30 opened the gates for Buffalo. Second string quarterback, Daryle Lamonica, pinpointed Charley Ferguson in the end zone on the following play with a 30-yard pass to put the Bills ahead to stay 10-7. George Saimes scooped up a Pete Beathard fumble later in the period and carried 18 yards for another to make it 17-7. Pete Gogolak kicked three pointers from 13 and 34 yards to complete the scoring.

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Actual: Mike Taliaferro came off the bench in the fourth period Saturday night and threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Don Maynard to give the New York Jets a 24-24 tie with the Oakland Raiders at New York. A bad center pass on fourth-down punt attempt forced Oakland to give up the ball on the Raider 3 early in the fourth quarter and Taliaferro, who replaced bonus ace Joe Namath, immediately hit Maynard for a touchdown.

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In an effort to fully capture each game replayed, I no longer will just repost the same game summary as APBA “Outside the Lines” (OTL) forum but a new box score format.  This will provide comprehensive team and individual statistics and complement the game writeup posted on OTL.

Actual: Kansas City’s Beathard scored on dashes of 20 and two yards as the Chiefs kept on San Diego’s heels. His second touchdown run gave the Chiefs a 24-7 lead and, after Denver pulled to within 24-17; he set up the clinching tally with a 73-yard completion to Frank Jackson. Cookie Gilchrist scored twice on short bursts for the Broncos, who slipped into the Western Division cellar with a 2-3 mark.

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