Bo knows Tecmo: Raiders top Patriots in AFC Championship

A single bead of sweat hung tantalizingly from a strand of Arnold Malachian's greasy hair. The salty spheroid grew fat with fluid before falling quietly on to the worn carpet below. Still, our hero was undaunted, his focus unbroken, his resolve undeniable. After all, this was no ordinary game.

He had reached the playoffs with the Patriots — an accomplishment few can match — and was one defensive stop from the AFC Title. But he had to contain Jackson, the scourge of Super Tecmo Bowl one final time.

The season had been one of the best in Tecmo Super Bowl history — and the most surprising. Despite having the worst starting quarterback in the game — the aging Steve Grogan — Malachian managed to finish in the top five in the AFC in total offense.

"[Wide receiver] Irving Fryar is over the hill and slow," Malachian said. "And don't get me started on [second wide receiver] Hart Lee Dykes! If it weren't for [tight end] Marv Cook, I wouldn't have made the playoffs."

Indeed, in this epic contest, Cook accounted for more than half of the Pats offense, fielding Grogan's moonballs over the middle, and paying the price with numerous crushing blows from the Raiders defense.

Early in the second quarter, Cook hauled in a slant at midfield and ran at a diagonal to use Fryar as a pick before weaving his way for a 66-yard touchdown — a blur of pink and white on the patch of green.

The Raiders were quick to counter Cook's strike. Following a Tim Brown kickoff return, the Raiders were stuffed for a loss on consecutive plays. The Patriots were in the backfield so quickly on these plays, that it seemed they already knew what the Raiders had called. On third down, however, the Silver and Black drew even leading to this exchange between the 'Prince' writer and Malachian.

AM: Ha, I got this stuf... wait, it's a pass...oh s@#$... F***!!!!!!

P: Did you do good on that play?

AM: Do you know anything about football?

As was later explained, L.A. quarterback Jay Schroeder faked a run to Marcus Allen, and bootlegged to his left. He fired a pass to wide open tight end Ethan Horton "Hears a Who," who waltzed 70 yards for a score.

In the second half, the Pats turned to the ground game, trying to control the clock and keep Jackson off the field. Running the maximum 10 game time units (like most Nintendo games, the "seconds" had no correlation with any time unit known to man) between plays and consistently converting on third down, New England marched the length of the field and scored on a two-yard plunge by running back John Stephens.

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The Raiders answered with only a Jeff Jaeger field goal, making the score N.E. 14, L.A. 10. Both teams exchanged punts on the ensuing possessions, setting the stage for L.A.'s final drive to glory and Malachian's last stand.

After a first down, the ball rested on the Raiders' 40-yard line. With the Super Bowl to prize, Schroeder barked out the signals to his line, and then took the snap. He turned and handed the ball to his mighty tailback, who darted toward the lane off right tackle.

Expecting this call, Malachian maneuvered his man, linebacker Richard Harvey, into the gap, but instead of diving at Jackson's legs — "I was playing it safe," he would later recall — he waited in the hole. Jackson juked once and drew Harvey one pixel too close to lineman Rory Graves. Harvey was repelled backward as if he had walked into an electric fence and could only groggily shake his head as Jackson headed upfield to the endzone.

As Jaeger kicked the extra point, Malachian's eyes began to moisten and his lip began to quiver. Within moments another drop of salty fluid cascaded down his face only to be wiped away by his cramping knuckles and blistered fingers.