The Most BIZARRE 3-Touchdown Game in NFL HISTORY | Rams @ 49ers (1970)

live nfl trivia every wednesday night on twitch at 9 pm eastern come show off your football knowledge for a chance to win cash prizes check the link in the description to find out more and now on with our featured presentation when a player scores three touchdowns in a game it is an incredible feat usually it's the game of a player's life and when a player scores three touchdowns i think it's safe to say that it was by design at the very least the player in question no matter how prominent or how surprising the performance was was supposed to be on the field the player was supposed to be out there and it wasn't mistake that he was on the field the coach sent him out there and then the player did the rest that's usually how this thing goes it seems pretty obvious and self-explanatory a player isn't gonna just accidentally score three touchdowns so why do i bring all that up as you can guess that's exactly what happened one time this is los angeles rams running back willie ellison in 1970 the rams were taking on their in-state rivals in the san francisco 49ers three times ellison completely going against the kosher switches inserted himself into the game and three times ellison found his way into the end zone helping his team win the game it's a bizarre situation that deserves a deep dive so that's exactly what we're going to be doing here today this is the story behind the strangest three touchdown game in the history of the nfl before i talk about the game and the performance in question we need some context to understand just who willie ellison is why he wasn't supposed to be playing for the most part and what made this performance all the more surprising in 1967 the rams were looking to add some depth to the rushing attack as the year before the only player who did anything of note in that backfield was dick bass who was going to be on the wrong side of 30. with that they spent their second round pick on the texas southern running back hoping that he could help bolster an offensive finish in the bottom half of the league and points scored during that 1966 season and over those first three seasons that ellison was with the team from 1967 to 69 the good news was that the rammus were winning games they made it to the postseason twice finished with delegated wins all three times and only lost seven out of a possible 42 games which is obviously incredible however it had very little if anything to do with the play of willie ellison over those first three seasons ellison was buried on the depth chart whether he was playing behind dick bass who still had a few more seasons left in the tank or les josephson who shocked a ton of people by playing really well in 1967 and making it to the first and only pro bowl of his career or tommy mason the former first overall pick by the vikings in 1961 who made three pro bowls over in minnesota ellison barely saw the field he did not start any games in 1967 or 1969 although he did get a chance to start a few games in 1968 since joseph submits the season with an injury to his calf and achilles and to be fair to ellison when he did get a chance to see the field he was a pretty solid player he carried the ball 185 times and averaged more than four yards per carry he showcased his versatility in the passing game and had 864 yards from scrimmage during the 1968 campaign he was pretty good at holding on to the football only fumbling four times in 210 touches back then a player who fumbled less than once every 50 carries was really solid and in 1968 he even finished fifth in the league by scoring seven rushing touchdowns and amongst all qualified players he was 18 yards per touch ellison was a prime example of a solid player who's buried on a team with a ton of talent he would easily be starting on more than half the teams in the league he just couldn't crack it on the rams just yet but in 1970 he was about to get his big break the good news for ellison was that to kick off the 1970 season he got a pretty significant workload after only touching the ball 24 times in all of 1969 which is less than twice a game he got to play a bit when the first season of the post-merger era kicked off josephson had a fractured jaw in practice that kept him out for a bit mason had a rib injury and larry smith their first round pick from the 1969 nfl draft who started every game as a rookie had a hamstring injury so ellison moved up the depth chart by default and ellison once again showed why he was one of the best backup running backs in football over those first two games when he got his chance to start he capitalized the rams won two and out with wins over the saint louis cardinals and buffalo bills and ellison scored two touchdowns while running for 154 yards on just under 5 yards per carry in that game against the bills he scored the only touchdown of the entire contest which the rams won 19 nothing however once the injury bug subsided at the running back position it was back to the bench for ellison after such a hot start to the season that the league took notice of he was back to only getting sporadic carries and never really touching the ball from weeks five through seven he didn't have a single carry from week three until the game we're going to talk about that took place in week 11 he didn't find the end zone with a rushing touchdown in that six week stretch from weeks five through 10 he touched the ball just 17 times george allen was not moving ellison up the depth chart even despite those great performances at the start of the season and even despite the solid play he had before that he was still behind guys like smith and josephson but as the season 2 will close ellison was about to get another chance smith was nursing a bad hamstring that even caused him to not get a single carry a few weeks prior against the new york jets and he was nursing a bad leg as well while smith was going to be good enough to play he was on somewhat of a pitch count head coach george allen knowing that he wasn't gonna play smith a whole lot and knowing that he couldn't just have one running back getting all the touches with josephson decided that he was gonna let ellison play ellison wasn't gonna play a whole lot as joseph sim was still the man projected to get the bulk of the touches but he was going to see the field and at least be partially involved with the game plan little did he know just how involved he was going to be and especially little did the coaching staff know what was about to transpire next november 29 1970. we're in san francisco for what might be the biggest matchup of the entire season between the san francisco 49ers and the los angeles rams through 10 weeks the 49ers and rams are neck and neck atop the nfc west san francisco enters this game with the lead sitting with a seven two and one record while los angeles is only one game behind at six three and one when the teams met earlier in the season the 49ers won so a win here would put san francisco up by two games with three to play essentially clinching the division especially since the battle for the lone wild card spot in the nfc was a dogfight with three other teams tied with the rams at six wins to say that this was a must-swing game for los angeles would be a massive understatement if they could find a way to knock off not just their in-state rival but could find a way to tie for the division lead alongside maybe the best team in football at this point outside of the 9-1 minnesota vikings that would be monumental sure enough the rams pulled off the upset in absolutely convincing fashion when the final guns sounded the niner fans were stunned to see their team lose in a blowout as the rams won this one 30-13 after the rams fell behind 13th to 6th of the halftime break los angeles scored 24 unanswered points to close out the game 49ers quarterback john brodie would go on to win the mvp that season and he was widely regarded as the best quarterback in all the football by this point i did a few videos on brody and his time with the 49ers so if you want to learn more about his story career then click the card in the upper right corner but on this day the eventual mvp was held in check completing just 50 of his passes throwing two interceptions and finishing with a passer rating of 48.4 for some perspective he led the league that season with a passer rating of 93.8 so to save the rams defense was giving him fits would be an understatement however as surprising as that was the real surprise was with los angeles and the rushing attack because in the second half of the game with smith basically reaching his pitch count ellison was inserted into the game and found the end zone not once not twice but three times he finished the game with nine carries for 51 yards and all three touchdowns at the rams scored in the second half now i know you might be thinking sure that's impressive that a player came off the bench and did that and sure that's a nice story about capitalizing on your opportunity but the strangest three touchdown game in the history of the nfl come on that's a bit dramatic a bit of a stretch and a bit of a hyperbole don't you think and if that was it you'd be completely right but here's the crazy part about all of this on all three of those touchdowns ellison was not supposed to be in the game on all three of those touchdowns ellison inserted himself into the lineup prior to the game head coach george allen told ellison that he was to sit on the bench unless he noticed one of the running backs getting tired if he saw that someone whether it was smith or josephson was fatigued and looked like they needed a breather he was to make the substitution insert himself into the game obviously something like this seems incredibly risky in today's nfl especially since there's such a thing as too many men on the field and 12 men in the huddle but back in 1970 allen was leaving the responsibility up to ellison and only ellison after run by josephson at one point in the second half ellison decided that this was going to be his chance to cease the moment and that this was going to be his opportunity to shine ellison sprinted onto the field and josephson came off thinking that allen made the call however allen was incredibly confused because josephson didn't look tired at all ellison just decided to go onto the field and get some playing time and before allen could do anything to stop it ellison was in the end zone ellison's plan worked perfectly it worked so well in fact that he decided to do it again which is how he scored his second touchdown and knowing the old saying about the third time being the charm he did it one more time which is how he scored his third touchdown ellison inserted himself into the game and called his own number three times ellison took extreme liberty with what the coach had to say three times in all three times whether he was replacing smith or josephson or someone else from the offense ellison found the end zone and put points on the board for the rams the three touchdown game literally came out of nowhere not only did he score more rushing touchdowns in this game than he had all season up until that point and not only was this the first time in his career that he scored three touchdowns in the game but he did it in essence completely unintentionally he was never supposed to be on the field and yet his decision to insert himself into the game paid off in a big way but odds are if you've heard the name willie ellison before this video it wasn't for this performance it was for something else by 1971 ellison had done enough to move up the depth chart and become a starter tommy prothrow was now the head coach in charge instead of george allen and pro throws saw the potential that ellison had and saw the production levels as a side note if you want to learn more about pro throw and what a bizarre coach he was then click the card in the upper right corner and in 1971 ellison made it to the pro boy running for exactly a thousand yards it was the first and only time in his career he cracked the thousand yard barrier as he finished fifth in the league in both rushing yards and yards for carry where he averaged 4.7 in that department he was also third in the nfl yards from scrimmage with 1238 only behind floyd little of the denver broncos and steve owens of the detroit lions but the most memorable performance of that season and of his career came on december 5th 1971 against the new orleans saints in a game where the rams won 45-28 ellison put himself in the record books by running 26 times for 247 yards and a touchdown the 247 yards set an nfl record for the most rushing yards in a single game and he broke jim brown's record set back in 1957 coincidentally against the los angeles rams ellison wouldn't hold on to the record for long as oj simpson famously broke it a few years later on thanksgiving against the lions but for a brief moment in time ellison was an essential part of the history of the nfl while that performance gets remembered his three touchdown game against the 49ers more than half a century later often gets overshadowed yet what ellison did on that day in 1970 to help the rams pull off the upset was incredible if it backfired who knows what would have happened to ellison from that point on he just decided to insert himself into the game because he felt like it and all three times that he did this he found his way into the end zone considering the circumstances and considering just how much else it was longing for his opportunity to come no matter how bizarre it was this might just be the strangest three touchdown game in the history of the nfl get your official jaguar game or night merchandise by going to jj9shop.com and be sure to like this video bring the notification bell subscribe down below if you haven't already it helps the channel out a lot and be sure to check out twitch every wednesday night at 9 00 pm eastern for a 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