The name of Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri F. Ustinov, who has been absent from public view for more than two months, appeared on telegrams to the defense ministers of Cuba and Laos. The messages have been the only indication of any activity by the 76-year-old defense minister since September 25. But the use of his name did nothing to end speculation that he is seriously ill. His failure to appear last week at the semiannual session of the Supreme Soviet was taken as confirmation of illness.
Soviet physicist Yuri Orlov, who was exiled to Siberia after being jailed for seven years for human rights activities, is carrying on theoretical research in a lonely cabin, a friend of the scientist is quoted as telling Newsweek magazine. Valentin Turchin, who translated two of Orlov’s papers into English, said that he talked with Orlov by telephone last month and that the scientist seemed to be holding up well in one of the world’s coldest regions. Before his imprisonment, Orlov was a Soviet expert on acceleration of subatomic particles.
A Roman Catholic priest who was banned from preaching by the Primate of Poland because of his political views took part in a church service today on the outskirts of the capital. The priest, the Rev. Stanisław Małkowski, celebrated mass, but said he had not been permitted to deliver a sermon as he had originally planned. ”The Primate wants to silence me in order to keep the peace and avoid affecting the talks between the church and the state,” he said. Father Malkowski was the subject of a letter in which the Primate, Jozef Cardinal Glemp, told all parishes to limit the political statements of priests. Specifically, the letter urged that Father Malkowski, a friend and collaborator of the murdered pro-Solidarity priest, the Rev. Jerzy Popiełuszko, not be permitted to preach at churches in the Warsaw archdiocese since in the past he had delivered homilies ”alien to the spirit of the Gospel.”
Quarrels over wine, fish and fruit that are blocking the admission of Spain and Portugal to the Common Market are hoped to be resolved in a two-day summit meeting scheduled to begin in Dublin today. In the background are such political questions as Spain’s entry into NATO and an effort to help both former dictatorships strengthen democracy. In the foreground Dublin has undertaken the biggest security operation ever to protect Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britian against a possible attack by the Irish Republican Army.
King Hussein of Jordan, addressing the Egyptian Parliament, denounced the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt and said there can be no Middle East peace unless Arab East Jerusalem is returned to Arab control. He ruled out suggestions that he bargain with Israel on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The monarch, visiting Cairo in the wake of his recent resumption of formal ties with Egypt, said the return of the walled Old City of Jerusalem-which contains Islam’s third-holiest site and which was captured by Israel in the 1967 war-must be part of any Arab-Israeli solution.
Christian and Druze militiamen fought for seven hours with artillery, rockets and machine guns in the Kharoub region, southeast of Beirut. Police reported at least two people wounded. The violence came as Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who is also a Cabinet member, strongly criticized a Syrianbacked plan for the army to take control of a coastal highway running from Syrian positions in the north to Israeli lines at the Awwali River in the south. Jumblatt’s mountain stronghold is near the highway. The plan is scheduled to take effect Thursday.
U.S. diplomats are on a war footing since the attack on the embassy in Lebanon in September. The State Department and its missions abroad have been transformed physically and psychologically.
King Fahd plans to give his people a say in the government of Saudi Arabia, now an absolute monarchy, he told Britain’s Sunday Times. He intends to set up a consultative assembly in three or four months and give the country a democratic constitution, he said in an interview in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, adding that the assembly will be “a parliament like that in any other country” and that “we will try it out by a process of trial and error.”
Afghan jets have bombed and rocketed two villages on Pakistan’s northwestern border and penetrated its airspace in the province of Baluchistan, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry announced. There were no casualties in the attacks, the latest in a series of incidents in which Pakistan says more than 100 people have been killed this year.
The Bhopal disaster begins this night. The Bhopal gas tragedy was a chemical accident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. In what is considered the world’s worst industrial disaster, over 500,000 people in the small towns around the plant were exposed to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate (MIC). Estimates vary on the death toll, with the official number of immediate deaths being 2,259.
By early December 1984, most of the plant’s MIC related safety systems were malfunctioning and many valves and lines were in poor condition. In addition, several vent gas scrubbers had been out of service, as well as the steam boiler intended to clean the pipes. During the late evening hours of 2 December 1984, water was believed to have entered tank E610 via a side pipe during attempts to unclog it. The tank still contained the 42 tons of MIC that had been there since late October. The introduction of water into the tank resulted in a runaway exothermic reaction, which was accelerated by contaminants, high ambient temperatures, and various other factors such as the presence of iron from corroding non-stainless steel pipelines. The pressure in tank E610, although initially nominal at 14 kilopascals (2 psi) at 10:30 pm, reached 70 kilopascals (10 psi) as of 11 pm. Two different senior refinery employees assumed the reading was instrumentation malfunction. By 11:30 pm, workers in the MIC area were feeling the effects of minor exposure to MIC gas and began to look for a leak. One was found by 11:45 pm and reported to the MIC supervisor on duty at the time. The decision was made to address the problem after a 12:15 am tea break, and in the meantime, employees were instructed to continue looking for leaks.
The Singapore Government said today that general elections would be held on December 22, a year ahead of schedule. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew advised President Devan Nair to dissolve Parliament Tuesday. Mr. Lee’s governing People’s Action Party is fielding two dozen new candidates, including his elder son, Brigadier General Lee Hsien Loong, for the 79 parliamentary seats at stake. A handful of opposition candidates are seeking to add to their present one seat in Parliament, held by Joshua Jeyaretnam, Secretary General of the Workers Party.
Philippine Army troops killed 23 Communist rebels while 10 soldiers died in a battle with about 200 insurgents northeast of this southern Philippine city, the military reported today. The military said 13 soldiers were wounded in the seven-hour clash, which erupted at dawn Friday after the rebels attacked an army outpost in Bayog, 93 miles from here. It was the second rebel attack in two days on an army detachment in the Mindanao region. Last Wednesday, about 100 rebels attacked an army camp in the town of Bongabong, touching off a two-hour battle that left five soldiers and three insurgents dead, the military said. The two attacks were staged by guerrillas of the New People’s Army, the military arm of the outlawed Philippine Communist Party, according to the military.
The French Government sent a special commissioner to New Caledonia today to try to quell disturbances between whites and Melanesians in the troubled South Pacific island territory. The commissioner, Edgard Pisani, was named by Prime Minister Laurent Fabius after an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday evening. Mr. Pisani’s mission, which is to last two months, is to try to resolve the conflict in the French overseas territory, including ”the means under which the right to self-determination will be exercised.”
More than 2 million Cubans turned out for work to mark what the Fidel Castro regime called a “Red Sunday of defense,” the official media reported. Much of the work involved building air-raid shelters and strengthening defense posts, and it was more extensive than usual because of what the authorities have described as a threat of attack by the United States.
Parliamentary elections in Grenada today, the first in eight years, are expected to draw a big turnout. Western diplomats and many Grenadians say a high turnout is likely to be to the advantage of the centrist New National Party, a coalition of moderate candidates favored by the Reagan Administration.
Salvadoran Government and rebel officials spent most of a 12-hour negotiating session on Friday debating a Government peace proposal and the possibility of a Christmas cease-fire, according to two Government delegates to the talks. The negotiators did not discuss a new rebel peace plan that calls for the eventual formation of a new government, new constitution and new army, said the Minister of the Presidency, Julio Adolfo Rey Prendes, a Government representative to the talks. ”They read the proposal and we said, ‘Thank you, now let’s go to the next item,’ ” he said. He added that the new rebel plan had caught the Government delegation by surprise.
Thirty-four churchwomen from the United States have arrived in El Salvador on a pilgrimage in honor of three American nuns and a Roman Catholic lay worker who were slain by National Guard soldiers four years ago today. ”We are witnesses for peace to the celebration of the fourth anniversary of the deaths of the sisters as well as the deaths of 50,000 Salvadorans,” said Sister Marjorie Tuite, a Dominican nun from New York.
Despite extensive unhappiness here with Chile’s President Augusto Pinochet and concern in Washington over his measures to thwart dissent, the 69-year-old military ruler seems to have defied his adversaries and to remain firmly entrenched. Last week a national protest, the 12th in a series that began in May 1983, failed so definitively that for the first time the Government did not bother to publicly proclaim it a failure. The President’s biggest asset seems to be his command over 53,000 army troops backed by 70,000 members of the police, air force and navy; his next, an opposition so fractured that dissidents in the business sector and the military do not take it seriously. Those are two groups that even the left concedes are necessary to present a formidable opposition.
Burkina Faso will again need food given by foreigners this year if people are to survive Africa’s widespread drought. But in that nation, formerly known as Upper Volta, and in others in the parched region south of the Sahara, the need for food often becomes entwined in the complexities and exaggerations of foreign aid. “Nothing, a Western aid worker said, “is more politicized than the statistics on food.”
The USSR performs a nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan.
A review of anti-bias guidelines used to detect patterns of employment discrimination against blacks, women and Hispanic Americans has been started by Federal officials. Business groups support an effort to change the rules and civil rights groups oppose it, for similar reasons: They believe the change would make it easier, in enforcement proceedings, for employers to defend the proportion of women or members of minority groups in the workforce at factories, offices or other sites. Officials of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the Federal Office of Personnel Management and the Justice Department are reviewing the guidelines. They apply to all public and private employers with 15 or more workers. Clarence Thomas, chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said he had ”serious reservations” about the existing guidelines because they encouraged too much reliance on statistical disparities as evidence of employment discrimination.
Military spending growth must slow to reduce Federal budget deficits, Senate’s new Republican leadership said. The leadership took its stand despite the contention of the White House that such spending restraint might compromise upcoming arms control talks with the Soviet Union. Republican Congressional leaders have previously told the President that the military budget should be included in any package of spending reductions he proposed to Congress, but the comments of the new leaders were the first indication of the kind of restraint they expect to see.
The President and First Lady host a reception honoring the seventh annual Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievement. President Reagan and the Kennedy Center tonight honored four Americans and an Italian for their contributions to culture in the United States. At a White House ceremony, Lena Horne, Arthur Miller, Gian Carlo Menotti, Isaac Stern and Danny Kaye were the recipients of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievement in the arts. When the nation was born, the President said at the ceremony, ”most people looked back to the old country” for art, but then an American culture developed, beginning with ”the twang of a frontier fiddle” and continuing to the glitter of Hollywood movies. The President gave the nation’s thanks to the honorees and said the following about them:
- Miss Horne. She has ”a voice that could melt the ice in a drink,” Mr. Reagan said, but she made other notable contributions in speaking out for civil rights and becoming one of the first black performers to refuse to take demeaning roles.
- Mr. Miller. Mr. Reagan noted that the playwright had supported himself while in college by working as a driver and pipefitter at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; from these beginnings, he later became the nation’s most distinguished playwright, winning the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for his ”Death of a Salesman.”
- Mr. Menotti. ”You have always kept your Italian citizenship, but you have spent so much time among us that you should allow us to claim you as an honorary American,” the President said of the opera composer and director.
- Mr. Stern. ”You have spent a lifetime showing how the United States environment fosters art,” the President said of the violinist.
- Mr. Kaye. The President praised the comedian for his lifetime of acting and for his devotion to trying to help the children of the world through the United Nations. Mr. Reagan noted that Mr. Kaye had starred in such movies as ”The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and ”Hans Christian Andersen.” A former actor, the President noted, ”I can’t help wishing I had one or two of those roles.”
President Reagan is trying to put a lid on the public airing of his family squabble that broke into the open during the Thanksgiving holiday, hoping that all members will pull in their horns to peacefully settle the dispute with son Michael, close friends said. The friends said the President has been upset by Michael’s attack on Nancy Reagan after the First Lady said in an interview that there was a “three-year estrangement” with Reagan’s adopted son by his previous marriage to actress Jane Wyman.
Negotiations broke off between teachers and the nation’s third-largest school district, and the Chicago Board of Education ordered all public schools closed as the union called a strike over more money. The walkout will idle 430,000 students and up to 40,000 employees. “All Chicago public schools are closed until further notice,” Orpen Bryan, a deputy schools superintendent, announced. Earlier in the evening, Chicago Teachers Union President Jacqueline Vaughn also announced that the strike would begin.
William J. Schroeder entered his second week in Louisville, Kentucky with an artificial heart — the second anniversary of the first such implant — visiting with friends in the hospital and progressing “way ahead of schedule.” Schroeder, 52, also passed his fourth test in three days on a shoulder-slung portable power unit to which he was switched from the 323-pound floor-model unit that has kept his new plastic-and-metal heart beating since his surgery last Sunday. Chief surgeon William C. DeVries said he thinks Schroeder could leave the intensive care unit within a week.
Saying Philadelphia’s Government is ”simply too big,” Mayor W. Wilson Goode has announced plans to trim the city’s work force by at least 1,200 through attrition during the next 18 months. ”We do not intend to lay anyone off, and we do not intend to reduce any services,” Mr. Goode said at a news conference Friday. ”And we intend to continue to maintain a strong Fire Department and a strong Police Department.” The Mayor said he had issued an executive order prohibiting most city departments from hiring additional workers or buying equipment without specific approval from the Administrative Board, made up of the Mayor and two other city officials. The Mayor said his order was aimed at saving at least $35 million in the seven months left in the city’s budget year. Otherwise, he said, Philadelphia could face a deficit of $75 million starting July 1, and a tax increase.
A surprise shakedown of the Luzerne County Prison in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, turned up illegal drugs in every cell block and contraband ranging from homemade knives to banned wooden tables, authorities said. Some of the drugs and personal items had been smuggled in by prison guards, District Attorney Robert Gillespie said. The raid — the result of a six-month investigation of drug trafficking — netted a large quantity of marijuana, cocaine, pills and other drug paraphernalia.
A team of federal acid rain researchers began taking water samples from 187 lakes in 26 Florida counties as part of a $7-million nationwide study. Environmental Protection Agency researchers will try to estimate how many lakes in Florida are vulnerable to acid rain, EPA spokesman Bob Humphries said from the agency’s regional office in Atlanta. The water samples will be tested for acidity, temperature, nutrient concentrations and presence of some heavy metals.
A man who barricaded himself inside a house where a woman had been shot to death earlier today exchanged gunfire with the police in a six-hour siege before apparently taking his own life, the police said. Officers had surrounded the two-story frame house in downtown Morgantown, West Virginia, posting sharpshooters on nearby rooftops, lobbing tear gas inside and using loudspeakers to try to coax the gunman out. Gunshots were heard from the attic at 11:53 PM, and an officer found the man shot to death. ”It appears that it is a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” said Police Chief John Cease. The police would not disclose the identities of the gunman and the slain woman or give details on her death. They had come to the house in response to a report of a shooting there. In the course of the siege, an officer was fired on when he poked his head inside the attic, the only part of the house that the police had not secured.
Action against Chicago street gangs which the police hold responsible for the 130 slayings since January of youths from 11 to 20 years old has been vowed by the city officials. The November 20 shooting death of Ben Wilson, a 17-year-old high school basketball star, touched off a responsive chord in Chicagoans. Thousands of people streamed past his silver-blue coffin in the gymnasium at Simeon Vocational High School on Nov. 23. Thousands more attended his funeral the next day.
The wives of five pastors were arrested today on the steps of a Pennsylvania Lutheran church while protesting the jailing of the Rev. D. Douglas Roth, who had used his pulpit to support union activists in the Monongahela-Ohio valley. Among those arrested was Mr. Roth’s wife, Nadine. Mr. Roth has been serving a 90-day jail term for defying a court order prohibiting him from preaching at the Trinity Lutheran Church in nearby Clairton. He had earlier been dismissed by Bishop Kenneth May for using his pulpit to support two labor groups known for their confrontational tactics to draw attention to the unemployed. The women were charged with trespassing in their protest on the steps of the St. John’s Lutheran Church of Highland. They were held on $500 bail each. ”They can’t put a pastor in jail,” Mrs. Roth said before she was arrested. ”They can’t close down a church, and we’re here to chastise them on behalf of the workers of the valley.”
A December storm pushed snow through the northern Plains and the mercury fell below zero in Montana, Minnesota and North Dakota. Ten inches of snow fell near the northeast South Dakota towns of Gettysburg and Mellette, while five inches were reported in the eastern part of the state. Freezing drizzle mixed with snow near Sioux Falls and Huron to make travel dangerous. A winter storm warning was issued for an additional six inches of snow in central Wisconsin and travelers’ advisories were posted for southern Wisconsin, where four more inches of snow was forecast.
NFL Football:
Miami quarterback Dan Marino breaks NFL single-season touchdown pass record when he throws his 37th in the Dolphins’ 45-34 loss to the Raiders; finishes season with 48 TD passes.
Indianapolis Colts 15, Buffalo Bills 21
Cincinnati Bengals 20, Cleveland Browns 17
Dallas Cowboys 26, Philadelphia Eagles 10
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14, Green Bay Packers 27
Pittsburgh Steelers 20, Houston Oilers 23
Denver Broncos 13, Kansas City Chiefs 16
Los Angeles Raiders 45, Miami Dolphins 34
New Orleans Saints 21, Los Angeles Rams 34
New York Giants 20, New York Jets 10
St. Louis Cardinals 33, New England Patriots 10
San Francisco 49ers 35, Atlanta Falcons 17
Detroit Lions 17, Seattle Seahawks 38
Joe Dufek didn’t think he had a good second half. Unfortunately for the Indianapolis Colts, Dufek had a pretty good first half Sunday to lead the Buffalo Bills to a 21–15 victory. Dufek, starting for the benched veteran quarterback, Joe Ferguson, threw two touchdown passes and Buffalo held off a late Indianapolis comeback attempt. The Bills had a 21–0 lead by the end of the first quarter and managed to hold on the rest of the way as they won their second game against 12 losses. The Colts are 4–10. “I didn’t throw the ball as well in the second half as I did in the first half,” said Dufek, who started at quarterback for the Bills in place of the benched Joe Ferguson. “But we held on.” The game was played before 20,693 fans at Rich Stadium, the smallest crowd for a Bills regular season game since the stadium opened in 1973. Dufek threw two touchdown passes in the opening 15 minutes when the Bills (2–12) did all their scoring.
With their playoff chances hanging in the balance, the Cincinnati Bengals decided today to go to the receiver they could trust most: left tackle Anthony Munoz. ”That was going to be the play if we were down there in a tough, short-yardage, go-for-guts kind of a play,” said the Bengals’ coach, Sam Wyche, alluding to the tackle-eligible play that sent the game against the Cleveland Browns into overtime. The Bengals wound up winning, 20–17, on Jim Breech’s 35-yard field goal about 5 minutes into overtime, pulling Cincinnati within a game of Pittsburgh, the American Conference Central Division leader. The Bengals appeared headed for defeat when they trailed, 17–7, early in the fourth quarter. A 22-yard field goal by Breech pulled them within 17–10, and the Bengals then blocked a punt to set up the tying touchdown, which came with 1 second to play in regulation time. Munoz lined up on the right side of the Bengals’ line, where a tight end would usually be positioned, and rolled 1 yard into the end zone before Boomer Esiason, the rookie quarterback, flipped him the pass that tied it. ”I really didn’t have much of a chance to think about it,” Munoz said of his first career touchdown. ”Boomer looks at me and says: ‘It’s coming to you.’ ”
An interception and touchdown run by the safety Dennis Thurman in the first quarter today gave Dallas a lead it never relinquished, and the Cowboys posted a 26–10 victory over the Eagles, maintaining their share of the lead in the National Conference East. The Cowboys are 9–5 over all, matching the records of the Giants and the Washington Redskins. The remaining Dallas games are Sunday at home against the Redskins and on Monday night Dec. 17 at Miami against the Dolphins. Today marked the 15th straight time the Cowboys have won following Thanksgiving Day victories. Dallas never trailed after the 27-year-old Thurman stepped in front of Joe Pisarcik’s poorly thrown pass and ran 38 yards untouched for the score on the Eagles’ first possession. The Cowboys labored through a first half in which Danny White was intercepted three times and the running back Tony Dorsett fumbled once. But Philadelphia was able to manage only a 23-yard field goal early in the second quarter by the rookie Paul McFadden. White, who had completed only 5 of 19 first-half passes, threw to his running back Ron Springs on a crossing pattern four minutes into the third quarter. Springs outreached the linebacker Reggie Wilkes and then ran into the end zone to complete the 57- yard scoring play. Philadelphia was penalized 10 yards on the following kickoff, and on the first play from scrimmage, the Dallas tackle John Dutton tackled Pisarcik in the end zone for a safety. It was the first start for Pisarcik since 1979, when he was a Giant. Pisarcik was playing for Ron Jaworski, who broke his left leg last week during his 116th consecutive start for Philadelphia. Timmy Newsome, a fullback, scored on an 8-yard run and Raphael Septien’s extra point made it 23–3 with 2 minutes 13 seconds remaining in the third period.
Lynn Dickey rushed for one touchdown and passed for another to rally Green Bay from a 14–0 third-quarter deficit as the Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27–14. Dickey, who completed only 6 of 15 passes in the first half for 52 yards, finished with 18 of 32 for 205 yards. He had three passes intercepted. Green Bay pulled even at 14–14 on Dickey’s one-yard run 56 seconds into the fourth quarter. Less than four minutes later, with 10:35 remaining, Dickey tossed a 13-yard touchdown pass to fullback Ray Crouse for the decisive score. The Packers also got two touchdown runs from Eddie Lee Ivery on a sloppy field to improve their record to 6–8. Tampa Bay fell to 4–10 with its third straight loss.
Houston Oilers’ kicker Joe Cooper, a replacement for Florian Kempf, who is injured, made a 30-yard field goal with 9:07 left in overtime to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 23–20. Pittsburgh had tied the game, 20-20, with 5:04 remaining in regulation when Mark Malone tossed a seven-yard touchdown pass to Louis Lipps. Quarterback Warren Moon, who completed 27 of 45 passes for 303 yards, led the Oilers on their game-winning drive, which began at their own 24. Three pass completions to Mike Holston gained 22 yards; a pass to Steve Bryant over the middle gained 19, and a pass to Mike McCloskey picked up 12 and put the ball on the Pittsburgh 26. Houston then ran one rushing play before bringing in Cooper for his 30-yarder.
Nick Lowery kicked three fourth-quarter field goals today, including one of 42 yards with 1 minute and 56 seconds to go, helping the Kansas City Chiefs to a 16–13 victory over the Denver Broncos. His counterpart, Rich Karlis of Denver experienced a nightmarish replay of his last-second kicking failure of last week. The Broncos pounded to the Chiefs’ 25-yard line and called on Karlis to kick the tying field goal with 10 seconds left. But, just as he had done the week before in a 27–24 loss to Seattle, his kick hit the upright and was no good. Lowery’s 46-yard kick with 11:41 to play brought Kansas City to within 3 points at 13–10. The Chiefs, led by Bill Kenney’s passing, set up Lowery for a 28-yarder that tied the score at 13–13 at the 7:01 mark.
By scoring three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, the Los Angeles Raiders became only the second team to defeat the Dolphins this season, as they won, 45–34, and moved within one victory of clinching a berth in the playoffs. The Raiders’ proximity to clinching was made possible by the New England Patriots, who lost, 33–10, to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Raiders are now 10–4; the Patriots 8–6. The Patriots could still make the playoffs if they win their remaining two games and the Raiders lose theirs. Dan Marino broke the record of 36 touchdown passes he shared with George Blanda of the 1961 Houston Oilers and matched by Y. A. Tittle of the 1963 Giants. And Marino became the sixth quarterback in league history to throw for more than 4,000 yards in one season. He completed 35 of 57 passes for 470 yards – all Dolphin club records — to give him a season total of 4,340, the fifth highest ever. The Raiders seemed to be cruising right along, leading, 24–13, 5 minutes 25 seconds into the second half. But then the Dolphins scored two touchdowns in the last 5 minutes of the third period on passes of 64 and 11 yards from Marino to Clayton to take the lead, 27–24. Then it was the Raiders’ turn. Within a 3-minute stretch of the final period, they scored on a 75-yard touchdown pass from Marc Wilson to Dokie Williams and a 6-yard run by Allen for a 38–27 lead. The second score was set up by Haynes’s second interception of the game, which he returned 53 yards to the Miami 15. Earlier, he picked one off at the 3 and returned it 97 yards for the first score of the game. Marino wasn’t finished. With 2:09 left, he threw his fourth scoring pass, a 9-yarder to Duper that cut the lead to 38–34. But after the Dolphins failed to recover a short kickoff, the Raiders were able to score again, on a 52-yard run by Allen with 1:43 remaining.
Eric Dickerson, continuing his assault on O. J. Simpson’s season rushing record, ran for 149 yards today as the Los Angeles Rams built an early lead and went on to a 34–21 victory over the New Orleans Saints. Dickerson, in his second season, joined Simpson and Earl Campbell as the only runners in league history to gain 100 yards 11 times in a season. He carried 33 times today to run his yardage total to 1,781, with two games remaining. Simpson set the record of 2,003 yards 11 years ago. The victory kept the Rams in the fight for a National Conference wild-card playoff spot, bringing their record to 9–5. The loss dashed the Saints’ last hope of a berth. They fell to 6–8. LeRoy Irvin’s 51-yard return of an interception five minutes into the game put Los Angeles ahead to stay. Dickerson scored on a 7-yard run later in the period, then Kemp connected with Ellard on a 16-yard scoring pass in the first minute of the second quarter. Mike Lansford’s 25-yard field goal made it 24–0 with 4:49 gone in the second period. Then New Orleans mounted a rally led by Dave Wilson, who replaced Richard Todd in the second period as the Saint quarterback. Wilson’s third touchdown pass of the game, 8 yards to Eugene Goodlow with 9 minutes 6 seconds remaining, brought the Saints to 27–21. But the Rams struck back with a quick 58 yard drive that culminated in a 34-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Kemp to Henry Ellard less than two minutes later.
The New York Giants’ offense and special teams kept making mistakes today, and the defense kept bailing them out. Finally, the offense started moving the ball, the defense bent but did not break, and the Giants emerged with a hard-fought 20–10 victory over the New York Jets. The triumph was the third straight for the Giants and extended their season record to 9–5. The Giants stopped the Jets’ two primary weapons, limiting the running back Freeman McNeil to 42 yards, and the pass-rusher Mark Gastineau to a shared sack. The Giants built a 17–0 lead midway through the third quarter and made it 20–3 on the first play of the fourth. The Jets then scored on a 32-yard touchdown pass from O’Brien to Lam Jones, with Jones bouncing off Terry Kinard and outrunning the other defenders. Then the Jets started moving the ball and the Giants’ tackling became sloppy, but the defense rose again with big plays. Mark Haynes stopped one threat with a goal-line interception, and George Martin stopped another by recovering a Jet fumble on the Giant 26-yard line. On their first possession after their touchdown, the Jets drove from their 5 to the Giant 11. O’Brien’s pass to McNeil put the ball on the 1, but the play was wiped out by a motion penalty against Reggie McElroy. On the next play, Haynes intercepted O’Brien’s pass intended for Jones. The Jets were not done yet. They regained possession with 2 minutes 35 seconds remaining, and moved from their 26 to the Giant 34. O’Brien then passed to Marion Barber for 8 yards, Barber fumbled when Harry Carson and Gary Reasons hit him, and Martin recovered for the Giants with 1:15 remaining. The Giants then ran out the clock.
The St. Louis Cardinals won a game today that kept them in contention for the playoffs, while the result came close to eliminating the losers, the New England Patriots. The Cardinals, who next play the Giants in St. Louis on Sunday, won impressively, 33–10, with Ottis Anderson, the running back, and E. J. Junior, the linebacker, leading the way. St. Louis, now with an 8–6 record, remained one game behind the Giants, the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins in the Eastern Division with two games to play. After they play the Giants, the Cardinals will finish against the Redskins in Washington. The Patriots, also 8–6, lost ground in the standing because they could not protect their quarterback, Tony Eason, who was sacked eight times. In the last three games, Eason has been dropped 24 times while attempting to pass. Anderson gained 136 yards rushing on 30 carries to reach 1,059 for the season, the fifth time he has reached the 1,000-yard mark. His contribution, 339 yards rushing in the last three games, is important because the Cardinals no longer depend as much on their passer, Neil Lomax, and his all-pro receiver, Roy Green. They have changed their style. ”We don’t want to pass,” said Coach Jim Hanifan. ”We want to run the ball and we’ve got the offensive line and the tight ends to do it. We want to control the game.” The Cardinals did that today and set the tone for the dreary contest with an opening 72-yard drive that accounted for almost 9 minutes of playing time. Of 15 plays, only 2 were passes, the second to Doug Marsh, the tight end, for 1 yard and a touchdown.
“We knew the defense had to come up with the big plays, and we made a few,” the San Francisco 49ers’ Dana McLemore said. It was more than a few as the 49ers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 35–17. It was seven, to be exact — six turnovers and a blocked punt. The 49ers, reeling off their sixth straight victory and their ninth in a row on the road, clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs. McLemore scored on a 54-yard interception return, and Gary Johnson scooped up a fumble and raced 33 yards for another score by the 49er defense. “We were lucky the defense picked up some big plays,” said Joe Montana, who threw two touchdown passes for an otherwise sputtering San Francisco attack that had three turnovers of its own. “If we (offense) continue to play the way we are, we’re not going to go anywhere in the playoffs,” Montana said. “We have got to play better.” Johnson, scoring for the third time in a 10-year career, said of his play that gave the 49ers a 21–10 halftime lead, “I just saw it laying there, and when I picked it up, I saw nothing but touchdown.” “This team wins in different ways every week,” said Keena Turner, who set up Roger Craig’s five-yard touchdown with an eight-yard interception return to the Atlanta nine. “Today, we won with lots of individuals.” Montana’s scoring passes came in the first half — 64 yards to Freddie Solomon and six yards to Dwight Clark — as the NFC West champions improved their record to 13–1, marking only the 14th time in NFL history that a team has won 13 or more regular-season games.
Dave Krieg passed for 294 yards and a club-record five touchdowns to carry Seattle past Detroit, 38–17, giving the Seahawks into sole possession of first place in the A.F.C. West. The victory extended Seattle’s winning streak to eight games and guaranteed the Seahawks (12–2) at least a wild-card spot in the playoffs. Krieg completed touchdown passes of three and 13 yards to Steve Largent and four yards to Daryl Turner in the first two periods to give the Seahawks a 21–17 lead at the end of a see-saw first half. After a scoreless third quarter, Krieg connected with Turner on a 51-yard scoring play. Norm Johnson added a 36-yard field goal, and Krieg then hit Mike Tice with a five-yard touchdown pass. Krieg completed 27 of 38 passes before being relieved by Jim Zorn late in the game. His five touchdown passes extended his club-record total to 29 for the season.
Born:
Maryna Viazovska, Ukrainian mathematician (Fields Medal 2022, work on densest way to pack spheres in eight dimensions), born in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.
Eric Bakhtiari, NFL linebacker (Tennessee Titans, San Francisco 49ers), in San Mateo, California.
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