USA Today: A Look Back at Ed Rutkowski as the Bills' 1968 Disaster QB

[26CornerBlitz]

 

 

It’s not easy being Nathan Peterman. Just ask Ed Rutkowski. Fifty years ago, he was Peterman.

 

Rutkowski started at quarterback for the Buffalo Bills then for the same reason Peterman is starting for them now. Namely, everyone else was hurt.

 

"Been there, done that,” Rutkowski, who’s 77, tells USA TODAY.

 

He was known as the Bills’ “disaster quarterback” during that 1968 season. These days the disaster is Peterman’s play. His quarterback rating on this season’s opening day — 0.0 — earned a dreaded Blutarsky, so named for the John Belushi Animal House character who carried a 0.0 GPA.

 

There are key differences. Peterman was drafted as a quarterback while Rutkowski wasn’t drafted at all. And Rutkowski played what seemed like everything other than quarterback during his AFL career — wide receiver and running back and tight end and defensive back and returner of kickoffs and punts — until injuries took out all of the Bills’ real QBs five decades ago.

[K-9]

Glad Erik qualified that comparison between Rutlowski and Peterman. Eddie R was the football equivalent to a utility infielder and could actually play the game. Peterman? Not so much.

[ColoradoBills]

I've often wondered what would of happened if Ed had not fumbled that goal line bootleg play and the Bills went on to win that

game in OAK.

 

The Atlanta Falcons would of drafted OJ and the Bills may have drafted Mean Joe Greene.

I wonder how it would of worked out.

[K-9]

1 hour ago, ColoradoBills said:

I've often wondered what would of happened if Ed had not fumbled that goal line bootleg play and the Bills went on to win that

game in OAK.

 

The Atlanta Falcons would of drafted OJ and the Bills may have drafted Mean Joe Greene.

I wonder how it would of worked out.

That is one heckuva what if. I'd like to think Rauch would have preferred Joe Greene, but I suspect he may have opted for Greg Cook instead. 

[26CornerBlitz]

11 minutes ago, K-9 said:

That is one heckuva what if. I'd like to think Rauch would have preferred Joe Greene, but I suspect he may have opted for Greg Cook instead. 

 

That would have been great. Cook was one helluva QB before the shoulder injury against KC that effectively ended his career. . 

[K-9]

5 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

That would have been great. Cook was one helluva QB before the shoulder injury against KC that effectively ended his career. . 

Yeah, Cook got a tough break. He was destined for greatness. And the Bengals were just starting to introduce some innovative offensive schemes. 

[26CornerBlitz]

1 minute ago, K-9 said:

Yeah, Cook got a tough break. He was destined for greatness. And the Bengals were just starting to introduce some innovative offensive schemes. 

 

They had to create the beginning of the West Coast Offense to compensate for the loss of Cook with Virgil Carter as his replacement.  Bill Walsh was the mastermind on that Bengals' staff under Paul Brown. 

[GunnerBill]

7 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

They had to create the beginning of the West Coast Offense to compensate for the loss of Cook with Virgil Carter as his replacement.  Bill Walsh was the mastermind on that Bengals' staff under Paul Brown. 

 

Yea that was the story I heard. Cook had an arm but when he went down the backup didnt so they had to go to more of a horizontal passing attack. 

[26CornerBlitz]

Just now, GunnerBill said:

 

Yea that was the story I heard. Cook had an arm but when he went down the backup didnt so they had to go to more of a horizontal passing attack. 

 

Exactly the case and they made it work. 

[row_33]

Tell me about Dan Darragh

 

[K-9]

17 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

They had to create the beginning of the West Coast Offense to compensate for the loss of Cook with Virgil Carter as his replacement.  Bill Walsh was the mastermind on that Bengals' staff under Paul Brown. 

Yep. And Kenny Anderson really reaped those benefits when that offense took full shape and began to hum. I give Paul Brown a ton of credit for not trying to stifle some of the elements that they incorporated. That early Bengals offense had all sorts of influences, from Cleveland's running and blocking schemes to Sid Gilman's passing concepts. As a little kid, they were fun to watch. 

[Formerly Allan in MD]

9 minutes ago, row_33 said:

Tell me about Dan Darragh

 

Give Dan a break.  He was a nobody coming out of William & Mary, I believe.  He lit it up in camp and got playing time.  As I recall, he became injury prone and got cut.  At the outset, it was a good story.

Thank you Erik.

[row_33]

13 minutes ago, Formerly Allan in MD said:

Give Dan a break.  He was a nobody coming out of William & Mary, I believe.  He lit it up in camp and got playing time.  As I recall, he became injury prone and got cut.  At the outset, it was a good story.

Thank you Erik.

 

just peeking at the encyclopedia for 1967 through 1969, so Kemp got hurt for the whole 1968 year?

 

that would put a crimp in any team's plans, it should be stated up front that this happened, just like Juice got hurt in 1977 to make that bad season even worse

 

 

 

 

(and Dan's getting a free pass as to historic Bills futility at QB... jeepers...)

 

 

[dwight in philly]

2 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

I've often wondered what would of happened if Ed had not fumbled that goal line bootleg play and the Bills went on to win that

game in OAK.

 

The Atlanta Falcons would of drafted OJ and the Bills may have drafted Mean Joe Greene.

I wonder how it would of worked out.

just a point of reference , philly took Leroy Keyes out of Purdue after OJ

[Formerly Allan in MD]

1 hour ago, row_33 said:

 

just peeking at the encyclopedia for 1967 through 1969, so Kemp got hurt for the whole 1968 year?

 

that would put a crimp in any team's plans, it should be stated up front that this happened, just like Juice got hurt in 1977 to make that bad season even worse

 

 

 

 

(and Dan's getting a free pass as to historic Bills futility at QB... jeepers...)

 

 

You're suggesting Dan was a star like Jack and OJ?  It's apples and orange juice.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

Nate Peterman for Erie County Executive!  (See you all in PPP!)

[Augie]

2 hours ago, K-9 said:

That is one heckuva what if. I'd like to think Rauch would have preferred Joe Greene, but I suspect he may have opted for Greg Cook instead. 

 

But....how would you use Mean Joe as a decoy? 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

3 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

But....how would you use Mean Joe as a decoy? 

He takes off his jersey, and tosses it to an opposing player?  While everyone stops to watch that, 'Clancy lowers the boom' on the opposing ball carrier.

[Augie]

3 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

He takes off his jersey, and tosses it to an opposing player?  While everyone stops to watch that, 'Clancy lowers the boom' on the opposing ball carrier.

 

An all-time classic commercial! Really, not TOO many top that. 

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

4 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

I've often wondered what would of happened if Ed had not fumbled that goal line bootleg play and the Bills went on to win that

game in OAK.

 

The Atlanta Falcons would of drafted OJ and the Bills may have drafted Mean Joe Greene.

I wonder how it would of worked out.

 

...hell he's only 77...should we bring 'em in?.......maybe things improved...............

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

1 minute ago, Augie said:

 

An all-time classic commercial! Really, not TOO many top that. 

I always opt for 'funny' over 'tugged heartstrings', but there probably were a few more Cokes sold.

 

Now as for me, give me either Snickers commercial (Batman Jets or the Chefs), or the old Wheaties commercial from the early 70s with NFL notables screwing up, while the jingle goes "HeyJoe, you didn't have your Wheaties, so sad, you missed another play" (or something similar - it's been over 45 years!)

[ColoradoBills]

2 hours ago, dwight in philly said:

just a point of reference , philly took Leroy Keyes out of Purdue after OJ

 

True but with a Bills win the draft order would of been:

Atlanta

Philadelphia

Buffalo

Pittsburg

 

Keyes was CB and the Bills still had Butch Byrd and Booker Edgerson.

'68 was Sestak's last year and they had a need at DT thus my Joe Greene scenario.

 

Like I said it's fun to think about how different the Bills organization would have been.

Cook would of been another interesting possibility like others have mentioned.

What if he was selected and didn't hurt his shoulder?

[26CornerBlitz]

1 minute ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

True but with a Bills win the draft order would of been:

Atlanta

Philadelphia

Buffalo

Pittsburg

 

Keyes was CB and the Bills still had Butch Byrd and Booker Edgerson.

'68 was Sestak's last year and they had a need at DT thus my Joe Greene scenario.

 

Like I said it's fun to think about how different the Bills organization would have been.

Cook would of been another interesting possibility like others have mentioned.

What if he was selected and didn't hurt his shoulder?

 

Keyes played RB with the Eagles before later switching to safety.

[ColoradoBills]

5 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

Keyes played RB with the Eagles before later switching to safety.

 

So he did.  I always remembered him as a DB.

Still, Bills would of picked after PHI.

[K-9]

1 hour ago, Augie said:

 

But....how would you use Mean Joe as a decoy? 

Good point. He probably would have used Cook as a DT, so it’s hard to say. Receiver, probably. Given what he did with the Juice.

[Augie]

2 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Good point. He probably would have used Cook as a DT, so it’s hard to say. Receiver, probably. Given what he did with the Juice.

 

I know, he could use him like the Fridge, in specialty situations! 

 

Yeah, on the wrong side of the ball, and totally stupid, so it might have occurred to him.....

[Helpmenow]

Leroy Keyes 

[stuvian]

history repeats around here

[pennstate10]

I remember that year well.

 

Was my first year as a Bills fan.

 

Went to the Rockpile for my first pro game.  Saw Namath throw 8 TD passes in the game.  But 3 of them were to the Bills, who won 37-35!

 

Remember that Raiders game on TV.  Was heartbroken when Rutkowski fumbled on the 5-10 yd line, Bills trailing the mighty Raiders only 13-10.  Remember the ball laying on the field for an eternity before covered by the Raiders.  Still think it was OOB and a bad call.

 

Fast forward 15 years.  I was a resident at CHOB, sitting in the residents office (really more of a closet) on Hodge St.  My fellow residents were talking Bills football.  And how bad they were (this is 1984).  

 

One of the other residents pipes up.  "Not as bad as in 1968.  They couldnt protect their QBs at all".

 

Guys name was Bob Darragh (now a pediatric cardiologist).  His bother's name was Dan.

[Helpmenow]

 Joe had four tds in that game. Janik, butch and booker had picks. Janik had a 100 yard for a tD

Edited November 10, 2018 by Helpmenow

[BuffaloBob]

2 hours ago, pennstate10 said:

I remember that year well.

 

Was my first year as a Bills fan.

 

Went to the Rockpile for my first pro game.  Saw Namath throw 8 TD passes in the game.  But 3 of them were to the Bills, who won 37-35!

 

Remember that Raiders game on TV.  Was heartbroken when Rutkowski fumbled on the 5-10 yd line, Bills trailing the mighty Raiders only 13-10.  Remember the ball laying on the field for an eternity before covered by the Raiders.  Still think it was OOB and a bad call.

 

Fast forward 15 years.  I was a resident at CHOB, sitting in the residents office (really more of a closet) on Hodge St.  My fellow residents were talking Bills football.  And how bad they were (this is 1984).  

 

One of the other residents pipes up.  "Not as bad as in 1968.  They couldnt protect their QBs at all".

 

Guys name was Bob Darragh (now a pediatric cardiologist).  His bother's name was Dan.

It was my first year as well. I was 10. I remember the San Diego home game that year in mid November.  It was a miserable game both in performance (Bills lost 21-6) and the weather. Cold rain the whole game. By the fourth quarter you couldn’t read any of the players numbers because it was a mud bowl.  Well, all except for one: Mr. John Hadl #21. 

 

John Hadl’s uni was completely clean!  Every other player on the field was mud from head to toe. There wasn’t much to cheer about but about mid way through the 4th quarter, a chant started: GET HADL DIRTY!!  GET HADL DIRTY!  The whole stadium was chanting it in unison. It went on for 3-4 plays and the Bills finally sacked him.  The crowd roared like we had just won the game. That was a tough season, so I, my brother and my father were pathetically happy for that one moral victory. 

 

I also remember Ed Rutkowski wearing a wrist band with plays on it when he played later that season.  That was the first I had ever seen that. He held his own.

Edited November 10, 2018 by BuffaloBob

[K-9]

2 hours ago, pennstate10 said:

I remember that year well.

 

Was my first year as a Bills fan.

 

Went to the Rockpile for my first pro game.  Saw Namath throw 8 TD passes in the game.  But 3 of them were to the Bills, who won 37-35!

 

Remember that Raiders game on TV.  Was heartbroken when Rutkowski fumbled on the 5-10 yd line, Bills trailing the mighty Raiders only 13-10.  Remember the ball laying on the field for an eternity before covered by the Raiders.  Still think it was OOB and a bad call.

 

Fast forward 15 years.  I was a resident at CHOB, sitting in the residents office (really more of a closet) on Hodge St.  My fellow residents were talking Bills football.  And how bad they were (this is 1984).  

 

One of the other residents pipes up.  "Not as bad as in 1968.  They couldnt protect their QBs at all".

 

Guys name was Bob Darragh (now a pediatric cardiologist).  His bother's name was Dan.

Somewhere, Tom Janik smiles. 

[Tcali]

15 hours ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

They had to create the beginning of the West Coast Offense to compensate for the loss of Cook with Virgil Carter as his replacement.  Bill Walsh was the mastermind on that Bengals' staff under Paul Brown. 

Greg Cook was a very very good QB.

Ken Anderson was a great talent.His career short as well.

 

PS-I knew Virgil Carter.Good guy.Havent spoken to him for at least 10 yrs though.

11 hours ago, K-9 said:

Good point. He probably would have used Cook as a DT, so it’s hard to say. Receiver, probably. Given what he did with the Juice.

Rauch should have been prosecuted and sent to prison for what he did to OJ and Bills fans.