The Chargers' Brief AFC Title Defense Was Derailed By Jim Harbaugh's 1995 Colts
- Dominic Mucciacito
- Oct 18
- 7 min read
When coach Jim Harbaugh looks across the field Sunday and sees the opposing quarterback; discarded unceremoniously by the team that drafted him in the first round; a player who might as well be a different person given how dramatically his career has been resuscitated from just a year ago, thriving in a new environment and wearing a white helmet adorned with a horseshoe, he might see a reflection of his own football journey.
In a strange quirk of schedule, Harbaugh will coach his 88th NFL game on Sunday and only his second one against the Colts. Playing his old team for the first time since returning from the college ranks sparked memories of his time in Indianapolis, and the magical ride that took them within a play of the Super Bowl.
December 31, 1995. The Chargers were the team "that nobody wanted to play" heading into the 1995 playoffs. The problem? That nobody was named Jim Harbaugh.
The 1995 Colts were not Jim Harbaugh's team—at least not at first. The team had signed Craig Erickson in the offseason and named him the team's starter. But after relieving the turnover-prone Erickson twice in the first two weeks to spark rallies, Harbaugh retook the starting job and never let go.
At 32-years-old, Harbaugh was finally given the circumstances he needed to become the player that he always knew he could be. Harbaugh went from holding a clipboard to becoming the top rated passer in the NFL (100.7 rating). He threw a career (and league) low 5 interceptions, made his first Pro Bowl, and was awarded Comeback Player of the Year.
As the Colts began to take on Harbaugh's scrappy, unyielding personality they started winning games late, which earned him the nickname "Captain Comeback." (The moniker also inspired one of the worst amateur rock songs you have never heard.) He rallied the team three times the fourth quarter for victories, overcoming 21-point deficits twice against the Jets and the Dolphins.
"That was like being dipped in magic waters,” said Harbaugh when asked this week about that Colts team from 30 years ago. “That’s what it felt like the entire season."
“Everything just fell into place and you knew it. There was a great rapport among the players and coaches. It was a ball team. It was just really a ball team. One of my favorite ball teams I’ve ever been on. Just everybody getting to it. Working. We just worked hard and had fun doing it."
“A bunch of great guys.”
Harbaugh played four of his 14 professional seasons with the Colts, from 1994 to ’97, after being drafted by the Bears out of the University of Michigan in 1987.
He joined a team in Chicago that was still committed to their Super Bowl winning quarterback Jim McMahon, but one that also knew that "Mac" spend many Sunday afternoons in street clothes due to a myriad of injuries.
By 1990 "Mac" was gone (traded to San Diego in 1989), and the Bears briefly became Harbaugh's team. No, that's not accurate either. The Bears were George Halas's team; supplanting that they became Mike Ditka's team when Halas passed away in 1983. Quarterbacks were simply another cog in the wheel, which Ditka reminded everyone on the sidelines of a game against the Vikings in 1992.
The Bears took a 20-0 lead on the road on the strength of Harbaugh's performance, capped by the quarterback's short touchdown run to start the second half. But when Harbaugh audibled out of a run and threw an interception that let the Vikings back into the game Ditka erupted.
Asked about the tirade afterwards Ditka threatened to bench Harbaugh if he changed any more plays. Acting as though the decision was a slap in the face of the staff who had called a play; as though Harbaugh was putting himself above the rest of the team.
Still wet from a postgame shower, reporters asked Harbaugh what it was like being undressed by your coach on national television.
"It's Mike's team. He can do what he wants." said Harbaugh.
Ditka was fired at season's end after a decade in Chicago. Harbaugh was released a year later.
In Indianapolis his offensive coordinator, and eventual head coach, Lindy Infante never felt like he needed to measure his ego against his signal caller's. For the first time in his career, a coach wasn't trying to reign in his quarterback's competitive impulses; his instincts and hunches. The relationship was collaborative.
The belief that started in that relationship then infected the whole team. That season the Colts never felt like a game was out of reach.
Down 24-3 against an undefeated Dolphins team (4-0) in Miami at half, Harbaugh led a comeback that included 24 unanswered points, three touchdown passes, and an overtime victory. His 319 yards passing was his career high to that point.
"The come-from-behind wins,” Harbaugh said of what stands out some 30 years later. “They started calling us the Cardiac Colts and things like that. Just finding ways to win. It could come from anybody on the roster. It could be Marshall Faulk. It could be Marcus Pollard. It could be anybody.”
A second-year running back from San Diego State, Faulk eventually played a pivotal role in the then-St. Louis Rams win in Super Bowl XXIV. Rookie tight end Marcus Pollard played the first 10 of his 14 pro seasons with the Colts.
“It seemed like every game there was somebody else who stepped up mightily,” said Harbaugh. “It was great for morale. I say, ‘it’s dipped in magic waters’ because there were some magical moments. There was some magic made. So, as far as being a player, that was by far my favorite season, the ’95 season.”
The Colts had only been to the playoffs once before in Indianapolis (1987) after relocating from Baltimore.
The Chargers team survived a hostile trip to the Big Apple in which quarterback Stan Humphries was the first of many Chargers (players and staff) to leave the game early because of snow and ice being thrown at the players the week before. The win marked their fifth in a row and meant they would host the Colts, a team they had beaten two weeks earlier 27-24 in Indianapolis. Oddsmakers make the Chargers a (-5.5) favorite.
The 1995 Chargers were not only a battle-tested squad who had played in the previous Super Bowl, they were getting healthy at the right time and built for January. But would the defending AFC champions get to play in January?
“We felt like we had nothing to lose, but yet, we’re gonna win.”-Jim Harbaugh
The Chargers had spent the week preparing to slow down former San Diego State Aztec Marshall Faulk.
If you believe in the sort of thing as omens, then it doesn't get much worse than losing your most dynamic player on the first offensive play of the game. Faulk, playing for the first time in Jack Murphy Stadium as a professional, left the game after touching the ball once. He had re-injured his left knee on a muddy field that had been destroyed by the Holiday Bowl played two days prior.
Divots were covered in sand and painted green. Faulk exited his homecoming with a stat line of one carry for 16 yards.
With Faulk and starting fullback Roosevelt Potts out with knee injuries, it was up to a rookie named Zach Crockett to carry the rushing load. Crockett's first carry was met by Reuben Davis in the backfield for a two-yard loss. Crockett, who had only one NFL rushing attempt for no gain in the regular season, was going in the wrong direction.
All of the stars seemed to be aligned for a Chargers victory. Well, maybe not all. That Harbaugh guy had come to play.
Early in the second quarter he capped a drive with a touchdown pass to take the lead. Rolling to his right towards the sideline, reminiscent of Joe Montana looking for Dwight Clark, Harbaugh found tight end Ken Dilger running the back line of the end zone. Even then Harbaugh thought the pass lacked something... aesthetically.
"It's a good thing that the end zone slants down because it's a baseball field," said Harbaugh after the game. "I didn't know if I had put enough height under it."
Later the quarter the Colts caught the Chargers defense with the perfect call on the sloppy field. As the defensive linemen rushed up field Harbaugh gave the ball to Crockett on a draw that he ran 33-yards for a touchdown to cap an 80 yard drive. 14-10 Colts.
The Chargers were about to take the lead back before halftime and would get the ball first in the third quarter when more playoff peculiarity happened.
Two weeks earlier Tony Martin had torched the Colts secondary (10 catches for 168 yards and 2 TDs) and Humphries looked to him again with seconds left in the half. As Martin broke open on a corner route Humphries tried to laser the ball into the end zone. The corner, though beaten, got a finger on the pass as it whipped by his ear hole and past him... and hits Martin in the side of the helmet!
The deflection is caught by late-arriving Colts safety Ray McElroy for an interception. Oy vay!
The Chargers vaunted defense was springing leaks too. In the middle segment the of game Harbaugh's team ran off five possessions that went: TD-TD-punt-TD-TD. Crockett broke four arm tackles on a 66-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter (the longest in Colts history) and finished with 147 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries.
“Once I got past Junior (Seau) after the cutback, I saw daylight and I knew no one was gonna catch me with the speed that I had,” Crockett said.
Spoken like a man whose name still gives Charger fans indigestion.
As for Harbaugh, he finished 16-27 for 175 yards and 2 TDs. Facing 3rd-and goal late in the game he called his own number. Quarterback draw. Though not the most athletic three-yard run you will ever see, he ducked, and he weaved, and he scored.
Being Harbaugh, he gave everyone he could a high five.
The broadcast team said that he even tried to give Seau one. Unsuccessfully.
The Colts went on to win 35-20 for the franchise’s first playoff victory since 1971. It set up a matchup with Super Bowl favorite Kansas City who held the best record in football (13-3) but were coached by a guy name Marty Schottenheimer.
Ask a Chiefs fan how that one went.
"It wasn't a bad performance for a bunch of ragamuffins," said Harbaugh. " I don't think there were many people who thought we could do what we did."