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New Jersey 26 at Los Angeles 10
1984 Week 6 - Sunday, April 1, 1984
New Jersey Generals(4-1) at Los Angeles Express(2-3)(-6)
Attendance: 19,853, TV: ABC
LOS ANGELES(AP) - Steve Young says that just playing well is not good enough for him or the city of Los Angeles.
"I felt good about it, but we have to get some wins on the board...LA is not a patient town," Young said after his solid but unspectacular United States Football League debut as the Los Angeles Express quarterback, a 26-10 loss to the New Jersey Generals that lowered the losers' record to 2-4. "I feel comfortable with what I've done, but I've just got to get better."
Young, the former Brigham Young All-American who was signed to a contract that will pay him some $49 million over the next 43 years, completed 19 of 29 passes for 163 yards and one touchdown. He was intercepted once.
Young said he has high expectations, but tried not to think about pressure in terms of justifying the size of his contract.
"If I can live up to what I expect - probably a 40-for-40 day with no interceptions and six touchdowns for 500 yards - I'm happy," Young said. "But I've got feel like I did what I could. Pressure is something that you can either shrug off or put on yourself and make it worse. I have tried to alleviate a lot of it and just go out there and have fun. I think if I keep that realistic attitude I'll be OK."
The curiosity about Young overshadowed the performance of New Jersey quarterback Brian Sipe, who completed 13 of his 21 passes for 219 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Sipe threw an 8-yard TD pass to Clarence Collins in the second quarter, then combined with Herschel Walker on a 50-yard scoring play as New Jersey, 5-1, widened its margin to 23-10 in the third period.
Young's touchdown pass was for nine yards to JoJo Townsell in the second period. He also scrambled six times for 32 yards.
"I think I tried a little bit too much," Young said. "There were times when I could have stayed in the pocket. I was trying to make things happen with my legs and it just didn't happen."
Express Coach John Hadl, himself a former star quarterback, was far from dissatisfied with Young's progress.
"Steve Young is going to be a great quarterback," Hadl said. "He hadn't ever suited up, and he's up against the league's best team. Yet he saw some thing son the field that another quarterback wouldn't see for a year."
The Los Angeles area, however, apparently is taking a wait-and-see attitude toward Young.
While nearly 40,000 attended a baseball exhibition game at Dodger Stadium between two local major-league teams, the Generals and Express drew a crowd of 26,024, with attendance boosted by a 2-for-1 ticket offer.
But the game was televised there and the Express had drawn nearly 10,000 fewer fans to its previous home game.
April 1, 1984 New Jersey Generals - 26 Los Angeles Express - 10 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 26,024 New Jersey 6 7 10 3 -- 26 Los Angeles 3 7 0 0 -- 10 1st Quarter NJ - Carthon 1 run (kick failed) LA - FG Zendejas 21 2nd Quarter NJ - Collins 8 pass from Sipe (Ruzek kick) LA - Townsell 9 pass from Young (Zendejas kick) 3rd Quarter NJ - FG Ruzek 31 NJ - Walker 50 pass from Sipe (Ruzek kick) 4th Quarter NJ - FG Ruzek 31 TEAM STATS: NEW JERSEY LOS ANGELES First downs 15 12 Rushes-yards 37-111 19-56 Passing yards 208 152 Return yards 17 5 Passes 13-21-0 19-29-1 Sacks by 2-11 2-11 Punts 3-42 4-40 Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-1 Penalties-yards 4-38 8-50 Time of possession 35:01 24:59 INDIVIDUAL STATS: RUSHING = New Jersey: Walker 16-59, Carthon 13-31, Harmon 7-14, Sipe 1-7. Los Angeles: Young 6-32, Gray 10-21, Nelson 3-3. PASSING = New Jersey: Sipe 13-21-0-219. Los Angeles: Young 19-29-1-163. RECEIVING = New Jersey: Collins 4-43, Walker 3-66, Knight 2-38, Brown 1-40, Spek 1-17, Carthon 1-8, McConnaughey 1-7. Los Angeles: Townsell 5-55, Gray 4-16, Allen 3-34, Sherrod 3-28, Ellis 2-16, Nelson 2-14. MISSED FIELD GOALS = none
Archived news report
Supplemental information courtesy of Chris Blackburn
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