On this day in 2000: Falcons and Rams open with back-to-back kickoff-return TDs — then St. Louis sets a two-point record

On October 15, 2000, the St. Louis Rams and Atlanta Falcons opened a game the way no NFL matchup ever had: with back-to-back kickoff-return touchdowns. Atlanta’s Darrick Vaughn took the opening kick 96 yards. Twenty seconds later, St. Louis’ Tony Horne answered with a 103-yard return. By the final whistle the Rams had also set a record with four successful two-point conversions — after their kicker left with a quadriceps injury.

The Rams won 45-29 at the Trans World Dome. Marshall Faulk ran for 208 yards, Kurt Warner threw for 313, and Mike Martz’s club moved to 6-0 for the second straight season.

Opening kick: Vaughn, then Horne

Atlanta won the toss and elected to receive. Jeff Wilkins kicked off 66 yards. Vaughn fielded it near his own four and raced 96 yards for a touchdown. Morten Andersen’s extra point made it 7-0 with 14:44 left in the first quarter.

Andersen then kicked off. Horne caught the ball three yards deep in his own end zone, shook Gerald McBurrows around the 25, and went untouched down the sideline for 103 yards. Wilkins made the PAT to tie the game at 7-7 — his last successful kick of the afternoon. It was the first time in NFL history a game had started with consecutive kickoff returns for touchdowns.

No kicker, four two-point conversions

Wilkins injured a quadriceps muscle on that opening kickoff sequence. After Horne’s score he squibbed another kickoff, then left the game. St. Louis had no backup placekicker, so field goals and conversion kicks were off the table. Martz later called the empty depth chart his own mistake. Backup wide receiver Chris Thomas handled most of the remaining kickoffs, often squibbing them toward the Atlanta 20.

Forced to go for two after every subsequent touchdown, the Rams converted four of five tries — more than any team had managed in a single game (Baltimore in 1996 and Pittsburgh in 1998 had each converted three). The successful plays: Keith Lyle’s pass to London Fletcher after Horne’s three-yard receiving touchdown; two Marshall Faulk runs after scores by Az-Zahir Hakim and Robert Holcombe; and Warner’s pass to Roland Williams after Faulk’s three-yard rushing touchdown. One Faulk run attempt after Justin Watson’s two-yard score failed.

Without a field-goal option, St. Louis also converted fourth downs in Atlanta territory and turned them into touchdowns — including a fourth-and-15 from the Falcons’ 30 that Warner turned into a 30-yard touchdown to Hakim just before halftime.

The Greatest Show on Turf keeps rolling

Faulk’s 208 rushing yards and Warner’s 313 passing yards marked the first time one team had a 200-yard rusher and a 300-yard passer in the same game. Warner’s sixth straight 300-yard game tied the streak Steve Young set in 1998. The Rams topped 30 points for a 12th consecutive game and improved their franchise-record home winning streak to 15.

Atlanta (2-5) scored 14 points in the first 4:46 — more than in either of its previous two full games — on Vaughn’s return and Chris Chandler’s 16-yard touchdown pass to Terance Mathis. Jamal Anderson added a four-yard run before halftime. Chandler finished 18 of 30 for 220 yards and two touchdowns, including a late 16-yarder to Tim Dwight, but the Falcons managed only one second-half touchdown against a Rams defense that settled in after the chaotic start.

Twenty-six years later, the afternoon still stands out for how it began: two kickoff returns, two touchdowns, and a kickerless Rams offense that answered with a record night of two-point conversions.