1985 Ford Tempo

For sometime while driving my car will not respond, you press on the gas and nothing happens. It would do this for a few seconds and then come back and run fine for a couple weeks before it would happen again. Well the other day It did the same thing but it killed the engine. It starts fine and will idle, but it won't respond to any pressure on the gas. I replaced the fuel filter within the last month. Just trying to get any input or ideas you might have. Based on the year and mileage I don't want to do anything major, thank you for any input.