1975 St. Louis Football Cardinals: Back-To-Back Division Champs

In 1974, the Cardinals had ended a quarter-century drought that encompassed time spent in two cities, Chicago and St. Louis. They won a competitive NFC East, beating out good teams from Washington and Dallas. To show it was no fluke, the 1975 St. Louis Cardinals did it again.

CORYELL’S OFFENSE TAKES FLIGHT

Don Coryell was the head coach and the same offensive innovation he would showcase in San Diego later in the decade, was on display in St. Louis in 1975. Running back Terry Metcalf was the focal point. A versatile talent, ahead of his time as both a runner and receiver, Metcalf ran for 816 yards in a 14-game schedule and also caught 43 passes. He finished third in the 1975 NFL MVP voting.

A backfield whose position coach was Joe Gibbs, also had a more traditional running back. Fullback Jim Otis racked up 1,000 yards. The offensive line was loaded, with Pro Bowlers at center in Tom Banks, and on the right side, with Conrad Dobler and Dan Dierdorf.

Jim Hart was at quarterback. In a more run-heavy era, his 2,507 passing yards were fourth-best in the league. While Hart could be mistake-prone, with a 19-19 TD/INT ratio and 5.5 percent interception rate, and his 53 percent completion percentage was only a bit above average, he could get the ball down the field.

Hart averaged 7.3 yards-per-attempt, ranking sixth among starting quarterbacks. Mel Gray was an All-Pro receiver, with 48 catches at over 19 yards a pop. Earl Thomas was a home run threat, with his 21 receptions averaging nearly 18 yards a catch. St. Louis ranked seventh in the NFL for points scored.

CORNERS ANCHOR A RESPECTABLE DEFENSE

The corners were quite literally the cornerstone of the defense. Roger Wehrli was an All-Pro, intercepting six passes. Norm Thomas manned the opposite corner, with seven picks of his own. The front seven didn’t have stars, but tackle Bob Rowe finished with eight sacks. It was all enough for the Cardinal defense to at least be respectable, finishing 11^th in what was then a 26-team league for points allowed.

A SHAKY START

St. Louis opened the season at home in Busch Stadium, which they shared with the city’s more famous baseball franchise of the same name. The lowly Atlanta Falcons were the opponent. And for three quarters, the Cardinals struggled, trailing 20-13. But they would rush for 236 yards on the afternoon and eventually broke through. Hart tossed an eight-yard touchdown pass to Thomas to tie, and a field goal eventually produced a 23-20 win.

That set up a big showdown at Dallas. Again, the Cardinals found themselves in a hole going into the fourth quarter, trailing 31-17. Hart opened up. He found tight end Jackie Smith on a 35-yard touchdown pass. Then Hart hit Gray on a 37-yard TD strike to tie the game. Hart ultimately finished 15/32 for 314 yards. But his counterpart, Roger Staubach, was a little more efficient and Dallas got the last word in what ended as a 37-31 overtime loss.

St. Louis came home to face a bad New York Giants team. This time, the Cardinals got off to a good start. Hart threw an eight-yard TD to Gray, Metcalf ran in from 18 yards out. St. Louis led 23-0 by half and closed out a comfortable 26-14 win.

It was time for another big divisional showdown in the NFC East that the Cardinals shared with the division’s four current occupants all the way up to 2002. This time, it was a Monday Night in Washington D.C. against the Redskins.

Trailing 10-3 at halftime, Metcalf took the second half kickoff to the house and tied the game. Hart would go 20/41 for 220 yards. But in addition to being a little erratic, he also threw three interceptions, and St. Louis couldn’t run the ball. Washington controlled the fourth quarter and won 27-17.

The Cardinals certainly weren’t a bad team, but at 2-2, it looked like that 1974 division crown had been something of a fluke. And in this era, there was only one wild-card per conference. They needed to, at minimum, finish ahead of either the Cowboys or Redskins, and had already lost to each. It was time to play with some urgency.

BOUNCING BACK AGAINST A SOFT SCHEDULE

St. Louis hosted Philadelphia, with the Eagles on their way to a bad year. The Cards helped them along. Otis ran for 116 yards, Metcalf added 81 more, St. Louis won 31-20. The Cardinals then visited the NFC East’s other doormat in New York and beat the Giants. Metcalf got the party started with his arm, throwing a 51-yard TD pass to Gray. It was part of Gray’s seven catches for 187 yards, Hart played clean football and St. Louis won 20-13.

A terrible New England Patriots team came to the Midwest. The Cardinals struggled, trailing 17-10 after three quarters. Only Metcalf’s 69-yard punt return for a score was keeping them afloat. Metcalf delivered again in the fourth quarter with a pair of short TD runs that keyed the 24-17 escape.

More flirtation with a disaster continued on the return trip to Philly, St. Louis trailed 23-7 into the third quarter. There was no two-point conversion in the NFL until the 1990s, so this was a three-score deficit. Hart stepped up. He went 19/30 for 208 yards, spreading the ball around. The defense locked up the Eagle running game, so Philly couldn’t salt it away. Hart rallied the troops for a 24-23 win.

RALLYING PAST THE REDSKINS

St. Louis had won four in a row against the soft part of their schedule and gotten to 6-2. But they needed to step up in class, as Washington came to town for a late Sunday afternoon showdown in the middle of November.

The Cardinals fell behind the Redskins 14-3, with the game—and potentially the season—starting to look a little bleak. But they were running the ball, ultimately producing a 230-145 edge in rush yardage. Hart threw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter and forced overtime at 17-17. St. Louis ultimately got the winning field goal in OT, earning a monstrous 20-17 win.

They followed that up by blowing out the New York Jets in old Shea Stadium. After spotting the hosts a field goal, Metcalf tore off a 52-yard touchdown run, then added another score. Hart finished 11/13 for 242 yards, including a 74-yard TD pass to Gray. The Jets were a bad team, but it was a notable change that St. Louis was now taking care of business against the bottom-feeders, to the tune of 37-6, rather than waiting to rally late.

A THANKSGIVING MESS

We were heading into the stretch drive with the Cardinals sitting at 8-2. The Cowboys were in hot pursuit at 7-3, with a head-to-head matchup still ahead. The Redskins were 6-4. The wild-card would definitely be coming out of the NFC East, so St. Louis’ playoff position was looking good with four weeks to go.

Until Thanksgiving went awry. The Cardinals hosted O.J. Simpson and the Buffalo Bills in the late afternoon spot (while this was generally Dallas’ Turkey Day time slot, that didn’t become permanent until 1978). Metcalf started the scoring with a touchdown run and ended it with another TD. The problem is what happened in between. St. Louis gave up 264 yards rushing. Hart threw four interceptions, and the Cards lost 32-14.

Both Dallas and Washington won, so the NFC East race was tied, and St. Louis was only one game ahead in a wild-card race. The tiebreaker situation was not promising in either case. Those were the stakes for December 7, when the Cowboys came to town.

BLOWING OUT DALLAS

The Cardinals played their best game of the season—in fact, given the stakes and their generally star-crossed history in this city, it’s not too much to say it might have been the best game they played as a resident of St. Louis. Hart connected with Metcalf on a 30-yard touchdown pass. Then Hart and Gray hooked up on a 49-yard scoring play. It was 14-3 after the first quarter. A short TD pass to Gray followed in the second quarter and the lead grew to 28-3 by halftime. The final score of 31-17 was nowhere near as respectable as a couple garbage time scores from Dallas made it look.

CLINCHING THE NFC EAST

Beating Dallas secured at least the wild-card for St. Louis. As for the division crown, the tiebreaker situation in the NFL went to a ranking system very early in the process, a combination of a team’s final ranking in points scored and points against. While it was close, this favored the Cowboys. St. Louis was in a similar situation with the other two division leaders, the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams, who were both 11-2. At 10-3, the Cardinals were unlikely to get a home playoff game, but they still had to hold off Dallas.

St. Louis paid a visit to their old hometown in Chicago and ran all over the lowly Bears. Otis went for 147 yards on 33 carries. The Cards led 34-0 after three quarters before giving up some late points in what ended as 34-20 win. The Cowboys beat the Redskins to wrap up the wild-card and keep the pressure on St. Louis at the top.

A road trip to mediocre Detroit was the last hurdle. Metcalf ran for an early touchdown, and St. Louis also returned a blocked field goal to build a 14-0 lead. Coryell gave some carries to an otherwise obscure running back, Jerry Latin. The Northern Illinois product took advantage, rushing for 112 yards. The Cardinals chiseled out a 24-13 win. For the second straight year, they were the champions of the NFC East.

PLAYOFF DISASTER IN LOS ANGELES

A trip to Los Angeles was on deck for the Divisional Round of the playoffs. A fine season ended in an unmitigated disaster on a late Saturday afternoon in the Coliseum. Hart threw two Pick-6s in the first half and St. Louis dug themselves a 28-6 hole by halftime. They were outrushed 237-95. A late flurry of points made the score respectable, but the 35-23 final wasn’t competitive.

THE PEAK YEAR IN ST. LOUIS

The 1975 season was still the best year the Cardinals had in a St. Louis residency that lasted through 1987. St. Louis kept playing winning football in 1976, going 10-4. But in ’76, in that tough three-team NFC East dogfight, they were the one that ended up without a playoff chair when the music stopped.

In 1977, after sliding to .500, Coryell was fired. He immediately rebounded in San Diego. The Cardinals weren’t as lucky, making only one more playoff trip, in the strike-shortened year of 1982, before moving to Phoenix.