Steve Young had become the regular quarterback for San Francisco in 1991, when Joe Montana was injured. Young had clearly proven himself as an elite QB—he won an MVP award in 1992 and reached the NFC Championship Game in ’92 and 1993. But that wasn’t the standard Montana had set. Young had a monkey to […]
The Raiders were one of the league’s perennial successes. They had reached the playoffs seven of the last eight years–in an era when only four teams per conference qualified for the postseason. More often than not, they advanced in the playoffs. But with a Super Bowl defeat in 1967, and six AFL/AFC Championship Game losses, […]
Chuck Knox came to the Rams in 1973 and immediately put the team in the playoffs. In 1974, he went one step further and reached the NFC Championship Game. The good news about the 1975 Los Angeles Rams is that they continued their success and returned to the NFC title game. The bad news is […]
Dallas saw an eight-year streak of making the playoffs come to an end in 1974. The 1975 Dallas Cowboys not only got back on track, but they reached a Super Bowl and began another string of postseason appearances that would last a little bit longer. There were a lot of changes in store for the […]
From 1966 through 1983, the Cowboy franchise, led by head coach Tom Landry, was the standard of consistent excellence. They made the playoffs every year but one in that string. The 1974 Dallas Cowboys season was the odd one out—and even that team would have qualified for postseason play under the standards that came into […]
In the first year of Chuck Knox’s coaching tenure, the Rams jumped into contention behind a trade for veteran quarterback John Hadl. The 1974 Los Angeles Rams followed the opposite path—after a slow start, Knox traded Hadl in midseason, and the Rams still reached the NFC Championship Game. Regardless of who was playing quarterback, Hadl […]
The 1974 Oakland Raiders had a big year—even a historic one. Their emerging quarterback, Ken Stabler, won the MVP award and the Raiders won one of the NFL’s most memorable playoff games. But the season ended with a fourth-quarter collapse and a second straight loss in the AFC Championship Game that would leave a bitter […]
The Raiders’ 1972 season had ended with one of the most gut-wrenching and controversial postseason losses of all-time. The 1973 Oakland Raiders started to atone for that. Even though they didn’t win it all, John Madden’s team began an impressive streak of playoff advancement and got some sweet revenge along the way. A quarterback controversy […]
In 1965, the NFL expanded to have four teams per conference make the playoffs. They retained that format after merging with the AFL in 1970. But in spite of the more generous playoff standards (albeit still stingy by the standards of our own day), the Rams only sniffed postseason play twice over the ensuing eight […]
For seven straight years, Dallas had been in the playoffs. For three straight years, they had at least reached the NFC Championship Game. While the 1973 Dallas Cowboys weren’t able to return to the top of heap and win a second Super Bowl in three years, they did keep both of the aforementioned streaks going. […]
Tom Landry’s Cowboys ended several years of postseason frustration in 1971, when they won the franchise’s first Super Bowl. That championship season was keyed by Landry’s settling on Roger Staubach as his quarterback midway through. The bid for a repeat title took a big hit when Staubach was injured in the preseason. But the 1972 […]
After reaching the AFL/AFC championship game in his first two seasons, John Madden’s Raiders took a step back in 1971, when a late collapse cost them a playoff spot. The 1972 Oakland Raiders followed the opposite path—they surged down the stretch, returned to the postseason, and were only stopped by one of pro football’s most […]