Top 8 NFL regular season Power Rankings, 1971

[74_75_78_79_]

This ought to be a good one! Anyone going to place KC at #1? Wins over Wash, Browns, @SF, and going 1-0-1 vs Raiders could help. But then again there's Champ-to-be Dallas's 7-0 finish. Do Prothro's non-playoff 8-5-1 Rams break in to this list due to sweeping 9-5 division-winner San Fran? Whether it would be SF being the one to get knocked out in this case or not, they winning at Minn (again) should serve as a lifeline. Can non-playoff 8-4-2 Raiders get in? Likely not. Their only quality win was at Cleveland early. LIkely not a '#9' "honorable-mention" either. 7-6-1 Falcons beat them as well as beating SF in the opener and also Browns at Cleveland. Maybe they get in. Maybe Browns getting in not a sure-thing. Yes, 5-0 finish but just one win vs a winner...Week #2 at Balt.

[BD Sullivan]

The Browns benefited from being in a weak division, clinching it with two weeks to go and a 7-5 record. They also had another odd midseason rut (like the year before): they were completely dominated at home by a 1-3-1 Denver team, 24-0; followed that up with another embarrassment: 31-14 at home to the 2-3-1 Falcons; their offense stayed bad in their next two games: a 26-9 loss at Pittsburgh and a 13-7 loss at KC. In their other loss (Week 3), a 34-20 defeat to the Raiders, they jumped out to a 14-0 lead and were lining up for a second quarter field goal. Oakland blocked it and ended up outscoring them 34-6 the rest of the way.

[7DnBrnc53]

1. Kansas City (some Chief observers think that the 1971 team was their best ever)
2. Dallas (they were hot during the second half of the season, winning their last seven games)
3. Colts (they never had a losing streak, and they beat Miami in Week 13. They may have lost to the Pats in Week 14 on purpose to avoid KC. They may have made the SB again if the NFL had home field that year)
4. Vikings (their defense only allowed 139 points that year, best in the NFL)
5. Dolphins (won the East, but probably weren't seen as favorites heading into KC)
6. Redskins (they return to the playoffs in Allen's first year)
7. 49ers (NFC West Champs. A nice team, but not a great one)
8. Rams (they went 8-5-1 against a tough schedule).

[BD Sullivan]

3. Colts (they never had a losing streak, and they beat Miami in Week 13. They may have lost to the Pats in Week 14 on purpose to avoid KC. They may have made the SB again if the NFL had home field that year)

That's been my theory for the past 45+ years and apparently I wasn't alone:

From a UPI story on Christmas Day: "Baltimore has been accused of involuntarily not being up for the Patriots game because they were already in the playoff. There have also been whispers that the Colts didn't try as hard since a victory would have meant facing the tougher Kansas City Chiefs instead of the Cleveland Browns."

In the Chiefs-Dolphins game, KC took a 10-0 lead and of course, should have won in regulation after Podolak's huge kickoff return late in the game.

[ChrisBabcock]

To me, this seems like a season that gets "lost in the shuffle". There's the novelty of the new merged 26 team league in 1970 and the 1972 season with the storylines of the undefeated Dolphins and the rise of the Steelers... and a certain playoff game.... with this season wedged in between.

1. Cowboys
2. Vikings... that amazing D. Alan Page MVP.
3. Chiefs
4. Colts... swept the pathetic Bills by a combined 67-0. I wonder how many other times in league history a team shut out a division opponent for 8 quarters?
5. Dolphins... possibly the strongest "#5" team ever to appear on one of these lists.



< gap here to indicate a huge dropoff! >




6. Redskins
7. Rams... swept 49ers
8. 49ers

[74_75_78_79_]

1) Chiefs
2) Cowboys
3) Vikings
4) Colts
5) Redskins
6) Dolphins
7) Rams
8) Forty Niners

With their SBIV triumph over juggernaut Vikes still very fresh (their quality wins as I already mentioned OP) along with Dallas still being "next year's champs", I really have to give KC the #1 nod. All that and...eleven Pro Bowlers?? Yes, an easy-enough pick for me. I actually flirted with placing Minn at #2 with their D, as 7Dn pretty much points out, allowing less-than-10-pts-per-game. They also won against four above-500 teams to Big D just winning two (albeit three of those wins vs 7-6-1 teams - 2 over Det, the other over Atl). Doomsday down-the-stretch just seems to have more bite with me however even if wiki has it incorrect stating that they allowed just one TD in the 25 quarters leading to SBVI (I count six). Still a stellar performance just the same so Champs-to-be get the runner-up spot.

Defending-Champ Colts get the 4-spot with me; their finale-loss shouldn't count. Not knowing what would actually happen in the playoffs, they vs KC (the last two SB-Champs) definitely the more 'sexy' AFCC matchup to anticipate. Miami losing convincing at both Schaefer then Memorial penultimate weeks drops them to #6; but still ahead of Rams because they beat them; Rams ahead of SF for the obvious and, yes, SF winning at Minn does save them along with beating Atl convincingly and then Det last two games .

As for the for-what-its-worth honorable-mention...Falcons get nod for beating Browns & Raiders along with Lions (who did beat Atl early) dropping final three.

[JuggernautJ]

This is the first time I've participated in one of these.
The 1971 season is one of my favorites.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/1971/

1. Cowboys - Once Landry stopped fooling around and made Staubach the starter Dallas became the best team in the league. This was a damn good team with stars and depth at every position. I would put them up against almost any NFL Champion.

2. Dolphins - Unlike most (it seems) I think the best two teams met in the championship game. The Dolphins had the fourth best offense in the league (second among contenders) and the 3rd best defense (points against). The only difference between the '71 Dolphins and perfection was experience.

3. Chiefs - Kansas City was still good but they had lost some of the pop of their championship teams. Still, effective QBing from Dawson sets the Chiefs ahead of some one dimensional powerhouses. Speaking of which...

4a & 4b - Take your pick. Two incredible defenses stifled by inept offenses. These two teams are probably as good as one dimensional teams can be. I'll order them as:

4a. Colts - I'll take the second best defense with a half decent offense (5th in points but 12th in yards) over the below. Norm Bulaich (4.9 average) was the difference and a mediocre half season from Unitas and a worse one from Morrall (his rating was half what it would be for the Dolphins just a year later) is still better than...

4b. Vikings - The number one defense in the land burdened by an offense that couldn't do squat (18th in points, 23rd in yardage). Between Kapp and Tarkenton there was.... Gary Cuozzo.

6. Redskins - Sort of a miniature version of 4 a & b, above. The fourth best D with a mediocre offense (12th). Kilmer had mediocre numbers (but better than Cuozzo or Unitas) and Larry Brown was between two All Pro seasons.

7. 49ers - With the 6th best D and the 9th best offense this seems about the correct place for the NFC Western Division Champion Niners. Brodie had fallen off significantly since his MVP season of just a year before but the team was still solid across the board.

8. Rams - I'll go with the Rams here by virtue of their 5th ranked offense and a fine performance by Roman Gabriel and an even better one by Willie Ellison. Prothro was in the first stages of blowing up/rebuilding the "old" Rams so this was a team in transition but still featured amazing vets (Merlin Olsen anyone) to go with youth (Isiah Robertson).

The Browns should get some respect here as the only Division winner to not make the list.
Leroy Kelly was amazing. Bill Nelsen less so.

Honorable mention should also go to the 2nd and 3rd best offenses in the NFL:
The Oakland Raiders (Hubbard, Chester and Biletnikoff were all Pro Bowlers) and the Detroit Lions (Landry and Owens had Pro-bowl seasons and Charlie Sanders was All Pro). Unfortunately their defenses were not up to the task of making the play offs.

[7DnBrnc53]

8. Rams - I'll go with the Rams here by virtue of their 5th ranked offense and a fine performance by Roman Gabriel and an even better one by Willie Ellison. Prothro was in the first stages of blowing up/rebuilding the "old" Rams so this was a team in transition but still featured amazing vets (Merlin Olsen anyone) to go with youth (Isiah Robertson).

George Allen wasn't too in to Willie Ellison, from what I hear. However, when Prothro came, he thought that Ellison was the best back after watching the films.

They didn't go to the playoffs under Prothro, but he did a good job of drafting for Chuck Knox. Also, he drafted several key members of those Air Coryell Charger teams.

[BD Sullivan]

8. Rams - I'll go with the Rams here by virtue of their 5th ranked offense and a fine performance by Roman Gabriel and an even better one by Willie Ellison. Prothro was in the first stages of blowing up/rebuilding the "old" Rams so this was a team in transition but still featured amazing vets (Merlin Olsen anyone) to go with youth (Isiah Robertson).

George Allen wasn't too in to Willie Ellison, from what I hear. However, when Prothro came, he thought that Ellison was the best back after watching the films.

They didn't go to the playoffs under Prothro, but he did a good job of drafting for Chuck Knox. Also, he drafted several key members of those Air Coryell Charger teams.

He was hired by the Chargers specifically for his drafting acumen. Of course, that reputation took a hit after the Browns hired him, since he passed up the chance to draft Kellen Winslow by trading down six spots--so that he could get an extra second rounder. With those two picks, the Browns selected WR Willis Adams and G Sam Claphan.

[Rupert Patrick]

According to my Postseason Prediction System, probability of winning the conference and Super Bowl (In parenthesis) The second set of parenthesis is round robin play amongst the other postseason teams, with home field advantage taken into consideration for conference playoff games:

1 - Dallas (55, 39) (7-0)
2 - Baltimore (32, 17) (5-2)
T3 - Miami (37, 16) (4-2)
T3 - Minnesota (27, 13) (4-2)
T3 - Kansas City (22, 8) (4-2)
6 - Washington (11, 3) (2-5)
T7 - Cleveland (9, 2) (1-6)
T7 - San Francisco (7,2) (1-6)

The ties are due to circles where Miami is predicted to beat Minnesota, Minnesota is predicted to beat KC and KC is predicted to beat Miami. In the case of Cleveland and San Francisco, San Francisco is predicted to defeat Cleveland, but oddly Cleveland is predicted to defeat Baltimore.