I can see 1975 as being the best team. The Ram defense that year was historically good, which made their collapse in the NFC Championship game all the more surprising.JohnTurney wrote:Spoke to Coach TJ and this topic came up. Coach was in LA for that time, though a Bears fan, did watch the Rams closely, often in person. Says the best team was the 1975 Rams. Bill Simpson solidified the secondary was was big upgrade from Steve Preece and the corners were excellent as well. He felt theb iggest error Chuck Knox made was starting Harris who was hurt still, over Jaworski.
Now, he knows this goes against many the comments here, but says he stands by his analysis. He says he looks at total package, the things they did and so on and that a bad loss doesn't always define a team. So that's his take
Two weird things (to me) about Knox's decision to start Harris over Jaworski in the 1975 Championship.
First, the Ram offense was unstoppable in the divisional round (albeit against the average Cards defense), and Jaworski had a good day. The Rams offense had been lackluster in previous playoffs...1973 with Hadl and 1974 with Harris. Harris did throw for good yardage (248 yards) in the 1974 NFC Championship game with much of the yardage coming on Harold Jackson's 73-yard catch and run, but Harris had 3 turnovers at crucial times resulting in the Rams outgaining the Vikes by nearly 100 yards but only putting up 10 points on the scoreboard. So Jaworski's nice game against the Cards was something new for a Rams postseason QB.
Second, and this is might just be me, but the Rams played the Cowboys to start the year. James Harris was absolutely putrid...1 of 10 for 5 yards and 3 INTs...the guy who led the Rams to their only score that game (an 18-7 loss) was Ron Jaworski. I get that teams at the conclusion of seasons might be completely different than they were at the start of the season, but I think that Harris being so singularly terrible against the Cowboys wouldn't really inspire confidence in Knox's choice to re-insert an injured James Harris at QB to play the same Cowboys.