1977 Season: Pre-season expectations

[Evan]

Then in the Oct. 1977 issue of Football Digest, they published a chart with the division winner predictions of 29 writers, including all the heavy hitters, Zimmerman, Dickey, Klobuchar, Christl, Durslag, Felser, Heaton, McDonough, Pope, Magee, Steadman. I scanned it but the file size was too big to upload, unfortunately. The voting was:

AFC East
New England 16
Baltimore 12
Miami 1

AFC Central
Pittsburgh 16
Cincinnati 13

AFC West
Oakland 29

AFC Wildcard
Baltimore 12
Cincinnati 6
Pittsburgh 5
New England 3
San Diego 1
Denver 1 (by Randy Harvey, Chicago Sun-Times)
Miami 1

AFC Champion
Oakland 14
New England 5
Cincinnati 5
Pittsburgh 3
Baltimore 2

NFC East
Dallas 28
St. Louis 1

NFC Central
Chicago 18
Minnesota 10
Detroit 1

NFC West
Los Angeles 27
San Francisco 2

NFC Wildcard
St. Louis 9
Minnesota 8
Washington 6
San Francisco 2
Chicago 1
Detroit 1
Dallas 1
Los Angeles 1

NFC Champion
Dallas 20
Los Angeles 8
St. Louis 1

Super Bowl Champion
Dallas 12
Oakland 7
New England 3
Los Angeles 3
Cincinnati 2
Pittsburgh 1
Baltimore 1

[Evan]

Game Plan Pro Football magazine used to write a fun, detailed "fantasy" account of the coming year's Super Bowl. In their 1977 preview issue (with Steve Grogan on the cover), they had LA beating Oakland 28-21 as Namath led the Rams back in the fourth quarter from a 21-14 deficit.

I also loved that in Petersen's NFL preview issue, they had Vin Di Trani and Mal Florence predict the scores of the upcoming season's playoff games. In the 1977 preview issue (with Ken Stabler on the cover), here is what they thought:

AFC (by Vin Di Trani)
Playoffs
Oakland 27, Cincinnati (wildcard) 23
Baltimore 28, Pittsburgh 27

AFC Championship
Baltimore 31, Oakland 27

Super Bowl
Baltimore 24, Dallas 10

NFC (by Mal Florence)
Playoffs
Dallas 22, Minnesota 13
Los Angeles 30, St. Louis (wildcard) 28

Championship
Dallas 24, Los Angeles 14

Super Bowl
Dallas 23, Baltimore 10

Personal note: I'll be forever grateful to Petersen's for their detailed play-by-play account of the previous year's Super Bowl, which showed me the short-hand to keep play-by-play, which I used when I became a sportswriter, a job which then helped me become noticed enough to find other writing opportunities in my career. In short, seeing that play-by-play was actually a valuable tool to help me find mostly gainful employment for the last 35 years of my life. Not bad for a $1.95 magazine.

[nicefellow31]

1977 Street and Smith predictions made by Larry Felser a name familiar to the Buffalo crowd. He had:

AFC West
Oakland
San Diego
Denver
Kansas City
Seattle

AFC Central
Pittsburgh
Cincinnati
Houston
Cleveland

AFC East
New England
Baltimore
Miami
Buffalo
NY Jets

He had Oakland winning it all.

NFC Predictions were made by Jerry Green. Detroit stand up! His predictions:

NFC West
LA
San Francisco
Atlanta
New Orleans

NFC Central
Minnesota
Detroit
Chicago
Green Bay
Tampa Bay

NFC East
Dallas
St. Louis
Washington
Philadelphia
NY Giants

He had LA winning the NFC

[Retro Rider]

1977 Street and Smith predictions made by Larry Felser a name familiar to the Buffalo crowd. He had:

AFC West
Oakland
San Diego
Denver
Kansas City
Seattle

AFC Central
Pittsburgh
Cincinnati
Houston
Cleveland

AFC East
New England
Baltimore
Miami
Buffalo
NY Jets

He had Oakland winning it all.

Larry Felser wrote a piece in The Sporting News before the 1977 season comparing Denver's acquisition of Craig Morton to their pick up of Charley Johnson five years earlier. If I remember correctly the article was titled: Morton Another Johnson - Maybe. Felser expressed some optimism for Morton in Denver but no one expected them to wind up in Super Bowl XII. Football Digest's prediction of a 6-8 Broncos finish is a little surprising since the team won 9 games in '76 without the benefit of having a quality quarterback on the roster.

[Evan]

Regarding Football Digest's 1977 prediction of 6-8 for the Broncos, that might have been a function of how their schedule looked. They had Oakland twice, Dallas, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinnati. That's seven games that looked tough based on 1976 results, plus two with a San Diego team that some thought was ready to make a move and a road game with Houston. So that's 10 games that before the season I don't think anyone would have been too surprised that Denver lost, especially if Morton, who really had not distinguished himself in New York, turned out to be a dud.

[Retro Rider]

Regarding Football Digest's 1977 prediction of 6-8 for the Broncos, that might have been a function of how their schedule looked. They had Oakland twice, Dallas, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinnati. That's seven games that looked tough based on 1976 results, plus two with a San Diego team that some thought was ready to make a move and a road game with Houston. So that's 10 games that before the season I don't think anyone would have been too surprised that Denver lost, especially if Morton, who really had distinguished himself in New York, turned out to be a dud.

Some good points Evan, plus the fact that Denver was entering the '77 season with an unproven (rookie) head coach. This was a team in complete turmoil at the end of the '76 season.

[BD Sullivan]

Both Cincinnati and Houston came close to being playoff teams: Cincy put everything into beating the Steelers in a brutally cold Week 13 game, then fell flat in Houston the next week. In the earlier Houston-Cincy game, the OIlers got screwed by a non-call that would have won the game. Instead, they lost in OT.

[vikingsfan1963]

Personal note: I'll be forever grateful to Petersen's for their detailed play-by-play account of the previous year's Super Bowl, which showed me the short-hand to keep play-by-play, which I used when I became a sportswriter, a job which then helped me become noticed enough to find other writing opportunities in my career. In short, seeing that play-by-play was actually a valuable tool to help me find mostly gainful employment for the last 35 years of my life. Not bad for a $1.95 magazine.

That was he exact same thing for me. As a kid I remember using the system during a Redskins at Vikings playoff game. I later used it for about 25 years while covering high school football