1974 NFL season - expectations, retrospect...

[74_75_78_79_]

Goal posts, finally, moved to the back of the endzone. Kickoffs from the 35, now, instead of the 40. Overtime now implemented into the regular season. The Super Bowl originally planned to be in the Superdome which would have made it the first such event in a dome three seasons earlier. Rules changes favoring the passing game this very year as well ('78, of course, getting more notoriety though).

Coryell's Cards start 7-0 en route to the division title!! Don, of course, approved of the new rules!

Was everyone calling for a Miami three-peat?? Sure-enough no one was expecting Big D to miss the playoffs for the first time in nine years yet alone start 1-4. The Eagles, of course, started 4-1 with the highlight being their Wk#2 MNF win over...Dallas! Patriots, in Fairbanks' second year with them, start 6-1! More than one 'highlight' in this case! They beat Miami in the opener, beat the Rams as well, and then in a battle-of-5-1s defeat the Vikings on the road! But, of course, both teams end up falling to 7-7.

Cincy looked, for a while, to be a playoff team but faltered down the stretch to 500 as well. Houston, with Sid taking over, looked to pick up where Peterson left off with a 1-5 start, but rallied to 7-7 as well as finishing in second over those fallen Bengals who they, indeed, swept for that very FWIW tie-breaker. The Jets, who started 1-7, also rallied to respectability winning their last 6 games. Hmm, I either never knew this in the first place or forgot that Buffalo actually started 7-1 and 9-3 before backing-in to their lone '70s playoff appearance.

Man, only one winning non-playoff team per conference in '74 - Denver (7-6-1) and Dallas (8-6)!

Anyone expect the Steelers' draft to bring them over-the-top?



PS - This was also the year that the WFL would rear its head! Not a spring league as that other entity that'd arrive nine years later but taking on the NFL head-on!! What were all your takes on that to those who were around? Despite those very three Dolphins not playing for that very team until the following year, the Memphis Southmen (AKA 'Grizzlies') actually finished a strong 17-3, the league's best-record. They get upset in the playoffs but it seemed that they, not Birmingham, were really the league's strongest team. Likely not a good question, but how do you think they would have fared in the NFL itself in '74? As irony had it, they were noticeably weaker in '75 despite those very three additions!

[Brian wolf]

Great post _74 - _79, but I also believe that had Mia and Oak not played each other in the divisional round, possibly a different champion. The Steelers were clutch though and deserved their championship. The Dolphins should have beaten the Raiders but once Jake Scott got hurt, the Snake took the game. The Raiders I feel, underestimated the Steelers, who took away their running game despite getting shut out by them during the regular season. What a revenge game!

[Ten Minute Ticker]

I have a hard time with the pre-homefield advantage period. The 1967-74 period produced weird playoff matchups that really make no sense in hindsight. Add in the rule used to 1989 that teams from the same division couldn’t meet in the second round (wild card only) and it skews it further.

By today’s standard, the 1974 playoff should have been:
AFC
Buffalo at Oakland
Pittsburgh at Miami
NFC
Washington at Minnesota
Los Angeles at St. Louis

Just one season of many where the playoff system most likely skewed who advanced from which conference.

[74_75_78_79_]

Great post _74 - _79, but I also believe that had Mia and Oak not played each other in the divisional round, possibly a different champion. The Steelers were clutch though and deserved their championship. The Dolphins should have beaten the Raiders but once Jake Scott got hurt, the Snake took the game. The Raiders I feel, underestimated the Steelers, who took away their running game despite getting shut out by them during the regular season. What a revenge game!

Thanks, Brian! Yes, I do agree with this...

I have a hard time with the pre-homefield advantage period. The 1967-74 period produced weird playoff matchups that really make no sense in hindsight. Add in the rule used to 1989 that teams from the same division couldn’t meet in the second round (wild card only) and it skews it further.

By today’s standard, the 1974 playoff should have been:
AFC
Buffalo at Oakland
Pittsburgh at Miami
NFC
Washington at Minnesota
Los Angeles at St. Louis

Just one season of many where the playoff system most likely skewed who advanced from which conference.

However, I always was for the 1st and 2nd-place teams from the same division not being able to meet until the CCG. The same goes for when a 6th team was added in 1990 as I've already opined on a previous thread - https://profootballresearchers.com/foru ... 495#p59495

As for the way it was those first five seasons of the '70s, however, yes I feel the wildcard automatically playing at the best division-winner outside their division. In my honestly unbiased opinion, even if I was a Steeler-hater, I think Pittsburgh still finishes on top in a they-at-Miami, Buf@Oak scenario. As for your given scenario in the NFC, TMT, not as vital in that all four playoff teams in that conference finished at 10-4 anyway. But those Wash@Min, LA@StL match-ups (Cards getting a home playoff game) look intriguing!

Maybe the Raiders were 'spent' after winning..."the REAL Super Bowl". Maybe they subconsciously took the 'Burgh lightly. But I would not know WHY they possibly could have. Yes, they convincingly eliminated them the year before and, yes, they did shut them out, 17-0, early in the season. But it was early in the season and Joe Gilliam was still Pittsburgh's starting QB over Bradshaw. And the Raiders were ISO their first championship. I don't know why they'd kick it into a lower gear after knocking off the two-time-defending Champs. I'd think that would fire them up all the more.

Pittsburgh simply kicked it into a higher gear once the playoffs began - going from a mere contender to, now, the very best in the league (the '75 version having already arrived). More-so than a typical loud Rockne or Lombardi speech, I put more stock in that stoic Noll mentioning Madden's recent "when the two best teams meet" quote and then, without raising his voice, informing his players that the best team in the league is in this very locker room. Mean Joe was outside the locker room before the AFCCG watching the end of the Rams/Vikings NFCCG. Someone asked what he was doing. "Seeing who we're going to beat in two weeks", he replied. They were very confident upon taking the field in Alameda!

I watched the NFL Films piece on the '74 season. Introducing it years later, Steve Sabol opined that '74 wasn't that great of a season and that Pittsburgh wasn't too spectacular of a SB champ. Yes, finishing 10-3-1 with the season/QB-position still in a bit of doubt late makes it tough to accuse them of being an all-time great team. And, yes, I did already mention the lack of winning teams that season (SIX 7-7 finishers). But I still think of it as a great season and NFL Films did a great job showing that. I wasn't aware that "Autumn Wind" was in that one along with the famous Lou Saban "you gotta get it done" locker room speech and other memorable NFL Films moments all within that episode.

Already mentioned were the Eagles, Pats, and Bengals flirting with the playoffs at first. Something lost in that...the Lions and Packers were actually at 6-5 just one game behind 7-4 Minnesota after Week #11 with all three teams already having split with each other!

1974 was the "last hurrah" for Joe Namath and Sonny Jurgensen (making so much out of the limited time he took the field). The same goes for Sid Gillman, and I like how that NFL Films piece properly covered that - his fiery temper on the sidelines and the locker room celebration after their finale which brought them to 500 after suffering those back-to-back atrocities in '72 & '73. This very campaign is at least a candidate for his best HC-ing performance of his career.

Also, '74 gave us a showdown between Sid and...Don Coryell! An underrated classic with me despite it being a '5-0 at 1-4' match-up! Jim Hart played a good game but Pastorini even better! Maybe it goes down as Dan's best game; MIke Montgomery was his key target before he ended up getting injured late. Oilers kept it close until the beginning of the 4th Q when the Cards started to pull away. But Pastorini rallied them back, cutting the 31-13 deficit to 31-27 with still minutes to go. They end up coming up short but the rally itself signified the 6-2 finish/road-to-respectability to come.

This would be the brief period in their history that the Oilers were wearing their Columbia blue helmets. I do like their silver helmets they wore just previously. The problem, however, is you weren't able to see the derrick (oil well) from a distance due to the shine of the silver itself (the same with not seeing 'BENGALS' from a distance; the whole helmet may as well have been all orange). Changing it to a white helmet with Columbia blue derrick, outlined in scarlet, that they kept the rest of the way is my favorite helmet hense uniform of theirs.

[Brian wolf]

Good call, yet it didnt seem like the Raiders could get up for the Steelers after beating the Dolphins. Stabler-to-Branch kept them in the game but the Steelers--like you said after Noll pumped them up--were fired up to stop the run and forced Stabler into some critical turnovers. A great win for Bradshaw as well, who misses the Top 10 of the All-Time QBs list in another thread I will get to.

You might be right on Pastorini, who rallied his team against the Cardinals but I will still take his playoff game against the Patriots in 1978, proving that the flak jacket would soon revolutionize player safety for years to come.

[74_75_78_79_]

Watching some consecutive TWITNFL episodes from '74. Pastorini definitely seeming to have had his big pass-play moments! Well...look who his HC was! As he did with Jaworski for Vermeil in both '80 & '82, just imagine had Sid simply been Dan's QB-coach during the Bum Phillips era in Houston! Oilers handed Buffalo their second loss of the year in Week #9 at Buffalo, 21-9, for their third win in a row! I believe one of Houston's players, I think the center, wore a darker blue helmet than his other teammates, lol. Or maybe there was another Oiler who also wore a darker blue one as well.

Bills beat NE (Mack Herron, 5'5", 170) the previous week in a battle-of-6-1s! At mid-point that season, it was said that Buffalo had the #1 defense and Fergie was the top-rated passer. I didn't know that. So, maybe, it makes sense that '74 would be the one season that Buffalo made the playoffs in the '70s if they could only make the playoffs just once that very decade.

I love Madden at Mile High, snowing/sleeting, not even bothering to wear a hat nor hood, lol.

Tommy Casanova made an amazing punt-return at Riverfront vs the 'Burgh in Week #9 to help drop the Steelers to 6-2-1.

Falcons at 2-6, Marion Campbell now taking over for Norm Van Brocklin at the Rams.

I either never knew this or I forgot that Ted Hendricks played for the Pack! Did any of you around at the time think they, or Detroit, had a chance after Week #11 being behind by just one game as already mentioned?

Yes, '74 I think an exciting season for numerous reasons. Many possible playoff teams week-after-week deep enough into the season! Many big games throughout between two teams with good or great records with much at stake!

Had Miami somehow three-peated, with Malone and Nottingham doing most of the lifting in the backfield, would it or would it not have been sort-of like the three-peat '67 Packers without Taylor and Hornung?