Great, wasted late-season meaningless matchups

[74_75_78_79_]

Many to consider between two good-to-great teams only for one or both teams to bench their starters due to already clinching. Packers vs Broncos '96 with Mus at QB instead of Elway for starters. Colts/Seahawks '05, Denver/Dallas '77, and Steelers/Rams '75 pretty good examples as well.

Patriots/Giants '07 could have been one of those! But Belichick wanted 16-0 and Coughlin, simply, 11 instead of 10 wins (5th-seed no matter what) and what a game and (very unknown-at-the-time) true Super Bowl preview it was!

[7DnBrnc53]

I was thinking of a thread similar to this (it had to do with a year that had a lack of meaningless 4:00 or 4:25 games in the last week of the season).

You mentioned 1977 Dallas-Denver. I was thinking of that week (another 4:00 NBC game, Pittsburgh@SD, was also meaningless), but then I remembered the NE@Bal classic that sent the Colts to the playoffs and Miami home for the holidays.

Back to wasted late-season matchups, though. Another GB-Den late season game that was wasted due to players sitting was the 2003 Week 17 game at Lambeau Field:

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... 280gnb.htm

Denver was in the playoffs, but they couldn't improve seeding after the Colts won in Houston. So, they played Jarious Jackson and Danny Kanell at QB, and they were without Portis at RB due to injury (it also seems that Rod Smith didn't play, either. He wasn't targeted at all).

[Jay Z]

1974 Cowboys and Raiders.

Saturday night game, national TV, last "Monday Night" game of the year. Raiders already clinched the playoffs, Cowboys already eliminated. The last year where they rotated the playoff matchups instead of going by record, so there was nothing to play for there either.

In addition, this was the last of the 169 AFC-NFC interconference matchups to take place after the 1970 merger.

Furthermore, the Cowboys Raiders was the great Super Bowl matchup that never was. Six separate times, both teams made it to the conference championship game in the same year. All six times, one or the other or both lost.

The Cowboys trained in Northern California at the time, and the teams were frequent preseason opponents, including a memorable rookie game featuring Roger Staubach, Ken Stabler, and Eldridge Dickey. But not any other time. They didn't play again until 1980, when Staubach was already retired and Stabler had been traded away.

[CSKreager]

Bills/Lions 1991- Buffalo had clinched everything there was to clinch, Kelly didnt play

[sheajets]

Chargers/Steelers. 1994 week 17 matchup. AFC Championship game preview. Chargers win 37-34 on a late Carney field goal

[ChrisBabcock]

Bills/Lions 1991- Buffalo had clinched everything there was to clinch, Kelly didnt play

I was at that game so I'm surprised that one didn't come to mind immediately.

Got to see Barry Sanders do his thing live.

[Todd Pence]

A notable event in the Cowboys-Raiders 1974 game was 47-year-old Geroge Blanda mopping up at quarterback in the last few minutes, the first time he'd played the position in a couple of years. When asked why he brought Blanda in under center, Madden deadpanned "I thought I'd give him a little experience."

[sheajets]

A notable event in the Cowboys-Raiders 1974 game was 47-year-old Geroge Blanda mopping up at quarterback in the last few minutes, the first time he'd played the position in a couple of years. When asked why he brought Blanda in under center, Madden deadpanned "I thought I'd give him a little experience."

fwiw While Blanda did not attempt any passes in 1973, he did attempt 15 in 1972

[BD Sullivan]

A notable event in the Cowboys-Raiders 1974 game was 47-year-old Geroge Blanda mopping up at quarterback in the last few minutes, the first time he'd played the position in a couple of years. When asked why he brought Blanda in under center, Madden deadpanned "I thought I'd give him a little experience."

Wasn't that the game where Alex Karras indicated that Otis Sistrunk attended the "University of Mars"?

[CSKreager]

A notable event in the Cowboys-Raiders 1974 game was 47-year-old Geroge Blanda mopping up at quarterback in the last few minutes, the first time he'd played the position in a couple of years. When asked why he brought Blanda in under center, Madden deadpanned "I thought I'd give him a little experience."

Wasn't that the game where Alex Karras indicated that Otis Sistrunk attended the "University of Mars"?

That was the MNF Raider opener against Buffalo (their only MNF loss in the 70s)