Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

The best Raider team from the AFL years (or maybe even up until ’76) would have to be their ’67 installment if only because they finished 13-1 and made it to the Super Bowl (losing to Lombardi albeit lopsided quite understandable). But the two 12-game winners the next two seasons seemed pretty much the same caliber. And it could be argued that both were even better than ’67 due to the AFL as a whole, hence Raiders themselves, further improving in those final two years.

The first was Rauch’s last squad. They finished 12-2, hammered the also-12-2 Chiefs (whom they split with regular season), 41-6, in the division championship game only to then lose to Jets. The following year, Madden’s first as HC, they do a half-game better (12-1-1) as well as sweeping Chiefs during regular season! Like the year before they destroy their first playoff opponent (Oilers, 56-7) but then fail the hat-trick over KC for the league championship.

Both ’68 & ’69 seem mighty close to one another. Who do you think is better, the team that missed out on playing the Colts, or the one that missed out on the Vikings the following year? Or is it a stale-mate?

40-7-1 in those final three AFL campaigns!

These are some minor points but the '68 Raiders were a little more well-balanced on offense while the '69 Raiders were full blown Darryl Lamonica "Mad Bomber" mode. They had very average rushing numbers but when you have 34 TD passes in that era (including one game where he had 6 TD passes in ONE HALF!) who's to argue?

The '69 defense was just a tad better mainly because the '68 squad had rookie George Atkinson playing CB in place of injured Ken McCloughan for the second half of the season, and it was Atkinson who got beat deep and then for the GW TD by Don Maynard in the AFL Champ game.

Another thing to consider is that Lamonica got hurt slamming his hand against Aaron Brown's helmet in the 2nd half of the 1969 AFL Champ Game, and he tossed 3 2nd half INTs as a result. As an old Raiders' fan friend of mine keeps pointing out, it would have meant a different ending for the Silver and Black....

I forgot to add one of the more impressive stats posted by the 1969 Oakland Raiders is opponents completed only 38.9% of their pass attempt against them. That has to be some kind of record for the SB era?

And another addition that helps improve the '69 squad. Tom Keating sat out the '68 season with the achilles injury that he suffered in the '67 AFL title game. His return in '69 was a plus.

RRMarshall wrote: Another thing to consider is that Lamonica got hurt slamming his hand against Aaron Brown's helmet in the 2nd half of the 1969 AFL Champ Game, and he tossed 3 2nd half INTs as a result. As an old Raiders' fan friend of mine keeps pointing out, it would have meant a different ending for the Silver and Black....

It may have also made a difference if the long sideline pass to Otis Taylor would have been called incomplete as it should have been.