1977 Season: Pre-season expectations

[7DnBrnc53]

I was thinking about how I would have predicted this season before it started, and this is what I would have come up with:

AFC East

1. Patriots 12-2: Color the AFC Red, White, and Blue for this year (and maybe the next few years as well).-H
2. Colts 10-4: Still tough enough with Jones to get back to playoffs.-WC
3. Dolphins 6-8: This team is on the decline. Shula will be coaching somewhere else by 1980. You heard it here first.
4. Bills 5-9: New coach and an aging RB that could be gone.
5. Jets 3-11: Another team with a new coach in year 1 A.N (after Namath).

AFC Central

1. Bengals 10-4: They take advantage of the Steeler dissension to win first title since 73.-2
2. Steelers 8-6: Talent is there, but there is a lot of dissension, and some player holdouts.
3. Browns 7-7: Team improved to 9-5 last year, but will decline somewhat this year.
4. Oilers 5-9: Maybe 1975 was a fluke.

AFC West

1. Raiders 9-5: Will win division by default, but don't repeat. This team is also on the decline, and may not make the playoffs in 78.-3
2. Broncos 8-6: They have the D, but do you believe in Craig Morton or Steve Spurrier? Neither do I.
3. Chargers 6-8: Steadily improving, but wait a few years for contention.
4. Chiefs 5-9: The glory days are long gone.
5. Seahawks 2-12: Will be in the Earl Campbell (or whoever was considered the big college star going into that year) sweepstakes.

AFC Playoffs

Divisional Round: Patriots over Raiders, Bengals over Colts
Championship Game: Patriots over Bengals

NFC East

1. Cowboys 13-1: They are hungry, and they added the best player in college football to add explosiveness to the backfield.-H
2. Redskins 9-5: Allen's old men get back to the playoffs.-WC
3. Cardinals 8-6: Could be a team on the decline, but will be in WC race to the end.
4. Eagles 5-9: Added a QB, but their talent-poor roster could be a few years away.
5. Giants 4-10: The misery just keeps coming for Big Blue with no end in sight.

NFC Central

1. Bears 9-5: This is their year to overtake the fading, aging Vikings.-2
2. Vikings 8-6: I see a team that is falling apart and won't get the lucky breaks that they have been getting the past few years.
3. Lions 7-7: Where else would they be?
4. Packers 4-10: One more year like this, and Starr won't coach the Pack in 1979.
5. Buccaneers 0-14: In the Campbell sweepstakes with the Seahawks (although they probably trade out since they have Ricky Bell)

NFC West

1. Rams 9-5: Winners by default, but SB pretenders. An aging Namath won't change that.-3
2. 49ers 6-8: It is year one with a new owner (Eddie Debartolo) and a new GM. Since that GM is Joe Thomas, look for drastic changes soon.
3. Saints 5-9: Should have a small improvement since Manning is back (and division is weak).
4. Falcons 4-10: Year one of the Bennett-Lebaron era.

NFC Playoffs
Divisional Round: Cowboys over Rams, Redskins over Bears
Championship Game: Cowboys over Redskins

Super Bowl XII (Jan 15th in New Orleans): Cowboys 31, Patriots 28

[74_75_78_79_]

Good season to discuss!

I would guess the Pats were the 'sexy' pick for the AFC going in. I would imagine Raiders, Steelers, and Colts still looking like strong enough possibilities to represent as well. With a new HC, I guess no one would have seen Denver coming. No more Paul Brown in Cincy.

Dallas and Rams I guess would have been the common guess for the NFCCG. Was a decline in StL seen coming by most? Cards were a strong non-playoff team the year before and, remember, they did start 7-3 in '77. San Fran? New HC as well as everything else, but were a strong 8-6 last year.

Funny (yet another example why to not always trust the site), but wiki has Floyd Peters being DC for Detroit in ’77 yet when you wiki the ’77 Forty Niners he’s their d-line coach. I guess he was doing both at once, lol.

[7DnBrnc53]

San Fran? New HC as well as everything else, but were a strong 8-6 last year.

SF has Joe the Butcher coming in as GM. He will probably end up getting rid of a lot of the players by the beginning of 1978. This could get worse before it gets better. Look at what happened in Baltimore in 72 when he took over.

[nicefellow31]

I have a 1977 Street & Smith preview for that season. Just guessing but I think they had NE, Pitt, Oak as division winners with Balt and Cincy challenging. In the NFC it was Dallas, Min, and LA (like every year pretty much) with Washington and St. Louis as potential wildcard winners. I'll take a look at it and confirm.

[sheajets]

Patriots at that time still had a young unsteady Grogan at QB that resembled more Mark Sanchez than the serviceable vet that he would mature into. That and their D was just good. Not great. They benefited from playing the wretched Jets and Bills twice as well as fading Dolphins

[BD Sullivan]

Patriots were hurt by off-the-field stuff, with the Gray/Hannah walkout. New England was 1-2 without their linemen and 8-3 with them, the last loss coming when they got screwed by a quick whistle in Baltimore.

The Browns were 5-2 at midseason, then were upset by the Bengals. The next week, Sipe got knocked out for the year and the Browns collapsed, with Forrest Gregg paying the price.

[Gary Najman]

I was wondering if anyone thought at that time that Tampa Bay could go a second season without a win? From what I have seen their offense was worse than in 1976, with Gary Huff, Randy Hedberg and Jeb Blount at QB, but they improved on defense. I bet that the win at the Superdome in the next-to-last-week (with 3 interceptions returned for TDs) was one of the biggest upsets of the season.

[7DnBrnc53]

Patriots were hurt by off-the-field stuff, with the Gray/Hannah walkout. New England was 1-2 without their linemen and 8-3 with them, the last loss coming when they got screwed by a quick whistle in Baltimore.

The Browns were 5-2 at midseason, then were upset by the Bengals. The next week, Sipe got knocked out for the year and the Browns collapsed, with Forrest Gregg paying the price.

It's not surprising considering that jerk Modell was the owner. It seems to me that Gregg deserved one more year there, although I don't know all the details.

[BD Sullivan]

Patriots were hurt by off-the-field stuff, with the Gray/Hannah walkout. New England was 1-2 without their linemen and 8-3 with them, the last loss coming when they got screwed by a quick whistle in Baltimore.

The Browns were 5-2 at midseason, then were upset by the Bengals. The next week, Sipe got knocked out for the year and the Browns collapsed, with Forrest Gregg paying the price.

It's not surprising considering that jerk Modell was the owner. It seems to me that Gregg deserved one more year there, although I don't know all the details.

After the Browns lost 9-0 to the Rams in Week 11, Modell made a comment that he was going to have a "top to bottom evaluation" after the season, which PO'ed Gregg. The Browns then got drilled in San Diego, which annoyed Modell even more. When the change was made, Modell pulled the usual owner move of saying that Gregg had resigned, but Gregg came out the next day and said he was fired--with one year left on his contract.

I had to laugh seeing this AP prediction right before the start of the season: "The Raiders are unquestionably the best of the West--San Diego will probably step in to replace Denver as the division's distant runnerup this season."

[Evan]

Football Digest used to pick the standings with records too. Here is how they saw the 1977 season, as written in their Sept. 1977 issue:

AFC East
NE 12-2
Bal 10-4
Mia 7-7
Buf 5-9
NYJ 2-12

Central
Pit 11-3
Cin 10-4
Hou 6-8
Cle 5-9

West
Oak 12-2
SD 8-6
Den 6-8
KC 3-11
Sea 1-13

NFC East
Dal 11-3
Wash 10-4
StL 9-5
NYG 6-8
Phi 3-11

Central
Chi 10-4
Min 9-5
Det 7-7
GB 4-10
TB 2-12

West
LA 11-3
SF 7-7
NO 5-9
Atl 3-11

As a kid I seem to recall that I added up all the predicted records just to make sure they totalled .500, making them a legitimately mathematically possible set of predictions, and they were. I hope my math was right.