Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

That other thread ("How playoff home field was determined pre-1966") inspired this one. My understanding is that the playoff rotation from 1970 - 4 was pre-determined. I'm not sure why the N.F.L. decided to do things in that way in those years, but it did. It wasn't until 1975 that "home field advantage" based on best record took effect. With that in mind how do you think things would've "shaken out" in those 5 seasons in the playoffs had "best record" (for both pairings and home field considerations) taken precedence, instead? (So the "SHOULD have been" first round match-ups are: team with best record vs. the wild card entry [provided that those two teams weren't from the same division]. Which means that it was possible to have a 1 vs. 3 and 2 vs. 4 set of pairings in the first round instead of 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 in those years. The one that sticks in my craw the most is the famous Christmas Day 1971 match-up between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins. While it did provide us with a game that is still talked about to this day [and justifiably so], in my opinion it NEVER should've happened. . .at least not until conference championship Sunday). [Note: home team listed first - both in actual match-ups and "should have beens."] [Note: those in bold in the "should have beens" are ones that are different from the actual match-ups that the N.F.L. came up with that year {either the pairing or which team should've hosted}] [Note: the actual match-ups include those from championship Sunday that year]

1970 (actual): Baltimore vs. Cincinnatus; Oakland vs. Miami; Dallas vs. Detroit; Minnesota vs. San Francisco; San Francisco vs. Dallas; Baltimore vs. Oakland

What the 1970 first round SHOULD have been: Baltimore vs. Cincinnatus; Oakland vs. Miami; Minnesota vs. Dallas; San Francisco vs. Detroit

1971 (actual): Kansas City vs. Miami; Cleveland vs. Baltimore; Minnesota vs. Dallas; San Francisco vs. Washington; Dallas vs. San Francisco; Miami vs. Baltimore

What the 1971 first round SHOULD have been: Kansas City vs. Baltimore; Miami vs. Cleveland; Minnesota vs. Washington; Dallas vs. San Francisco

1972 (actual): San Francisco vs. Dallas; Washington vs. Green Bay; Pittsburgh vs. Oakland; Miami vs. Cleveland; Pittsburgh vs. Miami; Washington vs. Dallas

What the 1972 first round SHOULD have been: Green Bay vs. Dallas; Washington vs. San Francisco; Miami vs. Cleveland; Pittsburgh vs. Oakland

1973 (actual): Minnesota vs. Washington; Dallas vs. Los Angeles; Oakland vs. Pittsburgh; Miami vs. Cincinnatus; Miami vs. Oakland; Dallas vs. Minnesota

What the 1973 first round SHOULD have been: Minnesota vs. Washington; L.A. vs. Dallas; Miami vs. Pittsburgh; Cincinnatus vs. Oakland

1974 (actual): Minnesota vs. St. Louis; L.A. vs. Washington; Oakland vs. Miami; Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo; L.A. vs. Minnesota; Oakland vs. Pittsburgh

What the 1974 first round SHOULD have been: L.A. vs. Washington; Minnesota vs. St. Louis; Oakland vs. Buffalo; Miami vs. Pittsburgh

If they had home field in 1971, the Colts probably win their season finale against the Pats, and they get home field with an 11-3 record (KC was 10-3-1).

7DnBrnc53 wrote:If they had home field in 1971, the Colts probably win their season finale against the Pats, and they get home field with an 11-3 record (KC was 10-3-1).

There was talk at the time that the Colts allowed that 88-yard TD pass from Jim Plunkett to Randy "The Rabbit" Vataha so they could avoid playing the Chiefs in KC the following week. The Colts got clobbered by the Chiefs the year before in Monday Night Football, and if you watch the play you do wonder how Vataha could have gotten so far behind the two Colts' defenders in their famed zone defense of the era.

The loss in 71 to the Pats was a tough loss for Baltimore, who could have won their division after beating the Raiders and Dolphins late. I dont think they would have purposely lost to avoid the Chiefs, who had a roster nearly as old as their own.

Though the Colts won a great victory over the Raiders in the 70/71 AFC Championship game, I still believe Unitas would have rather faced and beaten, Shula's young Dolphins.

Another interesting thing about the 1970 postseason, which I plan to comment-look back on a future thread, were the great regular season finishes/final games that propelled teams into the playoffs. From 1970-1977, the playoffs began the week after the regular season ended, which affected or sometimes hindered a team's momentum.

A great example was the 70 SF 49ers, who finally went to the postseason with John Brodie as QB. Their postseason started with their final regular-season game against former AFL territorial rival Oakland and they needed the game more, to take the division over the Rams in George Allen's final year with the team. A big win against the Raiders, who won their division against the Chiefs the previous week, allowed them to carry that momentum the following week against Minnesota, who they upset in the divisional round, though with the Vikings having Gary Cuozzo over Joe Kapp at QB, it really wasnt an upset ...

The 49ers were also aided by a big Detroit Lion win against the Rams in wk 13, which helped the Lions make the playoffs as well. Though he quarterbacked the Rams to winning records in 1970 and 71, Gabriel's missed opportunities at winning the western division on the final sundays of the season to SF --thus missing those postseasons-- might have cost his chances on making the HOF, similiar to Ken Anderson in the AFC Central in 1976-77.

I guess I'm mostly interested in what people think would've happened had Kansas City vs. Miami not occurred until championship Sunday (as it should have) in 1971. Or what might've happened before 1975 had the Rams gotten Minnesota at home, say, instead of having to play the Vikings in the frigid north.

RRMarshall wrote:

7DnBrnc53 wrote:If they had home field in 1971, the Colts probably win their season finale against the Pats, and they get home field with an 11-3 record (KC was 10-3-1).

There was talk at the time that the Colts allowed that 88-yard TD pass from Jim Plunkett to Randy "The Rabbit" Vataha so they could avoid playing the Chiefs in KC the following week. The Colts got clobbered by the Chiefs the year before in Monday Night Football, and if you watch the play you do wonder how Vataha could have gotten so far behind the two Colts' defenders in their famed zone defense of the era.

The Chiefs opened the 1970 season by losing to the Vikings in a re-match of S.B. IV and I don't think the Chiefs were real keen on starting the first post-merger season 0 - 2, especially as defending world champs. I recently watched "This Week in Pro Football" for Week 1 of the 1970 season and, interestingly, both Tom Brookshier and Pat Summerall, in looking ahead to Week 2, picked the Chiefs - despite that Week One loss - to beat the eventual S.B champions.

What is the determination where the Rams get home field in 1974? There were three teams with 10-4 records. Cardinals and Rams didn't play, so no head to head I presume. Unequal number of conference games, Rams were the lucky team to get four that year. Do they count that anyway, Rams had one less victory, so they throw the Rams out and go to Cardinals vs. Vikings, and the Vikings win that because of head to head? Next is supposed to be points in H2H (also out), then the "Rating" and "Rank" which is based on score in conference games. Which favored the Rams, even though they played and won one less?!?

Jay Z wrote:What is the determination where the Rams get home field in 1974? There were three teams with 10-4 records. Cardinals and Rams didn't play, so no head to head I presume. Unequal number of conference games, Rams were the lucky team to get four that year. Do they count that anyway, Rams had one less victory, so they throw the Rams out and go to Cardinals vs. Vikings, and the Vikings win that because of head to head? Next is supposed to be points in H2H (also out), then the "Rating" and "Rank" which is based on score in conference games. Which favored the Rams, even though they played and won one less?!?

I don't know which criteria the N.F.L. would've used back then to determine home field advantage in the case of equal regular season records. All four playoff teams from the N.F.C. that year had identical regular season records. (How weird is that?) In reality Minnesota and the Rams hosted on W.C. weekend. Based on a quick glance at that year's final standings I would've given Minnesota the top seed based on PD, in which case Minnesota, not L.A., would've hosted Washington on W.C. weekend and the Rams would've hosted St. Louis. (Still in effect at the time was the rule that "teams from the same division cannot meet before championship Sunday." Personally, I wish that rule were still in place)

It would be interesting to find out if in 1974 the Steelers would have survived a gauntlet of Miami and Oakland on the road in consecutive weeks. My thought is if Pittsburgh manages to get by Miami in the first round, they will been worn down enough that the AFC Championship in Oakland would have produced different results, particularly in light of the fact the Raiders would have had a much easier time of it against the Bills.

So perhaps we first see an Oakland vs. Minnesota Super Bowl in 1974 as opposed to 1976.