1961 Houston Oilers
Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 10:14 am
I've discussed this team before. The AFL equiv of the '94 Forty Niners once Wally Lemm came onboard after their 1-3-1 start. But then the League Championship Game can be seen as a precursor to SBLIII (Pats 13, Rams 3) - two hot offenses ironically playing in an extremely low-scoring game: Houston 10, San Diego 3.
In a Power Rankings thread ranking all twenty '60s league champions, I did place them above the '63 Chargers, but only placed them as high as #17 due to me feeling that the AFL was too new at the time still. Perhaps I'm too hard on those Chargers (maybe, maybe not), holding their sweep to the only double-digit team they played (hot-down-the-stretch Raiders) against them as well as the league still being young as well.
And perhaps I should give these '61 Oilers more credit as well which I would really like to do. That 9-0 regular season finish was very dominating! Now I really couldn't picture they giving the Pack any kind of game in a hypo-SB, again, due to it being just 'year two' of the new league. But should I look past that?
Could this particular AFL installment, which Wally didn't return to the following season, have possibly been special enough thus "ready" for the NFL's best? Even if it would still take years for the league as a whole to catch up to the NFL. Just, perhaps, an early one-year anomaly this team would be. Is it wrong for me to just place the '60 & '62 Oilers, and '63 Chargers, beneath them?
In a Power Rankings thread ranking all twenty '60s league champions, I did place them above the '63 Chargers, but only placed them as high as #17 due to me feeling that the AFL was too new at the time still. Perhaps I'm too hard on those Chargers (maybe, maybe not), holding their sweep to the only double-digit team they played (hot-down-the-stretch Raiders) against them as well as the league still being young as well.
And perhaps I should give these '61 Oilers more credit as well which I would really like to do. That 9-0 regular season finish was very dominating! Now I really couldn't picture they giving the Pack any kind of game in a hypo-SB, again, due to it being just 'year two' of the new league. But should I look past that?
Could this particular AFL installment, which Wally didn't return to the following season, have possibly been special enough thus "ready" for the NFL's best? Even if it would still take years for the league as a whole to catch up to the NFL. Just, perhaps, an early one-year anomaly this team would be. Is it wrong for me to just place the '60 & '62 Oilers, and '63 Chargers, beneath them?