Best George Allen RAMS squad?
Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2025 6:20 pm
With his 8-6 debut in '66 and his close-but-no-cigar 9-4-1 final LA outing four years later not in the running, it's his three middle seasons that each are valid candidates...
1967 - beat Green Bay penultimate week though the Pack already clinched things going in, and then winning their famous play-in finale convincingly against Shula's 11-0-2 Colts! I have a feeling most of you will opine this as being the one. I, personally, think that the Pack deserved advancement over them in their playoff game, but many of you in here who I place above me knowledge-wise feel the Rams would have won had it been in LA. I do feel the Rams should have been at home, but that’s the way it was set up then and if you have to win a road game or so to end up finishing on top, then that’s what’s got to be done. IMO, Vince & Co would have won anyway no matter where the game was played.
1968 - maybe the least popular one being that they finished at 'just' 10-3-1. A fine 6-0 start going into 5-1 Baltimore. Colts beat them convincingly, 27-10, but Rams go 4-0-1 their next five games making it 10-1-1 going into Week #13 with the Bears coming into town. Colts were 11-1 going into their game with both they and LA meeting in the finale at the Coliseum (yes, that also-juggernaut Balt squad may have missed again in '68). But Rams lose, Colts win, thus that otherwise fascinating finale was now, frustratingly, meaningless (and Rams lose again).
1969 - if the 2009 New Orleans Saints would have gone one-and-done, this very Rams squad would be seen as their precursor. Sick 11-0 start! And then they host the...10-1 Vikings! They lose that one and the remaining two as well! I can't imagine the Rams wanting to, already, "close shop" going into a HOT match against a 10-1 team! But they lost and then lost their last two. Did they "phone it in" after that loss to Minny? Maybe you all can inform or, at least, opine. Classic case of "over the hill" being worn-out by end of the regular season? You all tell me. But Rams DID give Vikes a great game in their playoff match! And for what its ABSOLUTELY worth, beat Dallas in the Playoff Bowl, 31-0!
My summary, here, is generic. Much more, I guess, could have been included here. That's where YOU all fill it in. Rosie Grier was already gone by then! Wasn't sure until I just now watched the NFL Films '69 Rams piece and noticed his name never mentioned. Such a great piece, by the way! It starts with their immediate beginnings of when they first moved to the City of Angels.
We all complain about no Raiders/Dallas Super Bowls EVER in the '70s (or 1980)! And then Yours Truly (perhaps the only one here who takes issue, correct me) complaining about there never being a Phillies/Yankees World Series in the late-'70s or...1980 (Yankees had the best record in all of the Majors that year). Well...how about RAMS/Raiders in a Super Bowl those three years leading up to the merger??
PS - who do all of you feel is stronger between George's last Rams team and his first Washington team? Both did finish 9-4-1.
1967 - beat Green Bay penultimate week though the Pack already clinched things going in, and then winning their famous play-in finale convincingly against Shula's 11-0-2 Colts! I have a feeling most of you will opine this as being the one. I, personally, think that the Pack deserved advancement over them in their playoff game, but many of you in here who I place above me knowledge-wise feel the Rams would have won had it been in LA. I do feel the Rams should have been at home, but that’s the way it was set up then and if you have to win a road game or so to end up finishing on top, then that’s what’s got to be done. IMO, Vince & Co would have won anyway no matter where the game was played.
1968 - maybe the least popular one being that they finished at 'just' 10-3-1. A fine 6-0 start going into 5-1 Baltimore. Colts beat them convincingly, 27-10, but Rams go 4-0-1 their next five games making it 10-1-1 going into Week #13 with the Bears coming into town. Colts were 11-1 going into their game with both they and LA meeting in the finale at the Coliseum (yes, that also-juggernaut Balt squad may have missed again in '68). But Rams lose, Colts win, thus that otherwise fascinating finale was now, frustratingly, meaningless (and Rams lose again).
1969 - if the 2009 New Orleans Saints would have gone one-and-done, this very Rams squad would be seen as their precursor. Sick 11-0 start! And then they host the...10-1 Vikings! They lose that one and the remaining two as well! I can't imagine the Rams wanting to, already, "close shop" going into a HOT match against a 10-1 team! But they lost and then lost their last two. Did they "phone it in" after that loss to Minny? Maybe you all can inform or, at least, opine. Classic case of "over the hill" being worn-out by end of the regular season? You all tell me. But Rams DID give Vikes a great game in their playoff match! And for what its ABSOLUTELY worth, beat Dallas in the Playoff Bowl, 31-0!
My summary, here, is generic. Much more, I guess, could have been included here. That's where YOU all fill it in. Rosie Grier was already gone by then! Wasn't sure until I just now watched the NFL Films '69 Rams piece and noticed his name never mentioned. Such a great piece, by the way! It starts with their immediate beginnings of when they first moved to the City of Angels.
We all complain about no Raiders/Dallas Super Bowls EVER in the '70s (or 1980)! And then Yours Truly (perhaps the only one here who takes issue, correct me) complaining about there never being a Phillies/Yankees World Series in the late-'70s or...1980 (Yankees had the best record in all of the Majors that year). Well...how about RAMS/Raiders in a Super Bowl those three years leading up to the merger??
PS - who do all of you feel is stronger between George's last Rams team and his first Washington team? Both did finish 9-4-1.