Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Maybe the most disrespected and Possibly unloved SB team of all time.

9-7, had a life and death struggle just to get past New Orleans in their own division.

Lucked out with the Saints MNF meltdown vs Oakland as well as getting to play SF, MIN, and ATL 2x

But then inexplicably beat Dallas and Tampa despite arguably their worst team from 1967-1980….. not only did they make the Super Bowl they gave Pittsburgh hell in a game that was closer than the final score indicated,

Your thoughts on this historically discredited team that did what better teams were supposed to do but could not yet this one did?

I have two questions about the 1979 Rams:

1. What do you think their record could have been had they had no major injuries?

I wouldn’t be surprised if they won at least two more games with the players they had, but that’s just me.

2. What do you think of the NFC in 1979?

I’ve seen a lot of posts where we’ve talked about how the NFC or AFC was weak or strong.

Not to knock the 79 Rams (credit them for overcoming adversity and nearly winning the Super Bowl against the Steelers), but at least by record, the NFC they made it out of seems very watered down.

The 79 NFC was 16-36 vs the AFC, for a win percentage of .308, the worst of any conference vs the other since the 1970 merger.



Looking at some of the other NFC teams that year:

Dallas had made the prior two Super Bowls. They tied for the best record in the NFC at 11-5. They had Roger Staubach in one of the best seasons of his career by the numbers and a top five offense, but the defense ranked only 13th. If I’m not mistaken Charlie Waters was injured and Too Tall Jones went boxing.

The other 11-5 team was Philly who on paper look pretty solid (12th on offense, ninth on defense), but were one year away from being a Super Bowl team (their defense improved the next season).

Minnesota had been a perennial playoff team in the 70’s with the Purple People Eaters. But in 1979, Fran Tarkenton was retired, and was replaced by a young Tommy Kramer at quarterback, and on defense Jim Marshall who was 42 years old was the only of the Purple People Eaters left. They were a 7-9 team.

Washington had been the other perennial playoff team in the 1970’s alongside Dallas, Minnesota and of course Los Angeles.

In 1979, they had Joe Theismann at quarterback who was good that season, and John Riggins who would of course be the focal point of their offense in the early 80’s, but the Hogs who blocked for them weren’t drafted yet, and some of the defensive players from their 1982 title team weren’t there yet either I believe. They were also coached by Jack Pardee and not Joe Gibbs yet, and finished 10-6.

On the other side of things, in addition to the Eagles, and Skins, another team that would be good in the early 80’s was the 49ers.

San Francisco had just drafted Joe Montana, but he was sitting behind Steve DeBerg. They also had the second worst defense by points. They were 2-14.

Also worth mentioning is the Buccaneers who LA had to beat in the NFC Championship Game.

They had a great, first ranked defense, but their offense ranked only 21st; that feels a little low for a team that made a conference championship game with the defense being the driving force. A much improved team from the years prior for sure, but they were still only two years removed from their historic losing streak.

Not saying the Rams don’t deserve more credit for finally making the Super Bowl and nearly winning, but if there’s one criticism you could give them it would be the conference they made it out of if you are one to heavily factor in schedule.

The 1979 Rams were better than their 1973-78 predecessors. They had a more quality offensive line, they were deeper at WR, and Ferragamo provided some stable QB play for them in 1979 and 1980 before leaving for the CFL in 1981.

This team gets crapped on because of their 9-7 record, but they did have to deal with injuries, especially at the QB and WR positions.

7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2026 12:51 pm The 1979 Rams were better than their 1973-78 predecessors. They had a more quality offensive line, they were deeper at WR, and Ferragamo provided some stable QB play for them in 1979 and 1980 before leaving for the CFL in 1981.

This team gets crapped on because of their 9-7 record, but they did have to deal with injuries, especially at the QB and WR positions.

Not to disagree with those points (the one on offensive line in particular), but what do you think of where the NFC was at in 1979?

And could some of the Rams teams from 73-78 also have made a Super Bowl had they been hypothetically in that conference instead of the ones they were actually in?

The Rams were lucky that Ferragamo took over at QB after Haden got hurt. They wouldnt have made the playoffs with Haden.
They only beat the Cowboys because Staubach had gotten another concussion later in the 4th quarter of the playoff. They pissed away the SB game with Cromwell dropping an easy interception, then the secondary allowing Stallworth to beat double coverage on a bomb late from Bradshaw.

7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2026 12:51 pm The 1979 Rams were better than their 1973-78 predecessors. They had a more quality offensive line, they were deeper at WR, and Ferragamo provided some stable QB play for them in 1979 and 1980 before leaving for the CFL in 1981.

This team gets crapped on because of their 9-7 record, but they did have to deal with injuries, especially at the QB and WR positions.

And in 1979, Wendell Tyler ran for over 1,000 yards, with an avg. of more than 5 yards per run. In 1978, all Rams runners (including McCutcheon, Cappelletti and Bryant) ran for less than 4 yards per carry.