When the Lions Licked the Rams in the 1952 Playoffs

 By John W. Lesko 

Hall-of-Fame QB Bobby Layne gets off a pass against the Rams in 1954 action

The Los Angeles Rams won the 1951 NFL championship. They went 8-4 in the regular season and finished first in the National Conference. The Lions finished in second place at 7-4-1. Back then only division or conference champions qualified for the postseason. There were no playoffs as we now know them. Win your division or conference and straight to the title game you’d go. Well, that was when there was no tie at the top of the standings.

Rams head coach Joe Stydahar had checked into a clinic after the 1951 season due to mental tension. He also believed his top assistant HampPool was undermining him with ownership. In 1952, the Rams lost their opening game. Stydahar was then fired. Or did he quit? According to owner Dan Reeves, Stydahar quit. According to Stydahar, he was fired. Pool took over as head coach in Week 2. The Lions won in Los Angeles, 17-14. Some of the Rams used the coaching change as an excuse for the loss.

The two teams next met in Week 4 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. Leading up to that game, Rams public relations man and future league commissioner Pete Rozelle had the following to say about his team. “That was the same stuff I was hearing and reading in connection with the Rams before I left Los Angeles. We were accused of every crime in the book when we got off to a bad start after winning the championship last year. When we lost to the Lions the Rams were described as too swell-headed to get up to the line of scrimmage.”

The Lions won that contest, 24-16. It was a physical game that saw Lions defensive captain John Prchlik get ejected for fighting. Rams star pass receiver Elroy Hirsch missed the game due to injury. The Rams had gotten off to a 13-0 start and then had a touchdown nullified by a penalty. Lions head coach Buddy Parker noted that penalty as being the turning point of the Lions season, that if they had gotten down three scores, they may not have recovered in that game.

The Rams then went on an 8-game winning streak to finish with a record of 9-3. The Lions also finished 9-3. The Lions won both head-to-head meetings. That means they won the conference, right? Nope. That tiebreaker didn’t exist back then. To break the tie, the teams played a special playoff game. The regular season ended on December 14. The Rams vs Lions playoff game was played on December 21. The league title game was played on December 28. The Browns won their conference outright so they simply didn’t play a game on December 21.

The Lions won the playoff game 31-21 even though Lions quarterback Bobby Layne passed for 0 touchdowns and threw 4 interceptions. The Layne interceptions were offset a bit by the Rams turning the ball over three times. The Lions got off to an early 14-0 lead which they never relinquished. The Rams did cut the lead to 24-21 in the 4^th quarter after Vitamin T. Smith returned a punt for a touchdown.

The Rams had the ball again in the final minute. BobWaterfield threw a pass to Hirsch but it was intercepted by Lions linebacker LaVernTorgeson. A few moments later Lions running back Bob Hoernschemeyer ran for a touchdown with 30 seconds left. That put the game out of reach. 

Lions rookie defensive back Jim David commented after the game that the Rams were out of excuses. “I wonder what excuse the Rams will find this time. When we beat them in L.A., all we heard was that they had changed coaches and hadn’t had time to reorganize. When we licked them again here in October, they blamed an injury to one guy, Hirsch. Well, they came back with Hirsch in shape and a coach who’d won eight straight. I guess we showed ‘em.” 

Sources

Green, Jerry. Detroit Lions. New York: Macmillan, 1973. 

Maxymuk, John. NFL Head Coaches: A Biographical Dictionary, 1920-2011. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012.

John W. Lesko is a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association and a graduate of Seton Hall University. He is a contributing writer of "The 1958 Baltimore Colts: Profiles of the NFL's First Sudden Death Champions" and wrote an article for "The Coffin Corner" on all the major pro football league games without a touchdown.