By
Joe Zagorski
The term “must-win game” has been used in the realm of
sports for many generations. It probably
is overused these days, having been voiced even before the middle of a typical
season. In a more specific tone, what it
really means, at least as far as the NFL is concerned, is a team needing to win
one specific game which would enable them to go to the playoffs.
There were many games throughout the decade of the 1970s
in pro football where a team could point to and claim that such a meeting with
an opponent was vital in aiding their effort to make a postseason
appearance. The following six games
represent just some of the more noteworthy contests to fall under that
delegation. These games served as the
winning ticket for the victorious team to enter the NFL playoffs during the
1970s.
1971
Detroit at San Francisco
The 1971 season was the first year that the 49ers played
in Candlestick Park, and despite going to the NFC Title Game following the 1970
season, the 1971 version of the 49ers had struggled throughout that year. The Detroit Lions were eliminated from the
playoffs the week prior to this game, and as a result, they had nothing to
lose. The Lions put forth a great effort
on December 19, taking the lead over the 49ers in a see-saw affair which was not
decided until very late in the fourth quarter. Yet in statistical terms, it appeared as if
San Francisco would have little if any trouble defeating Detroit. The 49ers out-rushed and out-passed the
Lions, both individually and collectively.
They accounted for 357 total yards, compared to 310 for the Lions. Both teams only had one turnover each.
But Detroit remained within striking distance of San
Francisco all game long. They answered
almost every 49ers score with one of their own. When the Lion rushers Altie Taylor and Steve Owens were stopped,
quarterback Greg Landry connected on some critical passes. The San Francisco defense was also aware that
Landry was just as dangerous of a runner as any quarterback in the league. He set a (then) NFL record of 530 ground
yards the previous season. In 1972,
Landry rushed for 524 yards. Nevertheless, the 49ers defense limited the Detroit quarterback to just
25 yards on five carries in this contest, and that statistic was quite
important in helping San Francisco triumph.
Frank Nunley and Dave Wilcox were a pair of 49ers
linebackers who did yeoman work in keeping the Lions from scoring in the fourth
quarter. Nunley also contributed the
game-clinching interception on Landry’s final pass of the 1971 season.
Veteran San Francisco quarterback John Brodie did not
start the game against the Lions, but he nevertheless managed to lead the 49ers
to their ninth win of the year. Brodie
scrambled out of his passing pocket in the fourth quarter and scored the
winning touchdown from 10 yards out. San
Francisco’s 31-27 triumph won them another NFC West title, and granted them a
home playoff game the following week against the Cinderella Washington
Redskins. Had San Francisco lost to
Detroit, they would have not made the playoffs.
“John came off the bench and did a great job,” said 49ers
head coach Dick Nolan. “He was our shot
in the arm.”
1972
Pittsburgh at San Diego
In 1972, the Pittsburgh Steelers finally made the
playoffs in their 40th year of existence. It was a matter of fact that owner Art
Rooney’s team was finally “due” for a successful season. Indeed, the 1972 season was magical for the
Steelers, as they advanced as far as the AFC Title Game, thanks to Franco
Harris’ Immaculate Reception in the divisional playoffs against the Oakland
Raiders. But before the Steelers could
play the Raiders, they had to win their final game of the regular season at San
Diego Stadium to give them an 11-3 record and a berth in the postseason.
Pittsburgh head coach Chuck Noll knew that his team would
play an inspired game against the Chargers. What he did not expect, though, was how truly dominant of an effort that
the Steelers would exhibit on this day. The Pittsburgh defense shut down the San Diego offense, limiting them to
a meager 56 rushing yards, and forcing them into committing seven turnovers.
“Defensively, we have more depth overall,” admitted Noll
in the victorious Steelers locker room after the playoff-clinching
victory. “This is the money year. We’ll have the champagne in private. The season isn’t over.”
Indeed it wasn’t.
But getting to the postseason was the result of a beautiful blending of
players on both sides of the ball, and of all levels of experience. Pittsburgh’s phenomenal rookie running back
Franco Harris scored the first touchdown against San Diego on a 2-yard run in
the first quarter. Backfield mate John“Frenchy” Fuqua duplicated Harris’ score in the second quarter. Wide receiver Ron Shanklin scored the final
Steelers touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Noll received what would be in his head coaching tenure the first of
many victory rides on the shoulders of his Pittsburgh players following the
glorious 24-2 Steelers win.
Veteran Pittsburgh center Ray Mansfield summed up his feelings by
simply stating, “It’s fantastic.”
1974
New York Giants at St. Louis Cardinals
The 1974 St. Louis Cardinals
highlight film was entitled Big Play, Big Season. At the beginning of that season, however, nobody
really expected the St. Louis Cardinals to win too many games, or to make too
many big plays. They finished the
previous year with a 4-9-1 record, and even though second-year head coach Don
Coryell was expecting improvement, he just was not sure how much his team would
improve. Those feelings were soon to be
overcome with high hopes and optimistic excitement all across Missouri, as the
Cardinals somehow put together a 7-0 record to start the year.
Then the losing began. Losses to Dallas and Minnesota were followed by wins over Philadelphia
and the Giants. Then came two more
losses to the lowly Chiefs and Saints. St. Louis needed to defeat the Giants on the final Sunday of the season
to claim the NFC Eastern Division Championship, something that it appeared as
if would be theirs in a runaway after the second month of the year. Surely the 2-11 Giants would not present much
of a challenge to the Cards. But the
Giants began the game by playing the spoiler role to the hilt, take a 14-0 lead
into the third quarter. Concern and then
outright worry and despair enveloped the fans at Busch Memorial Stadium.
But the Cardinals defense made a couple of stops, and
then the St. Louis offense finally put together some progressive drives. Then came longer drives. Then came successful drives. Coryell’s bunch managed to score four
touchdowns within a nine-minute span of time against the Giants. Greybeards Ken Willard and Jackie Smith each
caught a touchdown pass from quarterback Jim Hart, and elusive tailback TerryMetcalf added two more scoring runs to provide the winning points. The Cardinals survived this gut-check to
claim a 10-4 record and their first division title and playoff berth since 1948.
“We just came in at halftime and made up our minds to
play some football,” said Coach Coryell from the din of celebrations in the St.
Louis locker room. “Nobody made any
excuses for our first half. Nobody had
any alibis, but you could see our desire taking its effect in the final two
quarters.”
The Cardinals were unable to extend that desire past the
first round of the divisional playoffs, but their playoff-clinching victory
over the Giants in 1974 kept them from making headlines as one of the most
forlorn “choking” teams in modern NFL history.
1976
Washington at Dallas
Washington head coach George Allen had worked a miracle of
sorts. He took a perennial loser and
turned them into a winner overnight. In
each of Allen’s first four years, he took the Redskins to the playoffs. He even took them to Super Bowl VII in
1972. But in 1975, Washington failed to
make the postseason, and in 1976, the fans and the media pundits were somewhat
doubtful as to Allen’s ability to get his mostly veteran players to rebound and
get back to their previous winning ways.
True, Allen had infused some younger players into his roster, but for
the most part, Allen continued to trade for older and more experienced players.
All of Allen’s wheeling and dealing helped his team to
rebound in a year’s time to challenge his divisional foes, namely the Dallas
Cowboys and the St. Louis Cardinals, for the 1976 NFC Eastern Division
Title. The Redskins managed to win
several games that most predictors felt that they had no business winning, as
evidenced by their sweep over the Cardinals. But Washington also suffered upsetting defeats from mediocre teams such
as Kansas City, Chicago, and the New York Giants.
It all came down to the final game of the season. St. Louis had beaten the Giants in week 14,
and a wild card berth would be theirs if the Cowboys could defeat the Redskins,
something that Dallas was predicted by most experts to occur. But if Washington could somehow achieve an
upset over the Cowboys, George Allen’s “Over the Hill Gang” would be going back
to the playoffs. As it turned out, that
is exactly what happened. Dallas owned a
14-13 lead into the final quarter, but two Redskin touchdown runs, one each by
John Riggins and former Cowboy Calvin Hill, boosted Washington to a surprise
27-14 win.
In all reality, it was not as much of an upset as one
might think. This was due mainly because
Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach had sustained an injury to his throwing hand
in the middle of the 1976 season and was never really the same again for the
remainder of the year. Once the Cowboys
fell behind in their December 12th game against the visiting Redskins,
they were unable to complete many passes. As a matter of fact, Staubach would complete only five passes in 22
attempts for a mere 91 total passing yards. Washington also intercepted two Staubach passes in the game and sacked
him five times. The Redskins were headed
back to the NFC Playoffs.
“We’re too old, too slow, and they say we’re over the
hill,” said Allen following the win.
“But these guys managed to play 60 minutes. We have the right kind of competitors. We have the kind of guys I like to refer to
as solid citizens.”
The clutch victory over Dallas would lead George Allen to
his final playoff game as head coach for the Redskins. And although Washington failed to beat the
eventual NFC Champion Minnesota Vikings the following week in the divisional
playoffs, their 1976 season was certainly one of the team’s most exciting of
the decade.
1978
New York Giants at Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Eagles won the NFL Championship in 1960,
but since then, they had known nothing but defeat. Then in 1976, the young and fiery Dick
Vermeil was hired as the team’s latest head coach. Within two seasons, the Eagles started to win
again. Vermeil whipped them up to a
frenzy by 1978, and plenty of victories resulted. The Eagles had miraculously defeated the New
York Giants on November 19, thanks to “The Miracle in the Meadowlands,” a
fumbled handoff that was returned for a score with just seconds left in the
game. That unusual and unexpected
victory kept Philly in the playoff chase in 1978.
By the final week of that eventful year, Vermeil’s team
was slated to play the Giants again but this time, at home in Veterans
Stadium. A win in this game would give
the Eagles a Wild Card berth in the NFC Playoffs. The weather on December 17 was sunny, but
cold and windy. So windy, in fact, that 22
mile-per-hour gusts were swirling all throughout the stadium all game
long. Films from that day show trash
flying in and out of team huddles. A
strong rushing attack would certainly be the deciding factor in this struggle.
The Eagles possessed just such a runner who could cut
through the wind squalls and the Giants defense as well. Philadelphia tailback Wilbert Montgomery
broke into New York’s secondary several times in the contest, as he rushed for
a game-high 130 yards and two touchdowns, which kept the Eagles in charge of
the action. But Eagles fullback Mike Hogan added another 100 yards to add an exclamation point to the outcome. The Eagles were simply too inspired not
to win this game. Whenever it appeared
as if the Giants might try to make a comeback, the Philly defense rose up and
thwarted them with three interceptions, the most important of which coming in
the fourth quarter, when Eagles linebacker Frank LeMaster snared a Joe Pisarcik
pass and returned it nine yards for the game-clinching touchdown.
A loss in this game to the Giants would have meant
another year of “waiting until next year” for the Birds. But Philadelphia’s 20-3 win enabled them to
go to the next round…to the playoffs for the first time in over a decade.
“It’s like a dream come true to be able to say that we
are winners, a playoff team,” admitted Vermeil after the win over New
York. “It’s a real, real warm feeling.”
1979
Kansas City at Tampa Bay
The warm feelings in Florida were a long time in coming
back in 1979. Expansion teams in the NFL
rarely win many games in their earliest years. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers came
into the league in 1976 and lost their first 26 league games before finally
claiming their first victory late in 1977. By 1979, head coach John McKay had put together a team with a very
strong defense, and a vastly improved offense, featuring halfback Ricky Bell,
who followed McKay from the campus at the University of Southern California to
Tampa Bay, and who rushed for 1,263 yards in 1979. The Buccaneers’ defense allowed a league-low
247 opposing first downs all year long, and they surrendered only 237 points in
1979, which was easily the best mark in the entire NFL. The Bucs were primed for victory.
But just like the 1974 St. Louis Cardinals, the 1979
Tampa Bay team started to lose games at the absolute worst time of the
year. They only needed one more win to
claim the NFC Central Division Title. Then came a one-point loss to the rival Minnesota Vikings, a 14-0 loss
to another rival, the Chicago Bears, and a 23-7 defeat, courtesy of the San
Francisco 49ers. Only one game remained,
and if the Buccaneers would lose to the visiting Kansas City Chiefs on December
16, they would go from a sure playoff team to just another team who would be
watching the playoffs on television.
Fortunately for McKay’s team, they had an ally going into
their contest with the Chiefs…the Florida weather. A deluge of rain fell on Tampa Stadium all
game long. Not a drizzle, mind you. A full-blown downpouring of rain, rain,
rain. It never let up.
Neither did the Tampa defense on this day. Defensive end Lee Roy Selmon and linebacker
David Lewis led a ferocious charge into the Chiefs’ offensive backfield. Numerous fumbles resulted, as Kansas City
could earn only four first downs and 58 rushing yards in fourth quarters.
Ricky Bell managed to obtain 137 of his team’s 224 rushing
yards in this game, but the Bucs were never able to score, as they committed
three untimely turnovers. The struggle
wound down to the final minutes, when Tampa Bay placekicker Neil O’Donoghue was
given one last chance to lift his team to a win, and to give his team a
division championship. O’Donoghue came
through with a 19-yard field goal through the pouring rain, and the Buccaneers
were losers no more. They were going to
the playoffs.
“We out-scored them 3-0,” exclaimed Coach McKay from a
jubilant Tampa Bay locker room. “They
(his players) held up under all of this pressure. I’m proud of them. (And) we did it on a bright, beautiful Sunday
afternoon in Tampa (laughter).”
Each of the above six winning teams during the 1970s were
unfortunately unable to go on and win a Super Bowl in the year that they
clinched playoff berths that were depicted here. But they did give the league a whole lot of
excitement, and fans of the 1970s in the NFL are still fondly remembering those
games, those teams, and those very special years.
Sources:
Articles:
Associated Press, “John
Brodie Still Think It’s More Fun Playing Than Sitting On Bench.”
Avalanche
Journal, December 20, 1971, 37.
-----. “Cardinal rally earns 1st title
since ’48.” Red Bank Register, December
16, 1974, 18.
-----. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Finally Win NFC
Central.” Panama City News Herald,
December
17,
1979, 11.
Bernstein, Ralph. “Eagles card rare year.” Franklin News-Herald, December 18,
1978, 28.
Cernkovic, Rudy. “Chuck Noll’s prediction comes true –
Steelers in ‘money year.’” Franklin
News
Herald, December 18, 1972, 31.
Means, Ray.
“Steelers end 39 years of frustration.”
Franklin News Herald, December 18, 1972,
31.
Scherf, Chris. “Kilmer passes sobriety test in win over
Dallas.” El Paso Herald-Post,
December
13,
1976, 55.
Books:
Neft, David S., and
Cohen, Richard M. The Sports
Encyclopedia Edition 6. Pro Football the
Modern
Era, 1960-1988.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988.
Zagorski, Joe. The NFL in the 1970s: Pro Football’s Most
Important Decade. Jefferson, North
Carolina:
McFarland and Company, Inc., 2016.
Editor’s Note: Joe
Zagorski’s first book, The NFL in the 1970s: Pro Football’s Most Important
Decade, was released in 2016. His
second book, The Year the Packers Came Back: Green Bay’s 1972 Resurgence
is scheduled for release in December of 2019.
His third book, America’s Trailblazing Middle Linebacker: The Story
of NFL Hall of Famer Willie Lanier, will be released in February of 2020.
