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1977 Cincinnati Reds: The Beginning Of The End For The Big Red Machine

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The Big Red Machine was at the peak of their power. Starting in 1970, they were on a run of six division titles, four National League pennants and were fresh off winning the World Series in both 1975 and 1976. The 1977 Cincinnati Reds were still a good team, but they were well off the pace set by the league’s best.

Cincinnati suffered a big loss to their everyday lineup when first baseman Tony Perez was traded. Perez had a well-deserved reputation for clutch hitting. But his replacement, Dan Driessen, still had a good year. Driessen hit .300 and stole 31 bases. And the Reds’ offense continued to be prolific.

Joe Morgan was at second base and while he wasn’t up to the MVP levels he’d reached the prior two years, Morgan still finished with a stat line of .417 on-base percentage/.478 slugging percentage, and he stole 49 bases. Pete Rose was at third base, and Rose churned out another 200-hit season. Dave Concepion, the reliable shortstop, played great defense and stole 29 bases. Johnny Bench was still behind the plate and the great catcher had another vintage year, hitting 31 homers and driving in 109 runs. Ken Griffey Sr. was in right field, and his stat line was a stellar .389/.467.

All of those players were good. But no one was better—at least not in 1977—than George Foster. The leftfielder simply went off the charts. He hit 52 home runs, posted 149 RBIs and scored 124 runs. All of those led the league. Want more? Foster hit .320. He won the National League MVP award, and the Cincinnati offense scored the second-most runs in the NL.

The problem with the three-peat bid came with the pitching staff. Woodie Fryman had been the key piece acquired in the Perez deal, but the 37-year-old pitcher struggled to a 5.38 ERA and only made 12 starts. Jack Billingham’s ERA was on the wrong side of 5.

There were some strengths. Fred Norman, at the age of 34, won 14 games with a 3.38 ERA. Reliever Pedro Borbon saved 18 games and finished with a 3.19 ERA. The Reds desperately needed help for a pitching staff that would finish 10th in what was then a 12-team National League for composite ERA. They would make a bold move to get that help before the season was out. But that’s getting ahead of our story.

Cincinnati stumbled badly to open the season, losing 10 of their first 14 games. In early May, after getting swept three straight in Pittsburgh, the Reds were down to 10-15. On Memorial Day weekend, they were 18-22 and coming to Los Angeles for what had turned into a must-win series.

In the divisional alignment that existed prior to 1994, the NL Central did not exist. Cincinnati was in the NL West. Moreover, only division winners advanced to the playoffs. There was no wild-card fallback.

The Dodgers were Cincy’s traditional rival, and had been the team they mostly beat back during the Big Red Machine’s run. But this year, L.A. was off to a torrid start and had the Reds in a 12 ½ game hole when this holiday weekend series began.

It got worse on Friday night. Pat Zachry took the mound and dug himself a quick 5-0 hole. Foster homered, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a 10-3 shellacking. On Saturday afternoon, things got a little better. In the top of the second, Foster homered, Rose hit a two-run single, and Griffey ripped a two-run blast. Staked to the 5-0 lead, Billingham delivered a 6-3 win. In the Sunday finale, Bench hit a grand slam in the first inning. Griffey hit a two-run jack an inning later. Norman tossed a complete game in the 8-1 win. There was a long way to go, but winning this series was at least a start.

The Reds built on that momentum and won 9 of 13 to lead into a series with the Philadelphia Phillies that started on June 13. The Phils were headed for the NL East title. And three exciting nights of baseball at old Riverfront Stadium ensued.

Driessen won Monday night’s game with a walkoff solo home run that broke a 4-4 tie. On Tuesday, Bench homered, Norman went the distance and Cincy won a tight 3-2 affair.

Wednesday would be the big day. June 15 was the trade deadline in this era and the Reds front office went for it. They packaged up four players, none of whom they would miss, and sent them to the New York Mets. In return, they got back Tom Seaver. The future Hall of Fame pitcher was 33-years-old, but was still pitching well at this stage in his career.

In that night’s finale with the Phillies, the Reds trailed 7-2 in the seventh inning. They rallied for four runs thanks to consecutive two-RBI hits from Foster and Bench. Down to their last out in the ninth, Foster homered to tie it 7-7. In the 10th inning, with two outs, Bob Bailey singled and stole second base. Bailey scored on Rose’s single.

Cincinnati had a stunning 8-7 win. They had swept a good team. They had big-time help on the way for the rotation. And they had the Dodger lead down to a manageable seven games. It was time for the Big Red Machine to make its move.

But the Reds played sluggish baseball, going 10-8 in the games immediately following the Seaver deal. They lost 7 of their last 13 before the break. The good news was that Los Angeles slowed a bit too, so Cincinnati’s 48-41 record still had them within 9 ½ games.

Seaver pitched well for Cincinnati, going 14-3 with a 2.34 ERA in his twenty starts after the trade. But he and Norman were still lonely warriors on the staff. The Reds didn’t win a series between the All-Star break and the end of July and fell 14 games back.

August got off to a good start. On Monday Night Baseball—then one of the sport’s pre-eminent showcases—Foster hit two home runs to lead a win over the contending Chicago Cubs. Cincinnati won that series and it started an August where they went 21-11. But a four-game series with the Dodgers was a missed opportunity, ending in a split. And in any case, the calendar was making the division deficit unmanageable.

Cincinnati was still 10 ½ games back on Labor Day, even after the strong run through August. They were never able to make it a real race. They won four of five over L.A. in September, but it was far too little and way too late. The Reds otherwise meandered through the final month and finished with a final record of 88-74.

By the standards of today, they were fourth-best in the National League and 11th-best in MLB overall. It would have been a playoff season by our own era’s more lenient standards. But it was still a sharp drop off from where they had so recently been.

After another good-but-not-great year in 1978, the Reds moved on. They fired manager Sparky Anderson. Rose and Morgan were not long for Cincinnati. With a new cast, they returned to the top of the NL West in 1979 and had good teams in 1980 and 1981. But 1977 signaled that the glory days of the Big Red Machine were ending.

1977 North Carolina Basketball: Dean’s 5th Final Four Trip

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Dean Smith was on a high. The Tar Heel coach, ultimately headed for the Hall of Fame, was already one of college basketball’s best. He had reached four Final Fours in his first 15 years at Chapel Hill. In the summer of 1976, he won an Olympic gold medal. The 1977 North Carolina basketball team continued the good times, giving Smith a fifth Final Four appearance. And they came oh-so-close to finally getting him his first national championship ring before falling short in the NCAA title game.

UNC was loaded throughout the starting lineup, and that started with point guard Phil Ford. The 6’2” junior knocked down 19ppg, dished our seven assists per game, and was an All-American. Ford was quarterbacking a lineup that included two All-ACC performers. Walter Davis was on the wing, and the 6’6” senior posted a per-game average of 16 points/6 rebounds/3 assists. Tom LaGarde was at center, and he finished with 15 points/7 rebounds per game.

Ford, Davis, and LaGarde would have made a pretty nice Big Three, to use a more modern basketball term. But there was more. John Kuester was Ford’s veteran running mate in the backcourt and a double-digit scorer. Freshman Mike O’Koren was inserted into the lineup and the 6’7” forward added 14 points/7 rebounds a night himself.

North Carolina was not a deep team, but the quality of this starting five, with everyone except O’Koren having played a vital role in the 1976 run to the ACC title, had the Tar Heels ranked #3 in the country in the preseason polls.

UNC, along with their neighboring ACC schools in the state of North Carolina, used to play a couple of games against each other in Greensboro that didn’t count in the conference standings. This year, they opened the season on Thanksgiving Weekend.

The season opener was on Friday against N.C. State. The Wolfpack, still just three years removed from the electric national championship run led by David Thompson in 1974, were now led by Kenny Carr. One of the best players in the conference, Carr averaged 21 points/9 rebounds per game. But the Tar Heels had too much overall talent and they won 78-66.

Wake Forest had a contending team, and in 6’6” forward Rod Griffin, they had the man who would win ACC Player of the Year honors by season’s end. Skip Brown dropped 19ppg in the backcourt. UNC and Wake played a sizzler, but the Tar Heels came out on the short end of a 97-96 loss.

North Carolina went on to win the next seven games of what was a relatively tame non-conference schedule. They went into ACC play on January 5 with a record of 8-1 and were ranked #6 in the polls.

The Tar Heels opened at home against Clemson, who was led by future NBA center Tree Rollins, and a good playmaker in Derrick Johnson. The Tigers would be in the thick of the conference race, but North Carolina pounded them, 91-63. They went on to beat Virginia, bound for a losing season, 91-67.

A big road trip was up against Wake Forest, now ranked #7 in the national polls. The two teams played another thriller, and this time UNC won it, 77-75. They came back home to beat mediocre Duke, 77-68 .

The first stumble in conference play came in Raleigh, against N.C. State. North Carolina lost 75-73. They bounced back at 13th-ranked Maryland, then an ACC team, over the weekend, winning 71-68.

North Carolina and Wake Forest were nothing if not evenly matched when they stepped on the floor. Round 3 in Chapel Hill was another one-possession affair. This one went against the Tar Heels, 67-66. Perhaps deflated, UNC went to Clemson three days later and was blown out, 93-73.

With three losses in their last four games, North Carolina was at 5-3 in ACC play. There were only seven teams in the conference, so the Tar Heels were two-thirds of the way through the league schedule as they entered a stretch of five games where four would be non-conference.

Other conference teams hadn’t played as many league games. Wake Forest set the pace at 5-1, while Clemson was 4-2. North Carolina had to get well, and hope the Demon Deacons and Tigers came back to the pack.

Georgia Tech, then a Metro Conference program, came into Chapel Hill on the first Friday night in February. UNC won 97-94. They turned around and completed the Friday-Saturday home combo by hammering lowly Furman, 88-71.

A brief return to the ACC wars was at home against Maryland, and UNC won 97-79. The Tar Heels then played a high-scoring sizzler with Tulane and won 106-94. They hit the century mark again against South Florida, delivering a 100-65 blowout.

We were moving into the latter part of February and the final three games of the conference schedule. North Carolina had gotten a little bit of help during their non-conference respite. At 6-3, they were now tied with Clemson in the league standings and were nipping at the heels of 8-2 Wake Forest.

It bears emphasis that only 32 teams made the NCAA Tournament in this era. Unlike today, none of these conference title hopefuls were assured of a spot in March Madness (which wasn’t even called March Madness back then). The remainder of the season—and certainly the conference tournament in Greensboro that would settle the automatic bid—were of enormous consequence.

North Carolina went to Virginia on Sunday afternoon and survived with a hair-raising 66-64 win. Clemson lost, so the Tar Heels had sole possession of second place. The following Tuesday, UNC got a big break—Wake Forest lost to Maryland. North Carolina took full advantage of the break the next night, when they pounded N.C. State 90-73 and moved into a tie for the league lead.

The conference finale was at Duke. The Blue Devils might have been mediocre this year, but with Jim Spanarkel and Mike Gminski having good years, the core of a team that would make a Final Four run just one year later was starting to gel. It didn’t stop UNC from going to Durham and coming home with an 84-71 win. And in the meantime, Wake lost to N.C. State. North Carolina was 1977’s outright ACC regular season champ.

After tidying up the regular season with a 96-89 home win over 10th-ranked Louisville, the Tar Heels were ready for the ACC Tournament. At #6 in the polls, they were probably in good shape to make the NCAA Tournament in either case. But again, this was a different era, and conference tourneys were nothing anyone could afford to look past.

In a seven-team bracket, North Carolina had a bye into Friday’s semifinals. They watched on Thursday as Virginia upset Wake Forest. UNC took care of their business in the semis by beating N.C. State 70-56. Virgina then delivered another blow to the bracket by knocking off Clemson. Quite improbably, the 12-16 Cavaliers were in the tournament final.

This was set up to be a cakewalk for North Carolina except for one thing—it’s the exact same scenario that happened a year earlier, when a subpar Virginia team got on a run and knocked off top-seeded UNC in the tourney final. The Cavs again gave the Tar Heels all they could handle, but this time, North Carolina closed it out. With the 75-69 win, they had the parlay of ACC regular season and tournament titles for the first time since their last Final Four year of 1972.

UNC concluded the season #5 in the final polls. There was no seeding in the NCAA Tournament prior to 1979, and the Tar Heels were positioned in the East Regional. That meant staying close to home in Raleigh for their Round of 32 game against Purdue. North Carolina trailed 44-42 at the half. On a day when most of the lineup struggled, this could have turned into a second straight early NCAA exit. But Ford stepped up with 27 points, the defense tightened, and UNC pulled out a 69-66 win.

It was on to College Park for the regionals. Digger Phelps’ Notre Dame team outshot North Carolina 67 percent to 44 percent from the floor. The Tar Heels were outrebounded 30-22. By any measure, UNC’s season should have ended here. But their defense forced turnovers. North Carolina took 70 shots from the floor compared to just 45 for Notre Dame. And the backcourt was superb. Ford dropped 29. Kuester chipped in 14 and handed out seven assists. The Tar Heels pulled out a 79-77 thriller.

Kentucky was the last hurdle in the East Regional. In a battle of programs that had already earned the title “bluebloods,” North Carolina played its best game of the tournament. They shot 60 percent from the floor. They got to the foul line, outscoring the Wildcats 33-16 from the stripe. Davis knocked down 21 points and the Tar Heels led 53-41 at the half. Kuester finished with 19 points, en route to regional MVP honors and the final was 79-72.

Atlanta’s Omni was the final step. North Carolina was slated to play the winners of the West Regional. In an occurrence that marked a new era in college basketball, the West winner was not UCLA. For the first time since 1966, a Final Four would not have the Bruins. Instead, the Tar Heels drew Jerry Tarkanian’s rising UNLV program.

The result was a sizzling thriller. Both teams shot over 50 percent. North Carolina had significant turnover problems, giving it up 27 times. Normally, that alone would have been fatal. But UNC hit the boards, to the tune of a 40-26 rebounding advantage. And they got to the free throw line—18/23 from the charity stripe compared to just 1/5 for the Runnin’ Rebels. O’Koren had a monster day, with 31 points/8 rebounds. North Carolina pulled out an 84-83 win.

Marquette was the opponent on Monday night. Al McGuire, the legendary Warrior head coach, had announced his retirement at the end of the season. North Carolina dug themselves a 39-27 hole by halftime. But Davis was playing well, scoring 20 points, and grabbing eight rebounds. O’Koren continued his strong Final Four, with a 14/11 night. UNC took over the early part of the second half and spurted to an eight-point lead.

There was no shot clock in college basketball at this time, and Smith made what proved to be a fatal decision. He decided to milk the clock. In fairness to Dean, the purpose was to force Marquette to come out of their zone. It was an outcome that McGuire feared, but now had no choice. A reasonable strategic move would backfire badly on the Tar Heels. North Carolina lost their momentum. And the guards, Ford, and Kuester, were just not having a good night. Marquette resumed control of the game and won 67-59.

It was a disappointing end to a fine season and an exciting NCAA Tournament run. Smith was now reaching that point in his career where his success started to be used against him. That is, he “couldn’t win the big one.” In 1981, North Carolina got back to the Final Four, but again came up short on Monday Night. In 1982 though, vindication finally arrived—on Smith’s seventh Final Four trip, North Carolina cut down the nets. He won one more in 1993 for good measure.

1976 North Carolina Basketball: A Return To The Top Of The ACC

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Dean Smith came to North Carolina in 1962, and over his first decade, he took the Tar Heels to the Final Four on four different occasions. From 1973 through 1975, UNC took a back seat to N.C. State and Maryland in the ACC but winning the conference tournament in ’75 got them back into an NCAA Tournament that was then much more restrictive in who could qualify. The 1976 North Carolina basketball team got back on top of the ACC with a regular season title and even though tournament play was a disappointment, they set the stage for a Final Four return a year later.

North Carolina was anchored by 6’9” senior Mitch Kupchak down low. A player with an NBA career in front of him, both as a player and as an executive, Kupchak averaged 18 points/11 rebounds per game. The backcourt was led by sophomore Phil Ford, who scored 19ppg and dished out seven assists a night. Kupchak and Ford were both All-ACC, and 2nd-team All-American.

And they were far from alone. Walter Davis was outstanding on the wings, and the 6’6” junior averaged 17 points/6 rebounds/3 assists. Tom LaGarde went 6’10” and chipped in 14 points/8 rebounds in the post. John Kuester was Ford’s running mate in the backcourt and averaged five assists per night.

There was little North Carolina couldn’t do well and they opened the season ranked fifth in the nation. Playing a non-conference schedule in December that was considerably shorter than we see today, the Tar Heels went 6-0. The highlight was a 90-77 win over Kentucky, even if this wasn’t a vintage Wildcat team that ultimately finished fourth in the SEC and went to the NIT.

North Carolina used to have a tradition with their immediate neighbors, Duke and Wake Forest, where the three teams played each other in Greensboro. The games did not count in the ACC standings. UNC split the two games. After a blowout of Yale, the Tar Heels were 9-1 and ranked #6 as league play formally began.

Clemson had future NBA center Tree Rollins in the middle, but North Carolina went on the road and rolled to an 83-64 win. They went to Virginia, who was an average team, and got out of Charlottesville with an 85-82 triumph.

The first home conference game at old Carmichael Auditorium was against Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons had an explosive floor leader in Skip Brown, who could move the ball and do a lot of scoring in his own right. Rod Griffin was a tough rebounder at the small forward spot. Wake was ranked #5 in the polls, but UNC handed them a 99-75 beatdown.

North Carolina went up the road to Durham to face Duke, who would end up being the only one of what was then just seven ACC teams to end the year with a losing record. The Blue Devils did have an all-conference guard, Tate Armstrong, who could pour in points. The points did flow, but North Carolina pulled out an 89-87 win.

There was no time to celebrate after this Saturday game, because N.C. State was awaiting on Sunday. The Wolfpack were just two years removed from a historic national championship that ended UCLA’s string of eight straight titles. N.C. State forward Kenny Carr was one of the conference’s best players, who exceeded both 20ppg and 10 rebounds per game. They had Phil Spence hitting the glass and were ranked #13 in the country. The fast turnaround against an opponent of this caliber was tough, and UNC lost a 68-67 nailbiter.

After a week to recoup, another big showdown awaited. This one was at home against second-ranked Maryland. The Terps had a terrific backcourt, led by All-American John Lucas and including Brad Davis. The game sizzled, and North Carolina won it, 95-93.

The Heels went on the road three days later and knocked off Wake, 88-85. They came back home and beat Clemson 79-64. As the month of January closed, North Carolina was 15-2 overall, with a 7-1 record in ACC play.

A brief stretch of non-conference games followed. They beat a good University of Detroit team, coached by Dick Vitale, 91-76. A more pedestrian performance followed against mediocre Georgia Tech (not yet in the ACC), but still ended with a 79-74 win. A 97-64 hammering of lowly Furman followed.

The rematch with Maryland in College Park loomed. The Terps were ranked #4 nationally. They were 4-2 in league play, while N.C. State was 5-2. North Carolina had no margin for error in the ACC race. UNC stepped up with an impressive 81-69 road win.

Another foray into non-conference play took UNC to New Orleans to face a good Tulane team. The offenses were clicking, and the Tar Heels won 113-106. They stayed on the road and beat a competitive Miami-Ohio program, 77-75. North Carolina was flying high at 21-2 as they returned to the conference wars for the final three games of the regular season.

A narrow 73-71 escape at home over Virginia on February 21 pushed UNC’s league record out to 9-1. When N.C. State lost to Clemson on that same Saturday, the Tar Heels had a two-game cushion in the loss column. Some of the steam was taken out of the North Carolina-N.C. State rematch two days later. The Heels kept rolling with a 91-79 win. Then they knocked off Duke 91-71 to close the season. They were 24-2, and their 11-1 ACC record ended up clearing the field by four games.

The concept of at-large bids for the NCAA Tournament was just getting introduced in the mid-1970s. For as a good a season as UNC had, winning the ACC tourney and its automatic bid, was still a big deal.

North Carolina had a bye into the semifinals, and they took care of business against Clemson, 82-74. The championship game was against Virginia. The Cavaliers had gone 4-8 in ACC regular season games, but March is a whole new ballgame. They had one of the conference’s best forwards in Wally Walker and knocked off UNC, 67-62. There were only 32 teams who got invited to the NCAA Tournament and with the all the automatic qualifiers out there, North Carolina had now placed their fate into the hands of the Selection Committee.

All of those big regular season wins proved to matter quite a bit, because the Tar Heels were still able to get an at-large bid. They were placed in the Mideast Regional (the forerunner of today’s South Regional) and matched up with SEC champ Alabama. Seeding didn’t exist until 1979, but the winner of this game would likely move on to face undefeated Indiana. So, we can think of it as something akin to a 4-5 game.

North Carolina simply did not play well. Crimson Tide center Leon Douglas went off for 35 points/17 rebounds. Kupchak rebounded, getting 11 boards, but he shot 3-for-11. Davis struggled to a 6-for-17 performance. Ford was a non-factor. Only LaGarde, with 22 points/11 rebounds, really had a good day in Dayton. The Tar Heels fell behind 40-28 by halftime and lost 79-64.

The losses to end the season were disappointing, but other than Kupchak, North Carolina had most everyone else coming back. Good things were ahead. That summer, Smith coached the U.S. Olympic team, and won the gold medal. And in 1977, Smith and the Heels would return to the Final Four.

1977 Los Angeles Rams: The End Of The Knox Era

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The 1977 Los Angeles Rams came into the season looking to take that next step—after three straight losses in the NFC Championship Game, they were seeking the franchise’s first Super Bowl appearance. Instead, the step they took was backward—an early playoff exit that spelled the end of head coach Chuck Knox’s otherwise successful tenure in L.A.

Los Angeles was dealing with quarterback instability and controversy. James Harris, the previous incumbent, had the support of Knox, but not of ownership. Harris ended up in San Diego. The Rams had a young backup in Pat Haden who had played a lot of consequential games in 1976. But the front office made a move that could be either described as “bold” or “desperate.” They signed the legendary, but aging, Joe Namath.

Namath would only start four games, not play particularly well, get hurt, and retire. Haden took over and started the final ten games of what was then a 14-game regular season. Haden made the Pro Bowl. His 57 percent completion rate, 7.2 yards-per-attempt and 2.8 percent interception rate were all solid numbers by the standards of the era. He had a big-play threat in Pro Bowl wide receiver Harold Jackson, and a reliable tight end in Terry Nelson.

Haden’s emergence was heartening, but the real key to the offense was a potent running game. Lawrence McCutcheon had a Pro Bowl year, running for over 1,200 yards. John Cappelletti and Wendell Tyler were both reliable change-of-pace backs. The offensive line had a trio of Pro Bowlers in center Rich Saul, veteran left guard Tom Mack and left tackle Doug Frances. They also had a 24-year-old right guard in Dennis Hannah who was on the verge of breaking out as a Pro Bowler himself.

It all added up to an offense that produced the fourth-most points in the NFL. And the defense was even better, ranking second in points allowed. Jack Youngblood recorded 9 ½ sacks. He was joined in the Pro Bowl by defensive tackle Larry Books and linebacker Isiah Robertson. The secondary trio of Pat Thomas, Monte Jackson and Bill Simpson combined to intercept 16 passes.

The season began poorly in Atlanta. The running game didn’t fire up, and they lost three fumbles. Namath couldn’t get anything going in the air and the Rams lost to a mediocre team, 17-6. Things trended back upward in the home opener against Philadelphia. The Rams pounded a bad Eagles team on the ground, to the tune of a 220-31 rush yardage edge. Namath threw a couple early touchdown passes to get the lead and Los Angeles churned out a 20-0 win.

A game with San Francisco was a penalty-ridden affair both ways, and the Rams clung to a 17-14 lead after three quarters. They had the running game going and were preventing the 49ers from doing the same. It made the difference in the final period, as L.A. pulled away to win 34-14.

A Monday Night visit to face the playoff-bound Chicago Bears would be a threshold point in the season. After taking an early 13-0 lead, the defense had an uncharacteristic letdown, giving up two long touchdown passes. They couldn’t stop the great Bear running back, Walter Payton. Namath threw four interceptions and before the night was over, suffered the injury that forced a quarterback change. In the meantime, Los Angeles dropped a 24-23 decision and fell to 2-2.

The NFC West—which then included the Falcons, 49ers, and New Orleans Saints—wasn’t very good. But this was also an era where there was just one wild-card berth available in a four-team NFC playoff bracket. Which meant that a 2-2 start could trigger a little more urgency than would be the case today.

L.A. hosted New Orleans, and while the Rams were sloppy, losing three turnovers, they were also controlling the line of scrimmage. McCutchen ran for 126 yards, the defense did its job and a 14-7 win put the Rams back on track.

Another Monday Night date awaited, this one with a perennial contender in the Minnesota Vikings. The Rams were ready. In the first half, Haden threw for two TDs and ran for another, building a 21-0 halftime lead. The final rush yardage advantage registered in at 283-98, with a 102-yard night from Tyler. Los Angeles collected three turnovers and committed none. That’s the recipe for blowing out a contender 35-3.

But there was a letdown in New Orleans a week later. Haden played well, going 17/26 for 251 yards and no mistakes. Harold Jackson caught eight passes for 127 yards. But the Rams were pounded on the ground, giving up 253 rush yards. They lost 27-26 on a late field goal.

A home game with the woeful Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in their second year of existence, was the ideal medicine. Haden threw an early 51-yard touchdown strike to Harold Jackson, McCutcheon ran for a TD and it was 17-0 by the half. The final was 31-zip.

Los Angeles traveled to Milwaukee, where the Green Bay Packers used to play three of their home games each year. The Rams took advantage of a bad team, shutting down the Packer running game, building a 17-0 lead by halftime, and winning 24-6. Los Angeles kept the winning going on their return trip to San Francisco. McCutcheon ran for 100 yards, the defense allowed just 92 passing yards and the Rams played clean football. They won 23-10.

The last three weeks had been against subpar competition, but L.A. had the feel of a team that was gaining steam. They took the show on the road to mediocre Cleveland. Neither team took care of the ball very well, with ten combined turnovers. But with McCutcheon going for 104 yards, the Rams enjoyed a decisive 216-90 yardage edge on the ground, and they won 9-0.

Los Angeles was sitting on an 8-3 record. Atlanta was still in pursuit at 6-5. The Falcons had a head-to-head win over the Rams from the season opener and the rematch was still to come, so L.A. couldn’t count on a tiebreaker. In the broader NFC picture, Los Angeles was a game ahead of 7-4 Minnesota, in the race for the 2-seed. The Rams trailed the 9-2 Dallas Cowboys in the push for the 1-seed, and the tiebreaker scenario there didn’t look promising.

A big battle with the defending Super Bowl champion Oakland Raiders was up. By the time kickoff arrived on the West Coast, Atlanta had lost to New England. The NFC West was now there for the taking. Playing at home, the Rams came through. They won the turnover battle 6-2. Trailing 14-13 in the fourth quarter, Haden went up top to Harold Jackson for a 43-yard touchdown pass. With the 20-14 win, the Rams were now 5-for-5 in winning division titles in the Knox Era.

That took a little of the juice out of the Falcons’ visit to L.A. for the regular season’s penultimate game, but the Rams were still playing for playoff position. They outrushed the Falcons 265-64, led by 152 yards from McCutcheon. The 23-7 win clinched the 2-seed and a home game in the divisional playoffs. When Dallas won on Monday Night, it took the top seed out of play and locked Los Angeles’ playoff position in.

The Rams closed the season with an early Saturday afternoon game in Washington. The Redskins were trying to stay alive in what proved a futile effort to catch the Bears for the wild-card spot. Haden split time with the new backup QB, Vince Ferragamo, and McCutcheon saw limited duty. A 17-14 loss ended the regular season with a 10-4 record.

Minnesota was coming to Los Angeles on the day after Christmas for the game that would conclude Divisional Round Weekend. The Rams had lost to the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game in both 1974 and 1976. They were a playoff nemesis. But this year, Los Angeles had been the far superior team, and they came in as a (-10) favorite.

But the weather was decidedly uncooperative. Heavy rain left the field in an unplayable mud. Photos from this game are iconic, with jerseys almost indecipherable. Any talent edge was negated. McCutcheon was able to grind out 102 yards, but that was answered by 101 from Minnesota’s Chuck Foreman. Haden threw three interceptions. The Rams trailed 14-0 in the fourth quarter and lost 14-7.

It was a bitter pill—enough that it marked the end of Knox’s tenure. He stepped down after the season. Fortunately for both the coach and the franchise, there was still more success ahead. Knox would turn both Buffalo and Seattle into contenders over the next decade. And the Rams? They made it back to the NFC Championship Game in 1978, and finally reached the Super Bowl in 1979.

1977 Oakland Raiders: A Repeat Bid Comes Up Just Short

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After a decade of frustration, marked by excellent teams and playoff losses, the Raiders had gotten over the top with a Super Bowl title in 1976. The 1977 Oakland Raiders continued to contend and extended their streak of consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances to five. But they came up short of a repeat championship.

The league’s most prolific offense was the key to success. Ken Stabler had a Pro Bowl year at age 32. While he was prone to interceptions, that was also more common—and acceptable—in this era, so long as you made big plays. And Stabler did. His 7.4 yards-per-attempt was third-best among starting quarterbacks. He was also efficient, with a 58 percent completion rate that ranked fourth in the league.

Stabler had the NFL’s best tight end in Dave Casper, who caught 48 balls for 584 yards—and that number doesn’t include his biggest catches, which came in the postseason. Cliff Branch was now 33-years-old, but the wide receiver still made the Pro Bowl. Branch, along with Fred Biletnikoff, each caught 33 passes.

But the real key to the offensive explosion was a powerhouse running game. Mark van Eeghen ran for almost 1,300 yards in what was then still a 14-game regular season schedule. Clarence Davis added nearly 800 yards. They both ran behind a terrific line, anchored by its Hall of Fame left side of tackle Art Shell and guard Gene Upshaw. Both made 1st-team All-Pro in 1977. Dave Dalby was a Pro Bowl center.

A prime reason that Oakland often ran just a step behind other great AFC teams in this era, from Pittsburgh to Miami earlier in the decade, was that the Raider defense usually wasn’t elite. That was the case in 1977, when the Raider defense ranked 14th in a 28-team league for points allowed.

There were no Pro Bowlers on the defensive side of the ball in ’77, but there were some playmakers. Defensive ends Pat Toomay and John Matuszak combined for 23 ½ sacks. Free safety Jack Tatum was one of the hardest hitters in the league. But the D could never really overcome the injury to one of their more consistent performers, linebacker Phil Villapiano.

Defensive problems certainly weren’t evident in the early going. Oakland opened the season at home against mediocre San Diego. The Raiders outrushed the Chargers 178-59, won the turnover battle 3-1 and took home a penalty-ridden game 24-0.

That set the stage for a high-profile visit to Pittsburgh—the teams who had played for the AFC Championship each of the last three years. In our own day, this would either be prime-time, or at least late Sunday afternoon viewing. In 1977, it just kicked off at 1 PM EST.

While Pittsburgh wanted to reassert themselves atop the AFC, Oakland had their own motivation. Their victory in last year’s playoffs had been diminished by many in the public because the Steeler running backs, Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier were injured. Franco and Rocky were healthy today. And the Raider defense shut them down. They forced five turnovers and sacked Terry Bradshaw five times. The 16-7 win marked the third time in a calendar year that Oakland had beaten Pittsburgh.

A Monday Night visit at lowly Kansas City saw the Raiders get out to a slow start, and they trailed 21-13 at the half. But the offense was moving the ball. Both van Eeghen and Davis cleared the 100-yard mark rushing, and Casper did the same receiving. Oakland won 37-28.

The Raiders went on to visit Cleveland. They forced five turnovers from the mediocre Browns, van Eeghen rushed for 114 yards, and Oakland stayed undefeated with a 26-10 win.

Denver had gone back and forth between contention and irrelevance in the 1970s to date. This ’77 edition of the Broncos were decidedly contenders, and the first head-to-head battle in Oakland was between 4-0 teams. Stabler threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Casper to get a 7-0 lead. That was about the last thing that went right for the Raiders. Stabler threw seven interceptions, including a Pick-6. Unsurprisingly, it led to a 30-7 loss.

Oakland went on to play a bad New York Jets team in old Shea Stadium and dug themselves a 27-14 hole after three quarters. What the Raiders were doing was running the ball, to the tune of a 210-67 rush yardage edge. By the fourth quarter, that paid off. Stabler threw touchdown passes to Casper and Mike Sinai, making the Jets pay for an earlier missed extra point in a 28-27 win.

That set up a fast turnaround for the road rematch with Denver. Stabler again opened this matchup with an early touchdown pass, this one to Branch, for a 7-0 lead. This time, he played well the rest of the way. There were no turnovers. There were 200 rush yards, 105 of them from Davis. By playing clean football, the Raiders built a 24-0 lead by the third quarter and closed a 24-14 win. The AFC West rivals were both 6-1 as the season moved to the second half.

A home date with the subpar Seattle Seahawks got off to a slow start, and Oakland only led 3-0 after a quarter. But with Davis going for 100 yards, and Stabler playing clean football, the Raiders rolled to a 44-7 win.

The Houston Oilers were starting to put together a contender, one that would emerge as a playoff team the following year. They came into Oakland and had the Raiders down 29-24 in the third quarter of what was a turnover-laden game both ways. What Stabler was doing was making big plays. He went 23/31 for 264 yards, with Branch catching eight of those passes for 115 yards. Oakland rallied to win 34-29.

But the following week, Stabler played his worst game of the year in San Diego. He went 4/10 for 40 yards and was yanked for backup Mike Rae. The Raiders were getting outrushed decisively, 263-112. They made enough red-zone stops to keep it close, but still lost 12-7.

In the meantime, Denver beat Kansas City. The Broncos not only took a one-game lead, but they also took the lead in terms of division record, which would be the key tiebreaker, given the head-to-head split.

Oakland came back home and took out their frustrations on a poor Buffalo Bills team on Monday Night Football. The Raiders pummeled the Bills up front, to the tune of a 307-65 edge in rush yardage. 143 of those yards came from van Eeghen. The final was 34-13.

There was only one wild-card spot available in 1977, and at 9-2, Oakland had a one-game lead on Miami. The Raiders were also in reasonable position for the tiebreakers, depending on how the final three weeks played out.

But Oakland gave away their cushion in a big road game against the contending Los Angeles Rams. Stabler threw four interceptions, and the Raiders lost a close 20-14 game. Denver knocked off Houston and clinched the AFC West. Oakland and Miami were both 9-3, with the Raiders still controlling their own destiny.

Another marquee NFC opponent awaited in the Minnesota Vikings. It was a home game, and by the time the Raiders took the field, the Dolphins had lost in New England. Whether head coach John Madden knew this and informed his team, I don’t know. But Oakland played hungry. In short order, van Eeghen ran for a TD, Stabler threw one to Branch, and the defense scored a touchdown. It was 21-0 quickly. The Raiders collected seven turnovers, van Eeghen rushed for 112 yards and a 35-13 rout secured a playoff spot.

Madden took the opportunity to let Rae start the home finale against Kansas City. The backup QB threw a 100-yard Pick-6 and the Raiders trailed 20-12 in the fourth quarter. But Rae, aided by a ground game that rolled up over 240 yards, rallied Oakland to a 21-20 win.

The Raiders finished the season 11-3. It was the second-best record in the AFC, but as the wild-card, they would have to go on the road for the postseason. That road would start on a Christmas Eve Saturday afternoon against the Baltimore Colts.

In the course of the great 1970s NFL decade, Oakland had already played in some all-time classic playoff games. From the crushing and controversial loss in Pittsburgh in 1972, to the epic win over Miami in 1974, the Raiders had their place in the history books. Today in Baltimore, they played another one.

Davis took off on a 30-yard touchdown jaunt in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead. But Stabler threw a Pick-6 in the second quarter and the Raiders trailed 10-7 at the half. In the second half, both offenses started trading blows. Stabler threw a ten-yard TD pass to Casper. The Colts returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown. Stabler threw an eight-yard touchdown pass to Casper. Oakland led 21-17 going into the final period.

The Raiders were getting the better of the flow of play and would outgain the Colts 491-301. But losing the turnover battle 4-0, along with giving up a special teams score, prevented Oakland from getting control. Baltimore scored to take the lead, 24-21. Stabler kept throwing. He finished 21/40 for 345 yards, with Biletnikoff and Branch each going over the 100-yard mark. Oakland went back up front, 28-24.

Baltimore had their own response and took a 31-28 lead. The Raiders had the ball on their own 44-yard line with 2:17 to play.

The next play would become known as “Ghost to the Post” in NFL lore. It drew its name from Casper (“The Friendly Ghost”), running a post pattern. Stabler hit with him a deep ball that set up the tying field goal.

At 31-31, the game went to overtime. Then it went to a second overtime. Finally, it was Stabler and Casper again early in the sixth quarter. A ten-yard touchdown pass won the classic battle, 37-31.

That set up Round 3 with Denver, after the Broncos took out the Steelers later that day. The AFC Championship Game would take its own place in NFL lore, although not for the reasons any Oakland fan wanted. In a game where neither team ran the ball well, the Raiders trailed 7-3 in the third quarter. Denver was on the doorstep of adding to the lead.

They gave the ball to Rob Lytle. Tatum leveled a big hit and forced a fumble. Raider defensive back Mike McCoy scooped it up and might have been running for a long time. But the play was blown dead. It was a premature whistle in the age before instant reply. Denver scored on the next play. It was the difference in a game that ended as a 21-17 loss.

The loss was a bitter play to swallow. It also—though not apparent at the time—represented at least a pause in the era of Oakland’s excellence. A late-season fade cost the Raiders a playoff berth in 1978 and Madden retired. Tom Flores took over and Oakland again missed the playoffs in 1979. But it was just a hiccup. By 1980, Flores led the Raiders to another Super Bowl trophy. And in 1983, he did it again.

1976 Los Angeles Rams: A 3rd Straight NFC Championship Game

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The 1976 Los Angeles Rams marked Chuck Knox’s fourth year coaching the team and they marked his fourth playoff trip. They also marked his third straight appearance in the NFC Championship Game. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the ’76 Rams also marked the third straight defeat in the NFC title game.

A great defensive line was a key foundation for success in this era, and the foundation of that line was defensive end Jack Youngblood. With 14 ½ sacks, Youngblood was named 1st-team All-Pro. Larry Brooks was a Pro Bowler at defensive tackle getting 14 ½ sacks of his own coming up the middle. Another All-Pro, Isiah Robertson, was at linebacker. And the secondary had some major ballhawks. Corner Monte Jackson intercepted ten passes in what was then a 14-game schedule. Jackson also got All-Pro recognition. On the other corner, Rod Perry intercepted eight passes.

In other words, it was tough to get a pass off against the Rams, and you did so at your own risk. The Los Angeles defense ranked third in the NFL for points allowed.

The L.A. offense also ranked third in the league, and that was impressive considering that frequent injuries left them with major quarterback instability. Everyone from incumbent James Harris to newcomer Pat Haden to young Ron Jaworski got multiple starts. Injuries to Harris and Jaworski were one reason. A dispute between owner Carroll Rosenbloom, who favored Haden, and Knox, who supported Harris, was another.

Harris and Haden started the bulk of the games, and both had reasonably good—and similar—numbers. Each was in the high 50s for completion percentage, which was solid in this era. They each had interception percentages a hair below 4—another stat that might look bad to a modern audience but was rather good in this era of football. Harris’ 9.2 yards-per-attempt was excellent, and Haden’s 8.5 was awfully good in its own right. Only Jaworski, who started two games, struggled.

What this boils down is that, beyond the drama, the Rams were getting good quarterback play. Harold Jackson was one of the NFL’s top big-play threats and he caught 39 balls for better than 19 yards a pop. Ron Jessie emerged as a Pro Bowl wideout, catching 34 passes and averaging a dazzling 22.9 yards-per catch.

Throughout a coaching career that would eventually take him to Buffalo and Seattle, Knox was known for producing running games. This 1976 Los Angeles Rams team was no different. Lawrence McCutcheon made the Pro Bowl with over 1,100 yards. John Cappelletti ran for nearly 700 more. The offensive line was anchored by center Rich Saul.

Jaworski, who had led the team to a playoff win in 1975, with Harris injured, got the start in Week 1 at Atlanta. He didn’t play well, got hurt and the Rams clung to a 13-7 lead after three quarters against a bad team. What they were doing was running the ball—a 232-62 edge in yardage with both McCutcheon and Cappelletti clearing the 100-yard threshold. Haden threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to Jessie to open the game and Los Angeles pulled away to a 30-14 win.

A high-profile showdown with the contending Minnesota Vikings was up next. The road game would be in the late afternoon TV window. It was a clash of styles. McCutcheon and Cappelletti each had 100-yard games. Viking quarterback Fran Tarkenton countered with a big game. Each team missed a couple of field goals. A game whose result would reverberate down the stretch in the fight for playoff position ended in a 10-10 tie.

The home opener was against a terrible New York Giants team. L.A. was sluggish—they spotted the Giants a 10-0 lead and were still stuck in a 10-10 tie in the fourth quarter. But that opportunistic defense came up with four interceptions on the day. Harris threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Cappelletti to get the lead, and the Rams won 24-10.

A Monday Night home date with division rival San Francisco was up next. The 49ers had been down the past couple years, but they would trend upward again in ’76. Like on this night. The Rams couldn’t run the ball. Harris had decent numbers—16/27 for 201 yards and no mistakes. But there were no points. And L.A. lost 16-0, in a game where they had been a (-13) favorite.

At 3-1-1, the Rams were now a half-game back of the 49ers. This was an era when there was only one wild-card, and the NFC East had multiple contenders. It certainly wasn’t panic-button time, but the time to start playing with some urgency was here.

At home against mediocre Chicago, Los Angeles jumped out to a 10-0 lead behind Harris. He got hurt, Jaworski came in, and the offense bogged down. The Rams trailed 12-10 in the fourth quarter. McCutcheon’s 18-yard TD run got L.A. back on top, and they won 20-12.

A similarly unimpressive win came at lowly New Orleans. Each team turned it over five times and the score was tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter. Haden threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Harold Jackson and Los Angeles escaped the Bayou, 16-10.

An easier game was up against Seattle, a franchise in its first year of existence. Monte Jackson delivered a Pick-6 and Harris threw a touchdown pass to Jessie. That was a part of a 24-point haymaker the Rams landed in the first quarter. The running game took over, to the tune of a 206-50 yardage advantage and the result was a 45-6 rout.

Los Angeles traveled to Cincinnati to face a contending team in a big Monday Night game. A couple of early Ram drives ended in field goals. That was costly, because the Bengals played well late, L.A. lost three fumbles and a fourth-quarter defensive collapse led to a 20-12 loss.

This was the start of a crucial three-game stretch that would continue at home against the contending St. Louis Cardinals and then go up to San Francisco for a massive NFC West showdown. Rosenbloom pinned the blame for the Cincinnati loss on Harris and ordered Haden into the lineup.

The move seemed to work—Haden threw a 65-yard touchdown pass to Harold Jackson and Los Angeles built up a 21-6 third-quarter lead against a team they had decisively beaten in last year’s playoffs. But then the pass defense, normally so good, fell apart. A good Cardinal offense rallied and the Rams lost 30-28.

Los Angeles was 6-3-1 and San Francisco was 6-4. The NFC East, with Dallas, Washington, and St. Louis, now seemed to have a lock on the wild-card. The Rams-49ers showdown on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving had gotten even bigger.

Haden got the start. He only completed three passes and the running game was non-existent. But if you think this is leading to a description of defeat, you would be wrong. The defense played its best game of the year. They forced six turnovers, two of them interceptions by Monte Jackson. The Rams pulled away in the second half to win 23-3.

Now in control of the division, Los Angeles had a manageable home games coming up with New Orleans and Atlanta, both NFC West teams until the realignment of 2002. The Ram running game got humming against the Saints, with 323 rush yards. They won 33-14. The following Saturday against the Falcons, L.A. rolled up a 210-59 edge in rush yardage, while Haden went 13/21 for 214 yards. The result was a 59-0 beatdown.

Going into the season finale, Los Angeles was 9-3-1. Dallas was 11-2 and leading the race for the 1-seed. Minnesota was 10-2-1, but the Rams did have the tiebreaker on the Vikings. L.A. could potentially rise to the 2-seed.

They took care of their own business on Saturday night at mediocre Detroit. After falling behind 17-3, Harris got the opportunity to turn the offense around. He and Harold Jackson hooked up on a 27-yard touchdown pass. A field goal cut the lead to 17-13. Harris finished 10/17 for 113 yards and led one more TD drive. The Rams won 20-17.

Los Angeles didn’t get the break they needed—Minnesota won. When Dallas lost, the Vikings vaulted to the 1-seed. The Rams would play the Cowboys in the Divisional Playoffs.

Dallas had humiliated L.A. in the previous year’s NFC Championship Game, so there was more than a little payback also in the mix here. A tough, physical game ensued. The Rams trailed 3-0 after the first quarter. Haden ran in from four yards out for a 7-3 lead. But in the second quarter, L.A. allowed a blocked punt that set up a TD and left them in a 10-7 halftime hole.

Neither team could get a running game going. Both Haden and counterpart Roger Staubach threw three interceptions. But Los Angeles put together a fourth-quarter drive. They kicked a tying field goal—a play where Dallas was whistled for roughing the kicker. Knox took the points off the board and continued the drive. It paid off. McCutcheon’s 1-yard TD run gave the Rams a 14-10 lead.

Late in the final period, the Rams were lined up to punt. Once again, it got blocked. A potential nightmare scenario loomed, as the Cowboys were set up on the 17-yard line. But the L.A. defense met the moment, stopping Dallas on downs. The next time the Rams lined up to punt, they weren’t taking any chances. They took a safety and preserved a 14-12 win.

A trip to Minnesota on the day after Christmas would settle the Super Bowl berth. The game started off well enough for Los Angeles, as they drove down inside the 10-yard line. Then the special teams woes continued. A field goal was blocked and returned 90 yards for a touchdown. The Rams dug themselves a 17-0 hole. Haden would go 9/22 for 161 yards, while McCutchen ran for 128 yards. They fought back and cut the lead to 17-13. But the hole was too deep, and another season ended in this round, 24-13.

Knox had done arguably his most impressive coaching job, navigating the quarterback instability. But this was his high point in Los Angeles. While the Rams won the NFC West again in 1977, they lost in the Divisional Playoffs. The tension between the coach and the front office led to a parting of the ways. Los Angeles would eventually reach the Super Bowl in 1979. But the franchise would not actually win one until 1999, when they were in St. Louis. It took until 2021 for the Ram organization to win a Super Bowl title while in the city of Los Angeles.

1976 Dallas Cowboys: A Late Fade Stops A Championship Push

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Dallas was coming off a surprise trip the Super Bowl in 1975, when a young team came together quickly and made a run out of the wild-card spot. A perennial contender, they had won a championship in 1971 and were looking to add a second ring to their resume. The 1976 Dallas Cowboys overcame adversity and were in position to do just that. But a crucial regular season loss was followed by playoff disappointment.

Cowboy success in 1976 started with the league’s fifth-best defense. Defensive end Harvey Martin had 14 ½ sacks. Strong safety Charlie Waters was a playmaker and a Pro Bowler. Free safety Cliff Harris got All-Pro honors. There were emerging stars like Ed “Too Tall” Jones up front and Bob Breunig at linebacker, combined with old vets, such as middle linebacker Lee Roy Jordan.

Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach continued to lead the offense. Roger finished in the top eight among NFL QBs for both completion percentage (56%) and yard-per-attempt (7.4). His 14-11 TD/INT ratio doesn’t look great by modern standards, but being intercepted just 3.0% of the time in the world of 1976 meant you ranked fourth in the league for avoiding mistakes.

Staubach’s prime target was All-Pro receiver Drew Pearson, who caught 58 passes for 860 yards. Tight end Billy Joe Dupree was a Pro Bowler who caught 42 balls, and whose 16.2 yards-per-catch was exceptional for his position. Scott Laidlaw added 38 catches out of the backfield.

Where Dallas struggled was running the football. Even with an offensive line that had a Pro Bowl right side, in guard Blaine Nye and tackle Rayfield Wright, the running game did not emerge. Doug Dennison’s 542 yards led the team, and Robert Newhouse added 450. Both were below four yards per carry. It’s a key reason the Cowboy offense, while good, settled for being 10th-best in a 28-team league for points scored.

Dallas opened the season at home against the lowly Philadelphia Eagles. A couple of early Cowboy drives ended up with field goals, but they opened it up in the second quarter. Laidlaw would finish with 104 rushing yards on the day. Staubach went 19/28 for 242 yards and Dallas coasted home to a 27-7 win.

Another bad opponent in the New Orleans Saints was up next. Any problems with the running game still remained in the distant future. The Cowboys outrushed the Saints 198-69. Staubach went 15/22 for 239 yards and made no mistakes. The defense got five sacks. And Dallas got an easy 24-6 win.

The first real test came when the playoff-bound Baltimore Colts came to Dallas for a late afternoon marquee event. The Cowboys got outrushed in this one, 184-92. But Staubach outplayed the eventual MVP, Baltimore quarterback Bert Jones. Staubach went 22/28 for 339 yards, two touchdown passes and no interceptions. In a back-and-forth affair, the Cowboys got the last word with a field goal and a 30-27 win.

Another soft spot in the schedule was up, with road trips to play a Seattle Seahawks franchise in its first year, followed by the New York Giants. Newhouse had a big day in Seattle, rushing for 120 yards. Even though the Cowboys spotted the Seahawks, looking for their first franchise win, a 13-0 lead, Dallas took the lead by halftime and won 28-13. In the Meadowlands against the Giants, Staubach threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to DuPree that helped put Dallas up 17-0 by half. Playing a consistent, clean game, the Cowboys won 24-14.

At 5-0, another big game in the late Sunday afternoon window was up. Dallas would play the St. Louis Cardinals. An NFC East team prior to 2002, the Cardinals were the two-time defending division champs. Playing on the road, Dallas seemingly did everything they needed to do to win. They outrushed the Cardinals 151-90 and won turnover margin 4-1. Staubach, while a somewhat erratic 21/42, still threw for 250 yards. But the Dallas secondary was carved up by St. Louis quarterback Jim Hart and they took their first loss of the season, 21-17.

A home game with the mediocre Chicago Bears would prove a surprising turning point for the Dallas offense. They continued to play well, and the running game continued to perform well. They outrushed the Bears 241-93. But Staubach was knocked out, with a broken bone in his hand. Danny White came off the bench and played reasonably well. The Cowboys won 31-21. Staubach would come back the following week. But he really wouldn’t be the same, and the ripple effect extended to the rush offense.

In the meantime, Dallas had to go to Washington. The Redskins were a perennial contender, back in the hunt this year. The defense had to step up and they did. The Cowboys held the ‘Skins to just 88 yards rushing, and the offense simply avoided mistakes. Dallas’ 20-7 win was comfortable.

The Giants made their return trip to Dallas. The offense bogged down, and the Cowboys were outrushed 186-96. They never found the end zone. But they got three field goals, and the defense delivered another masterpiece. Dallas escaped with a 9-3 win.

A Monday Night home game with an awful Buffalo Bills team was more the same. The Cowboys couldn’t run the ball. Staubach was erratic. But he made some big plays, with Pearson catching nine balls for 135 yards. It was enough for another escape, 17-10.

But the luck ran out in Atlanta. Playing another poor team, the Cowboys again did not run the ball, and this time they didn’t protect Staubach. He was sacked four times and threw three interceptions. Dallas led 10-0 in the fourth quarter, but the defense finally broke. The Cowboys lost 17-10.

The record was still a healthy 9-2, and prior to 1978, the regular season schedule was only 14 games. Dallas was being chased by St. Louis, who was 8-3, with Washington trailing at 7-4. The Thanksgiving Day showdown with the Cardinals would be massive.

This time, the Cowboy defense kept the St. Louis passing attack under control. Staubach ran for one touchdown and passed for another. The special teams came up with a blocked punt that produced a safety. It was enough to fight out a 19-14 win. The division wasn’t formally clinched, but Dallas had a two-game lead on both rivals with two weeks to go.

Staubach played his best game post-injury in Philadelphia, going 23/40 for 259 yards with no interceptions. The Cowboys cruised to a 26-7 win and locked up the NFC East. Now, it was about securing playoff position. At 11-2, Dallas led the pack for the 1-seed going into the final week. The Minnesota Vikings were in hot pursuit at 10-2-1.

The Cowboys had a difficult finale, hosting the Redskins, who needed to win to edge out the Cardinals for what was then a single wild-card spot. Playing in the late afternoon TV window, it was known that Minnesota had won earlier in the day.

Dallas clung to a 14-13 lead after three quarters. But they again were not controlling the ground game. They weren’t protecting Staubach, who was sacked five times. When Staubach did throw, he was awful—5/22 for 91 yards. Dallas collapsed in the fourth quarter and lost 27-14. Minnesota got homefield advantage. The Cowboys would get a home game in the Divisional Round, but had to settle for the 2-seed.

It turns out, even homefield wouldn’t save Dallas against the Los Angeles Rams. The Cowboys only ran for 85 yards. Staubach threw three interceptions. Once again, the defense kept them in it, and got three picks of their own. The special teams came through, with Waters blocking a punt to set up one touchdown. And, trailing 14-10  late in the game, Waters did it again—a blocked punt set up the Cowboys on the Ram 17-yard line. But they couldn’t finish the job, with a fourth-down pass to DuPree coming up less than a yard short of the marker. The next time Los Angeles had to punt they took no chances and just took a safety. The season ended with a  14-12 loss.

Dallas would rise from the ashes of disappointment. An offseason got Staubach’s hand healthy. And the front office, committed to upgrading the running game, swung a big trade to move up in the draft and pick a future Hall of Fame back in Tony Dorsett. In 1977, it all came together, and the Cowboys won another Super Bowl.

1994 San Francisco 49ers: Steve Young Gets The Monkey Off His Back

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Steve Young had become the regular quarterback for San Francisco in 1991, when Joe Montana was injured. Young had clearly proven himself as an elite QB—he won an MVP award in 1992 and reached the NFC Championship Game in ’92 and 1993. But that wasn’t the standard Montana had set. Young had a monkey to get off his back, and so did the franchise after consecutive playoff losses to the Dallas Cowboys. The 1994 San Francisco 49ers got their revenge on Dallas, and then finished the job with a Super Bowl title.

Young was 33-years-old, having spent time in the United States Football League in the mid-1980s, and then waiting behind Montana for his chance. Young had another monster season—his 70 percent completion rate and 8.6 yards-per-attempt were each the best in the league. He threw 35 touchdown passes against just ten interceptions. And his 2.2 interception rate was fourth-best among starting quarterbacks. It was enough to make him an easy choice for another MVP trophy.

The passing game in San Francisco was also about Jerry Rice. The man who leads the discussion for the greatest receiver of all-time had a vintage year in ’94. Rice caught 122 passes for nearly 1,500 yards and made All-Pro.

Young moved the ball around well in what was a balanced attack. Ricky Watters caught 66 passes out of the backfield, and his 10.9 yards-per-catch was high for a running back. Tight end Brent Jones caught 49 passes. And if you focused too much on Rice? John Taylor caught 41 balls and could stretch the field.

Watters ran for nearly 900 yards, although at 3.7 yards-per-attempt, the running game wasn’t dominant. Left guard Jesse Sapolu and center Bart Oates each made the Pro Bowl. San Francisco’s offense scored more points than anyone else in the NFL.

Head coach George Seifert was a former defensive coordinator, and the D ranked a solid sixth in points allowed. Dana Stubblefield was a Pro Bowl defensive tackle. But the real source of strength in this 49er defense was the secondary. And that secondary had been drastically strengthened by a high-profile free agent move.

Deion Sanders was a two-sport athlete, playing baseball, and then joining the Atlanta Falcons for the football season. The 49ers went out and got the future Hall of Fame corner in the offseason. Then they got a break. A baseball strike ended that sport’s season on August 12. Deion was able to start football early and he got 12 regular season games in.

Twelve games were all Deion needed to win Defensive Player of the Year. Free safety Merton Hanks and strong safety Tim McDonald each made the Pro Bowl.

 San Francisco opened at home on Monday Night against the Raiders, who then played in Los Angeles. This was a Raider team with high expectations, but that in the end, missed the playoffs. Young and Rice put on a show, connecting on TD passes from 69, 23, and 38 yards. Young threw two more touchdown passes to Jones and finished with 308 yards passing. The result was a 44-14 blowout.

It was on to Kansas City for a hyped showdown with the Chiefs. KC was not only a perennial contender, but they had become the landing place for Montana after he recovered from his back problems. It was a less-than-ideal outcome for Young. The 24-17 loss was difficult, but understandable. But the difference was that Montana played mistake-free, while Young threw two interceptions. It gave rise to further anxiety about how he would perform in the season’s biggest games.

A visit to the lowly Los Angeles Rams saw San Francisco in a 10-10 tie in the second quarter. Then Young and Rice took over. The quarterback went 31/39 for 355 yards with no mistakes. Rice caught 11 balls for 147 yards. Taylor added seven catches and went over 100 yards. The 49ers pulled away to a 34-19 win.

San Francisco hosted mediocre New Orleans and was a hefty (-15) favorite. But Young was sacked five times and the 49ers were down 13-10 at the half. Young put his team ahead with a short TD pass to Rice. The Saints were driving back down the field. Enter Deion—his 74-yard Pick-6 sealed the 24-13 win.

A home game with another mediocre team, the Philadelphia Eagles, turned into a complete disaster. The 49ers were outrushed 191-60. Young threw two interceptions, was held to 99 yards passing and got the hook in the second half. San Francisco lost 40-8.

They were 3-2, and since the first week of the season, had not looked the part of a Super Bowl team. A road game at playoff-bound Detroit wasn’t an immediate turnaround, but it did get San Francsico back on track. In a penalty-ridden game, the 49ers survived, 27-21.

It was a two-game stretch against sub-.500 teams, at Atlanta and at home with Tampa Bay, that San Francisco really got untracked. The defense forced six turnovers in Atlanta. Two of them were interceptions by Dana Hall. Deion came up with a 93-yard Pick-6 in his old stomping grounds. The final was 42-3. Back home against Tampa, Watters rushed for over 100 yards for the first time this season. Young went 20/26 for 255 yards with no mistakes. The 49ers led 34-0 after three quarters and closed out a 41-16 win. They were going into their bye week at 6-2.

A trip to the nation’s capital to face a bad Redskins team was on the far side of the bye. The Niner defense held the ‘Skins to 76 yards rushing. McDonald had a Pick-6. Dexter Carter ran a kickoff back for a touchdown. Young went 15/25 for 291 yards. San Francisco won 37-22 in a game they led 37-6.

It was time. The 49ers were 7-2. The Cowboys were 8-1. Both teams were in complete control of their division races. They were clearly the class of the NFC—in fact, the entire NFL. Their November 13 meeting in San Francisco was as anticipated as any regular season game has ever been.

In this game, it was Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman who made the mistakes, while Young was efficient. Aikman threw three interceptions. Young went 12/21 for 183 yards and no mistakes. Furthermore, San Francisco took away Dallas’ traditional advantage in the ground game, outrushing the Cowboys 147-87. The Niners showed they could win in a workmanlike fashion, chiseling out a 21-14 triumph.

San Francisco now had control of the race for the #1 seed, but there was still no room for error, with both teams at 8-2.

When the 49ers jumped out to a 21-6 lead over the Rams on Sunday Night Football, it looked like they would avoid a letdown. But the letdown apparently kicked in late, because Los Angeles rallied to take a 27-24 lead. Rice stepped up. He had a huge night, with 16 catches for 165 yards. And his 18-yard touchdown reception from Young pulled out a 31-27 win.

Another prime-time game was the following Monday in New Orleans (the Saints, along with the Falcons, were in the NFC West prior to 2002). San Francisco led 20-14 at the half, although allowing an 86-yard fumble return, kept the game closer than it should have been. The 49ers calmly pulled back away. Young was sharp, Watters had a 100-yard night, and the final was 35-14.

The rematch against Atlanta was close into the second quarter, with San Francisco only leading 17-14 after Young threw a Pick-6. But the 49er defense limited the Falcons to 43 rush yards and forced five turnovers. It was 27-14 by halftime, and then the avalanche started—the final was 50-14.

Dallas was keeping pace with San Francisco, and both teams were 11-2 with three weeks left. The 49ers had a big road game coming up against the contending San Diego Chargers. The day before, on a Saturday special, the Cowboys lost to Bill Belichick’s playoff-bound Cleveland Browns. San Francisco had the chance to create some big breathing room in the push for the 1-seed.

The 49ers took full advantage of the opportunity. Young went 25/32 for 304 yards, with no mistakes. Rice caught 12 balls for 144 yards. In something that would prove to be foreshadowing, San Francisco leveled early blows against San Diego and went up 21-0 in a hurry. The final was 38-15.

A Saturday afternoon home game with the mediocre Denver Broncos offered the chance to seal up regular season business. Young went 20/29 for 350 yards. Watters caught a 65-yard touchdown pass. Rice’s nine catches went for 121 yards. The 49ers won 42-19 in a game where all the scoring happened in the first three quarters.

With everything clinched, San Francisco only played Young for the first half of the Monday Night finale in Minnesota. The Vikings were playing for a division title, so the 21-14 loss was no real surprise or disappointment. Now, it was all about finishing the job.

The playoff road started late Saturday afternoon in the Divisional Round against the 6-seed Chicago Bears. San Francisco spotted Chicago a field goal and then took over. Floyd’s short touchdown run made it 7-3 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the 49ers unloaded. Young threw an eight-yard touchdown pass to Jones. Floyd ran for another score. Young used his legs to find the end zone. A field goal was in the mix. It was 30-3 by halftime. The defense held the Bears to 39 rush yards, outside linebacker Tim Harris picked up two sacks, and the final was 44-15.

The following afternoon, Dallas took care of their business by beating the Green Bay Packers. Afterwards, Cowboy receiver Michael Irvin said what NFL fans had been saying all along—that the entire point of the regular season was simply to see where the 49ers-Cowboys NFC Championship Game would be played. Now, it was all on the line.

Turnovers had been the difference in the regular season meeting, and it didn’t take long for that same dynamic to take hold in this one. San Francisco corner Eric Davis intercepted Aikman and took it 44 yards to the house. The Cowboys turned it over again. Young threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Watters. The San Francisco defense forced another turnover. Floyd cashed it in with a short TD run. In a stunning development, the 49ers were up 21-0 in the first quarter.

Dallas didn’t go quietly and cut the lead to 24-14 in the second quarter. Young answered with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Rice. In the third quarter, the Cowboys cut the lead to 31-21. Young answered by running one in from three yards out.

The 49er defense would collect five turnovers on the day. By contrast, while Young was only 13/29 for 155 yards, he stayed away from mistakes. Dallas closed to 38-28, but that’s where it ended. The monkey was almost off Young’s back.

San Diego was in a Super Bowl that seemed like a mere formality. Oddsmakers certainly thought so and made San Francisco a huge (-19) favorite. And the 49ers came out firing. Young went on top to Rice for a 44-yard touchdown pass. Then he found Watters for a 51-yard TD pass. It was 14-0 before anyone settled in.

The Chargers got a TD before the first quarter was out, but Young threw two more short touchdown passes in the second quarter—one to Floyd, and another to Watters. It was 28-10 at the half. In the third quarter, San Francisco sealed the deal. Watters ran in from nine yards out, Young tossed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Rice, and it was 42-18 after three quarters. The final was 49-26.

Young finished 24/36 for 325 yards, with six touchdown passes and no interceptions. Rice caught ten balls for 149 yards. The 49ers won the turnover battle 3-zip. It was complete dominance to cap off a dominating season. Now, the monkey was off Young’s back.

This was San Francisco’s fifth Super Bowl title since 1981. But, while they continued to contend with Young at quarterback, it was also the last. The 49ers were knocked out of the playoffs the next three years by the Packers, and then lost to the Falcons in 1998. That was the end of the Young era. The franchise has made it back to a couple Super Bowls in the years since, in 2012 and 2019. But they haven’t hoisted the Lombardi Trophy since that night in Miami that ended a great 1994 campaign.

The Road To The 2013 Final Four

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Louisville was seeking their first national title since 1986, when the legendary Denny Crum was still on the sidelines. The Cardinals reached the summit, triumphing in a 2013 Final Four that included Michigan, Syracuse, and Wichita State. Here’s a look back on the road those four teams traveled to reach Atlanta.

LOUISVILLE

Rick Pitino had been at Louisville since 2002 and reached a pair of Final Fours. One of them came in 2012 and most of the key players were back. Russ Smith only went 6’0”, but the guard scored 18ppg. He was the star on a lineup that was otherwise balanced. Peyton Siva joined Smith in the backcourt. Luke Hancock and Chane Behanan were at the forwards, with Gorgui Deng anchoring the middle as a good shot blocker and rebounder.

Expectations were high and Louisville was ranked #2 in the preseason polls. They ripped off a 16-1 start, before briefly stumbling and losing three straight games in mid-January. The Cardinals righted the ship and concluded the regular season by winning ten of their last eleven. A member of the Big East at the time, they shared the conference title with Georgetown and Marquette. At Madison Square Garden in the league tournament, Louisville dominated—three straight resounding wins got them the 1-seed in the Midwest Regional.

The NCAA Tournament began close to home, but at an unfriendly locale—Kentucky’s Rupp Arena. Louisville coasted through the first weekend with a familiar template. Smith scored 23 points and came up with eight steals against North Carolina A&T. The Cards forced 25 turnovers, led 47-31 at half and won 79-48. Against Colorado State in the Round of 32, Smith scored 27, and the team defense forced 19 turnovers. Louisville led 45-31 at the half and won 82-56.

A bracket break awaited at the regionals in Indianapolis. Oregon, the #12 seed, had taken out both Oklahoma State and St. Louis. Louisville just stuck to their script. They were ahead 45-31 at halftime. Smith poured in 31 points, the team as a whole shot 54 percent and they held off the Ducks to win 77-69.

Duke and Michigan State squared off in a 2-3 matchup in the other regional semi. Neither team shot the ball well, but the Blue Devils got 29 points from Seth Curry to win 71-61. A high-profile Louisville-Duke showdown would settle a berth in the Final Four.

The Elite Eight game was tight for a half, and the Cards led 35-32. But Louisville’s defense continued to be stifling. They held the Blue Devils to 37 percent shooting. Siva scored 16 points. Deng controlled the middle, with 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. And Smith? He just kept scoring, knocking down 23. Louisville blew this one wide open in the second half, winning 85-63. They were making a return trip to the Final Four and Smith was an easy choice as the region’s Most Outstanding Player.

MICHIGAN

John Beilein was in his fourth year in Ann Arbor. Inheriting a program that had been in a long drought, he made the NCAA Tournament each of his first three seasons. This edition of the Wolverines was led by National Player of the Year Trey Burke, a guard who averaged 19 points/7 assists per game and had range from most anywhere in the gym. Tim Hardaway completed a dynamic backcourt, averaging 15 ppg. Nik Stauskas and Glenn Robinson Jr. were forwards scoring in double figures.

Michigan was ranked #5 in the preseason polls and reached the top of the national rankings in January. But they got sluggish thereafter, going 10-6 down the stretch, finishing fourth in the Big Ten and then losing in the quarterfinals of the league tournament. They were the 4-seed in the South Regional but got a break—their opening weekend would be close to home, at The Palace in Auburn Hills.

Burke shot poorly in the Round of 64 against South Dakota State and the Wolverines only led 30-26 at the half. But Hardaway and Robinson stepped up with 21 points each and Michigan pulled away to win 71-56. They put together a complete game against 5-seed Virginia Commonwealth. The Wolverines shot 52 percent and held the Rams to 40 percent from the floor. Center Mitch McGary went off for 21 points/14 rebounds. Michigan led 38-23 by half and coasted to a 78-53 win.

It was on to Arlington for the regionals and a Sweet 16 showdown with #1 seed Kansas. Burke knocked down 23 points and handed out ten assists. McGary continued his March surge with a 25 points and 14 boards. In an overtime thriller, the Wolverines upset the Jayhawks 87-85.

Florida was the 3-seed and came through the bottom half of the bracket. Georgetown, the 2-seed, had been stunned by 15th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast. The latter then became the first 15-seed to reach the Sweet 16. The dream died against the Gators. Florida forced 20 turnovers against FGCU and pulled away in the second half to win 62-50.

Michigan had overcome the season-ending blahs and was now surging. In the regional final, they held Florida to 41 percent from the floor and blew out to a 47-30 halftime lead. The big difference was three-point shooting.  The Wolverines went 10/19 from behind the arc, keyed by Stauskas nailing all six of his attempts. The Gators only went 2/10.

The final was 79-59. Burke was named the region’s Outstanding Player. Although McGary, who chipped in an 11/9 line, had been the more consistent player. Michigan was going to the Final Four for the first time since the days of the Fab Five in 1992 and 1993.

SYRACUSE

Jim Boeheim was an established legend at Syracuse and had reached the Final Four three times—including a national championship run in 2003. A core group of four players that all went between 6’4” and 6’8” made for lineup balance and executed Boeheim’s 2-3 zone. C.J. Fair averaged 15 points/7 rebounds, while James Southerland posted a 13/5. The guards were led by Michael Carter-Williams, with his 12 points/5 rebounds/7 assists per-game average. Brandon Triche knocked down 14 a night and also handed out four assists.

Coming off an Elite Eight trip in 2012, the Orange were ranked #3 in the preseason polls and were playing up to that standard deep into January. But they stumbled at the end of the regular season, losing four of their last five, and finishing 11-7 in Big East play. A recovery in the conference tournament, where they reached the final before losing to Louisville, got them back on track and gave them the 4-seed in the East.

Syracuse still had to travel for opening weekend and went to San Jose. The zone defense began setting the tone right away, holding Montana to 20 percent shooting. The final was 81-34. Fifth-seeded UNLV got knocked out by Cal. The Orange took out the Golden Bears in a game where neither team shot well, but Syracuse went to the hoop while Cal settled for threes. The result was a disparity in free throw attempts. The Orange went 26/41 from the line, while the Bears were 12/19. That was the difference in a 66-60 win.

It was back east to Washington D.C., in a power region where the top four seeds had all advanced. Syracuse played top-seeded Indiana in the Round of 16. The Hoosiers couldn’t handle the zone and only shot 34 percent. Carter-Williams scored 24 points, came up with four steals, and keyed a surprisingly easy 61-50 win. Third-seeded Marquette then took out #2 Miami in the other regional semi, holding the Hurricanes to 35 percent from the floor in a 71-61 win.

We had an all-Big East regional final. Syracuse only shot 38 percent. But their zone had everyone off-balance, and they held Marquette to 23 percent. It was an ugly game, but an easy win—the final was 55-39. Carter-Williams, with a 12/11/5 line, was an easy choice as Most Outstanding Player.

WICHITA STATE

The Shockers were seeking their first Final Four appearance since 1965. They made an Elite Eight in 1981, and a Sweet 16 in 2006. Gregg Marshall came to Wichita in 2012 and began what would turn into an eight-year ascendancy of Shocker basketball. This year’s team was led by forward Cleanthony Early and Carl Hall at the forward spots. They combined to average 27 points/12 rebounds per night. Malcolm Armstead ran the show in the backcourt, averaging 11 points/4 rebounds/4 assists.

Wichita was steady and consistent all year, going 24-7 and finishing second to Creighton in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Shockers reached the final of the MVC tournament before losing to the Bluejays. They were placed as the 9-seed in the West Regional.

The journey began in Salt Lake City against Pitt. Wichita got 22 from Armstead, 21 from Early, held the Panthers to 35 percent shooting and coasted to a 73-55 win. That earned Wichita a date with top-seeded Gonzaga. Ron Baker, Armstead’s backcourt running mate was hot—he hit 4/6 from behind the arc. As a team, the Shockers went 14/28 from three-point range. They pulled the bracket-busting upset, 76-70.

Wichita wasn’t the only underdog to advance in the West. Kansas State and Wisconsin, the 4-5 seeds respectively, each went out early. The LaSalle Explorers, off the 13-line, were in Los Angeles for the regionals. Wichita annihilated LaSalle on the boards, 44-23. Armstead hit for 18 points in a 72-58 win.

Ohio State was the 2-seed. They had gotten their own bracket break, when #3 New Mexico lost to Harvard. Although playing 6-seed Arizona was no picnic. The Buckeyes, aiming for a second straight Final Four trip, got 20 from DeShaun Thomas and beat the Wildcats in a good 73-70 game.

The regional final was about the Shocker defense. They held Ohio State to 31 percent from the floor and cleaned up the misses to the tune of a 34-26 rebounding edge. Wichita built a 35-22 lead by half and then held off the Buckeyes to win 70-66. Armstead only shot 6-for-21, but his 14 points led the Shockers. That, along with his Sweet 16 performance, got him Most Outstanding Players honors. The 2013 Final Four had its dark horse, and it was on the train coming out of Wichita.

THE 2013 FINAL FOUR

Louisville and Wichita played the opener on Semi-Final Saturday. Unsurprisingly, the defenses, which had led the way for both teams, were locked in. Wichita led 26-22 at the half and the possibility of a big upset was on the table. Early would finish with 24 points. But the Cards got 21 from Russ Smith, and 20 more from Hancock. Their own defense forced Armstead into a 1-for-10 performance. It was a good game to the end, but Louisville turned it around and won 72-68.

Michigan didn’t look quite as unprepared for the Syracuse zone as Indiana and Marquette had. The Wolverines didn’t necessarily shoot well, but McGary worked the interior and got 10 points/12 rebounds/6 assists. Michigan led 36-25 at half. Fair, with 22 points/6 rebounds, helped keep the Orange in it, but it wasn’t enough. The Wolverines won 61-56.

Monday Night’s title fight was worthy of the stakes. Michigan shot the ball well, hitting 52 percent from the floor. Burke had his best game of the tournament and knocked down 24 points. The Wolverines led 38-37 at the half. The Cardinals got a strong game from Behanan, who chipped in 15 points and hauled down 12 rebounds. But the big difference-maker was Hancock. He hit 5-for-6 from three-point range and scored 22 points. Louisville won it 82-76.

Hancock was the 2013 Final Four MVP. Pitino now had national titles with both Louisville and Kentucky. And the Cardinal faithful had their first banner since 1986.

1975 Oakland Raiders: More Of The Same–For Better & Worse

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The Raiders were one of the league’s perennial successes. They had reached the playoffs seven of the last eight years–in an era when only four teams per conference qualified for the postseason. More often than not, they advanced in the playoffs. But with a Super Bowl defeat in 1967, and six AFL/AFC Championship Game losses, they had never won a title. In ways that were mostly good, but also disappointing, the 1975 Oakland Raiders season was more of the same.

Ken Stabler was at quarterback and the 30-year lefthander was among the league’s elite in completion percentage (58%) and yards-per-attempt (7.8). The downfield passing game did leave Oakland susceptible to mistakes. Even allowing that all quarterbacks in this era threw a lot more interceptions than we see today, Stabler’s 8.2 interception rate ranked 21st out of 22 qualifying QBs.

A pair of Hall of Fame receivers were on the outside. Cliff Branch was the deep threat, and with 51 catches for 893 yards, he was an All-Pro in 1975. Fred Biletnikoff worked underneath and caught 43 balls for nearly 600 yards.

The success of the running game was keyed by the great left side of offensive tackle Art Shell and guard Gene Upshaw. Both Hall of Famers had Pro Bowl seasons. A balanced running game saw one Colgate product (Mark van Eeghen) start to take carries away from another (Marv Hubbard). Pete Banaszak, Clarence Davis, and Jess Phillips were also a part of the backfield rotation.

It all added up to a well-balanced offense that ranked fourth in the NFL for points scored.

The defense ranked seventh in points allowed and was led by Pro Bowlers in linebacker Phil Villapiano and free safety Jack Tatum. Oakland’s defense had playmakers up front, with Otis Sistrunk, Horace Jones, and Tony Cline combining for 37 ½ sacks. And they had ballhawks in the secondary, led by corner Skip Thomas who intercepted six passes.

Oakland had won a historic divisional round playoff game against the Miami Dolphins in 1974, and the NFL decided to make a rematch the Monday Night opener. Playing on the road, the Raiders came out firing. Banaszak ran for a couple short TDs and Oakland led 17-0. Each team turned the ball over five times, and it never got close after that in a 31-21 win.

The Raiders were a solid 10 ½ point favorite when they went to Baltimore. But this would be a year the Colts made sharp improvement and became a contender. Oakland fell behind 10-0 early. They cut the lead to 13-10 by halftime. In the third quarter, Stabler flipped a four-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dave Casper. With a 143-77 advantage in rush yardage, the Raiders began to pull away, and they won 31-20.

A rainy day in San Diego made a game with the lowly Chargers more interesting that it might otherwise have been. Neither team could move the ball. The Oakland defense held a young San Diego quarterback named Dan Fouts to just three completions, intercepted him twice, and sacked him five times. It was enough to get out of town with a 6-0 win.

The Raiders were both flat and sloppy in Kansas City. Against a bad Chiefs team, Oakland was outrushed 224-91, and turned it over six times. They got hammered 42-10 for their first defeat. And in a road trip to Cincinnati, another rainy day slowed the offense. Both Stabler, and Bengal counterpart Ken Anderson threw four interceptions. But one of Stabler’s got taken to the house, and that was the difference in a 14-10 loss.

You may have noticed that we’re five games into this narrative and Oakland has yet to play at home. Extended road trips to open the season weren’t unusual for the Raiders, but a home opener on October 26 was still pretty extreme. In the rematch with San Diego, Stabler was sharp, going 13/20 for 171 yards. Branch caught five of those passes for 95 yards. One of them was a 45-yard touchdown strike in the third quarter that broke the game open, and Oakland won 25-0.

The Raiders were 4-2, and the Broncos came to town at 3-3 for a significant AFC West game. Oakland trailed 17-7 in the third quarter. It was at this point that the division race turned for good. Stabler threw a 21-yard TD pass to Biletnikoff and a 16-yard scoring pass to Branch to get a 21-17 lead. The avalanche hit in the fourth quarter with three more touchdowns. Instead of being tied for the division lead, the 42-17 win put Oakland two games clear of the field. And it never got close again.

We were also at the halfway point of what was then a 14-game regular season schedule. The Raider offense, clearly enjoying being back at home, kept humming against a terrible New Orleans Saints team. Stabler went 16/23 for 232 yards. A balanced running game produced a 260-95 edge in rush yardage. The final was 48-10.

Lowly Cleveland came to town as the next victim. This one was tight into the third quarter, tied 17-all. Stabler then went to Biletnikoff for 15-yard touchdown pass and tossed a 31-yard TD pass to Davis. Stabler finished 16/25 for 220 yards. Davis ran for 120 yards and sealed the 38-17 win with a 26-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.

A high-profile late afternoon game awaited in Washington. While the Redskins would miss the playoffs in 1975, they were a perennial contender in this era that stayed in the hunt to the very end. Stabler went 20/32 for 243 yards, with Biletnikoff catching nine balls for 113 yards. In front of the national audience, Oakland built a 20-9 lead. But they also lost three fumbles. The Redskins rallied to tie it 23-23 and force overtime. But the Raiders got a field goal and escaped D.C. with a thrilling 26-23 win.

With four weeks to go, Oakland was 8-2. In the race for playoff seeding, the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers were 9-1, and being chased by 8-2 Cincinnati in the division then known as the AFC Central. The AFC East had 7-3 Miami and 6-4 Baltimore fighting it out (the South didn’t come into existence until 2002). The Raiders, with their head-to-head wins over the Dolphins and Colts, were in good position to at least get the 2-seed and host one playoff game. But they could go anywhere from 1 to 3 as we hit the stretch drive.

On a road trip to play the subpar Atlanta Falcons, the Stabler-to-Branch connection came out on fire—touchdown passes from 40 yards, 27 yards, and 11 yards in the first quarter alone. But the defense was having an off-day and it was only 21-13 at the quarter. Then Stabler threw a Pick-6 and we had a ballgame. Oakland was still running the ball well—Banaszak went for 116 yards, van Eeghen added 82, while Davis chipped in 79. For the second straight week, the Raiders went to overtime, and for the second straight week they won. The final was 37-34.

The defense redeemed themselves on Monday Night home against Denver. Safety Charlie Phillips intercepted three passes to key a 17-10 win. Oakland was 10-2, while all of their rivals for playoff position had also held serve the last two weeks.

Pittsburgh had the tiebreaker for the 1-seed, and they won a Saturday game over Cincinnati in the regular season’s penultimate week to sew it up. On Sunday, in a game that kicked off two hours prior to the Raiders’ home date with the Houston Oilers, Baltimore won a big AFC East showdown with Miami. The consequence of that was that Oakland clinched the 2-seed. Whether that resulted in the Raiders first building up a 26-17 lead over a good Oiler team, but then losing 27-26 is subject for speculation. But it didn’t matter. Oakland would host a divisional round game in the AFC playoffs.

A home date with Kansas City was now for tune-up purposes. Stabler went 11/12 for 134 yards. The running game spread the wealth in producing 246 yards on the ground. Banaszak’s short TD run was the clincher in a 28-20 win. The Raiders closed the season at 11-3.

Cincinnati edged Miami for the wild-card spot, and there was a rule in place that said teams from the same division could not meet prior to the conference championship game. The Raiders would host the Bengals in the final game of Divisional Round Weekend for the right to go to Pittsburgh.

Oakland got a field goal and took a 3-0 first quarter lead. In the second quarter, Stabler threw TD passes to veteran wide receiver Mike Siani and tight end Bob Moore, sandwiched around a Cincinnati touchdown. The Raiders were in control at the half, up 17-7.

A six-yard touchdown run from Banaszak extended the lead to 24-7. Oakland would win the rush yardage battle 173-97. Stabler went 17/23 for 199 yards. When he flipped a two-yard scoring pass to Casper in the fourth quarter, the lead was 31-14. It looked over.

But the Cincinnati offense, coordinated by a future legend named Bill Walsh, stormed back. The Bengals scored two touchdowns. And with just over four minutes to play. Banaszak fumbled and lost the ball on his own 37-yard line. Disaster loomed.

The Oakland defense stood tall in the unforgiving minute, getting a sack and pushing Cincinnati out of field goal range.. They got the ball back. With 0:50 left, the Raiders had to get a punt away. The Bengals came after it…and were called for roughing the kicker. The 31-28 win was finally sealed.

It was on to Pittsburgh for an AFC Championship Game rematch. After some rainy weather, Oakland arrived to find that the artificial turf at old Three Rivers Stadium was a sheet of ice. The Raiders were furious and believed the tarp had been left off intentionally to slow Oakland’s more wide-open offense. Whatever the reason, it worked. In a sloppy game, both teams combined to turn it over 12 times. The Raiders trailed 16-10. Branch caught a pass on the 15-yard line late in the game. But he couldn’t get out of bounds, there were no timeouts left and it ended right there.

Getting this far but not finishing the job was getting to be old, and Oakland carried the bitterness into the offseason. The good news? Their redemption was almost here. In 1976, the Raiders went 13-1, got their revenge on the Steelers in the playoffs, and won the Super Bowl.

1975 Dallas Cowboys: A Playoff Return & Super Bowl Trip

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Dallas saw an eight-year streak of making the playoffs come to an end in 1974. The 1975 Dallas Cowboys not only got back on track, but they reached a Super Bowl and began another string of postseason appearances that would last a little bit longer.

There were a lot of changes in store for the 1975 season. Dallas was moving forward without key veteran contributors in running back Calvin Hill and defensive tackle Bob Lilly. The latter retired, while the former went to the fledgling World Football League. With the personnel changes, twelve rookies would make the Cowboy roster. Head coach Tom Landry also made a big strategic change. He instituted the shotgun offense. Today, it’s a standard base formation. Back then, it was a novelty.

The quantity of rookies might have been historic, but the biggest contributors were still the proud veterans. Roger Staubach was 33-years-old, and the future Hall of Fame quarterback had another Pro Bowl season. His 57 percent completion rate ranked sixth in the league, while his 7.7 yards-per-attempt was a stellar third. A 17-16 TD/INT ratio, with a 4.6 interception rate was a little high, but in this era, the latter stat still ranked 10th among starting quarterbacks.

Staubach’s prime target was a rising young star in Drew Pearson, who caught 46 passes and averaged nearly 18 yards per catch. Jean Fugett at tight end was a reliable option underneath.

The running game shifted to a more fullback-centric approach in Hill’s absence. Robert Newhouse ran for 930 yards, and his 34 receptions were third on the team. Halfback duties were split between Preston Pearson (no relation to Drew) and Doug Dennison. While Preston Pearson was a reliable receiver out of the backfield, both halfbacks were held to fewer than four yards a carry.

Offensive tackle Rayfield Wright, another future Hall of Famer, anchored the line. The defensive side of the trenches had the best player in that famed rookie class—tackle Randy White, destined for Canton himself. Harvey Martin was a quality pass rusher at end, getting 9 ½ sacks.

The back seven was anchored by Pro Bowl free safety Cliff Harris and veteran middle linebacker Lee Roy Jordan. The 34-year-old intercepted six passes.

All in all, Dallas wasn’t dominant, but they were balanced. In a 26-team league, they finished eighth in points scored and ninth in points allowed.

The season opened with a late Sunday afternoon home game against the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams had reached the NFC Championship Game in 1974, and were headed for  12-2 season this year (the schedule didn’t expand to 16 games until 1978). One of those losses came right here in Big D. The Cowboy defense held the Rams to 20 passing yards. They intercepted three passes, including two by Mel Renfro. Dallas built an 18-0 lead, allowed a meaningless touchdown late in the game and won 18-7.

A challenging early home sequence continued with a visit from the St. Louis Cardinals. A division rival prior to the realignment of 2002, the Cardinals were the defending NFC East champs and would contend again this year. Dallas, aided by a 97-yard kickoff return from rookie Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson, took a 28-17 lead. The Cardinals rallied to tie it 31-31 and force overtime.

But Staubach was having a big day. He went 23/34 for 307 yards. Billy Joe DuPree, a young tight end, caught six balls for 100 yards. The last one was a TD pass in overtime that won it, 37-31.

Dallas went on to Detroit, where the Lions were opening the brand-new Silverdome on Monday Night Football. A mediocre team, the Lions hung with the Cowboys and only trailed 15-10 after three quarters. But with Drew Pearson having a big night—six catches for 188 yards—Dallas dominated the fourth quarter and ruined Opening Night in Detroit, 36-10.

The Cowboys didn’t play well in the Meadowlands against a bad New York Giants team, and they trailed 7-6 in the fourth quarter. What they were doing was running the ball. A 196-96 edge in rush yardage was ultimately decisive. Staubach flipped a short touchdown pass to Fugett and Dallas escaped, 13-7.

Riding high at 4-0, a visit from the lowly Green Bay Packers, seemingly light-years away from the glorious Vince Lombardi era that ended just seven years earlier, looked like easy pickings. The Cowboys ran the ball well, with Preston Pearson gaining 101 yards and Newhouse going for 92. But they didn’t take care of the football—four lost fumbles and five turnovers overall. Dallas blew a 17-9 lead and suffered a 19-17 upset loss.

A visit to Philadelphia, another bad team, also turned into a struggle. Dallas didn’t run the ball well and trailed 17-10. Staubach bailed them out by going 27/49 for 314 yards. Roger found Drew Pearson on a touchdown pass to tie the game and a field goal delivered a 20-17 win.

The calendar flipped to November and Dallas was starting to struggle. Three straight games against poor competition had resulted in two narrow escapes and a loss. Now, the Cowboys were going to Washington for a late afternoon date with the Redskins. George Allen’s Redskins had made the playoffs each of the last four years and were again in the hunt.

Dallas built a 14-3 lead. But the national television audience would see a classic game. Washington rallied to tie it 17-17. The Cowboys got six turnovers, one of which was a Pick-6 by Harris that put them up 24-17. But the Redskins were carving up the Dallas pass defense. Washington tied the game 24-24 and then won in overtime, 30-24.

The Cowboys were still 5-2, but the playoff format of the time only allowed for one wild-card and Dallas had stiff competition from both St. Louis and Washington in the NFC East. They needed to get back on track.

A Monday Night home date with the subpar Kansas City Chiefs seemed like the right recipe. But the Cowboys were sloppy, losing five fumbles. They blew a back-and-forth game, 34-31. With the record at 5-3, it might not have been time for panic, but there was certainly urgency in the air.

The next game was on the road against a terrible New England Patriots team. Staubach played efficient football and went 10/14 for 190 yards and no interceptions. Dallas enjoyed a rushing yardage edge of 171-99, and they built a 34-17 lead. The Patriots made a late push, but this week’s 34-31 final saw Dallas end up on the right side.

A balanced running game continued to work at home against Philadelphia, to the tune of 205 yards. Preston Pearson added four catches for 109 yards and the Cowboys won 27-17. Normally, this would be the point that Dallas would look ahead to their customary Thanksgiving feast. But 1975, along with 1977, saw the league give St. Louis the late afternoon Turkey Day spot. It wasn’t until 1978 that the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving date became permanent.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving was a windy day in Big D for the rematch with the Giants. Staubach found Fugett for a 54-yard touchdown pass and Dallas built a 14-3 lead after the first quarter. Then, they just salted it away, with no one scoring the rest of the way.

At 8-3, Dallas was playing well again, and the race for the playoffs was red-hot. St. Louis was also 8-3, while Washington was 7-4. The Cowboys had games with both in the immediate future. The next two weeks would decide their fate.

The road trip to St. Louis could not have been a bigger disaster. Dallas dug themselves a 28-3 hole, thanks to two long touchdown passes. The final score of 31-17 was deceptively respectable. The Cardinals were in first place. The Redskins won to pull even with the Cowboys at 8-4.

Stakes for Washington’s visit to Dallas could not have been higher—the winner was going to the playoffs, the loser was going home. Whomever won would be a game ahead with one to play. A Redskin win would secure a head-to-head sweep, while a Cowboy win would ensure that they could still take the tiebreaker based on division record.

The game was on Saturday afternoon in the late time slot. Dallas fell behind 10-0, marking five straight quarters of poor play in the season’s most important games. Staubach turned it around by finding Golden Richards on a 57-yard touchdown pass. Roger then ran for a TD to get a 14-10 lead by halftime.

That 14-10 score held through the third quarter. Dallas added a field goal in the fourth quarter. Moreover, the Cowboys were crushing the ‘Skins on the ground, 204-81. Eventually, Washington broke. A short TD pass from Staubach extended the lead to 24-10. Defensive back Charlie Waters sealed it with a Pick 6. The 31-10 win was sending the Cowboys back to postseason play.

There was still hope of winning the division, but Dallas needed help, and with only four teams per conference in the playoffs, there was no first-round bye at stake. Staubach was dealing with some aching ribs, so Landry let him rest in the final week. It proved a wise decision. St. Louis won anyway. And the Cowboys, behind backup Clint Longley, making his only career NFL start, beat the lowly New York Jets in old Shea Stadium, 31-21.

Dallas was 10-4 and playing well. They were still an eight-point underdog at top-seeded Minnesota. The Vikings had gotten an MVP year from Fran Tarkenton and were the two-time defending NFC champs. The divisional playoff game was the early afternoon kickoff on Sunday.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Cowboys trailed 7-0 at halftime. They shifted momentum in the third quarter, getting a tying touchdown run from Dennison, and then a fourth-quarter field goal had Dallas ahead 10-7. But Minnesota drove for a go-ahead touchdown. The Cowboys got the ball on their own 15-yard line with 1:51 left for their final chance.

Staubach was having a good day, finishing at 17/29 for 246 yards and no mistakes. He made two epic throws on this drive. The first one came on 4th-and-16 to keep the season alive and get the team to midfield. The second was the play this game is remembered for.

Drew Pearson ran a deep route in the final seconds. Near the goal line, he and Minnesota corner Nate Wright fought for position. Pearson won that battle and caught the football for a stunning touchdown. Viking fans argued for offensive pass interference. But to no avail. Dallas had a stunning 17-14 win.

Feeling the momentum, the Cowboys went to Los Angeles to meet the Rams for the NFC Championship. Dallas struck first when Staubach threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Preston Pearson. It was the start of a pattern. Preston Pearson would catch seven passes for 123 yards. Three of those would be for touchdowns. One of those would be in the second quarter, along with a short Staubach-to-Richards  TD pass. The Cowboys were up 21-0 by halftime.

Dallas just kept pounding away. They won the rush yardage battle 195-22. Preston Pearson’s third touchdown blew it open in the third quarter. The lead rose to 34-0. Much like the season opener, L.A. didn’t score until the issue was long decided. With Staubach going 16/26 for 220 yards, this one ended 37-7.

The Cowboys were in the Super Bowl for the first time since their championship season of 1971. Facing the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas took a 10-7 lead into the fourth quarter. Staubach would go 15/24 for 204 yards. But in this game, Roger was also making mistakes. He threw three interceptions, while the Dallas defense couldn’t come up with a takeaway. Even though the secondary only allowed nine completions, they went for 209 yards. Dallas fell behind 21-10, tried to rally, but came up short in a 21-17 defeat.

1975 was still a comeback year for the Cowboys. They had returned to the playoffs, and this started a nine-year string of consecutive postseason appearances. And while Dallas had missed out on winning it all, that wasn’t long in coming—in 1977, the Cowboys captured another Super Bowl championship.

The Road To The 2012 Final Four

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John Calipari changed college basketball with his ability to bring in top-flight “one-and-done” players, who would leave for the NBA after their freshman year, and still mold them into winning teams at Kentucky. That was never more evident than in 2012. Kentucky was joined by Kansas, Ohio State, and Louisville on the sport’s biggest stage in New Orleans. Here’s a look back at the paths all four teams took to reach the 2012 Final Four, and Kentucky’s ultimate triumph.

KENTUCKY

Calipari was in his third year in Lexington and had already made the Final Four in 2011. He went out and landed an elite freshman in Anthony Davis to play center, along with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at forward. Davis would average 14 points/10 rebounds per game, anchor the defense with his shot blocking, and win National Player of the Year. Kidd-Gilchrist posted a 12/7 line. The “veterans” of the lineup were three sophomores—Terrence Jones at forward, with Doron Lamb and Marquis Teague in the backcourt. All were double-digit scorers.

The youth didn’t stop Kentucky from being ranked #2 in the preseason polls. They beat Kansas at Madison Square Garden. The Wildcats won non-conference showdowns in Rupp Arena against North Carolina and Louisville. Only a last-second loss at Indiana marred their record. Then, Kentucky blasted through the SEC with a 16-0 conference record. They lost in the final of the conference tournament, but still got the #1 seed in the South Regional and entered the NCAA Tournament as the favorite to win the national title.

Jones led the way in the opening game against Western Kentucky, getting 22 points/10 rebounds in an 81-66 win. Kentucky concluded the weekend at Freedom Hall in Louisville by beating Iowa State 87-71. The key to the win was hitting 10/20 from being the three-point line while the Cyclones only went 3/22.

It was on to Atlanta for the regionals and a chance to avenge their loss to Indiana. The Hoosiers were the 4-seed and the rematch was a fast-paced exciting game on Friday night. Kidd-Gilchrist delivered 24 points/10 rebounds, while Lamb knocked down 21 from the perimeter. Darius Miller added 19 points off the bench. But the biggest difference came at the free throw line. The Wildcats got 37 free throw attempts and converted 35. Indiana went 13/17. Kentucky got a 102-90 win.

The South Regional had lost its 2-seed when Duke suffered a stunning Round of 64 loss to Lehigh. Baylor picked up the slack. The 3-seed Bears ousted Xavier 75-70 in the Sweet 16, with 20 points/15 rebounds from Quincy Acy.

In Sunday’s regional final, Kentucky’s defense was smothering. They built a 42-22 lead at the half. Davis scored 18 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and blocked six shots. Kidd-Gilchrist sealed a Most Outstanding Player regional performance with 19 points. The defense softened in the second half, but the final 82-70 outcome was never in doubt. The ‘Cats were going back to the Final Four.  

KANSAS

Kansas had been to the NCAA Tournament every year going back to 1990, starting under Roy Williams and continuing after Bill Self took over in 2004. That stretch included 14 trips to the regionals, five appearances in the Final Four and a 2008 national title that came at Calipari’s expense, when the latter was at Memphis. This year’s edition of the Jayhawks was led by 6’9” forward Thomas Robinson, who averaged 18 points/12 rebounds. Tyshawn Taylor was a dynamic guard, scoring 17ppg and averaging five assists per game.

This year’s KU team was a little underrated, coming in at #13 in the preseason polls. After the early loss to Kentucky, they also fell to Duke in Maui, before beating then-#2 Ohio State. Kansas then did what they do with ruthless efficiency—win the Big 12 conference regular season title. Even though they fell in the semis of the league tournament, it was enough to pick up the #2 seed in the Midwest Regional.

Kansas opened the NCAA Tournament in Omaha. They beat Detroit Mercy 65-50 thanks to a defense that held Detroit to 31 percent shooting from the floor. The Round of 32 game with Purdue was a little dicey. Neither team got it going offensively and Robinson only shot 2-for-11. But he got 13 rebounds, Elijah Johnson scored 18, and it was enough to survive and advance, 63-60.

The Midwest bracket had seen its top two teams, including 1-seed North Carolina advance to St. Louis, and upsets seemed to clear the way for them to meet in the regional final. Kansas played another ugly game in the Sweet 16 against 11-seed N.C. State, but they held the Wolfpack to 28 percent shooting and won 60-57. North Carolina moved past 13-seed Ohio University by dominating the Bobcats on the boards, 56-26, and winning the game 73-60.

After two straight subpar games offensively, the Jayhawks got it rolling on late Sunday afternoon. Taylor would score 22 points, get six rebounds, hand out five assists and come up with five steals. It was tied 47-47 at the half. Robinson’s low post presence continued to make a big difference. He delivered 18 points/9 rebounds, and Kansas pulled away to win, 80-67. Robinson was named Most Outstanding Player and the Jayhawks were returning to the Final Four.

LOUISVILLE

It was Rick Pitino’s 11th year in Louisville, and the program had not reached the Final Four since 2005. They had knocked on the door a couple of times recently, losing Elite Eight games in 2008 and 2009. This year’s push would be led by the guard trio of Russ Smith, Chris Smith, and Kyle Kuric, all double-digit scorers. Chane Behanan was a 6’6” forward who played bigger than his size, averaging 10 points/8 rebounds. Gorgui Deng manned the middle as a rebounder and defensive presence.

Louisville was ranked #9 in the preseason and rose to #4 during non-conference play. The Big East schedule went a little rougher. The Cardinals only went 10-8 during the regular season. But when they went to Madison Square Garden for the Big East tournament, a switch flipped. They won the league tourney and vaulted to the 4-seed in the West on Selection Sunday.

A game with Davidson out in Portland began the bracket. Another backcourt contributor, Peyton Siva, stepped up with 17 points. That, and some tough defense, delivered a 69-62 win. A similar formula was followed in a tough battle with 5-seed New Mexico. Russ Smith hit for 17 points, and defense covered up a lack of rebounding in a 59-56 win.

Top-seeded Michigan State stood in the way in Phoenix for the Sweet 16. But Louisville’s defense was completely locked in, and they smothered Sparty to the tune of just 28 percent shooting. Behanan’s 15 points and nine rebounds were enough to get a 57-44 win.

Meanwhile, the other side of the bracket had come undone. Missouri was the 2-seed and went out in the first game at the hands of Norfolk State. Third-seeded Marquette then fell to Florida here in the Sweet 16. The Gators got 21 points from Bradley Beal and won 72-68.  

The regional final pitted Pitino against his former player, Billy Donovan. The two had combined to take Providence to the 1987 Final Four. Now, they were going to head-to-head in what was the first game of Elite Eight weekend on Saturday afternoon.

It would be a classic game. Florida looked in control at the half, ahead 41-33, and poised to advance as a 7-seed. But Russ Smith stepped up with 19 points. Behanan scored 17, grabbed seven rebounds and solidified a Most Outstanding Player performance. Louisville pulled it out 72-68 and was heading back to the Final Four.

OHIO STATE

Thad Matta was on a good run in Columbus. He had reached the national final in 2007. In 2010 and 2011, he had been seeded on the top two lines before losing in the Sweet 16. This year’s team was right in that mold. Jared Sullinger was one of the best post players in the country, averaging 18 points/10 rebounds. DeShaun Thomas and William Buford were excellent forwards themselves, combining to add 31 points/10 rebounds a night. The Buckeyes were ranked #3 to start the season. They stayed among the national elite all season and ultimately shared the Big Ten title with both Michigan State and Michigan. A loss in the tournament final to Sparty cost Ohio State a 1-seed, but they still picked up the 2-line in the East.

The Buckeyes began NCAA Tournament play in Pittsburgh against Loyola Marymount. They used sheer power—a 46-23 rebounding edge, with 31 points/12 rebounds from Thomas—to get a 78-59 win. Thomas, along with Sullinger, scored 18 points against Gonzaga in the Round of 32. And a terrific game from point guard Aaron Craft—17 points and 10 assists—pushed the Buckeyes past the Zags, 73-66.

Cincinnati was the 6-seed and after knocking off 3-seed Florida State, the Bearcats were ready for a shot at Ohio State in the regionals at Boston Garden. The two forwards continue to control the interior. Sullinger went off for 23 points and 11 rebounds, while Thomas added 24/6. The Buckeye defense forced 18 turnovers and they easily pushed back Cincy 81-66.

Saturday night would be a showdown of heavyweights. Top-seeded Syracuse survived feisty Wisconsin 64-63 by shooting 55 percent from the floor, mostly inside the arc. Could the Orange’s famed 2-3 zone deal with the Buckeye inside game?

It was a even for a half, tied 29-all at intermission. But the Ohio State bigs would win the battle. Sullinger scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds. As a team, the Buckeyes outrebounded the Orange 37-22. Ohio State chiseled out a 77-70 win and punched their ticket to New Orleans.

THE 2012 FINAL FOUR

The Bluegrass State was hopping, as Kentucky and Louisville were paired up in the first national semifinal game. Kentucky’s defense, anchored by Davis, was attacking. They held the Cardinals to 35 percent shooting from the floor. Davis scored 18 points, pulled down 14 rebounds and blocked five shots. Louisville hung in, but Kentucky always had the Cards at arm’s length. The Wildcats led 35-28 at the half and won 69-61.

Ohio State seemed in control of the nightcap when they took a 34-25 lead at halftime. But Kansas was playing defense and rebounding the basketball. The Jayhawks held the Buckeyes to 34 percent shooting and outrebounded them 41-39. Robinson’s 19/8 line, along with 13/10 from Elijah Johnson helped Kansas turn it around pull out a 64-62 win.

Kentucky was on a revenge tour. They had beaten traditional rivals Indiana and Louisville. Now, Calipari could exorcise his personal demons from 2008 by beating Self on Monday night. The Wildcats took control early behind their defense. Even though Davis had a rough night shooting, going 1-for-10 and finishing with just six points, he more than made up for it. Davis hauled in 16 rebounds and blocked six shots. The defense forced Robinson into a 6-for-17 night. Lamb gave the ‘Cats the offensive lift they needed with 22 points. Kentucky led 41-27 at the half and the 67-59 final is deceptive closed.

Davis’ defensive dominance on Monday, combined with his overall game on Saturday, got him Most Outstanding Player honors at the 2012 Final Four. For the first time since 1998, the proud Kentucky basketball program was back on top. And Calipari had his long-sought ring.

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