general 1978 NFL pre-season predictions, expectations, etc

[Evan]

The book you're referring to is The Complete Handbook of Pro Football, edited by the late, great Zander Hollander. I have every edition, so if you ever need anything, just ping me.

The 1978 edition picked Dallas, Chicago and LA in the NFC, and New England, Pittsburgh and Oakland in the AFC. Dallas vs. New England in the Super Bowl.

Overall, I remember the 1978 off-season well. Here are some of the prevailing opinions I remember about the contenders.

In the AFC, the feeling was that in 1977 Oakland was ripped off by the Lytle non-fumble call, and deserved to be in the Super Bowl. They still had the pedigree of not just champs, but a near-dynasty for most of the decade, and Stabler and the rest of the badasses still had considerable swagger to them and the Lytle play would give them even more incentive for payback.

The Broncos Orange Crush story was a fun ride in 1977, but then they were exposed as being punchless and kind of bumbling offensively in the Super Bowl, and were unlikely to recover behind an immobile and aging Morton, whose Cinderella story struck midnight rather graphically under Dallas's Doomsday.

Miami got a lot of off-season hype as being a contender to be the first "home" team in the Super Bowl, since XIII would be in Miami. Shula still had a lot of supporters as the best coach in the league, and the feeling was he would make the rest of the NFL pay for the ridiculous non-fumble call on Bert Jones that essentially ripped off Miami of a playoff spot. Getting Delvin Williams was considered a big shot in the arm for their running game, and Nat Moore arrived in 1977 and was expected to put up more big numbers.

New England was a team bubbling with talent, but hadn't found a way to put it all together yet, but could possibly do so in '78 (note, this is before the Stingley injury, the Jackson trade, etc.).

Baltimore seemed to have plateaued, their third straight playoff loss took the "up-and-coming" label off of them. Instead of people praising their big-play offense, they more noticed their lack of a seal-the-deal defense. Once the Lydell Mitchell racism charges came to the fore, he gets traded, and then once Jones and Kunz and Dutton were injured they became like an expansion team. No one was that surprised that they lost their first two 1978 games by 80-0.

Pittsburgh had no more mystique. Teams didn't fear the Steelers like they did for the previous four years. Franco had plateaued. Swann had peaked in SB 10. Stallworth was a minor role player. Bennie Cunningham had not contributed like other huge tight ends in the league like Casper, Odoms, DuPree, etc. The defense was still strong, but not impenetrable. Bradshaw had become steady (at least for him), but was not considered near Staubach, Stabler, Jones, and Griese as the premier QBs in the league.

Cincinnati was exposed as a flimsy team in 1977, their collapse in Minnesota precluding the meltdown in Houston that cost them a playoff spot. It seemed like they had no heart.

Houston did not figure to be a contender, it didn't seem that Campbell would make that much of a difference until Pastorini could play better. They hadn't made any other upgrades that anyone noticed.

In the NFC, it was either Dallas or LA, which proved to be correct. Dallas figured to be even better with Dorsett around for a full off-season and entrenched as a starter. The trade of Golden Richards gave Tony Hill a slot to move up to, and he looked like a big-time player.

Once St. Louis lost to Tampa Bay in the 1977 finale, they were seen as a pseudo-joke. Then they lost Terry Metcalf, their most fearsome player. Then the Coryell exit, followed by the Wilkinson hire, which seemed kind of like a joke. They were not expected to contend in 1978.

Washington was just another year older, no one saw them challenging Dallas in 1978. Riggins hadn't contributed at all, and why would George Allen have used him as a blocking back if he could still run? Crazy, right? So Riggins must have been through as a runner. Theismann still looked small and scrawny and wasn't seen as an All-Pro in waiting behind Kilmer.

Everyone said the same thing about Chicago: if Phipps or Avellini can give them any kind of decent QB play, they'll definitely win the Central because Payton is so good (a cinch to go over 2,000 yards with the two extra games in '78), and because the Vikings are old, tired, small and slow, and tired of getting beaten up by AFC teams so the last thing they want is to luck their way into another Super Bowl and be humiliated again. So someone has to take over in the Central, and Payton is the best player in the league, so Chicago it is.

LA was a shoo-in in the West, with finally no QB controversy. It was going to be Haden, there was no one else there who could play. Namath was retired, and Ferragamo was just for insurance. McCutcheon was still expected to go over 1,000 yards, there was enough youth on both lines to continue to dominate. The question would be if they could get some better weather in the playoffs. Of course, they got perfect weather, and home field, and got outclassed by Dallas in the second half of the NFC Champ. But there was no real shame in that, Dallas was a great team.

The only other question in the NFC West was if OJ could come back from his knee injury to gain a lot of ground on Jim Brown's record, which he figured to break some time in 1979. No one expected OJ to make the 49ers a contender, but he was so popular that everyone wanted to see him play well.

[74_75_78_79_]

http://www.bing.com/images/search?view= ... tedIndex=0

No cover pic of SBXII, I see.

Anyways, great posts from everyone so far!

[Bryan]

Ahhh, missing strawberries in training camp......

Here's a read I found on the Rams while looking for some info. on Isiah Robertson.
http://www.lamag.com/longform/1970s-l-r ... ic-decade/

Nice article. Good snippet from a sportswriter on George Allen in the Ram cafeteria...

I’m standing there with George in the cafeteria line. He orders a bowl of soup, and he says, ‘Can I have some crackers?’ And the guy says, ‘The crackers are at the other end of the line.’ So George says, ‘What the hell kind of organization is this? You’ve got soup on one end of the line and crackers on the other.’

[BD Sullivan]

Two teams that were expected to do well but collapsed, Baltimore and Cincy, were done in by not having decent backups for Bert Jones and Ken Anderson, respectively.

I do recall the Jets were expected to be horrible, with one computer prediction indicating they'd be 1-15. Walt Michaels' reaction to it was succinct: "Garbage in, garbage out."

After the Draft, SI was raving about how Joe Thomas was rebuilding the 49ers and we all know how well that worked out.

[CSKreager]

What were the expectations for the Colts going into '67?

No team that had been a contender in the preceding handful of years fell off more precipitiously than the '78 Baltimore Colts.

[L.C. Greenwood]

What were the expectations for the Colts going into '67?

No team that had been a contender in the preceding handful of years fell off more precipitiously than the '78 Baltimore Colts.

Bert Jones getting hurt, and missing most of the season killed the Colts. Like many other players, Jones tried to come back too soon, and that was a huge mistake.

I had a feeling the Steelers would bounce back in 1978, the new rules changes would be more of an asset offensively than a negative defensively. The 1977 Steelers were a team of turmoil, with off field issues before the season even began. At their best, the '77 Steelers decisively beat eventual SB champ Dallas, but also lost twice to Denver by double digits.

[BD Sullivan]

What were the expectations for the Colts going into '67?

No team that had been a contender in the preceding handful of years fell off more precipitiously than the '78 Baltimore Colts.

Bert Jones getting hurt, and missing most of the season killed the Colts. Like many other players, Jones tried to come back too soon, and that was a huge mistake.

I had a feeling the Steelers would bounce back in 1978, the new rules changes would be more of an asset offensively than a negative defensively. The 1977 Steelers were a team of turmoil, with off field issues before the season even began. At their best, the '77 Steelers decisively beat eventual SB champ Dallas, but also lost twice to Denver by double digits.

Chuck Noll missed a good chunk of the '77 training camp because of his slander trial regarding his George Atkinson remarks. In his testimony, he threw Mel Blount in the category of players he was referencing (i.e. "criminal element") which I believe caused Blount to storm out of camp. Then, during the season, Bradshaw played with a broken wrist for much of the season. Had the Bengals not choked in their final week loss to Houston, the Steelers wouldn't have even made the playoffs.

[vikingsfan1963]

Regarding George Allen's second go-around with the Rams; Wasn't Rosenbloom quoted as saying he gave Allen an unlimited budget and he overspent it?

[SixtiesFan]

Regarding George Allen's second go-around with the Rams; Wasn't Rosenbloom quoted as saying he gave Allen an unlimited budget and he overspent it?

It wasn't Rosenbloom who said it. It was Edward Bennett Williams who owned the Redskins and hired George Allen in 1971 to whom the quote was attributed.

[SixtiesFan]

What were the expectations for the Colts going into '67?

No team that had been a contender in the preceding handful of years fell off more precipitiously than the '78 Baltimore Colts.

Bert Jones getting hurt, and missing most of the season killed the Colts. Like many other players, Jones tried to come back too soon, and that was a huge mistake.

I had a feeling the Steelers would bounce back in 1978, the new rules changes would be more of an asset offensively than a negative defensively. The 1977 Steelers were a team of turmoil, with off field issues before the season even began. At their best, the '77 Steelers decisively beat eventual SB champ Dallas, but also lost twice to Denver by double digits.

Chuck Noll missed a good chunk of the '77 training camp because of his slander trial regarding his George Atkinson remarks. In his testimony, he threw Mel Blount in the category of players he was referencing (i.e. "criminal element") which I believe caused Blount to storm out of camp. Then, during the season, Bradshaw played with a broken wrist for much of the season. Had the Bengals not choked in their final week loss to Houston, the Steelers wouldn't have even made the playoffs.

When Chuck Noll testified at the slander trial, lawyers for Atkinson (hired by Al Davis) showed films of various Steelers (Greene, Lambert, Blount, etc) making brutal, dirty hits during games. In one, Mel Blount picked up Cliff Branch and slammed Branch head first into the turf. Noll was forced on the witness stand to admit some of his own players could be considered part of "the criminal element."